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By Dylana Kneeshaw

REGIONAL DISTRICT BUDGET

TNRD tax increase stems from growing operations costs and revenue challenges

Mar 28, 2025 | 4:34 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Thompson Nicola Regional District has given the green light for this year’s budget, which will see an average of a 5.9 per cent tax increase overall.

However, the TNRD says growth in the higher-paying industrial and business categories will see the tax requisition spread across a larger base, which means many residential property owners will actually have a lower tax increase than 5.9 per cent, or even see a decrease in their tax bills.

Budget planning takes months and that work culminated this week as the TNRD Board of Directors adopted the 2025 budget plan to set the tax rates in the region.

“Chief Financial Officer (Carla) Fox did a good job of comparing a bunch of regional districts and we are actually kind of at the lower end of that. It ranges from somewhere around 1 per cent up to 12 per cent,” explains TNRD’s Chief Administrative Officer Scott Hildebrand. “At 5.9 per cent, we’re in a good spot from a comparative standpoint.”

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Five-point-nine per cent is the universal rate increase for a large tax base made up of 11 municipalities and 10 electoral areas. The TNRD says the change in what residential properties owe for services can range from a decrease to only a few dollars more per year.

“But again, people like to know the (tax increase) per cent. ‘What’s the percentage?’ In Ashcroft, where I’m from, the percentage is 10.18 per cent. ‘Oh my goodness, that’s terrible!’ Well, that’s $1.26 a year is what it’s going up,” explains Board Chair Barbara Roden.

Part of the tax increase stems from external factors such as district revenue declines and a rise in how much it costs to continue existing service levels.

“We had negotiated wage increases last year that impacted this year we had to take into consideration, so that was a large part of it,” adds Fox. “And then on top of that, we had an asset management position supported. We also had a facilities manager position supported for some of the gaps we were seeing that we brought forward.”

In this economic climate, Roden says expediting capital projects will prove to be a money-saver.

“Even if there isn’t that much of a lag time, every week that gets added to that start date, you’re seeing costs go up because supplies are going up, supply chains are changing, contractors are maybe getting harder so now they’re going to be more expensive, and now throw in the tariff uncertainty.”

A more detailed breakdown of tax rates and services costs for electoral areas can be found here.