City of Powell River residents’ share of qathet Regional District taxes were summarized for city councillors recently.
At the April 1 city council meeting, councillor George Doubt, who sits as a city director with qathet Regional District, outlined the effects of the regional hospital district’s and regional district’s five-year plans on city taxation.
Doubt said Powell River Regional Hospital District has fixed its taxation for 2021 and has projected its 2022 rate. He said the change is slight for 2021.
According to Doubt, the 2020 hospital district tax rate was $15.43 per $100,000 of assessed property value and the 2021 rate is $15.79 per $100,00 of assessed value.
“That’s less than $1 per $100,000 of the value of your home in Powell River,” said Doubt.
The 2022 projected change is higher than that, and the total over the two years will be $5.80 per $100,000, and that is to cover a share the regional hospital district is paying Vancouver Coastal Health for improvements to Powell River General Hospital and Evergreen Extended Care, according to Doubt.
“There’s a couple of million dollars of expenditures there that the Powell River Regional Hospital District has agreed to share,” said Doubt.
He said the other big news is the City of Powell River share of the regional district’s tax notice. He said the regional district and regional hospital district have an earlier deadline for the finalization of the five-year plan than the city’s, which happens in May.
Tax notices for regional district services for the city have gone from last year’s figure of $72.35 per $100,000 of assessed property value to $74.10 per $100,000 in 2021, according to Doubt. Taxation cost per average home is $271.05, he added, and the change for the average home for the year is $15.33.
“It’s a small increase,” said Doubt. “Overall, in the entire requisition, for the regional district, it’s a 3.2 per cent increase. Those are the tax impacts coming from the regional hospital district and the regional district.”
