MEET THE NEW LAKE COUNTRY COUNCIL

On Saturday October 15th, 2022 Lake Country residents elected representatives for Lake Country Council. The newly elected Council will now determine service levels for our roads, parks, water and wastewater systems, recreation, fire protection and police services plus more.

Council meeting dates, agendas, meeting minutes and live-stream of Council meetings, which can be watched live or after the meeting can be found at lakecountry.bc.ca/meetings

Mayor:

Blair

250-766-6670 (office) 250-766-1284 (home) ireland@lakecountry.bc.ca

Councillors:

236-338-1800 (cell) brett@lakecountry.bc.ca

403-461-1239 (cell) irvine@lakecountry.bc.ca

778-594-5154 (cell) lewis@lakecountry.bc.ca

250-808-5321 (cell) mckenzie@lakecountry.bc.ca

403-613-2334 (cell) patel@lakecountry.bc.ca

250-258-2711 (home) reed@lakecountry.bc.ca

2023 Budget

On March 7th Council adopted the five-year financial plan for Lake Country, which includes the 2023 budget. The 17.05% increase is made up of:

• RCMP service cost increase due to crossing 15,000 population threshold.

• Loss of fire contract with the City of Kelowna.

• Road maintenance contract increase.

• Inflationary, contractual and wage rate increases.

To put the increase into perspective, a 1% increase results in approximately a $20 annual increase for the average single-family home in Lake Country which BC Assessment has determined to be $1.086 Million.

Council thanks and appreciates the time residents took to participate in the 2023 budget process. Citizen engagement on the budget was done by providing comments and questions through Let’s Talk – Lake Country, the January 31st town hall in addition to direct conversations and emails to Council. Your opinion matters and Council takes all feedback into consideration.

Full budget details and breakdown of cost can be found at letstalk.lakecountry.bc.ca

How does the BC Assessment value impact my municipal tax assessment?

Earlier this year, BC Assessment released 2023 assessments throughout BC that state the value of properties as of July 2022. The average Lake Country single-family home is now valued at $1,086,000, representing a 9.5% increase from 2022. Property owners might be concerned that due to escalating property values, their municipal tax assessment will increase by the same percentage. This is a common misconception. The most important factor is not how much your assessed value has changed, but how your assessed value has changed relative to the average change for your property class within the District:

• If your property’s value change was Lower than the average change of 9.5% for the residential class, the impact will likely result in a property tax decrease from 2022*.

• If your property’s value change was Similar to the average change of 9.5% for the residential class, the impact will likely result in no change to your property tax from 2022*.

• If your property’s value change was Higher than the average change of 9.5% for the residential class, the impact will likely result in a property tax increase from 2022*.

*Prior to considering the 2023 proposed tax increase.