Coquitlam
Port Coquitlam
Port Moody
Crossroads Hospice silent auction begins
What’s going to get fixed and upgraded
No backyard chickens allowed
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T H U R S D AY
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NOVEMBER 4
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30% OFF
2021
WHEN YOU BUY 5 OR MORE SHADES OR BLINDS
Tri-cities: 604-944-3375
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Offer ends Nov. 30, 2021. *Some restrictions apply.
G O F O R R O TA RY
COQUITLAM BUDGET 2022
Ten years of 5% tax hikes Cost drivers include new RCMP contract and three rec hubs JANIS CLEUGH jcleugh@tricitynews.com
Ian MacPhail and Coreen Rodger Bannister, of Port Moody Rotary, are ready to kick their physical activity into high gear through the month of November as part of the club’s Go For Rotary fundraiser. For more, see the story on Page 5. MARIO BARTEL/THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Coquitlam property owners could see their tax bills spike about five per cent each year for the next decade. And that’s only if council OK’s a tax stabilization fund in its next round of budget approvals in December. Last week, during presentations from department heads before council crunches the numbers, city staff warned of the heavy capital and operating costs coming down the pike. For 2022, council is contemplating a 4.60 per cent uptick — nearly double from this year’s hike — that would translate to $156 more in
property taxes and utilities for a single-family home or $146 more for apartment and townhouse owners. The bill doesn’t include taxes for other agencies like the province (school) and TransLink (transit). “It’ll be the first year of longer-term high tax increases,” advised Gorana Cabral, Coquitlam’s financial planning manager, while recommending that $2.5 million of tax growth revenues from 2021 be used to create a tax stabilization reserve, designed to “smooth out” volatility in future years and to avoid a nearly nine per cent jump in 2026. As well, city managers are flagging some emerging trends that will have big implications for the way the City of Coquitlam provides programs and services to its ever-growing population. SEE
GMS DELIVER, PAGE 17