The Town of Qualicum Beach's 2025 budget proposes a property tax hike of 9.6 per cent.
A draft of what the budget would look like was presented by the town's director of finance Raj Hayre at Committee of the Whole meeting on Nov. 27. It highlighted the budget pressures related to the day-to-day operating activities of the town and also the five-year capital financial plan, presented on Nov. 20.
Hayre said the 2025 budget process began in early August with all the departments submitting new requests for operating budget provisions and capital projects. Each requests and capital proposals, Hayre said, were collaboratively reviewed, prioritized and ranked by the leadership team in multiple meetings.
"Re-allocations of budget amounts were made wherever possible to address cost pressures," said Hayre. "This process led to optimizing and resource allocations and mitigating the impact on the property tax increase."
The projected 9.6 tax increase for Qualicum Beach, said Hayre, falls within the range of the rate increases that is being considered by other municipalities in Vancouver Island such as Port Alberni (15 per cent), Victoria (12 per cent), Courtenay (10 per cent), Campbell River (9 per cent), Nanaimo (8.7 per cent), Parksville (7 per cent) and the Regional District of Nanaimo (10 per cent).
Taxes help pays for the services and amenities provided by the town that include parks, trails, green spaces, trees, sidewalks, fire rescue and policing and many others.
"The cost of those municipal services is equivalent to the cost of a phone or cable or internet bundle for a typical household," said Hayre, who presented a graph to council. "Local government is great value."
Limited revenue sources as well as dwindling cas reserves is making it difficult for the town to fund major capital projects. Constraints would impede maintenance renewal, replacement of assets, necessitating external borrowing for crucial infrastructure projects such as modernizing the public works and parks operations.
The town also plans to add more employees to ensure the level of services they provide meets the expectations of the community as well as handle the demand for new services.
A final report will be presented on Dec. 11, where a tax bylaw would be introduced. Council will be given a chance to review components of their strategic initiatives and consider what they can defer, as well find other cost-saving measures to bring down the anticipated tax increase next year.
