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The real tax bill

City Council said the property tax raise is 7.28%. Our home tax notices say 9.34%, almost ten percent in one year! It has gone up every year for four years, about 35% more! If you give the same council four more years, your city tax bill is on track to be another 50% higher than today, with the ballooning Crystal Pool debt still to pay. Don't believe us? See the proof below.

  • About 35% more property tax in one termwhat this council's four budgets (2023-2026) add up to on a home's city tax bill, compounded 1 3 7 8
  • 9.34% vs 7.28% tax increasethe tax homes were hit with in 2026 vs what the city announced 1 2
  • Up 6% → Up 7.9% → Up 8.2% → Up 9.3%the home tax increase has grown more and more every single year under this council 1 3 7 8
  • You'll be paying 50% more tax by 2030that is only if all goes well and costs do not increase, and if the ballooning Crystal Pool debt does not go sky-high method
  • Pool for $209 million and risingCrystal Pool's price has tripled since 2017, and carrying its $168.9M debt is worth almost 6 points of tax all by itself 13 14 15

What they say vs what you really pay

Every spring, homeowners open a property tax notice that says something bigger than the city claims.

  • 2026 City announced 7.28% property tax $323 moreon an average home
  • 2025 City said the rise "dips to 6.99%" $261 moreon an average home
  • 2024 City announced 7.93% property tax $235 moreon an average home
  • 2023 City announced 6.96%, "capped at inflation" the one yearresidents pushed back and won

Every figure above comes from the city's own budget documents and tax notices: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11.

The 2026 budget passed with councillors Gardiner, Hammond and Kim opposed.

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.

What that does to one house

The average Victoria home pays about $3,800 in city property tax this year.1 2 Hold the 2026 pace for the next council's four budgets and it is roughly $5,400 by 2030. That is before the ballooning pool debt takes its slice, before the skipped payments come home, and before a single growth invoice. The garbage, water, sewer and stormwater bills ride on top, as always.9

Where four more years of this leads

The council you elect on October 17 makes the next 4 budgets, the ones for 2027 through 2030. Here is where your property tax bill could go:

  • A council that gets costs back under control 2% a yearproperty tax, roughly inflation 8% higherby 2030
  • Costs keep rising and we start paying for the pool 9.34% a year, plus the poolthe pool debt is worth about 6 points on its own 50% higherby 2030
  • A third of downtown business leaves 9.34% a year, homes carrying two thirdsthey already carry 54% of the bill 80% higherby 2030

Which one you get is decided on October 17.

Two things you can do right now

  • Ask every candidate: which of these numbers would you defend, and which budget lines would you cut, freeze or defer before raising taxes 9 percent again? It is one of our five questions for every candidate.
  • Vote on October 17, and bring five neighbours who still think the property tax increase was 7.28%. Make the plan.

If you would rather not ask them yourself, see who we are voting for and why. We also send one short email when this issue moves at council.

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 with Gardiner, Hammond and 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 and ~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, with 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. The 80 percent line assumes the residential share rises as the commercial base shrinks. Homes carry 54 percent of the levy now, so businesses carry 46. Lose a third of that base and homes carry about 68 percent, a factor of 1.26 on top of the +43 percent that compounding at the 2026 residential pace already produces, which is about +80. The one-third figure is a stated assumption, not a forecast. Full memo with methodology available from the network.

What has been written about this

10 pieces

Our members have tracked 10 pieces on this issue since January, every one an opinion piece or a letter. The five most recent are below, and the notes are our members' own.

All 10 pieces on this issue

Where the deep detail lives

Most people who read this were sent it by someone they know.

The next 50 percent is on the ballot.

One short email when the budget numbers move, who voted for what, and how to be heard before it passes.

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