Esquimalt residents can expect a more than seven per cent tax increase as the township plans to finalize its 2024 budget at the end of the month.
The final draft of the budget that was presented at a committee of the whole meeting on March 11 is just over $57.7 million.
The largest amount allocated to a project is more than $40.9 million for the Public Safety Building, then around $3.2 million for Esquimalt road improvements and around $2.2 for Tillicum Road. which will not impact taxation and an extra $252,947 for new staff.
Esquimalt residents can expect a 7.72 per cent tax increase this year which is a slight increase from 7.65 per cent due to increased property insurance renewal costs.
Coun. Ken Armour mentioned at the meeting that other municipalities have kept their taxes low in the past by drawing from other sources of income in their budgets.
However, he says many are now facing “significant” tax increases this year as they try to compensate for reduced taxation in the past. He hopes Esquimalt can avoid that.
“From my perspective, we’ve got a good balance here. We have to balance the pressures on our taxpayers in terms of increased taxation but we as council have to look into the future and the medium-term as well as just the short term,” said Armour during the meeting.
Mayor Barbara Desjardins said the tax raise is necessary as inflation continues to climb.
“Numbers like construction costs increasing 55 per cent over the last six years and indications of escalation in inflation continuing tell me that we have to do this because the more those go higher if we’re not starting our accumulation of infrastructure funds now, we will continue to get further behind,” she said.
The budget was passed unanimously at the committee meeting and is expected to be up for final review at a council meeting later this month
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