West Kelowna finds savings ahead of further budget talks next month

Some budget savings found

Photo: Wayne Moore/file

West Kelowna finds some saving in 2026 budget

The City of West Kelowna is about a third of the way toward lowering its 2026 budget by one per cent.

As it sits today, the current West Kelowna 2026 budget includes a tax increase of 7.6 per cent.

However, council paused budget talks last month and sent staff back to try and bring that number down to 6.6 per cent.

A report presented to council Tuesday showing the 2025 budget alongside the actual money spent found some areas where the budget could be reduced.

Finance manager Lisa Siavashi outlined four departments, storm drainage, human resources, public works and communications where budgets will be reduced by $150,000.

These reductions are due to lack of available staff, elimination of projects and budget line consolidations.

The reductions represent 0.32 per cent.

“These reductions will form part of the proposed one per cent reduction council has asked staff to find and staff will present on March 10,” said Siavashi.

The overall report also broke down each department’s spending in 2025 compared with its allotted budget.

Some of those departments spent more than budgeted, others have come under budget, although Siavashi did say the numbers are preliminary with about 97 per cent of invoices received.

“Several departmental budgets were either over or under budget due to the reorganization and elimination of positions and departments,” she said.

“With the elimination of the legal services department, increases in expenses occurred due to using outside legal counsel.

“Recruitment of more positions resulted in increased recruitment costs for 2025.”

The city’s three protective services departments also went over budget due to overtime while the transit budget was not increased sufficiently in 2025. Siavashi said that will be adjusted this year.

Recreation had more expenses than budgeted, however she said that was expected due to an increase in revenues.