As property taxes rise across province, St. Catharines looks for 1.78% raise

While cities like Hamilton and Toronto consider property tax increases of up to 10 per cent, the City of St. Catharines is proposing a much lower figure of just under two per cent.

St. Catharines mayor Matt Sicoe says he and council saw the need for Ontario municipalities to start raising property taxes last year after large amounts of spending to keep businesses open and residents in their homes during the pandemic.

“We knew that if we wanted to avoid a lot of financial pain and even bigger increases in the future we had to go down that path.” said Siscoe.

That’s why the city hiked its property taxes 10.5 per cent last year. It’s a move the mayor says will allow for proposed increases in the years to come to stay much lower.

“This year is 1.78, we expect next year’s is about 3 per cent and then about 3 and a half per cent the year after that.”

In comparison, nearby Niagara Falls is looking at a 3.5 per cent increase to follow last year’s 7.9 per cent raise.

WATCH MORE: Hamilton’s proposed property tax increase lower than anticipated, but still 7.9%

Hamilton is considering a 7.9 per cent jump after a five per cent increase the previous year and Burlington is proposing 4.9 per cent to follow a 7.5 per cent hike.

Residents in St. Catharines also pay a Niagara Region tax and school board taxes, which Siscoe says will bring the total increase up to around 3.8 per cent, with 0.32 per cent of that coming from the city.

“We have not heard any frustration with that, I think people recognize we are still in a very high inflation environment.”

St. Catharines city council narrowly said no to a proposed zero per cent increase over concerns of a higher increase coming in the future, but the affordability crisis has some in the community saying no increase would have been better.

The proposed multi-year budget is set to be debated at council next Wednesday and could be adopted that same day.