The tax rate in Callander is rising this year by almost 8 per cent—7.79 per cent to be exact. This means those with a single detached home will pay around $245 more per year or about $21 per month, based on a $261,000 property value.
The budget isn’t officially passed yet, however, during last night’s council meeting, council agreed that the 7.79 per cent increase is what’s needed to continue with planned projects, enhance the reserve fund, and prepare for future expenditures coming down the pipe.
“It’s a difficult task to balance what we need for reserves moving forward with our plans and what we hope to achieve in years to come,” Mayor Robb Noon explained, mentioning that ideally, he was hoping to rase the rate somewhere in the 5 per cent range.
Indeed, the mood was sombre at the council table when the decision was made to raise the rate. However, as Mayor Noon said, “we can’t keep depleting our reserves and hoping that in the next year, we can replenish those.”
See: Callander’s budget calls for a tax increase of 1.96 per cent
Dipping into reserves has helped keep the levy low in the past, but “I don’t want to put our municipality in a worse position,” Noon said. “It’s unfortunate that we have to take this much of an increase, but our municipality has been in a great position over the past years to keep our taxes low, but it has been costing us in our reserves.”
With the new rate, about $1.2 million will be added to reserves. Currently, there are about $7.5 million in the municipal reserve fund. The increase also ensures all current plans the municipality has underway will continue, including those outlined in the Downtown and Waterfront Revitalization Plan, museum repairs, the upgrades to the Bill Barber Arena, and the Eglington Road and municipal docks projects.
“We anticipate getting all of those projects completed this year,” noted Callander’s senior municipal director, Ashley Bilodeau. Once the budget is approved, municipal staff can start issuing requests for proposals for the work.
“I would have loved to have seen five per cent,” Noon said. “But when you read the budget, read our strategy for moving the municipality forward and stay on track, we’re still depleting but not heavily, and I think in the future we will be able to replenish and bring our tax rate down.”
See: Callander’s working to bring tax levy to around 5 per cent
“I’m concerned about getting that money back in to reserves,” Noon said. He likened dipping into reserves to reign in the tax levy to that old chestnut, robbing Peter to pay Paul, “and I never enjoyed that way of doing things.” he said. “It’s not good for your community.”
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
