How Osoyoos Decides Its Budget, Utility Rates and Property Taxes
This municipal election explainer examines how Osoyoos develops its budget, utility rates and property taxes. Property assessments, municipal tax rates and utility charges are connected to the cost of local services, but they are not the same thing. Here is how Osoyoos develops its budget and decides who pays.
A higher property assessment does not automatically mean the Town of Osoyoos has raised taxes by the same percentage. A larger utility bill does not necessarily mean the money is going into the Town’s general operating budget either.
Those distinctions can get buried whenever residents are presented with a new budget, tax increase or utility-rate change. The numbers may appear together in public discussion, but they are produced through different processes and pay for different things.
Here is how those decisions are made—and where the public can influence them.
The budget begins with services and costs
Before council adopts a budget, Town administration estimates what it will cost to keep municipal services operating.
That includes everyday expenses such as staffing, road maintenance, parks, recreation, fire protection, bylaw enforcement, administration and the upkeep of Town buildings and equipment.
Administration must also account for capital work. A capital project is generally a major purchase, construction project or long-term improvement rather than an ordinary operating expense. Replacing infrastructure, buying heavy equipment or undertaking a major facility project would normally fall into this category.
Some expenses are difficult to postpone. Existing contracts, debt payments, regulatory obligations, emergency repairs and the basic cost of maintaining services can limit how much room council has to manoeuvre.
Other spending is more discretionary. Council may decide whether a project should proceed immediately, be scaled back, receive outside funding first or be moved into a later year.
Staff assemble the proposed budget using operating needs, planned projects, asset-management information, expected revenue, inflation, growth estimates and other financial assumptions. Council then reviews those recommendations and decides what stays, what changes and how the plan will be funded.
Why is it a five-year plan?
The Community Charter requires every B.C. municipality to adopt a financial plan annually by bylaw.
The plan covers five years: the year in which it takes effect and the following four years. It must identify proposed expenditures, funding sources and transfers to or from municipal funds for every year in that period.
The first year matters most immediately because it becomes the working budget for the coming year. The later years show where the municipality expects its finances and projects to go, but they are not frozen permanently.
Council adopts a new five-year plan every year and can amend an existing plan by bylaw. Projects may move, estimates may change and new circumstances may alter the priorities shown in later years.
The plan must balance. Proposed spending and transfers out cannot exceed the funding available from revenue and transfers into the plan.
Balancing the plan does not mean every activity pays for itself in a single year. A municipality may use reserves, grants, borrowing or accumulated surplus where legally available and properly authorized. It means the financial plan must identify enough funding to cover what it proposes to spend.
Where does the money come from?
Property taxes are important, but they are only one part of municipal revenue.
The Town may also receive money from utility charges, other user fees, permits, licences, grants, investment income, transfers from reserves, borrowing and contributions from other governments or organizations.
These sources are not always interchangeable.
A grant may be restricted to one approved project. Borrowed money must be authorized and repaid. A reserve may have been established for a specific purpose. Revenue collected for a utility may need to remain connected to that service rather than being treated as unrestricted general revenue.
That is why cancelling one expense does not always create money that council can freely redirect somewhere else. The original funding may disappear with the project or may be legally or financially restricted.
Utility rates are a separate part of the process
The Town divides its budget process into two main parts.
Utility-rate bylaws cover water, sewer and solid-waste services. The five-year financial plan covers the Town’s broader operating and capital plans.
According to the Town’s budget information, utility rates are considered first so the rates for the coming year can be established before January 1.
Utility budgets account for the cost of operating and maintaining those services, along with planned capital work, reserve contributions and other system requirements. Different utilities may have different customers, infrastructure, financial pressures and sources of revenue.
For the 2026 utility process, the Town said administration prepared proposed budgets before presenting them to council. Public questions and comments were then collected. Council considered that input along with staff recommendations, asset-management plans and technical reports before directing administration on any changes.
The Community Charter allows council to impose municipal service fees by bylaw. It also requires the municipality, when asked, to make available a report explaining how a fee imposed under that authority was determined.
A utility-rate increase and a property-tax increase therefore should not be treated as two descriptions of the same charge. They may affect the same household, but they arise from different bylaws and fund different municipal responsibilities.
How does council set property taxes?
The five-year financial plan establishes how much revenue the Town expects to raise from property taxes.
After adopting that plan, council must adopt an annual property-tax bylaw. Under the Community Charter, that tax bylaw must be adopted before May 15.
The bylaw establishes tax rates for the applicable property classes. Those rates are applied to taxable assessed values to raise the property-tax revenue required by the financial plan.
Council is responsible for the municipal tax rates. It does not determine the assessed value of each property.
What role does BC Assessment play?
BC Assessment is independent of the Town and determines property assessments across the province.
An assessment is generally based on a property’s market value as of July 1 of the preceding year. BC Assessment considers factors such as location, size, age, condition, improvements and comparable sales.
The basic property-tax calculation is: taxable assessed value divided by 1,000, multiplied by the applicable tax rate.
The important part is how a property’s assessment changed relative to other properties in the same class—not simply whether its value increased.
If most comparable properties rise by roughly the same percentage, the municipality can adjust its tax rate while still raising the amount of revenue called for in its budget. A property that increased much more than the class average may experience a larger tax change. One that increased less than average may experience a smaller change.
For that reason, a 15 per cent assessment increase does not automatically produce a 15 per cent municipal tax increase.
BC Assessment determines the assessment. Council determines the municipal tax rate needed to raise the budgeted revenue. Neither body controls both sides of the equation.
Not everything on the tax notice is controlled by the Town
A municipal property-tax notice may include charges collected for other public bodies.
The Town collects the amount shown on the notice, but that does not mean council independently chose every charge appearing on it. Some amounts are raised for other taxing authorities and passed along.
This matters when comparing the percentage change in the entire tax bill with the change in the Town’s municipal levy. Those figures may not be identical.
To understand what council actually changed, residents should examine the municipal portion separately from amounts imposed for other authorities.
Who decides how the tax burden is divided?
Properties in British Columbia are assigned to classes such as residential, business and other, light industry, utilities, recreation or non-profit, and farm.
The financial plan must state the municipality’s objectives and policies concerning how property-value taxes are distributed among the classes. Council then establishes the applicable rates through its annual tax bylaw, subject to provincial law and regulations.
This is a policy decision with real consequences.
Council may decide that different classes should bear different shares of the municipal tax requirement. Changing the relationship between residential and business rates, for example, can move part of the burden from one class to another even when the total amount collected by the Town remains the same.
Residents comparing tax changes should therefore look at more than the headline percentage. The total revenue increase, changes in assessed values and the rates applied to each property class all matter.
What about tax exemptions?
Some properties are exempt from property taxes under provincial law. Council may also provide certain permissive exemptions when authorized by the Community Charter.
Permissive exemptions are commonly associated with eligible properties used by charitable, religious, cultural, recreational or other qualifying organizations.
These exemptions are not informal waivers. They must be authorized by bylaw and meet legislative requirements, including public notice and voting rules.
An exemption reduces or removes taxes that would otherwise apply to an eligible property. It does not erase the municipality’s overall cost of providing services. That revenue must either be replaced elsewhere, offset by other income or reflected in spending decisions.
How can residents influence the budget?
Public consultation is not simply an optional courtesy. The Community Charter requires council to undertake a public-consultation process on the proposed financial plan before adopting it.
For its recent budget process, Osoyoos held special open meetings and accepted written comments. The Town also made budget meetings available live or as recordings through its official YouTube channel.
The useful time to participate is while the plan is still being considered—not after the tax and rate bylaws have already been adopted.
General objections such as “taxes are too high” tell council that residents are unhappy, but specific questions are harder to brush aside and easier to answer.
Residents can ask which expenses caused the proposed increase; whether a project is funded by taxes, utility revenue, reserves, a grant or borrowing; whether the funding is restricted; what happens if the project is delayed; how much of an increase is ongoing rather than a one-time cost; what assumptions were made about inflation, growth and grants; what work would be reduced if council lowered the increase; and how the decision will affect reserves and future infrastructure needs.
It is also important to ask whether a figure describes the Town’s municipal portion or the entire property-tax bill.
Public input does not force council to make a particular decision. It does put concerns and alternatives before council while changes are still possible.
What should voters ask candidates?
Promises to reduce taxes or freeze utility rates deserve the same scrutiny as promises to build new facilities or expand services.
The real question is not whether lower costs would be welcome. It is how the candidate would make the numbers work.
Would spending be reduced? Which service or project would change? Would reserve contributions be lowered? Would more borrowing be used? Is the candidate relying on a grant that has not been approved? Would costs simply be moved into a later year?
The same applies to new spending. A worthwhile project still needs a lawful and realistic funding source.
Council has choices, but it does not have unlimited flexibility. Delaying infrastructure can keep a rate lower today while increasing costs or risks later. Raising rates quickly can strengthen a utility’s finances but put immediate pressure on households and businesses. Drawing from reserves can solve a short-term problem while leaving less money for the next one.
Those are the tradeoffs hidden behind a single percentage.
A municipal budget is ultimately a statement of priorities: which services the Town will provide, which projects will proceed, who will pay and what obligations will be left for future councils and taxpayers.
Understanding that process will not make every increase easier to accept. It does make it possible to challenge the right number, question the right decision and hold the right public body accountable.
Sources
B.C. Community Charter, financial planning and accountability: https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/03026_06
B.C. Community Charter, municipal fees and property taxes: https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/03026_07
Town of Osoyoos—Capital and Operating Budgets: https://www.osoyoos.ca/capital-operating-budgets
Town of Osoyoos—2026 Utilities Budget Questions and Responses: https://www.osoyoos.ca/sites/osoyoos.ca/files/2025-11/2026%20Utility%20Budget%20Question%20-%20Responses_v.4%202025.11.18_0.pdf
Town of Osoyoos—Property Taxes: https://www.osoyoos.ca/property-taxes
BC Assessment—The Property Tax Equation: https://info.bcassessment.ca/services-and-products/Pages/ThePropertyTaxEquation.aspx
BC Assessment—Understanding the Assessment Process: https://info.bcassessment.ca/Services-products/Understanding-the-assessment-process
Province of British Columbia—Municipal Taxes: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/local-governments/finance/requisition-taxation/local-government-taxation/property-value-taxes/municipal-taxes
This explainer provides general information about municipal finance and property taxation. It is not financial or legal advice. Particular charges, exemptions and funding restrictions should be confirmed using the applicable bylaws, financial records and provincial legislation.