Rising interest rates in 2022 resulted in the Town of The Blue Mountains seeing a dramatic increase in some of its investment earnings.
At council’s committee of the whole meeting on June 5, staff provided a report to council detailing that interest earned on town investments jumped from $582,685 in 2021 to $2,103,400 in 2022.
The deputy treasurer/manager of budgets and accounting, Sam Dinsmore, said interest rates had gone up “like I’ve never seen before.”
The town started the year earning 0.50 per cent on its bank accounts and ended the year earning 4.34 per cent.
“This is a good news story,” said Dinsmore.
The town allocated the interest earned as follows:
- $817,421 - development charges
- $917,000 - reserve funds
- $368,979 general operating fund
At the end of 2022, the town had $66.8 million in investments. This total was down from $72.8 million in 2021 due to capital projects undertaken by the town that were funded with reserves.
In the report, town staff said they expect another solid year of investment returns in 2023.
