Budget constraints will force the municipality to extend the timeline for long-awaited downtown redevelopment.

A Financial Strategy approved unanimously in council chambers last night points to the financial burden of an infrastructure overhaul and the expropriations required to alter the city's landscape.

For 2015, $590 million in RMWB projects remain unfunded, and that's not including the cost of establishing a new recreation corporation for the region.

The document says, if the RMWB wants to remain within its recently elevated debt limit, the timeline for redevelopment must be extended from 5 to 10 years to 10 to 20.

And despite fiscal turbulence on a provincial level, Wood Buffalo council continues to ratchet up spending.

"The amended operating budget revenue for 2013 is $676,535,568, which represents a 12.2% increase from the 2012 approved budget and a $16,872,861 increase from the 2013 Operating Budget approved by Council on December 11th, 2012."

An increase in user fees for residents for all municipal services, including water and recreational services,will be considered upon the completion of a regional study.

A transition to a Municipal Corporate Utility and Alternative Financing arrangements with private corporations are expected to ease the financial strain.

The region's surplus shrank from approximately $406 million in 2011 to roughly $326 million in 2012.