St. Catharines keeps tax hike to just 1.1% but regional portion to come

The shifting of transit service costs from St. Catharines to Niagara Region has resulted in the smallest city tax hikes in decades – just 1.12 per cent.

After last night’s (January 16) budget deliberations, City Council passed the 2023 budget at the remarkably low hike.

However, those transit costs – one of St. Catharines largest local expenditures – don’t just disappear. They’ve simply shifted to the regional portion of homeowners’ tax bills so when the Niagara portion is passed, the percentage is going to be considerably higher.

In the end, both the municipal St. Catharines portion and regional Niagara portion of the tax bill are blended into one.

After the meeting, Mayor Mat Siscoe told local radio station 610-CKTB that St. Catharines residents’ final tax bills, once blended with the region’s, will end up being the same as similar-sized municipalities, such as Kingston or Guelph – somewhere in the five to six per cent range.