General Fund
Financial statements for the first half of the fiscal year (January through June) show that the trends established in the first quarter have continued. On the revenue side, per capita revenue remains slightly below (0.4%) what was forecasted. Revenue as a whole was just under $56 million, missing our forecast target by just over $225,000. At the same time, expenditures again came in below budget. Total expenditures for the six month period were $54.7 million, which was $1.46 million less than what is in the budget. As a result, we were able to achieve a surplus of $488,832 for the period in the General Fund, in addition to setting aside $750,000 for the Strike Fund Contingency.
The shortfall in per capita revenue was actually a bit less in June than it was in March, so during the three-month period of April to June, we actually slightly exceeded the budget forecast. We continue to be cautious regarding the full-year outlook for revenue, however, as we are about to learn the results of the representation votes in Alberta health care, which could have a very significant effect on revenue one way or the other.
Expenditures continued to be restrained in most areas. However, we continue to have significant budget overages in operational travel and professional fees in the regions. We will be working with Regional Directors to try to reduce these overages as much as possible in the remaining months of this fiscal year.
With a fund balance (members equity) of nearly $5 million, and a solid cash flow position which allows us to pay our bills in a timely way, the General Fund continues to make progress towards being the kind of strong and stable Fund that the members want and deserve.
National Defence Fund
The National Defence Fund showed a surplus for the first six months of the fiscal year of just over $300,000. This reflects the fact that expenditures from the Defence Fund are not evenly distributed throughout the year.
Cost-sharing program spending in the first six months, as approved by the National Executive Board, constituted about 70% of the annual budget for that category. Therefore, there is only $300,000 left in the budget for the rest of this year. The other category where spending was greater than 50% of the annual budget was Major Organizing, where $736,480 was spent against a budget of $1,322,000. This was largely due to the costs of the representation vote campaign in Alberta health care.
National Strike Fund
The fund balance (members equity) in the Strike Fund declined from $3 million at the end of December 2002, to $2.5 million at the end of March 2003, to $800,000 at the end of June. In the first six months of the year, the Fund paid out nearly $2.3 million more in benefits than its revenue for the period. By June, the cash position of the Fund was very nearly zero, despite the transfer of $2.3 million in cash from the National Defence Fund.
Since June 30th, the Strike Fund has been slowly rebuilding because of the reduced level of strike activity.