Pitt Meadows city staff propose a $317 property tax and utility rate increase for 2026

Correction: A previous version of this story stated the $122 allotted for asset management savings is  needed to reach the city’s five-year asset replacement funding target of $1.9 million. It’s been updated to clarify that $1.9 million is the five-year asset replacement funding gap.

A previous version of this story also stated that an “Out of property taxes, an additional $70  is suggested to be set aside for things like buildings, roads, fire trucks and service vehicles.” It’s been updated to state “Out of property taxes, $70 is suggested to be set aside for things like buildings, roads, fire trucks and service vehicles.”

Next year, Pitt Meadows residents might be looking at paying an average of $5,227 for their property taxes and utility rates, $317 more than 2025.

This is an $180 increase in property taxes and $137 increase in utility rates.

Of the $317 total, $122 is allotted to asset management savings, which is needed to reach the city’s five-year asset replacement funding gap of $1.9 million, according to a statement from Laura Barroetavena, Pitt Meadows chief financial officer.

“While some of [city] services are quite visible, some are not so much. And these mainly include the utility services, where all the assets are typically underground. If we think about access to water, we all just expect to turn the tap on and have clean water for our everyday use, without thinking about all the infrastructure that is needed in order to have water flow to every single property,” said Barroetavena in a presentation to council at a city council meeting on Nov. 24.

Out of property taxes, $70 is suggested to be set aside for things like buildings, roads, fire trucks and service vehicles, and $52 of the utility fee increase for things like water and sewer pipes, pressure valves, and culverts.

“The goal of asset management is to minimize the lifecycle costs of delivering infrastructure services and managing related risks, while maximizing the value taxpayers receive from city assets,” said Barroetavena.

A multi-million dollar backlog

But the city still faces a $33.9 million in backlog assets that it isn’t currently saving for — something Mayor Nicole MacDonald said causes “alarm” at the Nov. 24 council meeting.

It wasn’t until 2009 that legislation was introduced that required municipalities to start saving for asset replacement, explained Mark Roberts, Pitt Meadows chief administrative officer, at the council meeting.

Before that, he said there was no effort by local governments to do so.

“As hard as that is to believe, that was the case prior to 2009,” he said. “As a result, there was a number of assets on all city books that are unfunded, that needed basically a catch up.”

Barroetavena told The Ridge that once Pitt Meadows closes the $1.9 million funding gap, they will identify further increases to address this backlog.

“By committing to the proposed annual increases, the City can close the $1.9 million gap and prevent the infrastructure backlog from growing,” she said.

When Mayor MacDonald asked what would happen if they didn’t proceed with the recommended asset replacement savings, Roberts said that they’d “have to revisit our entire capital plan” and that staff would strongly recommend against it.

“It’ll just put us deeper into a hole than all municipalities are currently. So we just need to keep diligent, think about the long term future of Pitt Meadows and the need to save for assets rehabilitation and replacement.”

These increases would bring up property taxes for a single family home with an assessed value of $1,184,823 from $3,069 to $3,250, and utility fees from $1,840 to $1,977.

On Dec. 9, council is scheduled to further discuss the proposed business plans and determine the 2026 tax increase.