The Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce released a report, prepared by Lakehead University’s Small Business Consulting Services, which utilizes information from the city’s financial statements and the BMA Management Consulting Inc. Municipal Study 2012 to analyze the state of the city’s finances and forecast property taxes for the next four years.
The Report Highlights The Following Issues
- Property tax rates are among the highest in Ontario
- Thunder Bay ranks last against eight comparative cities in overall performance
- Operating costs are above both the Provincial and Northern average and are higher in 20 of 27 categories
- Total operating expenses have increased from $346 million in 2002 to $505 million in 2012
- General government category expenses have almost doubled, from 14.3 million in 2002 to 27.3 million in 2012
- Unless Council takes immediate serious action to cut costs, residential taxes will continue to rise by nearly 8% each year, commercial taxes by over 5% and industrial taxes by over 8.5%.