The real tax bill

What they say vs what you pay

Every spring, one percentage makes the headlines. Homeowners then open a tax notice that says something bigger. Both numbers are real; only one of them is yours.

The 2026 budget passed with councillors Gardiner, Hammond and Kim opposed; the average home pays $323 more.²

2023 is the exception that proves the rule: residents pushed back hard, and council cut an 8.99 percent draft to about 6. Every year since, the final number has climbed: 7.93, then 8.18, then 9.34. Compound those four budgets and a home's city tax bill grew by roughly 35 percent in a single term.

Since 2025, council has been shifting tax share from businesses onto homes. The announced percentage blends the two. In 2026 the blend was 7.28 percent: business got 4.78 while residential got 9.34, in the city's own words, "distributed at 9.34 per cent to residential properties."^{1 2} Residents now carry 54 percent of the levy, and council has signalled it wants to keep moving toward a 3-to-1 business-to-residential rate ratio.^{3 5} As long as that policy continues, the number in the news release will keep understating the number on your notice.

There is a pattern to the announcements, too. Budgets open with a shock number, 8.99 one year, 12.17 the next, and land lower a few months later. The coverage then reads as relief: the increase "dips." Measured against the scary draft, it does. Measured against what you paid last year, it has gone up every time. In our view this is anchoring, and it works.^{3 6 7}

The fees that never make the news

The announced increase covers the property-tax levy only. A Victoria household also pays a growing stack of separate charges (2026 city schedule) that no "tax increase" percentage ever mentions:⁹

• Garbage: $83.30 every four months for the smallest bin, about $250 a year, before you upgrade the bin.
• Water: $5.49 per unit of use, plus fixed service charges starting at $34.57.
• Sewer: the city's $2.93 per unit, plus the CRD's $7.51 per unit on the same bill, two and a half times the city's own rate.
• Stormwater: billed by the square metre of your roof and driveway ($1.1062/m²), plus street-frontage charges up to $53.36 per metre, plus flat fees up to $198.51 by property type.

There is also presentation. The 2026 announcement attributed 5.06 of its 7.28 points to "police services," leaving the impression that city operations cost just 2.22 points. However the pie is sliced, all of it lands on the same bill, and none of the utility charges above are in the pie at all.¹

The bills already in the mail

The 35 percent is what already happened. Three more bills are on their way to your mailbox, and none of them are in the numbers above.

The ballooning Crystal Pool debt

In 2017 the Crystal Pool replacement was pencilled in at $70 million. It is now a $209.2 million project, and voters approved borrowing up to $168.9 million for it.^{13 14 15} Carrying a debt that size over 25 years at typical municipal rates runs around $11 million a year. Against the city's current tax levy, that works out to almost a 6 percent tax increase on its own, arriving as the borrowing draws down, on top of whatever council does that year.^{1 16}

The skipped payments

How did a 10 percent draft become the 7.28 headline this spring? Council trimmed $7 million, and much of it was postponement dressed up as savings: a $2.8 million contribution to parking infrastructure eliminated, a $2 million debt-reduction payment dropped, reserve contributions cut.¹² The mayor herself acknowledged the effects arrive down the road, and councillors noted these costs do not disappear and the reserves will have to be refilled. In plain terms: part of this year's bill was moved onto next term's bill, with interest. Guess who is on next term's bill.

The growth bill

Council brags about approvals: 7,000 units in two years, with the OCP zoning the whole city for more.¹ Every one of those homes needs pipes, pumps, roads, parks and a fire response, and the city is already choosing to skip infrastructure contributions to flatter today's headline.¹² When the catch-up bills come due, they land on the levy, and the levy, as this page shows, lands hardest on homes. Growth is supposed to pay for growth. In Victoria, the plan is for you to pay for it.

Where this goes in four more years

The council you elect on October 17 writes the 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030 budgets. Here is what the documented rates add up to, year on year, with the ballooning pool debt and the deferred payments still waiting outside these numbers:

These are projections worked out from documented rates, not predictions. A different council could choose differently. That is precisely what this election decides.

Sources

1. City of Victoria, 2026 tax notice insert (7.28% overall; 9.34% residential, 4.78% business)
2. Victoria News, May 11, 2026 (7.28% approved; Gardiner, Hammond, Kim opposed; average home +$323)
3. Times Colonist ("dips to 6.99%"; average residential ~8.18%/+$261; residents pay 54% of the levy)
4. Times Colonist (8.68% residential hike approved for 2025)
5. Times Colonist (3:1 business-to-residential ratio goal)
6. Victoria Buzz, October 2024 (12.17% initial 2025 draft)
7. Storeys, 2023 (8.99% draft, 6.96% interim, ~6% final; verified against the article text)
8. City of Victoria, 2024 tax insert (7.93% to all classes; average home +$235)
9. City of Victoria, utility rates and billing (2026 schedule: water, sewer, garbage, stormwater)
10. City of Victoria, 2026-2030 Financial Plan (adopted May 7, 2026)
11. CHEK News (2026 draft budget approved at 7.2%)
12. Times Colonist (2026 hike cut to 7.28% after $7M trimmed: $2.8M parking-infrastructure contribution eliminated, $2M debt payment dropped, reserves cut; mayor and councillors on the deferred impact)
13. Saanich News (Crystal Pool costs triple from the 2017 $70M allocation)
14. Times Colonist (pool price tag tops $200 million; cost drivers)
15. Times Colonist (Feb 8, 2025 referendum: borrow up to $168.9M for the $215M-class facility)
16. Victoria Buzz, Feb 2026 ($209.2M project proceeding on the existing site, target opening 2030)

How the debt cost works out: $168.9M amortized over 25 years near 4.5 percent is about $11.4M a year; the city's 2026 insert prices 1 percent of tax at roughly $1.95M, so the pool debt equals about 5.8 points, phased in as funds draw down. The roughly 50% by 2030 figure adds that debt service to the +43% compounding at the 2026 residential pace: 43 plus about 6, rounded. The $3,800 average-home figure derives from the city's own numbers: a $323 increase equalling 9.34 percent implies a prior bill near $3,460. Compounding excludes utility increases and other levies, so it likely understates the change in a household's total city-related costs. Full memo with methodology available from the network.