The RM of Victoria council has passed the 2017 budget. Reeve Harold Purkess says they're going to end up with approximately a 3.1 percent average increase in property taxes---not including any school levies. Purkess notes council attributes the increase to several factors, including a rise in the municipality's insurance premium, rising Hydro rates, an increase in labour costs and a larger gravel budget. He says their roads over the last two wet years have taken a terrible beating, adding council decided they should probably increase the gravel and trucking budget a bit to try and catch up with all the work.

Purkess notes while they definitely would have liked to have less of an increase in the property tax, they're quite happy with what they hope to accomplish with this new budget. He adds a public hearing was held earlier this week prior to voting on the by-law and councillors were prepared to present the financial plan to residents, but nobody came to the meeting.