Budget 2023

The City is looking to engage with residents about the Draft 2023 budget, as we plan for our next five-year budget cycle from 2023 to 2027. We continue to have a busy five years ahead, with major infrastructure renewal taking up a significant amount of staff energy, as well as available funds. In this year, as in past years, we work hard to balance our community's many needs and priorities.

Because these decisions are difficult, and require community input, we are also using budget consultation software called Balancing Act (see below) - where residents can weigh in directly on the priorities laid out in our budget. You'll be able to see how funds are allocated, providing service at existing levels, and can submit your feedback about how proposed spending. The link to the budget simulation is available below, and results will be shared with Council before the budget is formally adopted.

Please note - the budget simulation tool is now closed, and the Budget passed on April 24th, with the Property Tax Bylaw to be considered at the May 8th meeting. Thank you to all who submitted!

The City's Draft operational budget for 2023 will be presented at the March 22nd Council meeting, with public in-person feedback opportunities scheduled for April 11th and 24th of this year. At these sessions, the public is invited to attend and speak to budget priorities. Feedback can also be emailed to finance@princerupert.ca.

On this page, learn more about key budget timelines and processes, view documents, videos, and more.

What is in this year's budget?

This year sees an unprecedented capital budget of over $100 million in projected spending on capital projects. All of this spending is through a combination of grants, reserves, dividends, surplus and debt, in order to avoid passing on costs to residents.

Highlights/Cost Drivers of the Draft 2023 budget include:

Highlights - Planned Projects:

• Continuing mandated replacement of the RCMP Station (funded through borrowing)
• Continuing work on water treatment and replacement of our submarine line, upgrading of online water system monitoring systems (SCADA)
• Initiation of the new wetland wastewater treatment system pilot project, to service ~100 homes in the Omenica area.
• Begin replacement of 26km of priority waterlines, including replacement of full length of aged water pipes at 1st Avenue East and Shawatlans Road - two major/critical areas that have been the source of recent breaks.
• Repairs to our two major bridges on 2nd Avenue West and 6th Avenue East

External Cost Drivers:

• Revenue loss from reduced Prince Rupert Port Authority Payment in Lieu of Taxes
• Inflation – Prince Rupert inflation higher than nearly 7% CPI due to remoteness
• Contractual Increase related to RCMP
• Net Fiscal Revenue/Expense changes

Internal Cost Drivers:

• Operational funding for all existing staff due to collective agreement renewal. This increase has also been heavily impacted by external inflation.
• Operational increase for 3 additional staff positions in under-resourced departments
• An increase to the annual budget for Community Enhancement Grants, anticipated additional legal expenses, and return to pre-pandemic recreation hours

**UPDATE: Please note that thanks to the March 27th funding announcement from CityWest, the proposed tax increase has been reduced from 15.7% to 12.5% after accounting for new revenues and cost cutting. Our Budget Simulation Tool has been updated to account for this change, but the Budget Document will still retain the draft increase.

This year’s draft budget now includes a proposed 12.5% increase to the tax rate for all non-capped rates in order to retain the community's existing level of service. Staff understand that in Prince Rupert and beyond, we are experiencing a period of increased inflation, driven by factors outside municipal control. Knowing that our residents and businesses are feeling these impacts across all different categories of their budgets, every effort has been made to keep the recommended increase to the tax rate to only what is necessary to maintain services at existing levels. Unfortunately, this year external cost pressures beyond our control have contributed to nearly 7% of the total increase. When factoring inflation into contractual increases, over 14% of the proposed increase has been influenced by external factors.

As previously noted, the initial draft budget presentation includes staff recommendations required to maintain our existing service levels. From here, Council will need to look at whether the community can manage the increase, or whether we need to look at difficult cuts to service. Again, we encourage the community to participate through available avenues to provide your input into this process.