Residential, major industrial, business and recreational property taxes in the city will increase by 3.98 per cent next year.
Utilities are also set to increase by 3.98 per cent.
Light industrial property taxes will increase by 6.84 per cent, while farm property taxes will increase by .74 per cent.
The increases are included in the city's 2012 annual Financial Plan, which was approved by council at Monday night's meeting.
Coun. Dan Johnston, chair of the city's finance and civic development committee, said high costs to the city made the increases necessary.
He cited the annual cost of the Burnaby Civic Employee's Union, Local 23's contract, at $4.9 million for 2012; the RCMP contract, at $2.2 million; the increase in capital funding for civic projects, at $1.3 million; and the costs of staffing the new Edmonds Pool and Community Centre, at $575,000.
The increase in refuse disposal costs from Metro Vancouver - a $360,000 increase for 2012 - also affected the budget, he added.
But despite the high increases, it is a good budget, Johnston said.
"The budget before us is strong," he said, adding the city will be able to carry out day-to-day operations while being financially prepared for the unexpected, as well.
Coun. Colleen Jordan, vice-chair of the finance and civic development committee, said it was the best budget the city could come up with, under the circumstances.
"We've done the best job we can, looking at the numbers and crunching those numbers," she said.
She added that she had worried things would get worse financially for the city due to the recession and the economic slowdown.
While development in the city has been picking up in recent years, most of those developments are still under construction and do not have occupants as of yet, she pointed out.
"We have to fill some of these holes in the city (and bring in) people to pay taxes," she said, adding that once the developments have residents, the property tax percentage increase in future years could possibly be less.
Mayor Derek Corrigan congratulated staff on the financial plan, saying the city is really "an efficient operation."
The four per cent increase to CUPE staff and similar increases to the fire and police department staff, made it challenging to keep property taxes low, he said.
"It's extremely difficult to bring in lower numbers," he said.
Corrigan also mentioned the new employees being hired this year for the new Edmonds Pool and Community Centre.
"That's pretty good value for the dollar," he added.
Higher property taxes ensure that future generations won't have to cover Burnaby's current costs, Corrigan said.
"It's important we don't mortgage our future choices," he said.
Last year, residential property taxes increased by 2.95 per cent, down from the projected 3.95 per cent mentioned in the city's provisional financial plan for 2011.
For the full 2012 financial plan, click on Financial Reports under the Our City Hall tab at www.burnaby.ca.
