The Regional District of Fraser Fort-George is looking to boost its tax requisition by more than seven per cent this year.
At a Friday, Jan. 24 committee of the whole meeting, regional directors discussed the budget for services that affect the entire district as well as services that affect multiple areas within it and some individual service budgets.
In February, the board will discuss local services and the rest of the individual service budgets.
The budget for the Fraser Fort-George Regional Hospital Board will be discussed separately. Northern Health will make a funding presentation to the board on Feb. 20 and then the board will review and approve its budget in March.
In total, staff came into budget talks looking for an overall 7.13 per cent increase to its tax requisition.
If all the proposed budget figures are approved, if would be the highest tax increase in years. There was a 5.35 requisition increase in 2024, 4.25 per cent in 2023, 2.67 per cent increase in 2022, a 1.43 per cent increase in 2021 and a 2.66 per cent increase in 2020.
Since residents in the district’s seven rural electoral areas and four municipalities, including Prince George, only pay taxes towards services they benefit from, that figure represents the total increase to tax revenue that administration is looking for, not the increase in taxes that residents will pay.
Across the district, general property values went up by 4.75 per cent — 1.78 per cent due to non-market changes and 2.97 per cent due to market changes.
To determine how much a property owner owes in taxes, regional districts in BC use properties’ converted assessments, not their general assessment.
For that, the converted assessment value of residential, recreational, non-profit and farm properties is 10 per cent of the total amount, 35 per cent for utilities, 34 per cent for industrial and 24.5 per cent for businesses and other properties.
The total increase in converted assessments in the Regional District of Fraser Fort-George in the 2025 assessment was 5.99 per cent.
The area with the largest increase in converted assessment was Electoral Area H, said to be a result of the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion coming online. It rose by 21.03 per cent.
The next-highest increase was Electoral Area G at 8.21 per cent.
Prince George saw its converted assessment value increase by 5.63 per cent. The City of Prince George represents 68.99 per cent of the converted assessment value for the entire regional district.
Mackenzie’s converted assessment dropped by 5.27 per cent, attributed to the closure of mills in the district. The only other part of the regional district to see a drop in the value of its converted assessments was Valemount at 1.35 per cent.
The proposed 2025 budget for the regional district would see the tax rate per $100,000 in assessed value for Prince George residential properties increase from $41.87 in 2024 to $43.55.
That means the average single-family residential home in Prince George assessed at a value of $458,521 would see its regional taxes go up to $199.67.
Last year, the average assessed value of a single-family residential home in Prince George was $444,994 and the regional property tax was at $186.34.
That means that for regional taxes, the average home in Prince George would see a 7.2 per cent increase in what they pay or $13.33 more.
The proposed budget would see the following regional tax rate changes for the average single-family home in the rest of the district:
- District of Mackenzie: 2.3 per cent decrease
- Village of McBride: 3.6 per cent increase
- Village of Valemount: 6.9 per cent decrease
- Electoral Area A (Salmon River-Lakes): 1.6 per cent increase
- Electoral Area C (Chilako River-Nechako): one per cent decrease
- Electoral Area D (Tabor Lake-Stone Creek): 0.3 per cent increase
- Electoral Area E (Woodpecker-Hixon): 6.7 per cent increase
- Electoral Area F (Willow River-Upper Fraser Valley): 0.3 per cent increase
- Electoral Area G (Crooked River-Parsnip): 1.1 per cent decrease
- Electoral Area H (Robson Valley-Canoe): 3.9 per cent decrease.
Among the budget items approved at the Jan. 24 meeting were a $3,026,390 increase to operating expenditures, a boost of 5.65 per cent in the proposed 2025 budget.
That includes a $275,601 decrease (0.5 per cent) to general operating expenses, a $1,066,754 (two per cent) increase in cost-of-living adjustments and staffing increases, $2,340,093 (4.4 per cent) in one-time expenses relating to the Dore River mitigation project, $458,267 (0.9 per cent) in increased debt servicing costs and a reduction of $563,113 (1.1 per cent) in transfers to reserves.
The approved capital expenditures among the categories discussed on Jan. 24 for the proposed 2025 budget include $6,226,500 in projects that started in prior years and $4,294,900 for new capital projects.
Together, the approved 2025 budget capital items discussed at the January meeting have a combined dollar value of $10,521,400.
Major 2025 projects the regional district is starting or continuing include preparation to take over 9-1-1 calls, upgrades to next-generation 9-1-1 technology, construction on cell two at the Foothills Landfill, a natural gas project with Fortis BC, new Recycle BC sites and a new park for Electoral Area E, a flood and erosion mitigation project for the Dore River near McBride, updates to official community plans within the district, implementing recommendations from a health and safety audit
For region-wide services, the approved 2025 budget has a $1,344,138 (10.09 per cent) requisition increase.
That includes the following requisition increases to these region-wide services:
- General administration: 17 per cent,
- Board of directors: 11.3 per cent,
- Heritage conservation: 7.5 per cent,
- Regional grants-in-aid: 7.4 per cent,
- 9-1-1 emergency services: 12 per cent,
- Community services: 10 per cent,
- Regional land use planning: four per cent,
- Solid waste management: six per cent,
- Regional parks: seven per cent,
The economic development department received a 5.4 per cent funding increase, but it had no impact on the tax requisition as it is funded by grants-in-lieu. While the expenditures for municipal debt servicing are rising by 5.2 per cent, it also has no impact on the tax requisition.
Spending on feasibility studies is increasing from $30,000 to $100,000 from 2024 to 2025, but it also has no impact on taxes as it is being funded through the Feasibility Reserve Fund.
For sub-regional services, district administration requested a 4.37 per cent decrease to its funding requisition. Staff said this was due to a decrease in waste reduction service costs from $380,000 to $150,000 because of an agreement with Recycle BC.
Here’s the approved tax requisition breakdown for the other sub-regional services:
- Waste reduction, serves the entire district except for Prince George: 60.5 per cent decrease,
- Electoral area administration, serves all seven electoral areas: 15 per cent increase,
- Emergency preparedness, serves all electoral areas: 25 per cent increase,
- Inspection services, serves all electoral areas: five per cent increase,
- Untidy and unsightly premises, serves all electoral areas: six per cent increase,
- Rural transfer station service, serves all electoral areas: five per cent increase,
- Fire department co-ordination service, serves the entire district except Prince George: 6.7 per cent increase,
- Inspection services, serves all electoral areas: five per cent increase,
- House numbering, serves all electoral areas: 2.5 per cent increase,
- Special events, serves all electoral areas: 3.1 per cent increase
Noise control for boating, which affects electoral areas A, C, D, F and G, had no budget increase and no change to its requisition.
In his introduction to the budget talks, chief administrative officer Chris Calder said the regional district is in a period of growth to a larger-sized organization.
One of this year’s capital projects is to renovate the district’s office building at 155 George St. in Prince George to accommodate more staff. The district expects to hire four more unionized staff in 2025 and two more union-exempt staff.
The board of directors will reconvene for its second committee of the whole budget meeting on Feb. 19.
