Taxes related to parks, recreation and culture in Greater Vernon are poised to go up sharply in 2025, driven overwhelmingly by the Greater Vernon Cultural Centre project. 

The Greater Vernon Advisory Committee (GVAC) held a special meeting Wednesday, Jan. 15, to discuss the Regional District of North Okanagan's (RDNO) 2025 Greater Vernon Parks, Recreation and Culture (GVPRC) budget.

Budget documents break down five GVPRC services for this year. Most of those services come with a modest or nil proposed tax increase, except for the Greater Vernon Culture service, which has a proposed 170 per cent tax increase for a tax requisition of $4.8 million, up roughly $3 million from 2024.

This increase is driven by the $46-million Greater Vernon Cultural Centre project, which will get underway this year, with design and construction expenditures totalling $4.7 million expected to take place in 2025. 

The culture service represents the most inflationary aspect of this year's GVPRC tax requisition, but it's only part of the picture. The overall GVPRC tax requisition is increasing by $3.3 million, from $7.8 million in 2024 to $11.2 million this year, a 43.1 per cent increase. 

The Greater Vernon tax base grew 2.2 per cent this year, and when weighted with the tax base growth, the GVPRC tax increase is 40.9 per cent, a considerable bump from the 2.3 per cent increase seen in 2024, but much lower than the 170 per cent figure that is shown when viewing the culture service in isolation. 

That 40.9 per cent tax increase is also not the final increase Greater Vernon residents will be paying for 2025. The final tax increase will be decided after the full consolidated RDNO budget is deliberated on at a Feb. 26 meeting. That consolidated budget will be presented to the board for bylaw adoption on March 19.

Stephen Banmen, general manager of finance for the RDNO, said at Wednesday's meeting that the overall tax impact on the average residential property from the GVPRC budget is $92 in 2025. Of that, he said $85 is due to the Cultural Centre financial strategy, and the remaining $7 per household covers the rest of the GVPRC tax requisition. 

That mean's 92 per cent of this year's parks, recreation and culture-related tax increase is due to the Cultural Centre project. 

Greater Vernon taxpayers will be paying that extra $85 dollars per year for the next eight years, after which it will go down to $57 per year for the following 15 years. Banmen said grants and fundraising may be able to knock off some years at the end of that eight-year term. 

"If we get, say, another $1 million in fundraising and grants, that eight years at $85 per household drops to seven years," he said. "As we get more and more money, that improves our financial strategy."

In 2025, $3.1 million will be added to the Greater Vernon Cultural Facilities Reserve and $2.5 million will then be spent out of that reserve for the Cultural Centre project. 

Elsewhere in the GVPRC proposed budget, an eight per cent tax increase is billed for the Community Theatre service for a 2025 tax requisition of $922,000.

That will fund the replacement of the chiller ($450,000) and phase one of a roof replacement ($165,000) at the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre. Tannis Nelson, RDNO's manager of culture and community services, said the repairs are necessary as the chiller and parts of the roof are at the end of their life span.

Nelson did, however, say a phased approach to the roof replacement is taking place because a roofing consultant found parts of the roof were in surprisingly good condition. This allows for some money to be saved by extending the functioning parts of the roof's lifespan. 

At Wednesday's meeting, GVAC went through parts of the proposed GVPRC budget to see if any savings could be found to offset the higher tax increase caused by the Cultural Centre. 

GVAC member Victor Cumming argued that the Community Theatre service isn't a good place to cut costs this year given how pressing the budgeted items are, but did suggest that the proposed Greater Vernon Trails and Natural Spaces budget has some wiggle room.

Specifically, he said a $1 million commitment to acquire parkland could be cut from the budget this year to help lower the tax increase. 

As per Cumming's comments, GVAC requested options to consider pausing the annual parkland contribution for a year to reduce the overall tax increase of the five GVPRC services.

Banmen said this is expected to be included on the next GVAC meeting agenda so that the committee can carry on and finalize budget deliberations and recommendations to the board. 

"If the parkland contribution is reduced in 2025, the total impact of the proposed budget will be reduced to something less than $92 for the average residential property," Banmen said.

Each GVPRC service was recommended to be approved at Wednesday's meeting. GVAC approved all of the recommendations in principle but they are subject to receiving more information at the next GVAC meeting on Feb. 12. 

Banmen noted that nothing in the budget is final until the whole budget is approved on March 19, and the RDNO board has a number of opportunities to make changes to the budget leading up to that date. 

GVAC's recommendations from Wednesday's meeting will go to the RDNO board of directors on Jan. 22 for final consideration.

The board is the final decision-making authority and stakeholder votes by Coldstream, Vernon and Electoral Areas B and C will take place, excluding on the Greater Vernon Recreation and Programming Grant service, which Vernon is not a part of.