City Council lands on 6.78% tax increase

After about 13 hours of meetings, Prince George City Council has approved the 2024 budget.

The budget comes with a 6.78 per cent tax increase for this year, roughly $172.89 for the City’s representative household (valued at $460,049).

This year’s budget came with an originally proposed tax increase of 6.24 per cent, with several proposed service enhancements that would drive the tax increase up another 1.99 per cent.

Many of these enhancements had adjustments made to them:

Increase the RCMP contract strength from 149 to 153. Four new members at $220,782 – $883,128. (0.68 per cent)

Councillor Tim Bennett called for an amendment to reduce the number of new officers to two, rather than four, which was defeated with a 4-4 vote.

Councillor Garth Frizzell had to leave the meeting.

Councillor Kyle Sampson later made a motion to hire the four officers for the second half of 2024.

“All we’re doing is tying our hands of making sure we fund the other half the next year, which we won’t have a choice because we’ve already hired them as part of the contract,” Sampson said.

This was passed, taking 0.34 per cent off the levy for this year, but adding it onto next year’s levy.

Increase Police Support Services municipal employee staff by two: one transcriptionist ($77,923)
and one training coordinator ($83,037) – total of $160,960 (0.12 per cent)

Only one of the positions was approved, however Director of Public Safety Adam Davey noted if that was the case, the Training Coordinator position would take priority.

“With that municipal employee overseeing that training, it allows us to keep RCMP boots on the ground,” Davey explained.

Increase Fire Protection staff by seven: 1 Fire Prevention Inspector ($141,787), 1 Training Branch
Captain ($171,320) and 5 Firefighters ($118,844 each including $20k of clothing/training) –
total of $907,327 (0.70 per cent). The official enhancement request in the budget meetings will also
have smaller incremental options as well.

Council were presented with three options for this enhancement.

Council chose the option that would add five additional members at a total cost of $594,220.

Increase Fire Protection admin staff by one full time administrative clerk – $76,519 (0.06 per cent)

This enhancement was carried unanimously.

One-time funding request for phase 2 of the Prince George Fire Training Site Feasibility Study (Nov
20, 2023 motion of Council to consider during 2024 budget deliberations) – $75,000 (0.06 per cent)

Councillor Sampson moved that this be approved, but it be funded by the savings from choosing the option to add five firefighters from the second-previous enhancement.

“The intent is that the five positions won’t be employed until April, roughly, the Chief said, and there’ll be greater than $75,000 in savings between January 1st and April, meaning we can fund it there rather than increasing the tax levy.” Sampson explained.

One-time funding request from REAPS (Sep 11. 2023 motion of Council to consider during 2024
budget deliberations) – $100,000 (0.08 per cent)

Council opted to not put this motion on the table, taking the 0.08 per cent off the tax levy.

Increase in service agreement with Exploration Place for the operation of the Little Prince (January
8th, 2024 motion of Council to consider during 2024 budget deliberations) – $75,000 (0.06 per cent)

Council passed an amended motion to provide $25,000 to operate the Little Prince, in addition to the $25,000 the City already provides.

Increase in Road Rehabilitation Levy as per Finance and Audit resolution for increased service
level – $300,000 (0.23 per cent)

This additional funding for the Road Rehabilitation Levy failed.

In addition, a proposed million-dollar increase to the snow control budget was cut to just a $500,000 increase.

Not everything was a cut, as $50,000 was added to the city’s Communications department’s budget.

For the Capital Plan, a Memorial Park Cemetery Enhancement project ($315,000) was moved from the 2024 capital plan to 2025, and several other projects slated for future years will be brought back to council at a Committee of the Whole meeting.

Council will finalize the budget and tax increase at a later date.

City Council passed a 6.78% tax levy in the 2024 municipal budget after two nights of deliberations. The third budget meeting, scheduled for January 29, has been canceled.

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— City of Prince George (@CityofPG) January 24, 2024