(File Photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

Budget Passes

North Battleford council passes $45M budget

Jan 24, 2025 | 6:16 AM

After a long process, the wait is over. North Battleford city council approved its operating budget that will see a 4.39 per cent tax increase.

The break down is: 1.93 per cent increase for city operations, a 0.88 per cent increase for capital projects, and a 1.58 per cent increase for policing services – the latter of which is a fixed cost.

The budget, set at $45 million, marks a six per cent increase over last year. The city said it should be noted that the six percent increase in revenue is not solely from taxes. Revenue includes conditional grants, investments, and revenue from facilities.

“Now that the budget is passed, there’s not a lot of change in services,” said Mayor Kelli Hawtin following Thursday night’s approval meeting.

Council had some last-minute requests including a summer student position to take care of the weeds, which had been granted. The role, costing $17,500 would go toward helping to maintain infrastructure such as roads and sidewalks.

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“There’s not really a change in staff compliment, not really a change in service level that the city will see. I guess it’s business as usual.”

Over the month of January, community and city delegations presented their own budgets to council and updates were made to the draft.

Capital Expenditures (Graphic/North Battleford Budget)

This year is a property reevaluation year with the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA). Based on current values, a sampling of residential and commercial property was provided by the city.

A home with 50-foot frontage and valued at $146,400 will see a yearly increase of $78.91. A home valued at $350,000 will see a yearly increase of $136.34. Meanwhile, a commercial property valued at $281,350 will see a yearly increase of $244. 50 and a property valued at $500,000 will see an increase of $434.52.

Speaking to the council, Director of Finance Margarita Pena said the capital expenditure for the general fund is expected to be $3,544,000 and UPAR at $3,810,000 for a combined total capital expenditure of $7,354,000.

Among some of the largest capital expenditures include phase one of replacing the roof of city hall, which has a funding source of $55,000 from investment return, washrooms and flooring upgrades at the Don Ross Centre to replace fixtures – some that that date back to the 1960’s and comes at a cost of $100,000. The funding source will come from both the gas tax and reserves.

In addition, there has also been an 0.1 per cent increase to recycling collection charges along with a 5.2 per cent increase to garbage collection charges. Meanwhile, the utility fund, which was approved last October saw an increase to water services of six per cent and a four per cent increase in sanitary sewer services.

–Editors note: This story was updated on Jan. 29 to make clearer the difference between the overall budget increase of six per cent and the tax increase of 4.39 per cent.

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: juleslovett.bsky.social