Back to SearchThe City of Kitchener has unveiled its proposed 2022 budget, which outlines the City’s plan to move forward on its shared community priorities. This budget builds on investments made in each of the five areas outlined in the City’s 2019-2022 Strategic Plan and resumes the long-term capital investments in infrastructure that will provide consistent, reliable services to meet the needs of a rapidly growing city.
“As Kitchener focuses on our city's post-pandemic recovery, this 2022 budget proposal looks to supporting our growing city, and delivering on our commitment to invest in the services and infrastructure that our residents rely on every day,” said Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic. “The pandemic required us to pause some programs and services, but as we begin to build back from the pandemic, this budget proposes resuming key long-term investments and continuing to advance important community priorities.”
Similar to previous years, the city encourages public input. In addition to the public input session where residents can share their thoughts on the proposed budget, the City has launched an engagement survey that asks residents about how they would distribute $1 million in available capital funds between three priorities: an affordable housing reserve fund, renovating City facilities or upgrading community trails.
The proposed increases can be found below, including the approximate impact for the average residential property in Kitchener:
- A property tax increase of 1.9 per cent
- A water utility increase of 2.2 per cent
- A gas increase of 12.7 per cent
This represents an annual increase of about $47 for property tax and water utilities and about a $90 annual increase for natural gas due to the increase in supply that is being felt across the province and country.
“This Council has spent the last decade focused on fiscal prudence,” said Chair of the Finance and Corporate Services Committee and Ward 1 Councillor Scott Davey. “We paid down debt, built up reserves and planned for the long-term infrastructure investments that were overlooked in too many cities. The fiscal realities of the pandemic meant that we paused those investments, but we’re now ready to move forward and do the right thing – investing now for a stable, reliable Kitchener of tomorrow.”
The proposed budget continues to support Kitchener’s economic recovery through the Make It Kitchener 2.0 Economic Development Strategy that earmarked $5M to support economic recovery. In addition, the budget proposal also supports improved fire response, additional park spaces and trails, and a new community centre in the rapidly growing south end of Kitchener. The City’s 2022 budget proposal also includes funding to create a central service counter at City Hall to better meet the needs of residents.
The City is also investing in its equity, anti-racism and Indigenous initiatives team to better reflect the community’s diversity and address needs. The City is continuing to place priority on implementing the Housing For All Strategy. Additionally, the City is resuming long-term plans for sustainably funding the needs of Kitchener’s roads, bridges and transportation infrastructure.
The public input survey is open until Dec. 6, and a public input session is set for Nov. 15. Interested residents can register as a delegation for public input night at www.kitchener.ca/delegation or take the survey. The results of the survey are set to be presented to City Council on Thursday, Dec. 16.
More information about the budget can be found at www.kitchener.ca/budget.
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For more information
Shawn Falcao
Manager, Corporate communications
shawn.falcao@kitchener.ca
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