Councillors are gathered at Ottawa City Hall Wednesday morning to receive and table the proposed 2025 budget, which suggests a municipal tax increase of no more than 2.9 per cent.
If the tax increase goes through, a report by Zoocasa notes that homeowners could see an increase of:
- $5,978 in property taxes on a home assessed at $500,000, or an estimated $173 increase
- $8,967 in taxes on a home assessed at $750,000, or an estimated $260 tax increase
- $11,956 in property taxes on a home assessed at $1 million, or an estimated $346 tax increase
This year’s municipal tax is higher than in Ottawa’s 2024 Capital and Operating Budget, where residents saw a 2.5 per cent tax increase.
“Like our residents, we must manage our finances very carefully right now,” Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, said at Nov. 13’s council meeting. “everything city in the country is facing tough budget decisions. The 2025 budget is the most complicated we’ve had in many years.”
The $120 million transit shortfall was a difficulty for this year’s budget, the mayor noted.
“We simply don’t have the funding resource for financing transit,” he said.
The city’s budget is considering increasing the transit levy between 2.9 and 37 per cent, as well as a transit-fare increase between 2.5 and 75 per cent in 2025.
This is a developing news story. More to come.