The City of North Battleford's proposed 2022 budget is available on the city's website. Council will review the draft at its upcoming deliberation meetings. (Submitted/City of North Battleford)

By Angela Brown

Budget 2022

City administration recommending 7.48 per cent tax increase, council set to deliberate

Nov 12, 2021 | 3:13 PM

The City of North Battleford is gearing up for budget time again after facing a challenging past year due to the impact of the pandemic.

Administration is proposing a possible 7.48 per cent tax increase for the 2022 operating budget.

City Manager Randy Patrick stressed that this is only a draft proposal of the 2022 budget at this stage, reflecting what administration is suggesting for consideration. Council will have the opportunity to review the full package and make changes to the details and/or the proposed rate increases in the coming weeks.

For utilities, administration is proposing a three per cent general increase. They are also recommending a four per cent separate increase for waste management operations that would be reflected on the ratepayer’s utility bill.

The over seven per cent tax increase being considered is a sharp rise compared to the 2021 budget which saw no increase for operations and a one per cent increase for the capital fund.

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The 2022 rate reflects 4.98 per cent for increases to policing costs, plus 2.5 per cent for required wage increases to keep up with inflation which is now at over four per cent per annum.

Administration said a large reason for the recommended rise is to reflect the increase to RCMP policing costs. The federal government and the RCMP union recently completed negotiations for a five-year contact that is retroactive. The contract impacts all municipalities using RCMP policing services. The city estimates RCMP costs will go up by about 23 per cent.

“That’s our biggest issue for the operations itself…,” Patrick said. “We do have this major RCMP dilemma that we have to deal with this year and ongoing.”

Director of Finance Brent Nadon said the city made efforts to mitigate the impact from the RCMP contract increase.

“At full value, if we just passed along the full-cost of that it would be just over $1 million a year, or a 6.94 per cent increase,” he said. “We’ve worked within the contract to reduce that cost. So we brought it down to approximately 4.98 per cent.”

For the proposed utilities increase, administration recommended the three per cent increase due to the financial impact related to borrowing for the large-scale multi-million dollar sanitary sewer force main project currently underway.

“A significant one-year increase is required to fund the principal and interest payments for the sewer force main project going forward,” administration said in their report. “The city is instead proposing a phased-in approach, which will require additional increases over the next three years.”

The increase to utilities also includes the city’s planned capital reserve needs over the next five years to fund required infrastructure repair and replacement work. The city said Utility Services also face the same wage increases and inflationary pressures as those impacting the property-tax side of the proposed budget.

The separate increase for waste management operations is due to contract increases over the last two years.

The public can view administration’s proposed 2022 budget document within the latest Planning Committee Meeting Agenda here.

Budget deliberation meetings start Nov. 15 via Zoom. A second meeting is planned for Nov. 18. Council is expected to approve the final draft of the budget at its Dec. 13 meeting, or shortly thereafter, if more discussions are needed.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow