Amid rising costs to businesses, the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce wants to see the 2022 property tax hike come in no higher than about five per cent.

With the provisional tax increase currently at 4.89 per cent, Chamber Executive Director, Acacia Pangilinan, urged the city of Kamloops to be extremely cautious with the 12 proposed supplementary budget items to keep any potential increase as low as possible.

“I think there are six of them that have no tax implications for 2022 and then regarding the one full time person [with a 0.05 per cent tax increase] to support council meetings, we heard from City staff that to build up the capacity it was really important,” Pangilinan said, on NL Newsday.

“So we actually took that as a recommendation from the city that it would be a high priority for them.”

She says the Chamber supports the Community Climate Action Plan funding strategy in principle, but also recommended that the endowment have a tax increase of 0.28 per cent or less in 2022, instead of the currently projected 0.35 per cent.

Pangilinan is also encouraging city staff and politicians to be as creative as possible in finding new sources of revenue to reduce the burden to taxpayers.

A good example, she said, is the proposed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator, which will no longer be funded by taxpayers this year owing to a successful grant application.

“We definitely applaud the City for the work that they’ve done in the past and we understand some of these costs just [like the new RCMP contract, which is not something the City can control] have to be put forward this year,” Pangilinan added. “We really looked at the supplemental budget items to see what we could potentially put off for a year given that we were already at such a high provisional tax rate.”

“We recognize that the City has continued to be prudent with its supplementary budget requests, with the vast majority of them having no tax implications as they are either funded by grants from other levels of government, from reserves or from debt with cost recovery options.”

Pangilian says the call for prudent budgeting comes as Kamloops businesses have been under “tremendous pressures” for most of the past two years due to COVID, wildfires, and flooding.

“The addition of a significant property tax increase will only increase those pressures and may well be the difference for some local businesses between continuing to operate and choosing to close down,” she said.

Among the other items endorsed by the Chamber was a new mausoleum for Hillside Cemetery, accessible playground upgrades, funding for the Urban Wildlife Management Plan, LED lighting for the exterior of city hall, and upgrades to Norbrock Stadium.”

The four items not endorsed included public WiFi, the Lorne Street train whistle cessation project, the rehabilitation of the Kamloops Tennis Centre, and a new washroom and event centre at Overlander Park.

“We also understand from meetings with City staff that the original provisional tax increase may be lowered slightly due to finalization of the assessment roll for 2022, which would allow some flexibility for those supplementary budget items that do have tax implications in 2022,” Pangilinan added.

“Nevertheless, in an era of continuing fiscal pressures, the Chamber feels that the total 2022 increase should be kept to an absolute minimum beyond what is envisioned in the provisional budget. As things kind of resume to normal and revenues potentially increase, that is when we can start to have the conversation around looking at these items in future years.”

Mayor and council will review supplementary budget items again at the committee of the whole meeting on April 5.

More information on supplementary budget items can be found here.

Kamloops Chamber on 2022 supplemental budget items:

Endorse as presented:
22.01 – FTE Support Council Meetings (0.05 per cent tax implication in 2022)
22.02 – New Mausoleum (no tax implication in 2022)
22.03 – Accessible Playgrounds (no tax implication in 2022)
22.04 – Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Coordinator (no tax implication in 2022)
22.06 – Urban Wildlife Management Plan (no tax implication in 2022)
22.07 – City Hall LED Exterior Lighting (no tax implication in 2022)
22.09 – Norbrock Stadium Venue Upgrades (no tax implication in 2022)

Does not endorse any tax increase:
22.08 – Public WiFi
22.10 – Lorne Street Train Whistle Cessation
22.11 – Kamloops Tennis Centre Rehabilitation
22.12 – Overlander Park Washroom Facility

Endorse in principle:
22.05 – Community Climate Action Plan Funding Strategy