As this story was being written, town council was entering its last week of budget deliberations with a couple of major elements still needing to be passed: tax rates and operational budget.
But, by the end of Monday’s meeting, they had passed both these, and given first reading to the budget.
The most important—and time consuming—item on the agenda was setting the tax rates for 2022.
While Council had managed to whittle a deficit of about half a million dollars down to $188,000 before this meeting, it still left council trying to figure out how to make up that deficit.
Councillor Howe proposed that council find ways to cut the budget by that amount, but his motion was defeated.
Specifically, Howe proposed that Council cut spending on wages by three percent. “We have increased spending on wages $600,000 every year for the last three years,” says Howe. “We can’t continue going up like that. We can’t go up $600,000 next year. And the year after that. Yes, we are going to get to a point where we have done all the creative ways to save a buck, but we’re not at that point yet. I am firmly convinced the wages at the District have gotten out of control. We’re the ones who approved that. But this is an opportunity for this council to say dial it back.”
Councillor Krakowka says that a cut like this might impact services to the community. “It’s too big a scope to make a decision on at this time,” he said. “What scares me is we’ll lose services like the pool or boat launch or the arena first. These are the services the community uses. Without knowing what the impact will be, I am not in favour.”
Councillor Howe points out that wages have gone up forty percent in the last three years. “I’m pretty sure a three percent decrease won’t mean we are losing those services. For me I think it’s doable. We went from 4.6 million to six million. What was added? What did we gain in value for $1.7 million? What significantly increased? The only thing I can think of is recycling. I don’t really want to decrease anything. I’m just saying that we can get more efficient. Cut some overtime. There’s absolutely no way my life in Tumbler Ridge has been improved by $1.7 million over the last three years.”
Acting CAO Aleen Torraville says there were several new positions added, including one at the recycling station and a couple new positions added to public work added for better management and succession planning, as well as annual cost of living increases.
Mayor Bertrand says if the motion had came forward a month ago, Council would have had time to review it. And he suggests adding it in for next year, but says it is too late in the game for this year.
Councillor Nobury says that Council is always looking for ways for the District to operate more efficiently, while still offering the same amount of services to the community. “That’s going to fluctuate,” he says. “Over Covid we have seen jobs and roles change. For me, if I have staff come to me and say ‘this is what we need to be able to provide the services you have asked us to do,’ I am inclined to give it to them.”
He proposed a two percent increase to tax rates across the board. That motion, too, was defeated.
After much discussion, tax rates were set to a zero percent increase for residential and non-profit, with a 3.5 percent increase to heavy industry and a four percent increase to light industry.
Small businesses will be paying an additional one percent in taxes.
Currently, Tumbler Ridge residents pay the second-lowest total residential property taxes in the peace, second only to Hudson’s Hope, who pay an average of $1,763 on their homes.
Tumbler Ridge residents pay $2090.
The highest rates are in Dawson Creek, where homeowners pay more than double what a Tumbler Ridge resident pays, at $4225.
“I own a mobile home. I’m lucky paying the taxes we pay, talking to people in other places,” says Councillor Norbury. “I don’t want to cut services. If we look at inflation in Canada, it’s almost six percent. I don’t want to put this all on our residents. We could have light industry pay more. That’s mostly CNRL. They made $7-billion in profits last year. If we ask them for a million dollars, it’s the equivalent of asking a person who makes $100,000 for five dollars more.”
Mayor Bertrand cautions that those profits were not taken from this area. “This is the highest tax region in the entire company. The reason assessments go down every year is because they are shutting down wells. We need to be careful about who we are going to pick on. It’s fairer to go by assessment value.”
And, says Councillor Lehman, if you tax them more, they’re just going to pass it off onto consumers, and they’ll have to pay more, says Bernie.
But, says Councillor Howe, while he opposed increases to Light Industrial Tax Rates in the past, times have changed. “There’s discussion of new wells in the area. I think there’s opportunity for light industrial to pick up more of taxes. We tried to keep our taxes low during the tough times, but the price of gas is going up. This is an opportunity for us to ask them to pay a little more.”
The last two tax meetings will be today (March 12) and tomorrow (March 13).
The budget bylaw needs to be passed by March 15. If they don’t, Council will be unable to collect taxes.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.