Photo: District of Peachland

Peachland Finance Director Garry Filafilo speaks to council

Peachland property owners will be asked to pay an extra $111 in taxes next year.

Council on Tuesday approved a preliminary budget with a 6.65 per cent tax hike.

A typical property assessed at $882,000 will pay $1,784 in taxes next year, compared to $1,673 this year, according to the early estimates.

However, other taxes will still need to be added in. Peachland also charges transit and police taxes, which are out of the municipality’s control, as well as parcel taxes for some services. Other governments, such as the school board and library, also pile their taxes onto the property tax bill.

“This is the tax increase for items that we can control, not what we have to collect for other entities or other services,” said Finance Director Garry Filafilo.

“Unfortunately, I’m expecting double-digit increases in these other areas. Transit could be close to a 20 per cent increase,” he said.

One of the biggest budget expenses is for an ongoing water-meter replacement project, but that is being covered by reserve funds, council heard.

Peachland’s reserves are healthy, Filafilo said. Some other budget items will also be paid for with reserve money.

Many water meters in the municipality are nearing the end of their 20-year lifespans, council heard. Some customers aren’t being billed properly because the meters no longer read water usage.

“So we’re not gaining the revenue that we should,” the finance director said.

The municipality corrected some water billings last year.

“For 2023, it made about a $160,000 difference in revenue, just by us estimating and starting to get those meter reads correct,” Filafilo said.

“They (residents) may not like it, but when we point out there was a period of time they didn’t pay for water consumption ... they understand then.”

Plans to create a new human resources position also sparked discussion in a three-hour morning meeting.

“We’re going to need some help on HR this year. We cannot keep up. The collective bargaining that has occurred is a great example how that can take days, if not weeks,” administrator Joe Creron told council.

HR is now largely handled by Corporate Officer Jennifer Sawatzky. “It’s very clear to me that she can’t keep up to all the requests from HR,” Creron said.

Peachland has contracted out some HR work, but “we feel we have enough items we really need to have that person close by.”

A part-time clerk to be hired for the recreation department will allow the municipality to offer recreational services on the weekend and raise money from additional recreation fees, council heard

Peachland has three major plans to do next year, estimated to cost $150,000 each.

One is an official community plan review mandated by the province, which prompted Mayor Patrick Van Minsel to ask why the province doesn’t pay for the whole thing.

“They only give us $60,000 to do this. I’m pretty upset about this because if it’s mandated by the province why wouldn’t they pay for it?”

What happens if we don’t do it, asked Coun. Alena Glasman.

“I suspect they could force us to do it,” responded Creron.

“Can we not adjust the scope of the project to meet the funding,” asked Coun. Terry Condon, but that idea was nixed, too.

Council did remove its $20,000 contribution to a smaller housing review ordered by the province. The money was put into safety improvements instead.

Council also agreed to budget $10,000 to promote one of its head lifeguards at to the position of lifeguard supervisor.

When the debate about whether Peachland needs lifeguards threatened to come up, Van Minsel responded: “A lot of people visit our town to use our Swim Bay because we have that service. That service brings in an economic value to our town because those people spend money in our town. Us being unique in having lifeguards I think is a plus for us, not a minus.”

Council will consider later whether to put $25,000 back in reserves at an additional cost of about $5 per property — once it knows how much police and transit taxes will increase.

Van Minsel said it was a bare-bones budget considered by council on Tuesday.

“These are bare minimum requests from staff,” he said.