As work continues on the city’s annual budget, council will soon decide which supplemental budget items to include, determining a finalized property tax rate increase for this year.

City staff spent much of February gathering feedback from residents, at two in-person events and through its Let’s Talk Kamloops portal, where feedback was invited.

Property taxes in Kamloops have been on an upward swing for the past four years, with the biggest bump by 9.55 percent happening in 2024. That year, the average homeowner paid $246 more, or about $2,655 in municipal taxes alone, in addition to taxes collected for other authorities.

Prior to the work done in February, the proposed provisional tax rate increase for 2025 was at 7.49 percent. The final figure won’t be known until after March 11, when council considers feedback, staff input, and the lineup of supplemental budget items.

What’s driving the growing rates?

In the years running up to the pandemic, tax increases in Kamloops were relatively low at around two to three percent each year, near inflation. In pandemic-struck 2021, council opted for a 0.97 percent increase to ease the economic pressures of the day.

Since then, the city has been playing catch-up.

City of Kamloops financial planner and procurement manager Dustin Rutsatz said that was a path taken by many other municipalities at the time, as well.

“It kind of has a compounding effect going forward on the taxes that need to be raised to catch up,” Rutsatz told the Chronicle.

Despite the consecutively larger increases since that point, Kamloops’ rate doesn’t necessarily stand out over time.

“If you were to take that 10-year period of time, we’re actually pretty close to a lot of our peer municipalities. We just got there in a different way.”

While pandemic recovery is a factor in the increases, the biggest line items on city tax bills come from police and fire services and associated labour costs.

Following contract negotiations with two key unions, the IAFF and CUPE, the city is facing an additional $5.1 million in labour costs, in addition to $1.77 million in additional costs for RCMP. Kamloops will also need to fund body-worn cameras, body armour, firearms and administration fees for police.

There are also additional expenses related to shifting community service officers (CSOs) to a 24-hour model and paying for the city’s new FireSmart co-ordinator.

Rutsatz said many of the increases are due to a competitive labour market and labour costs make up more than half of the city’s spending.

“Last year our firefighters received five percent and the CUPE union received 8.16 percent, and then four percent. So you know, some reasonable rate increases there,” Rutsatz said.

Construction material costs have remained high, too, Rutsatz said.

“We’re still seeing some significant increases from what they were five years ago. Plastics, paint, concrete, things like that. We’re still getting things adjusted to get to that normal,” he said, also noting vehicles and vehicle parts remain much pricier items for the city.

“The good news is, as we catch up some of those costs, we’re seeing the inflationary pressure back off a little bit,” Rutsatz said.

Another major increase, like what was seen during the pandemic years, isn’t on the horizon, according to Rutsatz. But other uncertainties, like constant threats of a looming trade war, remain question marks for us all.

If costs on capital projects were to increase by 15 to 20 percent, or more, there would come a point where the city would really need to reconsider what it wants to build.

“It’s just really having a hard lens on what is needed right now and what can wait a little bit,” Rutsatz said.

What to add to the tax bill?

As of late February, there were eight supplemental items up for consideration, including full-time staffing at the Dallas fire station, increased corporate security measures, public cooling amenities for heat relief, a bike valet, a Schubert Drive multi-use pathway, improvements to River Street and a protective services training centre.

All told, council will deliberate about $25 million worth of supplemental spending, with additional operating costs spanning two to four years into the future.

The biggest ticket item is the Schubert Drive multi-use pathway, with a price tag of $8.35 million. That project would combine necessary dike and water main work with the reconstruction of a one-kilometre-long stretch of pathway, including additional barriers, path widening, new street lights and an offset from steeper areas of the riverbank.

River Street improvements would ring up $5.8 million in additional spending, capitalizing on an existing need for water main and sanitary sewer upgrades. The project would add a 1.5-metre sidewalk, trees and underground fibre connectivity, near Exhibition Park, Charles Anderson Stadium and the River Street dog and skate parks.

A protective services training centre would add $3.2 million in additional capital spending, plus an operating cost of $120,000 per year beginning in 2027. The centre would expand the Kamloops Fire Rescue training centre, combining police, fire, and bylaw officer training under one roof, including a shooting range, gymnasium, scenario warehouse and related infrastructure.

Additional staffing at fire station No. 6 in Dallas would require $2.7 million in capital spending and $3 million in operating costs from 2025 to 2027.

While most of supplemental item requests came from city staff, the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association also has an ask this year, hoping to establish the downtown public realm improvement fund, intended to improve the downtown experience for those who live, work or visit there.