Property taxes for North Okanagan residents are poised to go up this year 鈥� unless you live in Lumby.
The Regional District of North Okanagan (RDNO) has been deliberating on its 2025 budget over the past few months. Some of those discussions have been about the tax impact of the Greater Vernon Cultural Centre, while others were about measures to mitigate that tax impact.
At an RDNO Committee of the Whole meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 26, the regional district's entire consolidated budged was discussed, and ultimately approved, for inclusion in the financial plan. The RDNO board of directors still needs to give final approval of the budget, which will take place on March 19. The financial plan must be adopted by March 31.
Under this latest version of the budget, property taxes are set to go up 12.3 per cent for the average property owner in the North Okanagan.
However, how much of an increase in property taxes a resident will pay varies depending on where in the North Okanagan they live.
For instance, the average Vernon property owner is looking at a 21.8 per cent increase, the biggest hike in the region. Meanwhile, property taxes for the average Lumby property owner are going down by 1.3 per cent.
Lumby residents are the only ones getting a tax reprieve, as all other North Okanagan municipalities and areas are seeing increases. Below are the property tax increases elsewhere in the region, in declining order:
鈥� Coldstream: 17.1 per cent
鈥� Enderby: 10.1 per cent
鈥� Electoral Area B: 8.5 per cent
鈥� Electoral Area C: 7.4 per cent
鈥� Spallumcheen: 6 per cent
鈥� Electoral Area D: 4.3 per cent
鈥� Electoral Area F: 3.8 per cent
鈥� Electoral Area E: 0.7 per cent
鈥� Armstrong: 0.6 per cent
This year's property tax increases are largely driven by the Cultural Centre project.
"The single largest impact to the 2025 budget is the financial strategy for the construction of the Greater Vernon Cultural Centre as a result of the $28 million in long-term borrowing and the related short-term plan," a budget staff report states. "The financial strategy equates to a $3.1 million increase in the tax requisition and represents the majority of the overall regional district increase."
The total tax requisition for the North Okanagan in 2025 is $25.2 million, an increase of $3.2 million or 14.3 per cent from 2024. That percentage converts to the 12.3 per cent average property tax increase when factoring in that the regional district's tax base has grown by an estimated two per cent in the past year.
The 2025 operating budget is $65.6 million, an increase of $4.3 million from 2024. The capital budget, meanwhile, has gone up by $600,000 to $62.1 million.
Taxes are decided in part based on a properties assessed value from BC Assessment, as well as any regional district local area services that the property is located within.
