The people of Prince George will have to wait two more weeks to know what the 2021 tax levy will be as city council voted to defer two major items on the agenda until the Feb. 8 public meeting.
Last night (Jan. 27), although council has approved all of the service categories on the agenda which technically equals a two per cent tax levy, it's postponed the decision on how to allocate the Safe Restart dollars.
Prince George was the recipient of $6.11 million from funding for the province’s safe restart grant, which could be used to offset or bring this year’s increase down to zero per cent.
In December 2019, the city’s finance and audit committee had recommended using only a portion of the funds to reduce the tax increase to two per cent.
The report before city council show’s administration is recommending using $796,185 to reduce the tax levy and saving the remaining $5.31 million for future uses.
To completely eliminate the tax increase this year would require the city to use $3.6 million of the funding.
“I think we have the opportunity when we set the tax rate to come in at zero. I know there has been a lot of talk about what does it look like a year down the road, two years down the road but we owe it to the businesses and the residents to come in at a zero per cent tax increase,” said Coun. Brian Skakun during discussions on deferring the decision.
“I think it’s important to note that we have approved a two per cent increase to the budget tonight. That’s what we’ve done,” noted Coun. Cori Ramsay, in reference to the approved service categories.
“We are going have to make a decision of how much of the Safe Restart Funds we are going to use this year, but also how much we are going to use next year and possibly into 2023.”
A chart detailing the Safe Restart Grant money options regarding the proposed tax levy. By City of Prince GeorgeShe says no matter how the Safe Restart money is used it will support the community.
“It’s important that residents know that this is going to support them this year but into the future as well, so we are not having to bear an incredibly large tax levy into the next two years until our revenues are up.”
Council has also deferred a decision regarding a requested service enhancement from the Prince George RCMP.
RCMP Superintendent Shaun Wright has requested a service enhancement for two additional RCMP officers for internal training requirements, increasing the current contracted strength from 142 members to 144 members.
This training would focus on mandatory firearms use of force options, crisis de-escalation and mental health, medical and life-saving training, and training specific to the needs of Prince George.
This service enhancement would cost the city $96,000 funded from within the contracted budget for this year, but the cost for 2022 would be $365,000.
A question regarding whether or not it is the city’s responsibility to pay for RCMP training was raised by council.
“We are contracting a service from the federal government. They should be providing us trained and ready-to-go officers,” said Coun. Kyle Sampson, noting he’s worried Prince George could become a training ground for RCMP officers who are only stationed in the city for short periods.
However Coun. Susan Scott expressed support for Prince George specific training.
“The training needs community to community are not absolutely the same and that is one the reasons I believe some of this is not covered in the core training.”
Mayor Lyn Hall said he has more questions regarding the program especially how it relates to dedicated officers downtown, and council voted to postpone its decision until Supt. Wright can return to council to provide some more information.
Council also agreed that more advocacy to the federal government is needed on this issue and approved a motion to bring it to the intergovernmental resolutions committee.
One of the big service categories that was approved last night was an increase to the snow control budget.
The largest portion of the two per cent tax increase on the table comes from a $1.5 million increase to the city’s snow-clearing budget. This would increase the budget from $8.5 million to $10 million or 1.33 per cent of the tax levy.
“It is really important to note we already spend $10 million on snow,” said Coun. Ramsay.
“This money is already coming out of the budget it is really just shifting around numbers to make it actually function. The hope is the snow levy will be high enough that we can start to generate some reserve funds because if you look at the reserve balance you can see it’s at zero year after year.”
Despite two budget meetings this week, the final decisions regarding how much council will use of the Safe Restart money to offset the two per cent tax increase and whether or not council will approve the RCMP training program won’t be decided for another two weeks.
Council will return to the horseshoe to continue the 2021 budget deliberations at the Feb. 8 council meeting and once the budget is approved administration will create the tax rate bylaw which must be approved before May 15.
