The 2023-2027 Draft Financial Plan is available for review.

View a PDF of the 2023-2027 Draft Financial Plan

Share your feedback:

• Attend one of the three Budget Meetings by Zoom, telephone or in-person:
  • Thursday, March 2, 2023 at 6:00 p.m.
  • Thursday, March 9, 2023 at 6:00 p.m.
  • Thursday, March 16, 2023 at 6:00 p.m.
• Provide written comments to Council through mail, drop off at Municipal Hall, or by email to administration@oakbay.ca before noon on the day of the meeting to have your input shared with Council through the agenda.
• For more information on the upcoming meetings, visit https://oakbay.civicweb.net/portal/

Proposed Tax Increase for 2023:

Overall the Financial Plan results in an 11.6% tax increase (or $395 to the median residential property) for 2023.

What are the factors behind the tax increase?

Forced growth: Forced growth is the increased costs the District must incur to continue to provide existing services at the same service level. For instance, collective agreement increases, inflation, and contractual increases are forced growth factors. Forced growth is not increases to service delivery costs resulting from elective changes or enhancements to existing programs.

Infrastructure (transfer to reserve funding): The District is rapidly increasing its utility and tax funded transfers reserve to support forthcoming capital expenditures. The District’s recently published Sustainable Infrastructure Replacement Plan (SIR Plan) estimates that $12.8M is the annual sustainable transfer. The 2023 Financial Plan increases the annual transfer to $10.8M which is 70% of the recommended $12.8M. Read the District's award winning Sustainable Infrastructure Replacement Plan at www.oakbay.ca/sirp

New staffing to support sustainable service delivery.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I provide my feedback on the 2023-2027 Financial Plan?

The upcoming budget meetings mark the beginning of the public input opportunities on the 2023-2027 Draft Financial Plan. Each fall, in preparation for the next budget cycle, the District conducts a budget questionnaire where you can share with Council what projects and services are important to you.  

As a reminder, you can provide you input by:

• Attending one of the three Budget Meetings by Zoom, telephone or in-person:
  • Thursday, March 2, 2023 at 6:00 p.m.
  • Thursday, March 9, 2023 at 6:00 p.m.
  • Thursday, March 16, 2023 at 6:00 p.m.
• Providing written comments to Council through mail, drop off at Municipal Hall, or by email to administration@oakbay.ca before noon on the day of the meeting to have your input shared with Council through the agenda.

We invite you take any or all of these opportunities to help shape your community.

What is the relationship between property assessment values and taxation?

Municipalities use assessed values to apportion property taxes to individual taxpayers. For instance, if a taxpayer’s assessment represents 5% of the entire taxable assessment base, that taxpayer will pay 5% of the municipal property tax budget. A common misconception is that a significant increase in assessed value will necessarily result in a significant increase in property taxes. It is more important for a taxpayer to consider the assessed value in relation to the average assessment increase. It is possible for one’s assessment to decrease while taxes increase and vice versa.

For further clarification on the relationship between property assessment values and taxation, please read the Revenue Discussion segment on page 28 of the 2023 – 2027 Draft Financial Plan.

What charges are included on your tax notice?

In 2022, the Municipal portion of your taxes represented about 58% of the total taxes you paid.The remaining funds are collected by the District on behalf of other taxing authorities including the:

• Capital Regional District (CRD),
• Victoria Regional Transit (BC Transit),
• BC Assessment, Municipal Finance Authority (MFA),
• Capital Regional Hospital District (CDRHD), and the
• Provincial School Tax.