Taxes are set to go up in Pemberton.
At its May 6 meeting, Pemberton's mayor and council gave first, second and third readings to a five-year financial plan containing a 14.2-per-cent municipal tax increase for 2025.
“This was a tough process,” said Mayor Mike Richman. “There’s a significant increase in our budget here. We know that. And I think all of council has sort of stated in different ways that to do less would have been—as much as we want to keep things as affordable as possible, we’ve kept our tax rate quite low and to do less [of an increase] would be irresponsible.”
Pemberton’s budget reflects the Village’s stated priorities during this year’s budget season; namely, addressing aging infrastructure, maintaining amenities once grant funding has expired and building up reserves to meet the needs of a growing population.
Through the 2025 budget season, council has asked for a handful of revisions to the budget, including a five-per-cent contribution to address historically low general reserves and to start saving for the cost of a future municipal police force, contributions to water and sewer reserves to pay for future upgrades to meet a growing population and the establishment of a Speĺkúmtn Community Forest Spending Policy.
“So, you heard loud and clear that we need to take care of our infrastructure,” said Richman of the budget and tax increase. “That we’re growing and putting these reserves aside is a step in that direction. Starting the reserves towards policing is a step in that direction to try to ease the pain of what’s coming with that. So it’s been a tough budget as well, but I believe we’ve landed in the right place and I just want residents to know that it’s still very lean.”
Pemberton's council approved a five-per-cent tax increase in 2022, an eight-per-cent increase in 2023 and 9.8 per cent in 2024.
After unanimous approval of the five-year financial plan, council also gave first, second and third readings to a host of other tax and utility rate bylaws.
A breakdown of 2025 tax rates by dollars of tax per $1,000 of taxable property value can be found in council’s meeting documents. The report also breaks down tax rates by contribution to the municipality—including reserves and the community engagement fund—to the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District and to the Sea to Sky Regional Hospital District.
The frontage rate for sewage remains at $5.24 per metre of sewer adjacent to a property. The water frontage rate has increased from $3.20 per metre in 2024 to $6.97 in 2025, per a new bylaw.
Councillor Ted Craddock suggested considering charging for road frontage in a future budget. Other municipalities use revenue from road frontage taxation to pay for road maintenance and development.
User fees for water and sewer rates have also increased from last year, broken down by class of property.
Council laid out a series of capital expenditures to fund over the next five years, including a new municipal hall and council chambers building, fire engine replacements, a new firehall, electric vehicle chargers, upgrades to public parks and a new water treatment facility. A full list of projects to be funded through the 2025 budget and beyond is available in the five-year financial plan.
A new RV sani-dump was also discussed, with $33,000 set aside for a hypothetical replacement for the old RV waste hook-up in the 2025 budget, which closed along with the visitors centre in 2024. With RV season approaching, chief administrative officer Elizabeth Tracy suggested installing one next to the Pemberton transfer station might be the way forward. Council directed staff to look at replacement sites.
A draft final budget was circulated during a committee of the whole meeting on April 22. Council is set to vote on its 2025 budget during a May 13 special council meeting. The 2025 tax rate, effective Jan. 1, 2025, is up for adoption then.
