Pemberton residents could see a big bump in their tax bills this year.
On April 25, the Village of Pemberton’s (VOP) mayor and council directed staff to draft bylaws reflecting an eight-per-cent increase for the 2023-2024 budget.
If approved, the tax increase would work out to about $164,637 in additional revenue for the VOP.
According to Mayor Mike Richman, increased taxation aims to address rising inflation and build up municipal reserves. “We’re trying to balance affordability for our residents and starting to shore up our reserves around infrastructure,” Richman said.
“One of the messages we heard loud and clear over the last [few] months has been concern from our residents over making sure our infrastructure and services are able to keep up with the growth that we’re seeing and that we’re looking ahead to expansion and replacement of our current stuff, and so the eight per cent that we’re looking at increasing taxes by will go entirely into reserves and looking toward the future.”
VOP manager of finance Thomas Sikora said in a presentation to the Committee of the Whole (COW) on August 18 that there are a significant number of financial pressures on the 2023 budget, including high employee turnover (35 per cent in 2022), declining permitting revenue, and increased costs to support aging and historically underfunded infrastructure.
“We continue to see increased demand to support sustaining the longevity of [local infrastructure],” Sikora said. "Embedded in the budget, I will remind everyone that there have been two recent water-main failures just up the street from where we are sitting today that highlights some of that risk from the older infrastructure.”
Pemberton has experienced one of the fastest population growth rates in the province. Between 2016 and 2021, the village's population grew by 32.4 per cent, from 2,574 to 3,407 people, and all signs point to this trend continuing in 2022 and 2023. This growth is straining municipal infrastructure, which the village will have to update and replace in the next few years.
“The focus for the reserves and on the minds of the council in response to what we’ve heard from people is really making sure our infrastructure is going to keep up with this growth,” Richman said.
“We don’t want to hit our taxpayers with a huge bill for a massive water-main break or something like that; we want to remain ahead of the game and protect our infrastructure and make sure we know its lifespan and when we have to upgrade or replace.”
The increased reserves will help the municipality prepare for more significant, expensive infrastructure projects, like sewer improvements and additional recreational services. It will also assist the VOP in preparing for increased policing budget costs.
Under provincial legislation, once a municipality's population passes 5,000, it must take on 70 per cent of local policing costs. The 2023 VOP police budget stands at $288,447, and if the provincial legislation does not change, the village will be on the hook for millions once it passes that threshold. However, Richman hopes the provincial government will amend the funding model before that happens.
Pemberton has historically kept its mill rate relatively low compared to neighbouring municipalities in the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD), with the average single-family homeowner paying about $1,685 in taxes in 2022, compared to $2,908 in Squamish and $3,867 in Lillooet.
A report to Pemberton's COW noted that the VOP has the fifth lowest taxes of all 161 municipalities in the province and is similar to the other SLRD communities' taxation increases.
Learn more about the proposed budget at www.pemberton.ca/government/budget
