Revenues from new construction and some tightening of budgets has allowed the city to reduce the proposed tax increase from 8% to 7% this year.
Mayor Sharie Minions said City Council recognizes this is a difficult year with rising inflation that has hit governments as well.
“Council has worked very hard to bring that increase down a bit,” she said. “We recognize that this is a difficult budget year for members of the public with inflation, and it has also been a difficult year for us because of inflation as we’re impacted like everyone else. There’s been a few specific changes that have been made and then another piece of it is the non-market change which is new construction in the community, has helped bring that number down from 8% to 6.97%.
A $5.2 million provincial grant will be used to cover some small projects this year, starting with $290,000 to link trail networks.
Public works has put off the purchasing of a new asphalt truck, but the city is still looking at buying 12 different types of trucks for almost $3.7 million, with a new ladder truck representing more than half of that budget.
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