When council returns in November following the municipal election, it is likely that administration will be presenting a much lower tax increase than in past years.
At their Oct. 13 council meeting, City Manager Randy Patrick told council the plan was for administration to bring to council a recommendation calling for a zero-percent tax increase on operations and a one percent tax increase on capital.
The reason is because COVID-19 is “causing issues for residents, businesses, in our thinking here,” Patrick explained.
But it would still be up to the next council. “This is something for the next council to decide, we are not doing it as city policy,” Patrick said.
Patrick made the remarks during the presentation of the long-term financial update for 2021, as well as the financial update for August. The reason for the update was so council could be aware of what administration’s plans were and what was coming.
“We need to remain conservative,” said Patrick regarding the financial response. He referred to the governor of Bank of Canada stating they might bring in negative interest rates, and he said it was something they had to watch out for.
As for going forward, Director of Finance Steve Brown pointed to some concerns coming in the next couple of years:
One is that RCMP policing costs are going up. Brown said he had been on a call with other directors of finance and everyone was anticipating costs were going up, he said. RCMP policing costs are going to go up by an estimated $640,000 to the city, and in speaking to other directors of finance the word is that cost could come in as soon as 2021.
Brown also noted another 20 per cent in RCMP contract costs, or $800,000 could be added to RCMP costs on top of that if the Battlefords reaches the threshold of 15,000 population. That would be an additional $1.5 million in policing costs alone. The city will find out if they are on the hook for that amount when the census results come back. Some money in reserves is available to deal with that.
Municipal revenue sharing will be decreased 1.6 percent in 2021 due to market fluctuations, with PST being down.
A 12-13 per cent drop is expected in 2022, which Brown attributed to after-effects of COVID-19. As well, if North Battleford doesn’t grow at the same rate as other cities in the province, revenue sharing to the city would also decrease.
