Selkirk council has completed the city’s $40.6 million budget for 2025, and like all budget processes, there were ups and downs. The ups were mostly out of the city’s control and included an 18 per cent rise in residential property values in the province’s reassessment, while the downs had the city reducing its mill rate significantly, by 11.14 per cent.
Growth keeping Selkirk affordable
The city’s strategic growth, along with the increased assessment value, allowed the city to achieve the 11.14 per cent mill rate decrease. While other cities are staring down significant tax increases – Brandon at almost 7 per cent and the City of Winnipeg at 5.95 per cent – Selkirk’s residential average will be 3.89 per cent.
That number is just an average and because of the reassessment, some will see a decrease and others will see an increase that could be higher.
The city’s tax rate has been steadily declining over the last two decades – down an annualized average of 1.4 per cent – while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has gone up by 2.2 per cent.
In 2004, a residential property owner in the City of Selkirk paid $1,474 per $100,000 of portioned assessment. In 2024, a residential homeowner paid $1,036 per $100,000 of portioned assessment. In 2025, that amount drops to $920.
“In a reassessment year like this, the budget process can be even more challenging,” says Mayor Larry Johannson.
“We as council worked hard to keep our tax rate reasonable and I believe we accomplished that. With the reassessment, the reality is some property owners will see their taxes go down and others will see theirs rise and it depends on what the province valued their property at. That’s out of our control, but we worked hard to deliver on some of the things that people have asked for and we’ve done that.”
Listening to our citizens
The mayor is referring to Budget 2025’s addition of windrow clearing as a new service. The city will purchase two skid steers and hire two additional staff so that next winter windrows will be cleared from driveways after the plow goes by.
“It’s a service that people have been asking for and council made it a priority for this year,” Johannson said.
“The plow will go by and the skid steers will follow and clear driveways, meaning less shovelling for folks. I’m very happy we were able to deliver on this, because it really is a service the public wants.”
“It’s a service that people have been asking for and council made it a priority for this year.”
Mayor Larry Johannson
The reassessment increase of 20 per cent is for single family homes, while apartment blocks rose just four per cent.
CAO Duane Nicol says the result is a reapportionment of the tax burden in the city.
“The single-family homes went up by 20 per cent on average in value, but the apartment blocks didn’t keep up, and that means there’s a shifting of the tax burden, a decrease for apartment block owners and an increase for single family dwellings. It’s a reapportionment, with more of the tax burden falling on the tax properties that increase the most,” Nicol said.
The growth in assessment value is good news – it means that property owners in Selkirk have seen an increase in their property’s value, in fact, property wealth rose $138 million in the city.
“We kept up with the average provincial property valuation increase, which was about 19 per cent for all of Manitoba. In Selkirk, it was 18.06 per cent, so it kept up with the market, which is a good thing. It means Selkirk property owners aren’t falling behind,” Nicol said.
Demand for Selkirk
“The increase in property values means people want to move to and build in Selkirk. They want to come here. There is a strong demand for property in Selkirk. The property values have kept up against other properties in Manitoba, and for people who are property owners, that means their relative wealth is maintained.”
Residential properties in Selkirk now make up 42.5 per cent of the city’s tax base, down from 47.6 per cent.
“That’s good news,” Nicol said.
“It means that we’re diversifying our tax base, which is exactly what we want to see. More multi-family, more industrial, more commercial. What we’re starting to see is that becoming a trend.”
New growth in the city is expected to bring in $217,000 in new tax dollars in 2025, and that’s good, but the challenge for the city is that non-discretionary spending, costs that are out of the city’s control, have risen by $485,000. Non-discretionary costs include policing, fire protection, chemicals for water treatment, solid waste, and hydro, to name a few.
“That growth helps us moderate tax increases, but clearly it’s not enough to eliminate them” Nicol said.
“Council also went into the discretionary areas, the areas of the budget we can control, to find savings in operating costs to help us manage the escalation on non-discretionary. It was a very difficult budget, the most challenging in my time as CAO. We worked really hard to find savings so we could add windrow removal.”
The city’s asset management program makes Selkirk more proactive than reactive and an application to the Public Utilities Board includes a water meter replacement program that will allow the city to replace meters as they decline in their service life rather than wait for them to break down. There is also a hydrant inspection and refurbishment program and utility manhole replacement program that have begun.
The city introduced a water conservation project in 2016, offering installation of low-flow toilets, shower heads and faucets for homeowners. Nicol says residents have embraced the concept, and now, even though there is growth in the city, water consumption is actually down and it’s a trend he expects will continue.
Garry Theatre Renovations
The city will invest $1.4 million into renovations of the Garry Theatre, with half a million coming from a provincial grant. The city is exploring other grant opportunities to make the Garry Theatre’s return to operation as affordable as possible.
The business plan and feasibility study for the Selkirk multi-use facility are near completion and following that, the city will move into the detailed design phase. Once that is complete, Selkirk will be shovel-ready and able to apply for various grants to move the project forward.
This year will also see the detailed design work begin for membrane conversion at the water treatment plant. Currently, the city spends about $800,000 per year to soften water; with the membrane system, the cost will be greatly reduced. Lime will no longer have to be purchased and spent lime will no longer have to be hauled to a licensed landfill. The capacity to treat water will also be expanded. The old side of the plant isn’t functioning but will be included in the membrane conversion and will double the treatment plant’s capacity.
Infrastructure renewal and improvement
Construction on the Mercy Street Active Transportation pathway will be done in 2025 and sections of Mercy itself will be resurfaced. The Land Drainage and Stormwater Masterplan will be completed. The landscaping of Main Street North will be completed this year, with the planting of trees and native flowers.
There will be plenty of urban canopy work taking place this year. Last year’s tree inventory identified numerous areas that required maintenance or removal. A contractor will be hired to address the existing backlog which will allow the city to return to the maintenance schedule set out in the city’s Street Tree Policy.
The city continues to adapt to climate change and will begin the detailed design for emergency power at the Dufferin lift station and Render wells.
“We’re making sure that if the power goes out for extended periods of time, we’ll have backup power at those two critical locations to keep our infrastructure going, even during extended power outages. The Dufferin lift station pushes 90 per cent of the city’s wastewater to the plant and the Render wells provide more than half of the raw water supply,” Nicol said.
There will be replacement of the heat pump HVAC unit at the Rec Complex and transit hours will be expanded to include more evening service, as frequently requested by the public.
Several projects identified through asset management will be upgraded this year. Eveline Street from Taylor to Queen Avenue and the 200 block of Taylor will receive watermain liner installs to extend the life of the line by 50-plus years and improve service to the area, which has been prone to watermain breaks in recent years. Wastewater renewal will be done as well and there will be roadway restoration on Taylor leading into Eveline up to Queen, including new curbing.
The 200 block of Taylor will also have a sidewalk installed and be connected to the Eveline and Main Street sidewalks, improving safety for pedestrians and connecting to the city’s AT pathways.
Despite the current economic pressures the city is under, the city continues to increase the amount it is investing in infrastructure rehabilitation, whether it’s in the form of actual work, or investments into financial reserves, which are funds set aside for future infrastructure investments.
“Using our leading-practice asset management program, we are really turning a corner on our infrastructure renewal and reinvestment. More than just having a good plan, you have to fund the work. Selkirk had worked really hard at balancing tax affordability with growing our financial capacity to maintain our infrastructure. We are on the path to sustainability and we are doing it without massive increases to catch up because we’ve steadily been working at this for a decade now,” said Nicol.
“Using our leading-practice asset management program, we are really turning a corner on our infrastructure renewal and reinvestment.”
Duane Nicol, Chief Administrative Officer
The city has increased the amount it puts into capital reserves, which supports the increase in infrastructure rehabilitation the city has done in recent years and will continue to do.
School taxes also appear on the city tax bill, but the city does not set that amount. It is set by the Lord Selkirk School Division.
