Council are pushing staff to dig even deeper and cut more to keep taxes low, despite already slashing an estimated $579,000 in capital costs for 2025.
Against the recommendations of their chief financial officer, Councillor Scott Nelson brought forward a recommendation for further cuts to keep the city's tax rate increase at zero per cent. He suggested achieving this by prioritizing only items identified as a "five" by staff, which means high priority on the capital project plan.
"There is very little left which we can remove," said Vitali Kozubenko, chief financial officer, who has tried to emphasize the financial risks to further deferment of capital projects. "It will be very tough for staff to go and do anything beyond what has already been done."
But Nelson said if staff don't bring forward recommendations, then council would instead choose what to cut.
Councillor Sheila Boehm seconded Nelson's recommendation, noting Mayor Surinderpal Rathor was not there for the initial cuts and council had already gone through the budget in detail, but perhaps there was more left to cut.
Rathor also insisted staff look harder for ways to defer costs and said being a resource-based community right now, Williams Lake is facing increasing uncertainty as President-elect Donald Trump threatens tariffs and Tolko workers on temporary layoffs are scheduled to come back just as Trump takes office.
Nelson said he briefed the mayor on some meetings he had been to on behalf of council and specifically spoke about the uncertainty around Atlantic Power and its importance for the community.
Councillor Angie Delainey, attending remotely, supported the call for further cuts, and said how tough the current situation is.
Councillor Jazmyn Lyons expressed her concern for infrastructure which may be put at risk by further deferrals, but acknowledged how poor the economic outlook is for the community and suggested council wait until the city knew what the changes will be to property assessments in the new year.
"I know I always sound like a broken record on this, but I always say a dollar saved now is going to cost us a dollar-fifty later, that makes me very, very nervous," she said, noting a four per cent increase, which had been the planned increase after their last round of capital project cuts, is not ideal when times are tight but is within reason.
"You can give us this direction but it will be going against what council already discussed," said Kozubenko, emphasizing the challenge of deferring more capital costs for future years.
"It's a strange to me situation," he said.
Nelson said the call for further cuts was a sign council was listening to the community.
Written budget input received from the community varied. There was a suggestion to increase taxes on rental and revenue properties. Some feedback was simply on specific capital projects such as a suggestion to scrap the water treatment plant completely and to "blow up" Pioneer Complex then sell the land. Some feedback gave suggestions of how the city could cut back some services, and a suggestion for increasing tax rates to match cost of living increases with a warning about deferring capital projects.
One budget feedback comment suggested scrapping "these so-called safe injection sites," but the city would not be financially involved in funding or developing a safe consumption site if one were opened in the city.
Nelson emphasized how important it was to make further cuts.
"We need to be cautious with our expenditures at this point in time, just like we do in business," said Nelson.
Kozubenko has been basing his city budget recommendations on a possible increase in property assessments of around five per cent, which is used to calculate taxes based on the city's tax rates.
Members of council present voted in favour of forwarding a recommendation to their regular meeting for staff to prioritize a zero per cent tax rate increase for 2025 once the city knows what the change will be in property assessments in January.
Approximately 55 per cent of taxes collected by the city of Williams Lake go towards services provided by the city, the remaining 45 per cent goes towards the Cariboo Regional District, school district, BC Assessment, the Municipal Finance Authority.
Councillor Joan Flaspohler was absent from the meeting.
Williams Lake is still accepting budget feedback from the community, which can be submitted at: https://www.williamslake.ca/FormCenter/Budget-13/Budget-Feedback-Form-59
