The cost of living and the threat of U.S. tariffs were considerations in Salmon Arm council's recent budget deliberations that led to a 4.89 per cent property tax increase.
"Council, in their opening statements, they understood the economic times that our residents are in, especially the unpredictability, the issues out of our jurisdiction," Mayor Alan Harrison told the Observer. "It made us be extra vigilant I think in trying to balance between providing services but also being as fiscally prudent as we could possibly be."
This year's increase amounts to $14.95 per $100,000 of residential assessment.
"We started at 8.2 per cent, that’s where council started – of course, staff started at a higher percentage… So, council basically removed just over $700,000 from the budget that came from staff to get to 4.98 per cent," continued Harrison, noting "Every percentage for our city is about $225,000."
For 2025 capital projects, the city continues to work on priorities from its strategic plan including the sewage treatment plant expansion and retrofit, Lakeshore Road upgrades, slope stabilization and rebuild, and the relocation/replacement of Pump Station 2 at Canoe. Harrison said with those the city is on track, "and we continue to fund them to keep them moving forward."
"We’re going to need help from upper levels of government for sure on the sewage treatment plan, but those are critical pieces and so this budget continues to move those projects forward."
One new, or sort of new project, as it has been on the books for a while, is the extension of downtown road and sidewalk improvements to McGuire Lake, going around 6th Street and 8th Avenue NE.
"The pipes under the ground there are very old, the road is deteriorating and the sidewalk needs replacement," said Harrison. "So that project is really about the only new one in the budget that we’ve been saving to do and are going to do this year."
Regarding future works, the mayor said council prioritized building reserves for critical infrastructure, things such as sewer and water, storm and culverts.
"We did delay putting monies in reserves in other places, not that we wanted to, but because we understood that the economic times are such that it’s hard to put money in the bank when we know there are families who are struggling to put food on the table and the uncertainty of the tariff piece – we don’t know what effect that is going to have on our local business and industry…
"Council was very cognizant of that piece… our light industry and our commercial… We don't know how the international economics are going to affect them, but we do know that many in our industrial park, especially those involved in the forest industry, do ship some of their product to the states."
Regarding specific referrals – requests from citizens and organizations for funds which for 2025 amounted to $1.6 million – Harrison said very few were approved this year as "we just didn't have the money to support them."
"I think the economy is understood by the community because we received about 50 per cent of what we normally receive in specific referrals this year," noted Harrison.
A couple of budget highlights shared by Harrison included money for a full-time lifeguard for the pool at the SASCU Recreation Centre – to help increase programming and use; as well as funding to move to a seven-day-a-week snowplowing schedule.
"Up until this time the city really hasn’t been of the size where we can have seven days a week – we’ve had five days a week with a skeleton crew on the weekend and then overtime when it snows on the weekend, and I’ll have you know, It always snows on the weekend! It's just weird," said Harrison with a laugh.
"We’re going to move in the fall of 2025 to a seven-day-a-week regular snowfall shift schedule so that will improve the service."
Between his time as a former city councillor and now as mayor, Harrison said this was the 27th budget he's worked on and that it was one of the most difficult. However, helping ease the process was the work done behind the scenes by staff – including a new chief financial officer, Patrick Gramiak, and a new deputy chief financial officer, Becca Armstrong, who were able to pick up the budget from where chief financial officer Chelsea Van de Cappelle left off before going on maternity leave.
"So these two jumped into a new budget process in a new city and I’ve got to tell you, that was a big ask…," said Harrison."They did an amazing job on a very challenging ask so I thank them."
