Photo: Luc Rempel

After two days analyzing and debating the budget, Salmon Arm council settled on a budget that would see a 4.98 per cent tax increase for residents in 2025.

At the start of the process, the draft budget was slated to be an 8.14 per cent tax increase. However, after the first day of deliberations, council had it reduced to 5.56 per cent.

Thursday, Feb. 13, marked the second day of budget discussions and the day where council would consider the nearly $1.7 million in specific referrals or funding requests from individuals and organizations in the city.

At the start of the first day of budget deliberations, Mayor Alan Harrison said he was unlikely to support any of the proposals put forward.

Tree removal ask turned down

R.J. Haney Heritage Village and Museum asked for $18,000 to go towards ongoing tree maintenance and removal.

Coun. David Gonella said the village wanted to remove the trees in order to mitigate potential wildfire risk.

“I'm the chair on the R.J. Haney village committee, and so I've had a little chance to find out more about this issue with the property after speaking with them and knowing what they're dealing with, and also understanding the fire danger that the interface of the trees have with the adjacent property," Gonella said.

Coun. Tim Lavery said he could not support the motion given the Haney property was considered low priority on the city's wildfire prevention plan.

“There is fire risk everywhere on our city-owned properties, and the current community wildfire plan…did consider that and said, no, there are more significant concerns for the money and for focus,” he said.

Other councillors agreed there simply was not enough money left in this year’s budget to support this request.

“With the budget the way it is this year and the increase that taxpayers are going to face, I'd have to vote against this one reluctantly as well,” said Coun. Sylvia Lindgren.

The motion to support the $18,000 request from R.J. Haney Heritage Village and Museum was defeated.

No budget for sidewalk

A request for funds for the continuation of the sidewalk on Auto Road met a similar response from councillors.

“I think that it does create a safety concern, and the city might want to look at not having a bus stop in an area that has no sidewalks,” Lindgren said.

“If this was a budget with a lot of extra money, I would definitely be interested in making some kind of motion to fund this… but understanding how tight the budget is and the cost to taxpayers, I can't prioritize this one in this budget year.”

Some funding requests approved

One of the few budget referral requests that did get approval was a $5,000 request from Salmon Arm Citizens on Patrol Society.

“I think we should support them,” said Coun. Kevin Flynn. “They do a lot of good work at a lot of events and improve community safety.”

Another one of the requests that found supporters among council was a $15,000 request from the BC SPCA to support animal care.

For many prior years, the city has provided the SPCA with $12,000 in funding, and Lavery proposed an increase to $15,000 in recognition of rising costs over time as well as the excellent work done by the organization.

Salmon Arm Folk Music Society was approved for $54,000 in funding, which was $10,000 less than they requested but $1,000 more than they received in 2024.

In their request to council, the society asked for an additional $10,000 to make up for a grant they previously had received from Shuswap Tourism.

Councillors were happy to support the society but unmoved by the idea of adding $10,000.

“This is an organization that provides an unbelievable economic benefit to our community,” Lindgren said. “It adds to the cultural fabric of our community. It brings people from all over, not just our province, but across the country.

“I think it's really important that Salmon Arm shows their support and to continue to support them at the level that we have in the past."

Councillors noted the new Destination Marketing Organization could very well provide a similar grant to the one previously offered by Shuswap Tourism.

At the end of the meeting, councillors thanked city staff for all their hard work in preparing the budget.

“The most stressful time of year for me as a councillor is budget,” Flynn said. “But with that team out there and this team, it's actually been fun, so to speak.”

He said he had originally hoped to get the tax increase down to six per cent, and while the 4.98 per cent increase was still higher than in past years, he felt it was "a workable number."

“Staff has played such a big role, and it is a pleasure to represent this community on a team that works as a team,” Flynn added.

Wallace Richmond echoed Flynn’s sentiment.

“At the beginning of the process, I said that the theme of this budget was the rock and the hard place… the rock is still there, it's not going to go away anytime soon, but the hard place was made a lot easier by the team of people who worked tirelessly these last two days to get us through this,” she said.

The mayor also thanked city staff ,and said council this year was the most prepared he has ever seen.

“And I'm just on my 27th budget,” Harrison said. “So councillors, commendations to you.”

He noted each councillor had found some way to save money in the budget that no one else had seen and that proved they had very carefully reviewed the documents.