City council and staff are hoping to keep next year’s tax increase as low as possible, as they head into budget deliberations this month.
Chief Financial Officer Alaina Maher says the city is facing pressures from forces beyond its control, including inflation and ripple effects from the pandemic.
“Even though we’re seeing interest rates coming down in general through the Bank of Canada, we’re not experiencing that [a decline in costs],” she said. “Gas is still high, when you go to the grocery store, prices are still high, we’re feeling that with our suppliers and contracts as well, we’re just not seeing those come down. So it’s a lot more costly to deliver the same service as pre-COVID times.”
Maher says the biggest increases are unavoidable and are built into contracts for staff, the fire department, and the police department.
“Of our projected tax increase, 96% of them are contractual increases that are really out of our control,” she says. “We’re seeing increases to the RCMP and policing contract of over three per cent. Our transit contract is going up over a percent in and of itself. And of course we have various collective agreements, so our wages and benefits are going up just over 4.5%. This is adding pressure to our budget and we’re seeing in our contracts the lag effects of inflation.”
If the city does nothing, it’s looking at a 9.15% tax increase next year, but Maher says that’s just a starting point. She presented council with an option for a 6.4% increase that doesn’t require cutting services, and council has also asked staff to try and get it within the 3.5% threshold met last year. They are also reviewing what it would look like to have a zero percent tax increase.
The public will have a chance to participate in budget meetings from December 3 to 5, the financial planning meetings start on December 3, you can check the city’s meeting schedule closer to the date for more information about how you can participate.
