Niverville to increase property taxes

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This article was published 06/05/2024 (381 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Town of Niverville will increase property taxes for 2024 and Mayor Myron Dyck said the reason is inflation which has led to an increase in minimum wage as well as costs for equipment and infrastructure.

“Council had a good discussion about this. We know other communities around southeastern Manitoba, around the province of Manitoba, and in the country, are looking at tax increases of three, four, five, and even up to 10 percent in some cases.

“But as council we just thought that we would actually increase taxes by less than the cost of inflation just for the reason that we’re mindful of peoples costs in all areas, whether its fuel, food, or housing and the 2.5 percent will not even keep up with the increase in costs.”

Dyck noted some sacrifices will have to be made in other funded areas of the budget.

What this means for homeowners is a home worth $324,700 will see an increase of $52.89 on their tax bill.

The town has set an operational budget of $18 million with general government services coming in at $1.7 million, an increase of 15 percent. Part of the increase is for investments into cybersecurity and information technology.

Protective services has a budget of $1.2 million, an increase of 15 percent. Some line items in the budget include full operational and administration costing of the RCMP office ($942,231) which is expected to be completed late spring/early summer. The budget also includes replacement of fire department uniforms, pre-design of a new fire hall and operations complex ($181,000) which Myron hopes construction will begin in 2026, and the purchase of new water tanker ($250,000).

Transportation will see $1.7 million invested into roads and sidewalks. Rebuilding of 4th Avenue South between 1st Street South and 3rd Street South and the commencement of detailed design plan of PR311 between Krahn Road and Wallace Road.

Recreation will see a nine percent increase over last year’s budget making this year’s expenditures $1.8 million. The reason for the increase is to expand programming and absorb the impact of moving into a higher minimum wage. About $925,150 will be spent on community centres and halls; $265,000 on skating rinks and arenas; and $134,566 on parks and recreation operations.

Utility projects for 2024 include the Rat Seine Roseau Wastewater Treatment Facility and the review of a potential long-term raw water source throughout the Southeast. The regional cooperative will ensure a raw water source is available and accessible for 25 years.

The utility budget is $771,500 in revenue, $600,000 expenditure for sewage services and $828,000 for revenue and $800,000 for expenditures for water. The town will spend $1.7 million in sewer improvements for 2024. The waste collection fee will not change from last year’s $140 amount. The total budget for waste services is $458,385.

One of the capital projects on the books is the renovation of the south end of Centennial Arena for a library and lounge, which is expected to cost $75,000. Dyck said the library will be built in phases: the first is creating a library at the arena and the second is to create a board.

“There’s no plans right now to do a standalone building, but what we are going to do as a first step is renovating the south end of the Centennial Arena…to make it a pleasant space where there’s proper seating, proper lighting. We might even put in a snack bar. And we want to make it a space for a library but for other things as well,” he said, noting the bookcases will be mobile so that they can be moved to open the space up for other activities. The library will be a leave-one-take-one system for now.