Does your wallet know the difference between a tax and a fee?
🎙️ VOICE of NANAIMO
▶️ Click Play to listen
USER FEES COME FROM THE SAME POCKET AS TAXES
When City Hall talks taxes, residents should also look at fees. Nanaimo’s audited 2025 statements show City user fees rose by about $4 million in one year, with water, sewer and sanitation alone up by nearly $3 million. Those charges may be labeled “fees,” but for households they function a lot like mandatory municipal costs. The tax number gets the headline. The full bill is taxes plus fees.
One more useful line: in 2025, taxation and payments in lieu plus user fees totaled about $236.2M, against $242.9M in expenses. So nearly all City spending was covered by what residents and users paid directly, whether called taxes or fees.
Comments
Post a Comment
Thank you for your input. Your comment will appear once reviewed.