Lake Cowichan Mayor Rod Peters says residents can expect a tax increase this year but not as much as he and his council had first anticipated.
“It hasn’t been totally decided yet. We had a rate that we’d come up with that we were going to charge this year but we are still working on something,” Peters said on April 28. “The rate that we were going to charge this year is going to be decreased but I don’t know by how much. We had figured around five per cent but it’s probably going to be closer to a three per cent increase.”
Lowering the rate is one way to help residents out during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Peters said council is helping in other ways as well.
“Because of the COVID thing, a lot of people are doing their own gardens,” he explained.
The mayor explained that often around this time of year people are being charged for going over their allotted water amount.
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Not anymore. For this year, anyway.
“That is going to be exempt this year so that the people, if they do over-water because they’re growing their own vegetables, they won’t be charged.”
It’s been a tricky tax season, Peters said.
“It’s been very confusing. Everything is very confusing right now.”
Municipalities have until May 15 to adopt their budgets.
sarah.simpson@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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