Possible tax rates put forth in city meeting

PRINCE GEORGE — If you are happy with the amount of City services you have had over the past year, expect to pay a bit more to keep those services as they are. 2.32 per cent more, in fact. That includes $8.7 million for snow control and $5.8 million for road rehabilitation.

Council held its first budget-related Finance and Audit Committee meeting today and that was the message from Administration.

However, there was a long list of requests for “enhancements” or extras. The Lion’s Share of that will go toward improving the “Safety, Cleanliness and Inclusiveness” of downtown.

Some of those extras for downtown include seven more two-member RCMP patrols downtown ($273,000), security for civic facilities ($400,000), upgrades to the security gates in downtown parades ($150,000), continued support for two downtown pilot programs year round ($236,000), clean up of camps ($501,000) and the hire of six additional Bylaw Services officers ($523,000). In all, the downtown service enhancements alone work out of an additional $2 million, or 1.84 per cent.