Budget discussions continue to cover a looming tax increase in North Battleford. (file/City of North Battleford)

By battlefordsNOW Staff

Tough decisions

North Battleford council continues discussions on budget, tax increase

Nov 20, 2021 | 6:00 AM

North Battleford City Council will continue to have lively debate until the official decision on the 2022 budget is made.

During Thursday’s planning committee meeting, council members pushed administration on the possibility of finding savings in other areas to deal with a significant tax increase in the proposed budget. The primary driver of the cost is due to RCMP salaries increasing.

City Manager Randy Patrick said the municipality has relied on a bit of luck and circumstances in funding capital over the years and warned against the effects on future budgets if the tax increase doesn’t occur this year. Coun. Greg Lightfoot agreed with this view, noting inflationary pressure is a serious issue.

“We may not have to tax for it today, but we will have to double or triple tax for it in the near future because of inflation,” he said. “If we don’t start making sure our infrastructure is covered properly today, we’ll be in the same place we were 10 years ago.”

Coun. Kent Lindgren expressed concern over the immediate impact and said he doesn’t feel residents are ready to accept that much of an increase in property taxes.

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“In the past, three percent caused a lot of hardship, so I don’t think people are ready for this amount,” he said.

Coun. Kelli Hawtin pointed out that larger rate payers have been the hardest hit, adding that this increase is not something that can be taken lightly. She recommended further discussion and exploration of other ways to cut costs through service levels.

“We need to understand what is it that needs to come off the table in order for this rate to go down and is that would be a service level that our rate payers would accept,” she said.

Coun. Bill Ironstand was torn on the matter, agreeing with both sides of the discussion.

“Our wallets are already thin, but if we don’t spend some money now, in the future we will pay dearly for it,” he said. “We are already seeing it in some projects that were neglected in the past.”

Coun. Ross MacAngus asked for a figure to represent the average increase for households, due to the increased property tax. Administration shared that the utility increase would be around $3.96 a month for an average residential property using around 12 cubic metres of water consumption.

Coun. Lightfoot, who had earlier proposed a two-tiered system to help with the deficit of regional parks and recreation facilities, said if they saved a million dollars using this system, it would help decrease budget operation numbers by more than seven per cent. Another option he gave was having regional partners begin contributing to deficit costs for facilities to help recoup as much as $1.3 million.

Administration said they will make the matter a priority and will go over all possibilities to reduce costs and to determine potential losses from recreational facilities.

Council’s next regular meeting is Monday, with the next planning committee meeting in December.

Mayor David Gillan and Coun. Len Taylor were not present at Thursday’s meeting.

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