NORTH BATTLEFORD ‑ Council in North Battleford voted in favour Monday of the 2022 budget, which will usher in a number of increases for operations as well as utilities.
Council voted in favour of a 5.11 per cent property tax increase, which will cover both a 1.34 per cent increase in operations as well as 3.77 per cent increase for the RCMP contract.
Council also voted in favour of a four per cent waste management increase, and for a three per cent increase for water as well as a nine per cent increase for sewer rates.
The approval comes following three nights of deliberation sessions held in November and December in which council was able to find savings on the original proposal for a 7.48 property tax hike. However, it was a different story on the sewer side.
The nine per cent sewer rate hike marks a steep hike from the original proposal of three per cent across the board for utilities. At last Thursday’s Planning Committee meeting, council had asked what the impact would be if the overall increase were adjusted to 5.5 per cent, to reflect increased capital costs connected to a major sanitary sewer trunk main project.
Council had expressed discomfort about the prospect of administration’s proposal to draw on the city’s reserves to keep the sewer rate increase down to three per cent.
In response, Director of Finance Brent Nadon came back to Monday’s meeting with a proposal to keep the water increase at three per cent, but make the adjustment on the sewer side to an 11 per cent increase.
Several councillors made clear their discomfort with the size of the increase on the sewer side. Councillor Kent Lindgren said he wasn’t prepared to support a hike of 11 per cent, and neither was Len Taylor.
Taylor sought an amendment to a nine per cent increase for sewer instead, and council quickly came to a consensus on that number.
There was less unanimity on the 5.11 per cent increase. While the increase is down considerably from the originally-proposed hike of 7.48 per cent, it was still too much for both councillors Kelli Hawtin and Bill Ironstand, who expressed discomfort about approving the budget that evening without more information.
One concern Hawtin expressed was about what impact the increase would have, noting it was a time where “businesses and individuals are experiencing huge inflationary pressures.”
She noted such an increase would hit hotels and restaurants “in a very big way.”
The rest of council was prepared to go ahead with approving the budget, though they acknowledged the increase would be a bitter pill for residents.
Councillor Lindgren acknowledged he was “reluctantly” voting in favour. He said the tax increase would be “hard for a lot of people in our community to see and manage.”
“I know what it means for a lot of our people, however I also know what it also means if we don’t do that.”
Councillor Greg Lightfoot noted the inflationary pressures coming down the road as he justified his support for the tax increases.
“I think it’s better off that we take the hit today … because if we start taking away from capital down the road, we’re just going to pay two, three, four times the amount in the future,” said Lightfoot. “That’s going to be tough for taxpayers to swallow.”
