Fees and charges on the rise

PRINCE GEORGE – Only two things are sure in life. Death and taxes. And Council has approved increasing fees for just about everything we do, from laying our loved ones to rest or playing rec hockey. It’s going to cost you more to bury your loved one.

Council has approved a three percent hike in each of the next four years to achieve the full recovery of costs associated with this service “We’re seeing a lot of inflationary increases. The cost of goods is going up and even the cost of living increases for labor is going up,” explains Councillor Cori Ramsay, who chairs the Finance and Audit Committee. “So, you know, the city can’t bear all of those costs alone. A lot of these services are user services where the user does pay the fees. So unfortunately, you know, we are seeing an increase in some of those service categories which will be passed on to the end user, which isn’t what the taxpayer wants to hear. But there is still a lot of subsidization in those fees and the full amount of a lot of those fees isn’t passed on in its entirety to the taxpayer.”

Many homeowners have received their utility bills. Above and beyond your tax levy, this covers water, sewer, and garbage rates. And, guess what, it’s going up. Six percent for each of the next four years for garbage and five percent in each of the next four years for sanitary sewer and water rates.