North Cowichan council has cut the tax increase for 2025 to 7.83 per cent.
Council gave the first three readings to the budget at its meeting on March 5 after deciding to defer the paid-on-call pilot project for the South End fire department that was budgeted for the year, at a savings of $400,000, cutting the projected tax increase for the year from 8.87 per cent to 7.83 per cent.
Early in this year’s budget process, North Cowichan staff had advised council that an 8.4 per cent tax increase would be necessary in 2025 just to maintain core services and replace critical infrastructure.
That’s partly the result of a wide variety of pressures that are out of North Cowichan’s ability to change, including inflation, increased policing costs and the downloading of the financing of E-Comm 911 services to the municipality.
After many meetings and discussions on how to move forward with the budget, council decided to defer a number of enhanced additions to the budget recommended by staff and cut others in efforts to bring the tax increase down.
But some council members still don’t agree with the 7.83 per cent tax hike.
Coun. Bruce Findlay acknowledged that council had been successful with some mitigation efforts to lower the tax increase, but it’s still too large.
“I think it’s too high for our residents, especially with some upcoming concerns with respect to the international situation,” he said.
Coun. Tek Manhas agreed and pointed to the forecast in the municipality’s five-year financial plan projecting a 1.56 per cent tax increase in 2027 and 1.4 per cent tax increase in 2028.
“I know we have to file a five-year plan with the province, but I think we need to be more realistic,” he said.
Council. Chris Istace said he doesn’t think the tax increase is high enough.
“We need to understand how many infrastructure repair projects we are not doing this year that were recommended by staff as needed,” he said. “These are not new or pet projects and include infrastructure repairs of existing facilities and amenities, including the Maple Bay wharf and the replacement of the roof at the Maple Bay Rowing Club which we still didn’t approve this year. I think we're not doing enough and are continuing to kick the ball down the field.”
Coun. Mike Caljouw said it has been a tough tax year and council has worked hard to do what it could to keep the tax increase as low as possible.
“We all know the tax increase is too high and we all want to lower it, but what are the concrete solutions and options to get it lower?" he asked.“It’s easy to say we want to lower the tax increase but I believe this is what needs to be done to maintain the services needed to keep our community safe.”
Mayor Rob Douglas also said he’s not comfortable with the tax increase.
He said council knows many of North Cowichan’s residents, including seniors on fixed incomes and young families trying to get started, are struggling with the cost of living.
“My hope had been to that we could keep the tax increase to the three to five per cent range but, unfortunately, that’s not how the budgeting process has worked out in terms of some of the cost pressures were facing,” he said.
