Taxpayers in Niagara-on-the-Lake are likely facing larger annual tax increases over the next 20 years after councillors backed a proposal to hike property taxes by 1.5 per cent per year to cover the Town’s infrastructure needs.
That’s in addition to annual tax increases that come through the operational budget process.
The move was backed by councillors at a committee of the whole meeting but still needs to be ratified by Council.
Staff had suggested that the “optimal” tax increase to ensure infrastructure needs were met would have been a 2.4 per cent annual increase over 20 years, but councillors opted by back the 1.5 per cent figure instead.
Staff claimed in their presentation to councillors that much more funding will be needed over the next two decades to improve the Town’s roads, sewers, and culverts, both for the sake of public safety and to stop further declines in the Town’s aging infrastructure.
Staff and a hired consultant from PSD Citywide Inc. are also recommending increases to the Town’s stormwater and water and wastewater rates. The proposed increase to the stormwater rate would be 4.3 per cent per year for 20 years, while the water and wastewater rates would rise by 0.6 per cent and 1.9 per cent respectively over five years.
No decision was made by councillors on those fronts.
Corporate services director Kyle Freeborn said the final draft of the proposed asset management plan could be presented to councillors as early as September. The province must review such a plan after its approval by Council.
Still, councillors were largely supportive of the 20-year tax hike to cover overall infrastructure needs.
“I have no issues with the actual proposal,” said Councillor Sandra O’Connor. “I think it’s prudent.”
Deputy Mayor Erwin Wiens echoed O’Connor’s sentiments, insisting that the 1.5 per cent figure would have been higher had taxes not been raised in recent years to help cover the Town’s growing infrastructure deficit. Still, he recognized the impact that such an increase will have on taxpayers.
“Let’s not take that lightly – 1.5 per cent every year,” Wiens noted.
Wiens argued the Town arrived at this juncture over a period of three decades. According to Wiens, the province has been shortchanging municipalities when it comes to infrastructure funding since the mid-1990s. Since then, Wiens argued that successive councils failed to adequately invest in capital infrastructure.
Wiens noted that the current Council has been “criticized” for hiking taxes but argued that by in large it has gone toward capital investments.
“This number that you see at 1.5 would have been a lot larger if this Council had not taken action on this,” Wiens insisted.
Jay Goldberg is the Canadian Affairs Manager at the Consumer Choice Center. He previously served as the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and a policy fellow at the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Jay holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
