Prince Albert City Council will begin budget deliberations tomorrow (Wed), and they are scheduled through Friday for the proposed 2025 capital and operating budgets.

The preliminary budget increase that would be funded by an increase in property tax is just over $8 million. The budget documents don’t include what the proposed property tax increase would be. Director of Financial Services, Ramona Fauchoux, says, “The final tax rate will be determined sometime in March.”

Some of the more significant items in the budget include a $1.9 million increase for salaries, wages and benefits for City Departments, not including the Police Service or the new Lake Country Co-op Leisure Centre. The police budget increase is $1.27 million and $1.1 million is the increase for capital project requests compared to last year, to be used for things like decommissioning the Frank Dunn Pool and Dave G. Steuart Arena. A news release from the City of Prince Albert says the budget includes operating costs of over $1.14 million related to the new Leisure Centre, but they will be offset by savings at the Steuart Arena and Frank Dunn Pool of about $530,000, meaning the actual increase would be around $610,000.