City of Powell River Council has set the 2025 tax rates. At the May 8 council meeting, chief financial officer Mallory Denniston reported on the tax rates bylaw, which was unanimously adopted by council.
Denniston said discussions and deliberations for the bylaw that was before councillors on May 8 began in December 2024. She said to summarize, the average single-family dwelling will have an increase of $322 over 2024 in municipal property taxes and user fees, which is an 8.6 per cent increase. For the other taxation authorities, that is an increase of $64 for an average single-family dwelling, which is a 3.9 per cent increase, according to Denniston.
“We put this in terms of an average single-family dwelling because, depending on where one’s property assessment has gone to, especially how it compares to the average, it will determine what their increase or decrease is,” said Denniston.
She added that the city launched, a number of years ago, a property tax rate calculator, which can be found online on the city’s website at powellriver.ca.
“You are able to put your current year’s assessment and your prior year’s assessment, and that calculator will show you how your assessment change compares to the average assessment change,” said Denniston. “It will show what your municipal fees and tax will be, as well as taxation from the other authorities. It’s a dynamic, interactive tool that people can use to estimate their residential property taxes. I just wanted to point out that tool to help individuals who are looking to get an estimate of what their property taxes will be if this bylaw that is proposed is adopted.”
Denniston said after adoption, next steps will be mailing out the property taxes to householders.
Councillor Cindy Elliott asked about the online tax estimator. She said it has calculations on sewer and water based on frontage. She asked if that frontage was for an average house. She said the calculator wouldn’t know what each person’s frontage would be.
“That might be different than reality,” said Elliott. “Is that right?”
Denniston said that is correct. She said the calculator uses an average frontage because the calculator hasn’t been built to calculate on the actual frontage. She said this is why she talks about an estimate for the tax bill.
Councillor Jim Palm said from what he had heard, city taxes are going up 8.6 per cent, which is $322 for an average single-family dwelling. He asked if it was the city taxpayers’ regional district taxes that Denniston referred to when she mentioned a 3.9 per cent increase.
Denniston said that is the total increase for all five other taxing authorities for which the city collects. She said qathet Regional District taxes for the city for an average single-family dwelling went up $47, which is 9.2 per cent, and the other taxing authorities, such as qathet Regional Hospital District and qathet School District, went up nominally.
According to Denniston’s enclosure to the tax rate bylaw, in the city, the residential tax rate is $4.76360 per $1,000 of assessed value. The regional district tax rate is $0.92595 per $1,000, and the hospital district is $0.34546 per $1,000 of assessed value.
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