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Yorkton City Council approved the 2022 Operating and 2022/2023 Capital Budgets at last night’s council meeting. The City thanks all residents, organizations and business owners in Yorkton who filled out the online Public Review form or spoke to City Council in the weeks leading up to the budget review.
Council approved a property tax increase of 4.86% for 2022 and a 1% increase minimum towards Capital Projects for 2023. The breakdown of the increase includes 2.36% towards the RCMP Contract, 0.50% to offset the decrease in the Municipal Revenue Sharing Grant (PST), 1% towards Operating and 1% towards Capital Projects. In general terms, an average resident will see a property tax increase of roughly $8.11 per month, or roughly twice that for an equally valued commercial property.
“This was a tough decision to make due to the 2.86% operating budget increase out of our control,” said Mayor Hippsley. “In light of the uncontrollable operating increases, council had mixed opinions. Numerous discussions had taken place to determine how we could keep the budget as low as possible, while still maintaining current operations and investing in infrastructure. Council wishes to thank everyone who gave us feedback, and encourages the community to stay engaged with us.”
RCMP Contract (2.36%)
A new agreement was ratified between the RCMP and the Federal government, which came with it a total cost to the City of Yorkton upwards of $2.1 million. The largest portion of this is retro pay, for which the City had been saving towards in the RCMP budget for a number of years. The City has saved $785,000 in reserves for policing, however, this is not enough to cover the $1.4 million of retro pay, which is a one-time expense. The remaining amount is to be funded from other general reserves.
Municipal Revenue Sharing (0.50%)
Annually, the City receives revenue from the province by the Municipal Revenue Sharing grant. This comes in the form of a share of PST revenue. The Provincial Government takes a portion of all PST revenue, and allocates it to municipalities. As PST revenues have decreased as a result of economic slowdown, the City’s share of this has likewise decreased. The effect on the City’s budget includes $137,000 of lost revenues, or roughly half a percent of taxation.
Operating Budget (1%)
The Operating Budget includes the operations of all departments within the City. This year’s budget was kept to a 1% increase, or roughly $255,000. This includes everything from Public Works, Parks, and Fire Protective Services to Corporate Services. This was a challenge in a year where inflation has peaked at nearly 4.5%. As well, the challenges of COVID are still present with the City seeing lower revenues for many recreation facilities, with usage down due to the pandemic. The City is using some of its COVID Safe Restart grant funding to offset this.
The burden of a budget increase on taxpayers was kept in mind throughout the entire budget process, resulting in a minimum increase on operations.
Capital Projects (1%)
The Capital Budget includes a 1% increase in taxes, or roughly an addition of $255,000. This will bring the annual capital total to $4,645,000 for 2022. Since this is a 2 year capital budget there is a 1% (minimum) increase for 2023 towards capital as well.
Notable Capital items include the York Road Reconstruction project, construction of a new Deer Park Clubhouse, Ball Road Infrastructure Improvements, upgrades to the Gallagher Centre Ice, upgrades to the Kinsmen Arena Ice Systems/Rink Slab, upgrades to the Water Tower and a new Pump Bike Park.
In the end, the Capital of 1% increase was approved by majority of Council four to three in favour.
The finalized budget documents, including a detailed list of capital projects, will be made available on www.yorkton.ca/budget as soon as it is available.