The average property tax bill for Coquitlam homeowners will be north of $4,100 next year — a hike of $273 over this year’s rate.
This week, city council unanimously adopted the five-year financial plan that will see property taxes rise 8.92 per cent come July, “higher than I would have liked and higher than any of us would have liked,” Mayor Richard Stewart said on Dec. 4 before council gave three readings to the bylaw following 90 minutes of explanation and discussion.
Broken down, taxpayers will pay $273 more next year, based on the average household with a $1.3-million value, with $210 spent on:
- contractual and inflationary: $164
- RCMP contract: $40
- operating cost of new capital: $26
- infrastructure growth and inflation: $7
- community safety: $30
- housing affordability and supply: $1
- Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and Reconciliation: $3
- net community services and organizational support: $2
- cultural groups: $1
- infrastructure sustainability: $18
(A total of $82 is offset by dipping into the development stabilization reserve, as well as taxation growth, revenues and investment earnings).
In addition, utility charges — i.e., water, sewer, drainage and solid waste levies — will go up between $56 and $69, depending on the home size.
In passing the $575-million operating and capital plans, of which $437 million is dedicated to the former, Stewart noted the 7.7 per cent bump for inflation on city expenditures.
It’s the same cost driver that’s also impacting other B.C. municipalities in the post–pandemic world, he said: Last week, Port Moody drafted a 8.13 per cent increase for next year while, on Monday, Vancouver council OK’d a 7.5 per cent tax hike.
Yesterday, Dec. 12, Port Coquitlam council announced its draft 2024 budget would include a 5.58 per cent ($117) jump in property taxes.
In October, during budget deliberations, Coquitlam’s finance staff proposed a 10.79 per cent property tax increase to pay for, among other things:
- 10 more firefighters (to be phased in over two years)
- nine more Mounties (to be phased in over two years)
- two more bylaw inspectors
- an emergency management co-ordinator
- an accessibility and inclusion co-ordinator
- a housing planner to advance the Housing Affordability Strategy
- policing resources like technological upgrades
- inclusion supports for recreation programs and summer camps
New provincial rules
Still, Stewart said city council may have to revisit the financial plan in 2024 given the provincial legislation that came down last month for housing.
The “sweeping changes,” the former BC Liberal MLA said, will put significant pressures on municipalities with new costs downloaded and “authorities usurped.”
“In an attempt to address the housing crisis, new provincial legislation is imposing requirements on municipalities without providing funding while also reducing local decision-making authority and hindering our ability to utilize development reserves to fund the amenities and infrastructure needed to support our community,” the mayor said.
Stewart also took aim at the province for not picking up the full tab for provincial facilities in Coquitlam, such as the Red Fish Healing Centre for Mental Health and Addiction, at səmiq̓ʷəʔelə/Riverview Lands, and the homeless shelter at 3030 Gordon Ave.
Coquitlam RCMP Supt. Keith Bramhill and other senior Mounties have told Coquitlam and PoCo councils this year that calls for missing people — especially clients who have left the Red Fish facility — take up to seven full-time officers a day.
Stewart said new provincial legislation around accessibility will also have a financial impact for the municipality and for developers, a topic also raised by Port Coquitlam’s planning and development staff at yesterday’s council-of-committee meeting.
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For more details about Coquitlam’s financial plan and Mayor Richard Stewart's speech, visit the city's website.
