Heading into budget deliberations, city administration’s proposed budget contained $56.3 million in capital spending and $177.5 million in operating spending.
City councillors began budget talks Monday, Jan. 20.
Draft documents presented at the last 2024 meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance and Audit showed that staff was suggesting a 6.55 per cent tax increase.
That increase was made up by a proposed $6.7 million increase in the general operating budget, approximately $1.4 million more in infrastructure funding, $700,000 more in the snow control budget and $300,000 more for the road rehabilitation budget.
Combined, that would have represented around $9.1 million more for the operating budget compared to 2024.
However, in the documents attached to the agenda for the January budget meetings, that figure had been whittled down to 5.83 per cent. That number, if approved, would lead to the representative household receiving a $158.87 property tax increase.
BC Assessment’s 2025 figures list the average value of a single-family residential home in Prince George as $451,000. Overall, the value of residential properties went up by an average of 1.9 per cent from 2024 to 2025.
In the revised proposal, the general operating fund increase was reduced to around $5.7 million with all other categories remaining the same.
By comparison, council approved tax increases of 6.78 per cent in 2024, 7.58 per cent in 2023, three per cent in 2022 and zero per cent in 2021.
A chart comparing Prince George’s tax increases worth a total of 18.32 per cent over that timeframe to eight other BC municipalities showed that it was lower than Saanich (30.51 per cent), Nanaimo (26.05 per cent), Kamloops (23.95 per cent), Coquitlam (22.32 per cent), Maple Ridge (21.70 per cent), Victoria (21.44 per cent) and Chilliwack (18.93 per cent), but higher than Kelowna (17.52 per cent).
Budget documents also showed that the projected snow control costs for 2024 were $10.1 million — $200,000 less than was budgeted. If the final accounting shows that figure is correct, the surplus will be added to the snow control reserve for a year-end total of $2.4 million.
On Monday, city manager Walter Babicz gave council a brief overview at the beginning of proceedings, outlining Prince George’s responsibilities and pressures as a municipal government, the history of the city’s growth and how that affects its infrastructure and how its size compared to its population complicates the municipal services it provides.
He said the replacement value of all the city’s infrastructure is more than $5 billion dollars, which includes 4,728 streetlights, 815 kilometres of water pipes, 701 kilometers of sanitary sewer pipes and 433 kilometres of stormwater pipes.
As she did at the Dec. 4 finance committee meeting, outgoing communications manager Julie Rogers went over what the city heard during public budget consultations last year and how those efforts could be improved the next time around.
Overall, residents expressed a desire for status quo spending in most spending categories. However, they did ask for more infrastructure spending and less spending on corporate services.
Rogers noted on Jan. 20 that residents have asked for that decrease in corporate spending each year she’s been at the city. While she said the feedback will be considered, she likened not funding corporate services to not buying insurance.
Discussing the city’s communication methods, Coun. Brian Skakun said he’s heard from residents that the city’s official smartphone app hasn’t been working for months and had problems accessing it from his own iPhone.
Director of finance and IT services Kris Dalio said the vendor the city purchased the app from was bought out by another company and administration is trying to get the new owners to fix the problems before seeking a replacement.
In his own presentation, Dalio said that Prince George has just about caught up to the rate of inflation as shown by the consumer price index with its property tax increases after that zero per cent increase in 2021.
He did note, however, that the consumer price index tracks the price individuals pay for their goods, which don’t always line up with what municipalities must pay for.
On snow control, Dalio said the intent with the proposed $700,000 increase in the snow control increase is to account for the inflationary cost of an average snow year.
Budget documents also showed that the projected snow control costs for 2024 were $10.1 million — $200,000 less than was budgeted. If the final accounting shows that figure is correct, the surplus will be added to the snow control reserve for a year-end total of $2.4 million.
In 2023, the city budgeted $10 million for snow control but ended the year with around $10.8 in expenses.
The city’s proposed operating budget expenditures break down like this:
- Protective services (emergency services): $66,389,000
- Transportation: $27,762,000
- Recreation and culture: $27,060,000
- General government expenses: $24,796,000
- Debt servicing: $13,641,000
- Public transit: $8,329,000
- Environment and public health: $3,891,000
- Miscellaneous fiscal expenses: $3,136,000
- Planning and development: $2,514,000
Dalio noted that protective services costs usually aren’t reduced by governments, meaning that increases essentially become entrenched.
He also noted that of the taxes the city collects, not all of it goes to the city itself.
In 2025, the City of Prince George gets 70.93 per cent of collected property taxes, 17.12 per cent goes to provincial school taxes, 7.37 per cent goes to the Fraser-Fort George Regional Hospital Board, 3.09 per cent goes to the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George, 1.07 per cent goes to 911 services for the regional district and 0.42 per cent goes to BC Assessment.
Another $4,500 goes to the Municipal Finance Authority, which is too low to register as a percentage in the breakdown.
Significant impacts to the 2025 operating budget include the city’s policing contract with the RCMP at a cost of $226,500 per member, transit cost increases in the city’s operating agreement with BC Transit, new borrowing costs from debt issued in spring 2024, road maintenance cost increases, arts grants increases and cost increases for municipal contracts with service providers.
The proposed operating budget included an increase of 4.4 full-time equivalent staffing positions from last year, one of those in administrative services, 1.6 in civic operations and 1.9 in finance and IT services. If approved, Prince George would have the equivalent of 741.2 full-time equivalent positions on its payroll.
Dalio said that those new positions include a legislative services staffer, an electrician and technical support specialists for the RCMP building.
On top of those additions, administration recommended that council add funding for several additional staff, which would be on top of the expenses outlined in the proposed budget.
They included:
- $1,235,058 to add four more RCMP officers and three policing-related municipal staff,
- $734,122 to add five firefighters and to promote four existing firefighters to the rank of lieutenant,
- $395,672 to add four new bylaw officers
- $106,797 to add a communications specialist
- $198,574 to hire two arborists and buy $701,500 worth of capital fleet equipment for the parks department, the latter of which would not impact city tax levies until 2026,
- $208,278 to hire an event co-ordinator and add support for events and,
- $112,424 to add a parks planner.
If these are all approved, it would increase the proposed tax increase from 5.83 per cent to 7.84 per cent.
Discussing the city’s capital spending was Tiina Schaeffer, the manager of sustainable community developments. She went over some of the challenges and timelines relating to make capital expenses.
Funding sources for Prince George’s capital expenses include the proposed $6.7 million road rehabilitation levy for 2025, $3.5 million in community works funding (formerly the gas tax), $5.63 million from the city’s general infrastructure reinvestment fund and $2.7 million in gaming revenue.
Dalio noted that he used to consider gaming revenue relatively stable, but that was proven wrong during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of the $56,334,000 in proposed capital spending in 2025, 71 per cent ($39,820,875) is for reinvesting in existing infrastructure and 29 per cent ($16,513,125) is for infrastructure upgrades and new infrastructure.
Discussing the capital budget after the presentations, Mayor Simon Yu said he’s observed more frequent freeze-thaw cycles in the winter, which could lead to less in snow control costs but more expenditures to fill potholes.
He also said that while the city’s infrastructure reserve has been building up well in recent years, he’s concerned about the gap projected in future years between anticipated expenses and low funding numbers.
According to Dalio, the biggest infrastructure gaps are in civic facilities and storm sewers.
Coun. Trudy Klassen said when she moved to Prince George in the 90s, residents had some of the highest incomes in the province. She said that’s not the case anymore and is concerned about the effect of high property tax increase on affordability and economic growth.
On development cost charges, which are contributions developers make towards municipal infrastructure that will benefit them, Skakun said he’d like to see developers paying a higher share.
As for municipalities’ share of gaming revenues, Skakun said he didn’t think cities like Prince George aren’t getting enough either, especially when it comes to dealing with the knock-on effects of people who have gambling addictions.
As a director of the Fraser-Fort George Regional District, Skakun implored his colleagues on the board including Yu, Coun. Cori Ramsay and Coun. Kyle Sampson to push back on the tax increases and capital funding being requested by the Regional Hospital Board.
On a similar note, Coun. Tim Bennett said the city’s tax invoices need to be clearer to note what money is going where, as big projects like the new hospital tower at the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia will heavily impact residents’ taxes even though the funding will go to the hospital board and not the city.
While the city does include handout that give a rough breakdown of where tax dollars are going, Dalio said there are regulations that would prohibit the city from issuing ratepayers separate tax notices for each recipient of the property taxes they pay.
Following the presentation, council was given a chance to ask directly about various capital projects.
Here is a summary of some of those discussions.
Bylaw services utility vehicles and trailers, $166,000
Manager of administrative services Eric Depenau said the vehicles would help bylaw services deal with issues related to encampments, animal control, illegal use of all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes, illegal dumping and more. Currently, some officers have to spend a lot of their shift walking to the site of complaints, which takes up time.
Mayor Simon Yu said this kind of expense is needed, but should be covered by higher levels of government.
Coun. Garth Frizzell wanted to know if these vehicles and trailer would be used in winter and how often they would be use to deal with encampments. Depenau said they would be used less over the winter and said dealing with encampments would not be the primary use.
Bennett said he was having a hard time justify the expense proposed, saying with his estimates he couldn’t see how it would cost more than $80,000 to $100,000 for two side-by-side vehicles and two trailers with his experience buying similar equipment for a non-profit.
He signalled he was considering bringing forward a motion to reduce the amount to $100,000 on the second day of deliberations.
Depenau said bringing down the budgeted amount might force the city to only buy one vehicle and one trailer.
Coun. Kyle Sampson wanted to know how administration identified a need for two of the vehicles. Depenau said that staff were asked about what equipment they needed and based on those conversations, it was suggested that two would be appropriate so they could be used by overlapping shifts.
Following up, Sampson said he considers this a pilot project and it might be more appropriate to buy one to see how it works before purchasing additional vehicles. He also said it’s his understanding that the fire department has a side-by-side it doesn’t currently use much and wondered if it could be transferred.
The fire department’s vehicle is used for search purposes, Depenau said, and he wasn’t sure that it should be removed from them. However, he said the reduction to a single vehicle and trailer purchase would be acceptable to the bylaw services department.
Climate action initiatives, $250,000 per year from 2025 through 2029
This project is funded through funds received from the provincial governments. Coun. Trudy Klassen was concerned that the description didn’t include details as to what the initiatives entail.
Director of planning and development Deanna Wasnik said it’s for climate initiatives across the city and will impact many different departments. She said information on those efforts will be presented to council through staff reports and staff will need to report on their progress to make sure timelines set out by the province will be met.
Schaffer said this item allows the city’s climate action team to more efficiently work on and report on its goals.
18th Avenue city yard security renewal, $310,000
This project is to replace the north fence and existing security cameras at the city works yard as well as the installation of new cameras.
Director of civic operations Blake McIntosh said there have been issues with the compound’s fence being cut and civic vehicles being broken into. Part of the issue, he said, is that the compound is close to the RCMP’s exhibit compound.
The addition of more technology could help with this, he said.
Ramsay wondered if it would be worth building a fence sturdier than chain link to discourage break-ins.
Prince George Conference and Civic Centre door refurbishment and access control $252,000
Director of civic facilities and events Andy Beesley said the replacements of doors at the venue are partially due to some of the doors needing to be replaced and partially due to security concerns.
He said the work would also include the installation of key fobs and security systems.
Paid parking lot renewals, $390,000 in 2025 and $190,000 in 2026
This project is to renovate hard surfaced parking lots, including the Royal parking lot on Second Avenue, the Columbus lot on Second Avenue and the Earl Brown lot on Sixth Avenue.
Coun. Trudy Klassen said she intends to propose that this work be postponed until an ongoing review of the city’s parking lots is completed. Skakun said he respects Klassen’s point of view on the expenses but thinks council should trust administration’s opinion that the lots need refreshing.
Dalio pointed out that the city collects a parking levy from downtown businesses and it is expected that the lots be maintained.
Later on, Klassen made the same point about the planned $606,000 in expenses for the renewal of the Plaza Parkade guardrail. Beesley said that unfortunately, the existing guardrail is a safety and liability concern and administration believes it needs replacement.
Park washrooms renewal, $500,000 in both 2025 and 2026
Klassen said she thought the price seems excessive.
McIntosh said the work in 2025 will focus on Gyro Park, near Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park. He said the washroom there was built in the 70s and needs a complete renovation, pointing out that washroom renewals at Carrie Jane Gray Park during the pandemic came in around $700,000.
For that reason, he said he thought the estimate was accurate.
Carrie Jane Gray Park upgrades, $6.3 million total from 2025 through 2028
McIntosh said the program will be phased over several years and council will eventually need to make a separate decision on what materials will be used to make the planned all-weather field.
Maybe the largest part of the work will be building a new baseball diamond and demolishing the old one. McIntosh said the city is trying to balance the desires of user groups who use the park and they will be kept in the loop during construction.
Civic Centre building automation system and chiller renewal, $3.26 million
This project improves the automated system that controls the heating and cooling systems at the Civic Centre, as well as the air conditioner and related components.
Klassen asked if the expense could be delayed, but Beesley said the city already spent a lot on repairs in 2024 and the system is on the verge of failure.
Ramsay pointed out that this project is debt-funded and will be paid off over time instead of a lump sum in this fiscal year.
Also on Jan. 20, there were presentations from several agencies and partner organizations that the city funds.
Prince George Public Library
The library is seeking an increase of funding to $3,607,790 in 2025, up from $3,421,607.
Board chair Anna Duff told council that the library board recently added Lheidli T’enneh Coun. Wendy Jael as the First Nation’s representative on the board and that the board plans on adding a representative from the Fraser Fort-George Regional District board of directors soon.
Library director Paul Burry showed statistics showing growth in library use and said the organization’s program to help school-age kids with homework has been a big hit.
Burry said some staffing expense increases are due to negotiated wage increases of 2.25 per cent for CUPE-represented staff, an increase in the library’s employer portion of benefit premiums from 95 per cent to 100 per cent and other costs like higher WorkSafe BC premiums and municipal pension plan rates.
The director added that the library has seen good engagement in the first few months of the downtown branch opening for four hours on Sundays.
Frizzell, a member of the library’s board, said he’s disappointed to see that the province has not increase its funding to BC libraries.
Events and projects scheduled for the library in 2025 include the 40th annual Jeanne Clarke Awards for Local History, the 2025 Beyond Hope Library Conference, a new branding projects and website redesign worked on with Splash Media, a board fundraising project to improve the Bob Harkins Branch’s deck space and The Way We Hear It exhibit being put on by the BC chapter of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association.
Sampson asked why the library isn’t seeing a return to pre-COVID revenue. Burry said there have been increases over the past couple of years, though they have been small.
Another change has been the elimination of overdue fees, which Burry said represented up to 80 per cent of annual revenues. Sampson said he has struggled with the elimination of those fees when other non-profits in Prince George don't have the luxury of asking the city for funding assistance, pointing out that library expenses outweigh what is spent on running the two local pools.
He said he would be putting forward a motion to limit the library's funding increase to around $80,000 instead of $220,000, tasking the library to do what it can to diversify revenues.
Overdue fee revenues were declining before they were eliminated, Burry said, adding that the library was completely transparent with the city about its intention to do so before it was implemented.
Sampson argued that overdue fees had already been paused when the library made its budget presentation that year. Burry interjected, saying they had been paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the total elimination of them was separate.
Along a similar line, Ramsay said she would be putting forward a motion on day two to have the library create a five-year financial plan so that the city has some certainty on how much it will have to provide it with each year.
She said she understands the arguments about lowering barriers by keeping fees at the library low, but when the city has to increase the library budget by six figures a year, it might mean having to spend less on things like police and recreation.
Tourism Prince George
Board treasurer Jamie Valcourt and CEO Colin Carson told council that they’re projecting a three per cent increase in revenue in 2025 for a total of $2.28 million and a 27 per cent increase in operating expenses for a total of $689,829.
The reason for the big jump in expenses is the opening of the new visitors’ centre at the Civic Centre. However, with the centre now open, Tourism PG is projecting a 95 per cent decrease in capital costs to $30,000.
Tourism PG is also budgeting for a two per cent decrease in its marketing expenses, to a total of $1,560,172.
The City of Prince George provides Tourism PG with $327,000 in funding each year. The organization receives another $1,750,000 from the city’s hotel tax.
The organization is going to focus on six key areas in 2025: marketing, destination development, visitor services, industry outreach, business development and organizational effectiveness.
This part of the session discussed Prince George’s most notable celebrity: Mr. PG. Asked about his location, Carson said Tourism PG is hearing frequently from visitors that they wish they could interact with him — which is hard to do at his current location at the junction of Highways 16 and 97.
He said it might not be the most popular thing to say, but he’d like to see Mr. PG moved downtown so that could happen.
As for the ice rink in Civic Plaza, Carson said they're working on renovating the space soon and it will likely be surrounded by fencing soon, but the organization is waiting to hear about grant funding before proceeding.
Prince George RCMP
Prince George’s proposed police protection budget for 2025 coming into budget talks were $37,389,961, an increase of $1,804,785 from 2024.
That includes an approximate increase of $1.24 million in the city’s contract with the RCMP.
The city’s contract is for 153 RCMP officers, up from 149 last year. Of those positions, the city funds 139 of them at $226,516 per member.
In 2024, the city funded four extra officer positions as a service enhancement and administration that council approve a similar increase this year.
Supt. Darin Rappel said that if council didn’t approve the entire funding increase the RCMP requested, it would be a collaborative effort between himself, Cpl. Jennifer Cooper and Depenau to figure out how that would work.
The mayor said policing expense increases are not sustainable in the long term, though he conceded that public safety is the city’s number one concern.
Addressing administration’s proposed police service enhancements, which would add four more officers, Rappel said his request is based off of a resource assessment from 2022.
These officers would be sent to local schools to teach kids about crime issues and to deal with crimes committed by or aimed at kids. This includes online targeting of kids, attempts by gangs to recruit at schools and opioid use at schools.
At some schools, intimate partner violence is an issue and Rappel said intervention would help those involved have better outcomes later in life.
For those positions, Rappel said he’s looking for members with at least two years of experience and would need around six months of training to fulfill their new duties.
On the proposed addition of three municipal employees who would help the police, they include a victim services worker, a community policing co-ordinator and an assistant manager of operations. The cost for those three would be $92,116, $96,785 and $140,093.
Rappel said he would rank the assistant manager position as the most important of those three as the current workload is too much for a single employee to handle as police operate 24-7.
Prince George Fire Rescue
The proposed 2025 budget requests that funding for fire and rescue services go up by more than $2.5 million from around $20 million in 2024 to about $22.69 million in 2025.
Fire Chief Cliff Warner, presenting at his last round of budget talks before his planned retirement at the end of May, said the five additional firefighters they’re requesting funding for are to staff a medic unit with the four existing firefighters promoted once they’re hired to serve as supervisors to meet WorkSafe BC standards.
He said two-thirds of the plan to establish the medic unit were put in place last year and the hiring will complete the rest.
Asked about fires that have devastated Jasper and Los Angeles in the last year, Warner said fires threatening municipalities has become a greater threat in recent years. He said the structure protection unit donated by Miracle Theatre will be a big help if a wildfire threatens Prince George.
At the Wildfire Resiliency and Training Summit last year in Prince George, Warner said PGFR was able to develop plans they can use in case certain neighbourhoods are threatened by wildfires.
The mayor praised PGFR for keeping the fire that destroyed the old secondhand store at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Dominion Street last week contained.
"You saved the Croft Hotel," Yu said.
"My members saved the Croft," Warner replied.
Last year, Warner said, the Fire Underwriters Survey reached out to PGFR to update its report on fire risks in Prince George, which impacts fire insurance rates for commercial and residential properties. The organization’s last report was in 2013.
The chief said he would share the results of the updated report when possible.
After more than eight hours of debate and a failed attempt to extend proceedings until 11 p.m., council suspended proceedings until 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 22.
