Today, the City of St. John’s released the details of Budget 2024, which addresses growing operational costs while ensuring no cuts to programs and services. The 2024 Budget for the City of St. John’s is balanced at $343,947,041, an increase of 3.2% over 2023.

“The City is not immune to the inflationary pressures being felt by our residents and individuals across the country,” said Councillor Ron Ellsworth, Council lead for Finance. “These financial pressures, combined with our commitment to maintain and enhance City services that are important to our residents and businesses, has led to the decision by Council to increase property taxes in 2024.”

The residential mil rate will increase by 0.8, bringing the new rate to 9.1 and the commercial mil rate will increase by 2.6 bringing the new rate to 29.5. Residential water tax will marginally increase by $5 and commercial water usage rates will rise 0.75%. All revenue from the water tax directly funds the provision of the service.

“The City has made a commitment under the current strategic plan to be a sustainable City. This budget aligns with this strategic direction, allowing us to remain fiscally responsible while ensuring we provide current, new and improved City services,” added Councillor Ellsworth.

Budget 2024 outlines a number of investments in programs and services. Highlights include:

• Increasing the total budget for snow clearing in 2024 by 25.4% to $25.5 million to support improved snow clearing efforts and to commence the transition to a newer, more reliable fleet of vehicles which will begin to be rolled out for Winter 2024-25.
• Investing $1.16 million into waste collection vehicles, which will support savings of approximately $810,000 in maintenance costs and improve reliability.
• Increasing the allocated budget for capital works projects by $3.1 million, for a total anticipated capital spend of $25.4 million to improve the City’s infrastructure.
• Creating new recreational programming and facilities, specifically through the opening of the new H.G.R. Mews Community Centre in the spring of 2024, and the construction and upgrading of sports facilities for the upcoming 2025 Canada Summer Games.
• Growing a safe, accessible, balanced transportation network through the expansion of shared use paths projects and continued investment in Metrobus and GoBus transit.
• The City will continue to redirect 10% of the development fees collected to a reserve for community-led affordable housing projects.

Related Links:

• 2024 Budget Book
• Budget 2024 webpage