City of Kamloops provisional tax increase sits at 5.7% after new budget reductions

Tax rate reduced to 5.7%

Photo: Castanet

FILE - Kamloops city hall

The City of Kamloops' 2026 provisional tax increase has been trimmed to 5.7 per cent following a new round of budget adjustments on Tuesday.

That works out to about $164 more in property taxes this year for the average Kamloops home — about $100 less than the $270 provisional increase that council started with in November.

During Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting, council voted in favour of implementing a one-year delay in hiring five new police officers, which cut $1.6 million off the budget.

The committee earlier approved a six-month hiring delay, but decided to extend it to a full year.

While a survey of more than 170 Kamloops residents showed support for many other cost-saving measures, a delay in hiring police officers was less popular. There were 98 people (55 per cent) opposed to staffing deferral, while 79 (45 per cent) were supportive of the hiring delay.

In a closed-door meeting, which is required for staffing-related decisions, councillors approved a hiring freeze for some low-risk vacancies and a hiring delay for certain low to medium-risk vacant roles. The city expects that will save about $377,000.

Dustin Rutsatz, City of Kamloops planning and procurement manager, said staff plan to report back to council on a quarterly basis about this new cost-saving initiative.

"Our goal would still be to try and increase that, but try not to put extra jeopardy on the budget of being able to deliver that amount until we see exactly how that's going to play out," he said.

Rutsatz said the city is also “fairly confident” it will receive a sizeable amount of funding from the federal government and BC Transit, and staff has adjusted the budget to reflect an $800,000 revenue boost.

“We still don't have final confirmation — so there is some risk. What we're hearing and feeling at the 90 per cent confidence level is about $1.1 million,” he said.

Rutsatz said while the city believes it will receive the $1.1 million grant, it has only added $800,000 to the budget to take a conservative approach.

“Of course, if we hear definite one way or another before we bring back the bylaw in March, we would adjust that with what we hear,” he said.

City staff found $560,000 in cost savings after completing year-end account reconciliations throughout the organization.

The 2026 budget and tax rate has yet to be finalized. The final financial plan will be put before council for adoption at a later meeting.