Sticker shock in Regina: Many homeowners face steep property tax increases

Frustration is running high in Regina, as many people are opening their mailboxes to find letters from the city showing big hikes to their property taxes.

Many residents sent messages to 980 CJME’s text line, saying they were shocked to see their property taxes jump by over $1,000, and even more than $2,000 in some cases.

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During an appearance on the Greg Morgan Morning Show Mayor Chad Bachynski said he gets it.

“I totally understand the shock,” he said. “It’s not a situation – especially as a brand-new council – we wanted to be in. But the reality is, over the last decade we’ve chopped that mill rate year after year.”

Listen to the full interview with Mayor Chad Bachynski:

Bachynski said the city found itself caught between a rock and a hard place.

“We found ourselves in a situation where there is work that we have to get done to make sure we don’t have failures of our critical and core infrastructure,” he said. “Those things have to happen.”

But Bachynski acknowledged that it is a challenging situation for many property owners.

“We’re looking to continue to learn and find ways where we can find reasonable or low increases going forward, but still maintaining those critical components of our city,” the mayor explained.

He said that includes thinking of different revenue sources, including infill properties.

“We have a level of sprawl that has caused a high cost of infrastructure for a lower volume of units,” Bachynski said.

“We actually approved a development yesterday in council where we have (a) multi-unit dwelling going up in a space that maybe traditionally, 25 years ago, would be a single-family home. These are things that we can do to increase the revenue within our city using existing infrastructure.”

Back in March, city council voted to lower the proposed mill rate increase from a near decade high of 8.5 per cent down to 7.33 per cent, and also approved a 5.82 per cent utility rate increase.

Between those two rate increases and the library levy, the City of Regina said at the time that the average household could be on the hook for an extra $26.41 per month.