Proposed tax increase for Kamloops would be up more than three per cent for average homeowner

She told council that some of the increases aren’t easily controllable by the city, like an increase in BC Hydro and utility expenses for the City, RCMP contract costs, ICBC rates for City vehicles, and the Employer Health Tax.

Other items like public transit require more funding for additional hours already approved by council, and extra flaggers contracted out by the city for issues like road work and traffic incidents.

Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian says if council approves the increase, it would be the “largest tax increase in the City of Kamloops in the last decade”.

“So the challenge for us, I think, is pretty evident in terms of how we would approach this going forward,” said Christian. “My observation of the numbers you presented is that there’s clearly about two per cent of that total which I would characterize as downloading from the provincial government in terms of increased fees for things like ICBC, and the Hydro, and the MSP.”

Rookie Coun. Mike O’Reilly asked Humphrey about educating the public more about the budget in general — pointing out how much he has learned in his short time on council and that he’s spent hours each day becoming familiar with the budget.

Humphrey said public education is a priority for the City and its communications department.

Another point of contention among Kamloops residents is snow and ice clearing during the winter months. City of Kamloops Streets and Environmental Services Manager Glen Farrow says due to the winter conditions through January and May of this year, the snow clearing budget has already been spent, but adds that by using funding from other areas of the department, the City is able to keep things running smoothly this winter.

Farrow is planning on asking council during its regular meeting today (Nov. 20) to approve three more full-time members in his department — one employee per shift.

“Why would we not go to a four (day) on four (day) off or something better?” Coun. Denis Walsh asked, referring to the regularly funded shifts of Monday to Friday for snow clearing.

Chief Administrative Officer for the City, David Trawin, said staff are on-call for the weekends during the winter months due to the employees’ collective agreement. The agreement essentially doesn’t agree to a regular weekend shift, but when employees are on call and get to work during this period, they’re paid double-time.

First time Coun. Bill Sarai, who has been vocal about his concerns with the City’s snow clearing plan in the past, addressed Farrow and said he now has a better understanding of things work, although he’s still concerned that the city has grown while the snow-vehicle fleet hasn’t.

Council and staff are expected to discuss snow clearing more later this afternoon.

by Ashley Legassic

Proposed tax increase for Kamloops would be up more than three per cent for average homeowner

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