North Cowichan is moving forward with a 7.83 per cent tax increase for 2025.
Council gave the first three readings to the budget at its meeting on April 16, and local governments are required to adopt their budgets by May 15.
If passed, the average $761,839 single-family home in the municipality will see a tax hike of $154.41 this year.
At the meeting, Coun. Christopher Justice noted that the staff report on the budget indicated that in 2024, the provincial average residential tax rate was $3.31 per $1,000 of assessed value, but North Cowichan’s rate was $2.56 last year, which is approximately 25 per cent lower than the provincial average.
“I have always assumed that rural municipalities like North Cowichan often have higher per-capita costs for infrastructure due to geographic spread, whereas urban areas may have economies of scale in service delivery, lowering their per-household costs, but we see the opposite pattern here,” he said.
“Many people [in North Cowichan] are convinced that our tax rate is very high relative to other communities.”
Justice asked Terri Vetter, North Cowichan’s director of financial services, why the municipality’s property owners are paying less than the provincial average.
Vetter said that, if she was to speculate, she would say it’s because North Cowichan is not funding for its asset management like other municipalities in B.C. might be.
“North Cowichan has a lot of amenities [for its tax rate] in my opinion, so that would be my guess if I was to speculate, but unless I looked at every municipality’s revenues to expenses and what those expenses are going to, I couldn’t give an educated guess, but that would be my best guess,” she said.
North Cowichan CAO Ted Swabey pointed out to council in March that the municipality doesn’t have the infrastructure capacity to keep up with the increasing demands of development, and approximately $359 million is needed in the coming years to meet the future infrastructure needs.
Due to the possibility of another postal strike that could begin on May 22, North Cowichan staff are working to levy property taxes well in advance of its usual schedule this year.
Typically, tax notices are mailed out after the long weekend in May but, since this coincides with the potential strike, staff are aiming to send the notices by May 12 to allow for seven days of mailing prior to any potential strike.
