2023 Budget

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Every year the municipality creates a budget that pays for the services provided by the District of West Vancouver, including:

  • Police
  • Fire and Rescue
  • Bylaw enforcement
  • Parks
  • Community centres
  • Library
  • Cultural programs
  • Capital expenses, such as maintaining public facilities and roads
  • and much more!

46% of your property tax bill funds the municipal budget. Property taxes also include amounts collected on behalf of other taxing authorities, like provincial schools and TransLink. Learn more about property tax allocations in the Budget Highlights (PDF).

Considerations for 2023

Inflation and managing rising costs

While the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the District’s community priorities and cost pressures will have greater influence on the budget preparation process. With the highest inflation rate seen in decades, climate change, and supply chain disruptions, the District will continue its financial prudence and focus on maintaining financial strength and stability while fulfilling its mandate to serve the needs of the community.

Each year, all non-taxation sources of funding are reviewed for further opportunities before resorting to taxation. As part of the annual budget process, staff conduct a thorough base budget review to ensure that all revenue and expenditure budgets reflect current realities.

The District revenue sources are generated mainly from property taxes followed by fees and charges. The limited funding sources are also reflected in the breakdown of the tax base, with 97% being residential class, and 3% being business class. The District does not have industrial properties like other municipalities do, and therefore does not have this major source of tax revenue.

Climate action

The 2023 Budget and Five-Year Financial Plan will continue addressing the emerging priorities such as developing a Climate Action Plan and Strategy. The District remains committed to investing in local climate action, continuously building the Environmental Levy to support climate-change preparedness, responding to disasters due to climate change, and implementing climate action initiatives to support critical climate change adaptation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

What does this mean to you?

Staff are proposing an Operational Levy increase of 4.57%, an Asset Levy increase of 1.00%, and an Environmental Levy increase of 0.50%. Read more about these levies in the Budget Highlights (PDF).

The total proposed tax levy increase of 6.07% is below the rate of inflation, as measured by the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for British Columbia of 7.2%.

The total tax increases amount to an extra $350 for the average single-family detached home (SFD) assessed at $3.76 million and an extra $158 for the average strata property assessed at $1.70 million. The average assessed values are based on the completed roll from BC Assessment.

Learn more about the budget

Review the proposed budget and ask questions. All feedback received is submitted to Council as part of the 2023 Budget review.

Budget Highlights (PDF)

Preliminary Financial Plan 2023 (proposed budget) (PDF)

Submit questions

Submit a question below and staff will post a public response. The question form is open until Friday, February 3, at 4:30 p.m.

Attend an information meeting

Thank you to everyone who attended a budget information meeting. There was a presentation followed by a question and answer period.

A video of the presentation and an overview of the questions and answers will be posted soon.

Budget Information Meetings Presentation (PDF)

  • COMPLETE Tuesday, January 24, 2–3 p.m.
    Seniors' Activity Centre, Marine Room, 695 21st Street

  • COMPLETE Tuesday, January 24, 6–7 p.m.
    West Vancouver Community Centre, Cedar Room, 2121 Marine Drive

  • COMPLETE Thursday, January 26, 1–2 p.m.
    virtual via Zoom

Every year the municipality creates a budget that pays for the services provided by the District of West Vancouver, including:

  • Police
  • Fire and Rescue
  • Bylaw enforcement
  • Parks
  • Community centres
  • Library
  • Cultural programs
  • Capital expenses, such as maintaining public facilities and roads
  • and much more!

46% of your property tax bill funds the municipal budget. Property taxes also include amounts collected on behalf of other taxing authorities, like provincial schools and TransLink. Learn more about property tax allocations in the Budget Highlights (PDF).

Considerations for 2023

Inflation and managing rising costs

While the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the District’s community priorities and cost pressures will have greater influence on the budget preparation process. With the highest inflation rate seen in decades, climate change, and supply chain disruptions, the District will continue its financial prudence and focus on maintaining financial strength and stability while fulfilling its mandate to serve the needs of the community.

Each year, all non-taxation sources of funding are reviewed for further opportunities before resorting to taxation. As part of the annual budget process, staff conduct a thorough base budget review to ensure that all revenue and expenditure budgets reflect current realities.

The District revenue sources are generated mainly from property taxes followed by fees and charges. The limited funding sources are also reflected in the breakdown of the tax base, with 97% being residential class, and 3% being business class. The District does not have industrial properties like other municipalities do, and therefore does not have this major source of tax revenue.

Climate action

The 2023 Budget and Five-Year Financial Plan will continue addressing the emerging priorities such as developing a Climate Action Plan and Strategy. The District remains committed to investing in local climate action, continuously building the Environmental Levy to support climate-change preparedness, responding to disasters due to climate change, and implementing climate action initiatives to support critical climate change adaptation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

What does this mean to you?

Staff are proposing an Operational Levy increase of 4.57%, an Asset Levy increase of 1.00%, and an Environmental Levy increase of 0.50%. Read more about these levies in the Budget Highlights (PDF).

The total proposed tax levy increase of 6.07% is below the rate of inflation, as measured by the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for British Columbia of 7.2%.

The total tax increases amount to an extra $350 for the average single-family detached home (SFD) assessed at $3.76 million and an extra $158 for the average strata property assessed at $1.70 million. The average assessed values are based on the completed roll from BC Assessment.

Learn more about the budget

Review the proposed budget and ask questions. All feedback received is submitted to Council as part of the 2023 Budget review.

Budget Highlights (PDF)

Preliminary Financial Plan 2023 (proposed budget) (PDF)

Submit questions

Submit a question below and staff will post a public response. The question form is open until Friday, February 3, at 4:30 p.m.

Attend an information meeting

Thank you to everyone who attended a budget information meeting. There was a presentation followed by a question and answer period.

A video of the presentation and an overview of the questions and answers will be posted soon.

Budget Information Meetings Presentation (PDF)

  • COMPLETE Tuesday, January 24, 2–3 p.m.
    Seniors' Activity Centre, Marine Room, 695 21st Street

  • COMPLETE Tuesday, January 24, 6–7 p.m.
    West Vancouver Community Centre, Cedar Room, 2121 Marine Drive

  • COMPLETE Thursday, January 26, 1–2 p.m.
    virtual via Zoom

Question Form

Responses to questions will be posted here. All public input will be considered by Council as part of the 2023 budget review.

Please note that questions must be entered in sentence form. This platform does not support images, tables, or multiple paragraphs. If you wish to include these, please email your question to budget@westvancouver.ca.

You need to be signed in to add your question.

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    Within recreational programs, what is the proposed budget amount for 2023 for tennis and how does this compare to the amount budgeted and spent on Tennis programming in 2022. Please provide the $ split between programs for adults and programs for children.

    shapma47 asked 7 days ago

    Thank you for your interest in the District of West Vancouver’s tennis programs.

    In 2022 our net revenue for adult tennis was $1,454 compared to a budget of $1,600, we have budgeted $1,600 for 2023.

    In 2022 our net revenue for children’s tennis was $35,147 compared to a budget of $24,000, we have budgeted $31,600 for 2023.

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    Under Planning and Development Services revenues, why has budget for planning & development etc fees gone from $5.8 mm in 2021 to $4.6 mm for 2023? Shouldn’t all this development activity and higher values of property suggest it should be more or are planning fees being reduced per project?

    PeterJ asked 16 days ago

    The Permit & Inspections Department had an exceptional year in 2021. There was a spike in the first quarter of 2021 due to the change in requirements for the Energy Step Code which led to many new house applications prior to the effective change date of March 1, 2021. Subsequently, the Zoning Bylaw amendment which reduced the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) from 0.35 to 0.30 became effective February 1, 2022 and led to a huge increase in permit applications in the fourth quarter of 2021. The actual revenue presented for 2021 are direct results from these two exceptional factors. For 2022, we budgeted a strong first quarter given that the adjusted FAR became effective February 1, 2022. However, we expected permit applications to level-out for the rest of the year. Looking ahead into 2023, the inflationary environment as well as high interest rates are likely to lead to a cautious housing market. Even though we increased fees as of January 1, 2023, we expect to see a slow down in construction which is the reason for the reduction in the budget forecast.

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    How much or what % of the budget is allocated to the removal of invasive plant species in our parks, boulevards and elsewhere? How much is designated in educating the public/property owners on how they can identify and remove invasive species from their properties and prevent encroachment into parks?

    S.McDermott asked 16 days ago

    The District of West Vancouver’s (“District”) 2023 annual funding request for invasive plant management on District public lands is $118,500. If approved, this funding will be allocated to:

    • contracted treatment and removal of Japanese Knotweed and Giant Hogweed
    • invasive plant removal by District staff
    • communications related to invasive plants

    The District’s Invasive Plant Strategy, brochure, and cards (identify & best practices) are useful educational tools and are available on the District’s website (see link below). In addition, Park staff address inquiries from residents on invasive plants on private and public lands and staff undertake site visits on request. This educational task is performed by staff year-round.

    The District also promotes education about invasive plants through:

    • events organized by stewardship groups to remove invasive plants from parks
    • support to local school groups
    • invasive plant removal activities in parks and public areas initiated by local residents

    For information, please visit: https://westvancouver.ca/invasive-plants

Page last updated: 26 Jan 2023, 03:35 PM