MED increase approved as YK budget talks end in 3.67% tax increase

Yellowknifers are set for a 3.67-percent property tax increase in 2026 – down from seven percent forecast last month – as budget talks ended on Wednesday.

The city can also expect two new municipal enforcement officers focused on downtown public safety after council approved the positions during night three of 2026 budget talks.

The positions, included in November’s draft budget, were contentious. While some councillors said more bylaw officers are needed, others called the plan “excessive” or said those officers aren’t the best approach to solving downtown’s problems.

After more than an hour’s discussion over two nights, council ultimately voted 5-4 to defeat a motion that would have limited the new hires to a two-year term as a pilot program. City staff had said hiring the officers on a fixed term rather than as indeterminate positions would be difficult.

Councillors Tom McLennan, Garett Cochrane, Cat McGurk and Ryan Fequet sought the two-year term. Of those, McGurk and McLennan had expressed reservations about any increase at all in the number of bylaw officers but saw the two-year term as a compromise.

Councillors Rob Warburton, Stacie Arden Smith, Rob Foote and Steve Payne joined Mayor Ben Hendriksen in defeating the two-year term plan, ensuring the two hires will go ahead on a permanent basis as the draft budget planned.

McGurk came back later in the evening with a second bid to wipe the new positions from the budget entirely. That, too, was defeated.

Municipal enforcement’s overall budget will move from $1.7 million annually to $2.1 million, driven mostly but not entirely by those new positions. The division will grow from 11 to 13 staff.

The two new officers form part of a broader approach to improve Yellowknife’s downtown through more money to keep it clean and more of a focus on public safety.

While McLennan said much of that public safety work should really be done by RCMP, Arden Smith said as a former downtown business owner, she believed municipal enforcement needed “extra boots on the ground.”

City Hall says the new positions will mean a visible increase in downtown foot and bike patrols, which have been a stated priority for months. (Technically, the downtown has been a municipal enforcement priority for years, but the wording was refined and its urgency made a little clearer earlier in 2025.)

Mayor’s motion reduces tax increase

At the start of night three of 2026 budget talks, with more than $1 million cut on nights one and two, the estimated property tax increase for 2026 stood at 4.9 percent – down from 5.83 percent at the start of the week.

The draft budget had projected a seven-percent increase but that figure had already dropped due to other developments like an influx of carbon tax cash from the NWT government.

Night three would have resulted in no meaningful change but for a final manoeuvre from the mayor.

Hendriksen introduced a motion reducing the city’s “emerging issues reserve” by $500,000 – leaving it at $1 million – and using money from City Hall’s general fund to drop the tax increase by a further percentage point.

The general fund is the city’s main account for anything not covered by another specific fund. The city has a policy of keeping enough cash in the general fund that its balance is equivalent to between 10 and 15 percent of annual expenses, and council has to be careful not to dip so far into the fund that alarm bells related to that policy start to sound.

Hendriksen’s motion had the effect of dropping the tax increase for 2026 to 3.67 percent, while leaving the general fund balance at 10.69 percent of annual expenses.

The emerging issues reserve was set up after the 2023 wildfires to give the city a source of emergency cash in the event of a future crisis. But it still lacks a defined policy and some councillors have objected to having a seven-figure sum of money assigned to the reserve without a clear set of rules associated with it.

Those rules are supposed to arrive some time in 2026. In the meantime, Hendriksen said setting the reserve at $1 million felt like a reasonable outcome.

Parking meter fees will go up

Night one of this week’s deliberations involved cuts worth $735,000 to the likes of Somba K’e parking lot paving, tennis court repairs and early work to explore repurposing the old swimming pool building.

Night two saw council save $675,000 by scaling back – but not entirely eliminating – plans to upgrade downtown winter cleaning and maintenance work. A $560,000 project to build an accessible route up to the Pilots’ Monument tourist attraction was ultimately kept in the budget after a lengthy discussion.

Other outcomes from this week’s talks include a decision to permanently end fees for the fieldhouse track and playground following a 2025 pilot. Street Outreach operators will receive three-year contracts in future, not one-year contracts as had been the case till now.

Wednesday’s deliberations resulted in only one further change of consequence.

Deputy mayor Warburton introduced a motion that has the effect of increasing parking meter fees and using the extra revenue to fund downtown development incentives.

That incentive fund is decreasing, said Warburton, adding the city should not “start turning down folks building housing and doing other things because our fund is empty.”

“I support that,” added McGurk. “I think we don’t need to incentivize driving.”

The motion passed unanimously. The precise amount by which parking meter fees will increase as a result was not stated.