Penticton City Hall.
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September 16, 2025 - 7:00 PM
Penticton city council decided against changing the way it puts aside money for essentials like water mains, roads, fire halls and other infrastructure.
The idea was to change the amount of money in the budget for infrastructure from a fixed $2.1 million to 4.25 per cent of tax revenue, or an equivalent amount of money from another source.
The levy wasn’t going to be added to taxes. It was meant to be a way for the city’s budget to keep up with inflation and increasing construction costs.
The amount of money put away to replace infrastructure would have increased by one per cent each year, so in 2026 it would have been 5.25 per cent and so on until it reached 9 per cent in 2030.
The motion was defeated at the council meeting today, Sept. 16. The plan was initially tabled back in July but it was deferred until the meeting today.
Mayor Julius Bloomfield voted in favour of the motion and said it was good business sense because other municipalities have put off replacing aging infrastructure and ended up paying for it, literally.
Osoyoos has an aging water system. In 2024, a hugely controversial tax hike from the town brought property taxes up by roughly 30 per cent, or $258 a year. Water fees went up by 64 per cent, or $294 a year for the average single-family home.
“Having an allocation of a percentage of the taxes to go to reserves is sound fiscal planning. It is good business practice,” Bloomfield said in the meeting. “We have seen many, many instances of poor fiscal planning ... and the dire consequences that it has for the current taxpayers and users of those systems. And we do not want Penticton to be in the same position.”
Councillor Campbell Watt said residents weren’t happy with the plan when the city did its public engagement process.
“The wording of this has created a massive amount of controversy, mayhem and confusion. So I won't support it as it is today,” he said.
Money is still going to be allocated for Penticton’s infrastructure, but it’s going to stay at the fixed amount of $2.1 million.
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