Seven new members would be added to the B次元官网网址 RCMP detachment under a 2025 municipal budget to be considered next week by city councillors.听

The proposed spending plan also calls for four more firefighters, expanded outdoor encampments for homeless people, and increased funding for public transit.听

鈥淭he financial plan reflects our collective commitment to strong financial management, careful spending, and investments in services and projects that will create a strong future for our rapidly growing community,鈥� city manager Doug Gilchrist writes in the foreword to the 351-page budget document.听

If approved as is by city councillors during deliberations on Thursday, property owners in B次元官网网址 would see their municipal taxes rise by 4.3 per cent in 2025. That would represent an additional $108 to the approximately $2,500 the owner of a typical single-family home paid in municipal taxes last year.听

Although the budget deliberations are all-day, and involve going through the document line-by-line, city councillors rarely make any changes that substantially alter the proposed tax impact.听

In 2025, the city expects to relieve B次元官网网址 property owners of $204.8 million in taxes, up from $191.2 million this year. Although thatB次元官网网址 an increase of more than seven per cent, much of the new revenue comes from the owners of newly-constructed homes and businesses, so the tax hike for existing property owners is put at 4.3 per cent.听

The current inflation rate in Canada is two per cent.听

Next year, the cityB次元官网网址 workforce will increase to 1,196 full-time equivalent positions, up 40 from this year and up 115 from 2023. These numbers do not include RCMP members, even though the city pays 90 per cent of the detachmentB次元官网网址 $77 million in operating costs.听

Since 2013, the cityB次元官网网址 workforce has expanded by almost 50 per cent. Over that same time period, the cityB次元官网网址 population has risen by about 27 per cent.听

Wages and benefits for unionized workers and managers make up by far the bulk of the $204.8 million the city intends to collect in municipal taxes next year.

Carson Binda, B次元官网网址 Director of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation, was critical of the expansion of the municipal workforce.听

鈥淏次元官网网址B次元官网网址 bureaucracy is ballooning far faster than taxpayers can afford,鈥� Binda said in an email to The B次元官网网址 Courier.

鈥淚nstead of hiring more bureaucrats which increases costs and red-tape for taxpayers, the city needs to find meaningful savings,鈥� Binda said. 鈥淟ocal government politicians need to stop treating tapped-out taxpayers like a bottomless well.鈥�

- This story corrects an earlier version which over-stated the increase in size of the City of B次元官网网址's municipal workforce.听

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