There are no major surprises in the RM of Victoria's 2016 budget. That's from Reeve Harold Purkess, who says they've more or less held the line with this year's financial plan. However, he notes there's a small increase related to shortfalls in some of their past gravelling work. 

Reeve Harold Purkess

"We held out budget pretty flat. We increased our gravel budget a little bit. We were getting behind some of these wet years, and we had some poor material put out last year which didn't do us any favours. Other than that most of our expenditures, we tried to keep them as close to last year as possible."

Purkess also notes they have a relatively major capital project coming forward. He says they're in need of a new lagoon, but may need to take a more costly route than desired.

"We need to build a new sewage lagoon for Holland and Cypress River. We've been doing some soil testing and working toward that end, but so far we still haven't found a location we could use without putting a liner in. It kind of looks like that's what we're going to have to do, even though it's quite expensive."

When it comes to taxation, Purkess says Victoria's in a very different situation that many other municipalities in the region. While many areas have seen major hikes to the value of farmland, resulting in higher taxes, Purkess says that's not the case in the RM of Victoria.

"The agricultural end of it is going to be relatively stable. The odd parcel may see an increase just because of reassessment. On average, the farm properties will stay reasonably flat, some will see a small decrease. Farm yards saw a bit of an increase, and the biggest increase we've seen is on the higher-end houses in the urban area."

The public hearing on the 2016 financial plan was held last week, and Purkess says no members of the public attended the meeting.