4.94 per cent is the not so magic number for Prince George residents.
At tonight’s (Wednesday) meeting, Prince George City Council finalized the City budget for 2026, coming up with a 4.94 per cent tax increase.
According to City Staff, that’s approximately $144 for the representative household in the City.
Coming into the meetings this week, the budget came with a proposed 6.15 per cent tax increase.
In the Capital Plan, Councillor Garth Frizzell moved to defer the purchase of a utility vehicle for Exhibition Park, budgeted for $57,000, to 2027.
This deferment was passed.
Frizzell also moved to defer the demolition of a greenhouse in the Gorse Street Yard to next year, budgeted for $150,000.
This deferment was passed as well.
Councillor Ron Polillo put forward a $150,000 reduction to the Road Rehabilitation Levy.
Director of Civic Operations Blake McIntosh said it’s hard to predict what this would mean.
“It’ll depend on what the unit rates come in for price per tonne for hot mix asphalt,” he said.
Councillor Kyle Sampson proposed a one per cent cut to the City’s Legislative Services budget, asking to find efficiencies.
“This reflects Citizen Budget Feedback, and it’s clear folks are looking for us to find those internal efficiencies,” he said.
“Every year we do try to make a series of cuts, or propose cuts, as Councillors individually, and then if they pass or fail, I think this is an opportunity to find a modest one per cent reduction in an area that both is reflective of Citizen Budget, and that I think there’s opportunity to find that room.”
The City’s Director of Finance and IT Services Kris Dalio said Directors have been doing so already.
“The consistent message that I’ll be giving to Council, as we talk about any potential reductions, is it’s our job as Administration and as the directors team to be able to tell you the consequences of those cuts, and that there would be service level reductions,” Dalio explained.
“There just can’t be an expectation that we’ll do the same with less resources. Our job is to tell you, ok, we can pull this back, but this is the service that will go, and this is what you could expect as the consequence.”
Manager of Legislative Services Ethan Anderson told Council a one per cent reduction would likely mean he wouldn’t be publishing notices in the newspaper for some things, such as Alternative Approval Process notices.
This cut was approved by Council.
Sampson also proposed a cut to the Continuous Improvement line of the the HR and Corporate Safety Budget, which was budgeted at $149,546.
“This isn’t about the value of continuous improvement, it’s important that our organization continually improves,” Sampson said.
“It’s my belief that all of our exempt leadership, managers, directors, supervisors, should have the skill set and be empowered to continually improve their departments and take the ideas and recommendations from their staff and their teams, and implement those ideas to find the efficiencies that are going to be available to their department.”
This cut was approved as well.
For Police Protection, a service enhancement was presented, requesting to hire three full-time Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS) Disclosure positions.
Councillor Polillo proposed funding a maximum of 129 RCMP members rather than 130, and to use the efficiency of $258,404 two hire two of three Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS) Disclosure positions at a total cost of $191,610.
“There’s an increased effort to retain and recruit, and I hope we can recruit another five or six officers, I think history proves that might not be the case,” he said.
“This, I believe, will free up a lot more free time for members to do their work, instead of doing administrative work, which this two DEMS positions could start.”
Director Dalio advised against this change.
“The RCMP has an authorized contract strength granted to them by this Council of 157,” he explained.
“If they can put 140 policemen on the ground, they get to charge us for 140, and we won’t have the budget to pay for 140, so this is one where I’m very reluctant to advise you to accept the risk.”
Polillo’s proposal was defeated.
Another cut from Sampson was proposed to Emergency Programs, where he proposed a maximum budget of $224,081, down from the originally proposed $368,921, reflecting the consolidation of Emergency Programs management and service delivery under the leadership of Prince George Fire Rescue.
“This is not a cut to emergency preparedness, this would be a reflection of consolidating our work and finding efficiencies in our organization to be more streamlined,” Sampson said.
This cut was defeated.
At this point in the meeting, and Council switched gears to deal with some service enhancements regarding RCMP and Fire Rescue Services, allowing staff there to answer questions to leave earlier.
The first of these service enhancements was to hire a Court Liaison Officer for the RCMP. However, this item was not put on the floor and no action was taken.
A service enhancement was to hire 12 firefighters at a cost of $132,354 each for a total of $1,588,248.
Instead, Councillor Sampson put forward hiring one relief fire fighter at a cost of $132,354. This would bring the city up to a relief compliment up to the maximum permitted under the IAFF collective agreement.
“We’re not in a position to be able to add 12 members to our complement,” Sampson said.
“I did pour over the collective agreement last night at quite a bit of length, and under article 6.17, I noticed there’s room for relief firefighters based on our current complement of staff. We have 111 suppression firefighters, I believe right now, with that, every 12 gets one relief, and right now we only have eight relief, so we could add another.”
This change was approved.
Councillor Trudy Klassen proposed a five per cent decrease to the City’s Communications Budget.
“Not that I don’t think Communications isn’t a really important role, but I had done my calculations and it looks like this budget has increased by 40 per cent over the last two years,” she said.
Dalio responded by informing Council that the increase was due to the City’s Intergovernmental Relations department being folded into Communications.
Director Depeneau said a reduction in the Communications budget would likely be a reduction in advertising.
Councillor Tim Bennett suggested a reduction of 1.5 per cent instead.
“Today, as we were debating previous sections, talked about the need for teams to dig deep in terms of where there may be efficiencies,” he said.
“I think five per cent is steep, if we’re looking at non-salary expenditures, in the amount of budgeted just shy of $150,000.”
Council voted against these cuts.
Councillor Polillo suggested keeping the snow budget at $10 million, instead of the proposed $11 million.
“The reserve is right where we want it to be at 25 per cent, roughly $2.8 million,” he said.
“I think we take another calculated risk, and so far, the first month of 2026 has cooperated, we’ll see what the next few months bring.”
Councillor Cori Ramsay suggested a further $200,000 be cut from the snow budget.
“I recognize that’s likely less than we’ll spend, but recognizing that the snow reserve is over the 25 per cent threshold,” she said.
Council decided to go with a $9.8 million snow budget for 2026.
Councillor Klassen proposed one per cent reduction for the Roads budget, asking staff to find efficiencies. This budget is separate from the Road Rehabilitation Levy, which received a cut earlier in the meeting.
Dalio chimed in, reiterating that “finding efficiencies” is not a realistic answer for these cuts.
“We’ve done this for you, we’ve explored the efficiencies we know we can make,” he said.
“Now, if Council wants to cut, we have to tell you what will not be done as well, or some measure of reduction in the service that you’re going to see.”
Director McIntosh said examples of what would be cut from the category could be less dust control on gravel roads, no seasonal labourers for roads (line painting, crack sealing, etc.).
Ultimately, Council voted against Klassen’s cut to the Roads budget.
For the Parks budget, Councillor Tim Bennet moved the deferral of hiring two arborists until July, which he said represents a budget savings of $103,263.
“This would be a budget savings that could be realized, but recognizing that this would be a one-time savings as the positions would be full-time next year,” Bennett said.
Dalio said they’re not expecting to have the truck needed for the arborists until the middle of the year, so this was a reasonable cut.
Councillor Sampson put forward a five per cent cut for the Aquatics budget, reflecting the temporary operation of a single aquatic centre.
This cut was approved.
When it came to the Civic Initiatives and Partnerships budget, Sampson put forward a new, dedicate $50,000 Seniors Grant Stream.
For 2026, this would be funded through a temporary reallocation of $25,000 from the 2026 Council Contingency Fund, and $25,000 from Gaming Revenue, drawn from $300,000 otherwise dedicated to the Major Events Reserve.
Sampson’s motion also would have $50,000 allocated yearly from the Gaming Revenues to the Civic Initiatives and Partnerships budget starting in 2027, giving a permanent funding source for the Seniors Grant Stream.
“Mayor Yu, I think it’s important, thanks to you, you brought forward an important piece that there’s a lack of support for seniors, that’s important to know, and until it’s in front of us, we can’t necessarily address it,” Sampson said.
“What that conversation did, was bring it to our attention, and although we didn’t all agree on exactly how to do it at the time, I think through conversations that we’ve all been having, I think the number one thing we wanted to see, from my perspective, is some sort of sustainable, ongoing piece that would support these folks, and in a way that is going to be transparent, and accountable, and sustainable for many years to come, and reliable for these folks, not a one-time piece.”
This motion was approved unanimously.
Additionally, Councillor Klassen put forward a motion to allocate a one-time contribution of $10,000 to the Senior Centres Sustainability Fund with the Prince George Community Foundation, with the money coming from the Major Events Reserve as well.
This was approved unanimously as well.
The next cut was in the Facility Maintenance. The cut from Councillor Bennett, who moved to defer renovations at Fire Hall One.
Councillor Ramsay also voted to defer a CCTV project under the budget.
These combined for a reduction of a little more than $94,000.
Councillor Sampson put forward a one per cent cut to the City’s IT Services budget, asking for efficiency cuts.
Sampson’s one per cent cut was defeated, but Councillor Ramsay suggested an $8,000 cut which was approved.
In terms of service enhancements, Council voted to refer a Recruitment and Retention Advisor position, as well as an Arts, Culture, and Heritage Coordinator position to 2027.
Now that the budget has been finalized, Council will finalize the tax rate bylaw later in the spring.
The post City Council lowers tax increase to 4.94 per cent appeared first on My Prince George Now.
This post was originally published on My Prince George Now
Joshua Ravensbergen commits to 
