Taxes are going up in the City of Meadow Lake, but not by too much. During the regular meeting of Meadow Lake city council held Monday (Jan. 26), a motion was carried directing administration to utilize a one per cent uniform mill rate increase as the basis for the 2026 budget with any resulting surplus funds being allocated to the replenishment of city reserves. The motion was brought to the table by councillor Mauri Young and seconded by councillor Conrad Read.

“The City of Meadow Lake manages the municipal budget through a two-stage legislative process mandated by The Cities Act,” explained Asma Qadri, the city’s director of finance, in her official recommendation to council. “Provincial law requires a municipality formally adopt its annual operating and capital budgets before it has the legal authority to set a tax levy or mill rate. The challenge in this timeline is, while the budget is ready for adoption now, the assessment roll for 2026 – which contains the taxable values of every property in Meadow Lake – will not be provided to administration until the spring. Without the final assessment numbers, the city cannot calculate the exact mill rate required to generate the necessary revenue.” By approving a once per cent uniform mill rate increase, Qadri said it would mitigate the anticipated deficit and ensure the budget achieves a zero-sum balance as required by legislation. “Providing this direction now allows for the immediate adoption of the 2026 budget,” she added. “This ensures the city has the legal authority to maintain operations and begin capital projects while awaiting the final assessment data in the spring, at which time the formal tax rate bylaw will be presented for adoption.”

The one per cent increase sees the uniform mill rate go from 8.095 to 8.176; increasing the revenue requirement on property taxes by one per cent thus increasing 2026 base rates and the required mill rates; resulting in a projected 2026 budget surplus of $123,509. “Nobody is comfortable with an increase, but it either gets to a point where we cut services, and we’ve already gone through the budget and cut a whole bunch of requests for capital items, or we increase taxes,” stated mayor Merlin Seymour. “Everything is increasing – fuel, machinery costs, paving, all of that stuff costs more money and it needs to come from somewhere. A one per cent uniform mill rate increase is an increase, but it is not near as much as some other communities are experiencing throughout the province. So, hats off to the finance department for putting all these options together.” While he supported the increase, Read said he would like to see some sort of plan in place for the city to pay down its debt. “It scares me,” Read said. “There are some things in the capital budget I would just as soon put off until we get a handle on our spending and where we’re sitting. I know this building here (Meadow Lake Co-op Centre) threw a big wrench into everything in terms of having to pay for everything up front. Now we have to look at financing… It’s a lot of money and it scares me.”

Highlights of the 2026 capital budget include more than $478,000 for paving patches, $1.5 million for concrete replacement on Highway 55, funding for the continuation of the east side infrastructure project and $1.7 million for sewage lagoon restoration. Key capital budget items denied for the coming year include paving the gravelled portion of 3rd Street East, the replacement of various city vehicles and equipment, repairs to the Meadow Lake Civic Centre and a shower house for the Lions Park campground. Meanwhile, highlights of the 2026 operating budget include close to $16,000 for fence repair at Diamond 5 in Lions Park, close to $55,000 for the development of a communications plan, $13,000 for staff training and close to $93,000 for the hiring of a second community safety officer to replace the existing bylaw officer position.