North Battleford city council shown with finance director Brent Nadon at the online meeting. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Angela Brown

Budget 2022

North Battleford seeing 5.11 per cent tax increase

Dec 14, 2021 | 7:30 AM

Following a lengthy discussion during Monday’s online meeting, North Battleford city council voted in favour of a 5.11 per cent tax increase for the 2022 operating budget.

The amount represents a 3.77 per cent increase for RCMP contract adjustments and a 1.34 per cent increase for operations costs.

In a 5-2 vote, the majority of council supported the 5.11 per cent tax increase, with only councillors Kelli Hawtin and Bill Ironstand opposed.

The increase is lower than the originally proposed hike of 7.48 per cent, as council managed to reduce that amount during deliberation meetings.

But Hawtin expressed her concerns that the 5.11 per cent tax increase is still too high, saying it is coming at a time when businesses and individuals are already dealing with “huge inflationary pressures.”

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As part of the resolution, council also voted in favour of the proposed four per cent increase for waste management operations due to contract increases over the last two years. This would be reflected on the ratepayer’s utility bill. Again, councillors Hawtin and Ironstand were opposed.

Utilities rate increase

For utilities, the proposal being considered was for a three per cent increase for water services and a 11 per cent increase for sanitary sewer.

Coun. Kent Lindgren was among the councillors concerned about the rate proposed for the sanitary sewer increase, saying it was “quite high.”

Coun. Len Taylor said he was “uncomfortable” with an 11 per cent increase also.

He related the challenge that the cost for the large-scale sanitary sewer upgrade project did not end up coming in exactly as planned, with the city, province and federal government each covering one third equally. Instead, the city had to make up the difference for the added PST cost on construction. Some changes to the delivery of the program increased the costs somewhat also.

To lower the proposed sanitary sewer utilities rate increase, Taylor recommended a nine per cent increase instead, which council supported.

Coun. Greg Lightfoot noted he doesn’t believe the sanitary sewer costs should be subsidized by reserves. He said a nine per cent rate increase was something he could justify though. But he would not want to go lower than that.

“I believe that nine per cent I could live with. And, then look at an increase next year to make sure we’re covering the financing costs of this,” Lightfoot said.

Ultimately, council all voted in favour of a three per cent increase for water services and the nine per cent increase for sanitary sewer utilities.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow