The City is planning for its 2022 budget and has moved to a new budget cycle to better reflect changes to the assessment cycle (now required every two years by provincial legislation). The City will focus on 2022 for its budget engagement but forecasting will also be completed for 2023-2025.

While the City's strategic directions outlined in Our City, Our Future, were affirmed in the 2020 Citizen Satisfaction survey (a statistically valid survey completed every two years), 2021 is also a review year for the City's strategic plan goals as a new Council is elected this year.

The economy of the City and the entire province continues to shift as the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic continues. There has been a slight decrease in assessed values of property (around 4.5 % for residential and 2.6 % for commercial) and while the City's annual budget increases have hovered around 1.2 %, some of the City's operating costs for 2022 are expected to increase in areas such as fleet and debt servicing (payment on borrowing for capital projects).

The City has made progress against its current strategic plan and has other plans and strategies in various stages such as climate/sustainability, healthy cities, economic development, envision, and affordable housing, all of which have been built with feedback from the public, aligned with strategic directions, and focus on quality of life and the City's vision for the future.

The City has been working aggressively to find ways to operate more efficiently (from program review in 2016 to our current continuous improvement efforts) and Council is committed to keeping our human resources costs under control and focusing on stability through partnerships with community and government organizations.

However, with the changes to the economy and the reduction in assessed values for 2022, and to balance the budget (a requirement by law) without a decrease in services, at this time the City is projecting residential and commercial mil rate increases to offset those costs.

Review the materials on this page including the video and fact sheets. Check out the property tax calculator to see what changes in a mil rate could mean for your household’s municipal tax bill for 2022. Use the Tax Receipt tool to see how your tax dollars are currently being spent to deliver the programs and services residents value.

Engage in discussion below, sign up for a community meeting later in the fall (check back for key dates), ask a question, do a quick poll. Alternatively, you can send your feedback directly to engage@stjohns.ca or call 311 to speak to a member of the project team.