City Council continues to ratchet down the 2023 budget and 5-year financial plan.
Over the past month, council has been able to reduce the proposed increase from 8% to 7%, which works out to an increase of around $150 to the average single family residential home.
Mayor Sharie Minions said Port Alberni has done a fairly good job of facing inflationary pressures.
“We had a conference a few weeks ago, I talked to a number of other Mayors and Councillors whose communities are 10-12% increases for this year,” she said. “I know that council has worked hard but our staff has worked really hard to bring it from an original starting point of around 20% increase down to where we are today, so while 7% is absolutely higher than where we would like to be, a lot of work has been done to make sure that absolutely every dollar that goes into this years budget is 100% necessary and required and can be expended this year.”
Minions said the city has no control over collective agreement increases and the cost of contracts with the library, transit, or RCMP.
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