Taxes may be going up in Burnaby, despite the city earning almost $150 million on cash and investments last year.
On Monday, Burnaby city council received its provisional financial budget for 2015 – which recommends a 2.98 per cent tax increase – shortly after announcing the city closed 2014 with $827,411,505 in the bank, up from $679,538,076 the previous year. The money includes restricted funds such as development cost charges and other reserve funds.
Coun. Dan Johnston, chair of the city’s newly named financial management committee (formerly the finance and civic development committee), said the tax increase would have been larger, were it not for savings found by city staff.
“Staff have met with the finance committee over the past couple of months and have been able to shave the tax rate down – I believe we started at 4.5 or five per cent at one point,” he said at council.
Last year, council approved a 1.97 per cent tax increase, though the city had initially projected a 2.47 per cent hike.
Johnston attributed this year’s increase to numerous factors – including additional operating costs related to the parks system and waste management – but noted the hike is due primarily labour costs.
“We have contract increases that have been dictated through collective agreements from the RCMP, the firefighters – which is still under negotiations for future years – and our Canadian Union of Public Employees, our city employees,” he said. “We’re also looking at increased utility costs, additional costs that are passed on to us from Ottawa for the RCMP operations.”
The city will seek input from the public on the recommendations before the annual budget goes to council in May. Additionally, Johnston said individual Burnaby residents may see higher or lower tax rates, depending on the assessed value of their homes.
“When you look at the increases, though, I think for what the average Burnaby taxpayer receives for their tax dollars, they’ll think it’s a pretty wonderful deal when we look at how our services compare to other cities around the world,” he said. “The report that’s before us, I think, is pretty moderate in its 2.98 per cent tax increase.”
Mayor Derek Corrigan added that many of the city’s costs are non-negotiable, and the city does its best to balance those while maintaining local services.
“I think it’s always important to note that many of our costs are fixed, in the sense that collective agreements with the unions or monies that are passed on for RCMP constables or costs that are passed on to us through utilities or through the provincial and federal government – all of those things are things we must pay,” he said. “We do try to do as much as we can to keep our costs at a minimum, but some factors are set and it’s very difficult to make any adjustment without reducing our services.
“The provisional budget, the way that we’re setting up, seems to me to be a pretty fair budget and hopefully the public will agree with us.”
