Burnaby's 2023 financial plan—and 4% property tax increase—has passed

Burnaby council has voted to pass the city’s financial plan for the next four years, confirming a 3.99% rise in property taxes for 2023.

The increase will correspond to an additional $74 for the average homeowner.

As the Beacon has previously reported, city staff have pointed to additional funding for Burnaby RCMP and E-Comm—the agency that handles non-emergency and emergency calls in the city—as one of the reasons for the increase in property taxes.

The RCMP signed its first ever collective agreement with the federal government in late 2021, which is expected to cost Burnaby an additional $4 million each year.

Nevertheless, city staff and council members have maintained that the nearly 4% increase is a best-case scenario—pointing at last Monday’s council meeting to comparatively dramatic property tax hikes in cities like Vancouver and Surrey.

Burnaby will also see a small hike to sewer and water service for 2023—and the city says it has dipped into its reserves to avoid passing its own costs onto residents.

“While Metro Vancouver rates have increased by 7.6% and 2.8% for sewer and water respectively, Burnaby taxpayers will only see an increase of 2% each,” Mayor Mike Hurley wrote in the approved financial plan.

The 2023 financial plan includes a total of $937.9 million in expenditures for the year, reflecting an increase in the operating budget of $61 million.

The capital plan, meanwhile, allocates $291.4 million to major projects like a pair of new firehalls in the Burnaby Mountain area—and a truck for the soon-to-be-built Firehall 8, which will come with a price tag of about $1.6 million.

It also includes the construction of the new Burnaby Lake Aquatic Centre and Arena, and the new and improved Cameron Recreation Centre.

$4 million is designated for the addition of lighting to the BC Parkway between Patterson and Royal Oak SkyTrain Stations.

While a 7% increase in taxes has been tentatively written in for the 2024-27 financial plans, it’s far from set in stone and could change with time.

The amount an owner pays in property taxes is based on the value of your property as determined by the BC Assessment (although increases in your assessed value don’t necessarily mean a huge jump on your property taxes from year to year).

This year, the assessed value of single-family homes in Burnaby went up by an average of 10%, while strata properties were valued at an average of 12% more than last year.

“The most important factor in determining how much you will pay in property taxes is not how much your assessed value has changed, but how the assessed value has changed compared to similar properties in Burnaby,” the city says.

Coun. Richard T. Lee, who had previously put forward a motion to freeze property taxes for 2023, was the sole councillor to vote against the financial plan at the meeting.