By EARL ROOK, SSI LCC CHAIR &
GARY HOLMAN, SSI CRD director
The Capital Regional District (CRD) Board approved the 2026 provisional budget, including that of the Salt Spring Island Local Community Commission (LCC), on Oct. 29, 2025.
The final CRD budget will be approved on March 11 based on further public consultation, updated service budgets and property assessments, and 2025 year-end surpluses or deficits. The LCC will approve its final 2026 budget at a special meeting on Jan. 29.
Provisional Requisition Overall CRD for 2026
The CRD’s total 2026 proposed tax requisition, including Capital Regional Hospital District (CRHD) and LCC, is $9.7 million, an increase of 8.2 per cent over 2025.
For the “average” household on Salt Spring (with 2025 assessed value of $1.1 million), the tax requisition amounts to $1,472 per year or $123 per month, which funds a range of regional, sub-regional and local services and amenities. These figures do not include recycling (funded by Recycling BC fees on paper and packaging, and CRD Hartland landfill tipping fee revenue), user fees for some local services such as parks and recreation and liquid waste, nor area-specific water and sewer utilities.
The total proposed 2026 requisition for the 13 delegated local LCC services is $5.4 million, an increase of 9.5 per cent. The proposed requisition increase for regional, sub-regional and other non-LCC CRD services is 6.6 per cent. These increases reflect the financial challenges being faced by all local governments in B.C. just to maintain existing service levels, as well as some service improvements.
Major Contributing Factors to Requisition Increase for 2026
For all LCC and other CRD services, core cost inflation, including negotiated CRD staff wage and salary increases, is a significant driver of CRD requisition increases.
Other factors impacting the regional requisition are the establishment of new Transportation, Biodiversity and Foodlands Access services, all supported by voters via regional alternative approval processes (AAPs or “counter-petitions”). The new Regional Transportation Service is responsible for the CRD Regional Trail on Salt Spring, and for the first time, funding has been set aside in capital plans for trail design and construction. The Biodiversity and Environmental Stewardship Service was established to better coordinate invasive species management, and the Regional Foodlands Access Service will facilitate opportunities for leasing of selected public lands to farmers. The extent to which Salt Spring will benefit from these services will depend largely on partnerships with local groups.
Requisition impacts at the sub-regional level include the creation of a new electoral area manager (EAM) position, building inspection revenue fluctuations, and administration of 2026 local government elections. The EAM provides electoral areas with representation on the Executive Leadership Team that oversees all CRD services, as well as senior staff support for the LCC. While permit fees fund most of the CRD’s building inspection service, the level of 2026 construction is uncertain. There are also some one-time costs to more fully digitize the building permit process.
The 2026 provisional LCC budget was reviewed, amended and approved by the LCC on Sept. 11, 2025. The 2026 operating budget totalled $7,824,669, an increase of 6.8 per cent over the final 2025 operating budget. Most of the budget (95 per cent) will go to support four major service areas: Parks and Recreation (57 per cent), Liquid Waste (17 per cent), Transportation/Transit (11 per cent) and the Salt Spring Island Public Library (10 per cent).
Approved with the operating budget was the 2026 Provisional LCC Capital Budget, which funds improvements, maintenance and repairs to local government assets within the LCC jurisdiction. The 2026 capital budget is $7,283,806, funded by multiple sources including grants (42 per cent), borrowing (21 per cent) and capital reserves/capital on hand (20 per cent). Capital reserves are funded by annual transfers from the operating budget, which also provides for debt repayment. Most of the work in the 2026 capital plan is in Parks and Recreation (73 per cent) and Transportation/Transit (24 per cent). Significant capital projects slated for 2026 include a detailed design for the Ganges Harbourwalk, pickleball and tennis courts, pool repairs, Hydro playing field upgrades, roof repair and more energy-efficient HVAC for the Salt Spring Island Multi Space (SIMS) building, a new parks maintenance facility, additional bus shelters, and design and construction of additional pathways and crosswalks.
The 2026 provisional LCC operating and capital budgets ($15,108,475 in total) will require a tax requisition of $5,407,634, a 9.5 per cent increase over 2025. The impact of the LCC budget on property and parcel taxes varies by service. The Liquid Waste service represents 17 per cent of the operating budget, but because it is 67 per cent user-financed, it is only eight per cent of the total tax for LCC services. Other services with significant user financing include Community Recreation (62 per cent), Transit (30 per cent) and the Rainbow Recreation Centre pool (28 per cent). The other LCC services are almost entirely funded by local taxes. (Note that the tax-funded LCC contributions to the library, ArtSpring, the Salt Spring Arts Council and Search and Rescue represent only a portion of the operating budgets for those independently managed organizations).
The most significant impacts on taxes from the LCC budget increases are in the newly consolidated Parks and Recreation budget ($305,883 increase or 11 per cent), followed by Transit ($51,929 increase or 11 per cent), Transportation ($28,834 increase or 40 per cent), the library ($27,335 increase or four per cent), Economic Development ($21,190 increase or 33 per cent) and Liquid Waste ($20,314 increase or five per cent). While most increases are to fund services at their existing levels, the Transportation increase will also fund improvements to pathways and crosswalks in Ganges, while the Economic Development increase will allow greater support of food security initiatives.
Public Consultation
For further information, see the CRD website or contact LCC chair Earl Rook (erook@crd.bc.ca) or CRD director Gary Holman (directorssi@crd.bc.ca), who will also be guests at ASK Salt Spring on Friday, Jan. 16 at 11 a.m. at SIMS. The LCC will be reviewing, amending and approving its final 2026 budget at a special meeting on Thursday, Jan. 29 at 9 a.m. at SIMS.