Kitimat's Finances

What is the broad picture? Where does our money come from, where does it go, and what comes next?

This page can't replace the detailed work produced by the District's financial team, nor should it. Those documents are thorough for good reason.

Instead, I've pulled together some of the figures I think are most useful for understanding where our money comes from, where it goes, and what lies ahead. This was made to simplify topics, answer common questions, and make things easier to visualize. Take this as an opportunity to see things at a glance, and a call to examine our finances further.

The figures below come from District of Kitimat budgets, financial plans, and other published municipal documents. I've simplified and rounded figures for readability, created various graphs/charts and linked the original sources throughout. Take a look, follow the sources, and come to your own conclusions.

Let's look at our property taxes

What do our expenses look like?

For a quick breakdown of our 2026 core operating expense budget of $49.2 million:

25.9% is dedicated to maintaining roads, parkspace, municipal buildings, water, sewer, and snow removal (and more).

22.1% is dedicated to police, fire department, emergency services, and bylaw enforcement. For those unaware, Kitimat is unique as we are the only municipality in BC that operates its own dual-role fire and ambulance service, under contract with BCEHS.

21.9% is dedicated to municipal management, finance, HR, IT, legal services and council

14.7% goes towards operating community facilities, like our pool, Tamitik, & Riverlodge. This also includes youth and Kitimat leisure services.

9.3% covers design and project management for municipal infrastructure. Includes roads, water and sewer engineering

2.6% funds events, and intiatives to attract new businesses and support the ones we already have. These funds are used to bring in investors and skilled workers.

1.9% goes towards debt servicing, largely for paying for our new water treatment plant in 2026.

1.6% covers land use planning, zoning, assessing applications for developments, and building inspections/permitting processes

Putting these numbers into percentages does not entirely show the full picture, and mobility of our funds. However, you can see some of the competing priorities in our district. 

On council, the question goes further than where needs more spending, or where we can save. We need to ensure effective value for our spending, ensure it's sustainable, and whether we're preparing for costs we know are coming, while making sure every Kitimatian can live to their fullest.

What do our reserves look like?

This DOK table from our 5-year plan above shows the 2026 - 2030 projected reserves.

Again, we can see the large jump in the 2029 figures alongside the end of LNG's Revitalization property tax exemption.

Some important context here is that our reserves have been largely earmarked and have been diminishing, dropping from $27.7 million in 2021, to $11.5 million at the end of 2025, and now $8.9 million we see here projected in 2026. 

To visualize, I've made this line graph of our reserves from 2020-2030. Data from 2026 onwards is projected*

Sources: (1) (2) (3) - I  took a different angle than the Northern Sentinel article on this, choosing to examine the reserve on 01/01/26 for this chart*

The rise to 2030 appears to be a comfortable increase in reserve funds, but its important to keep in mind the plan for a new public safety building (firehall), alongside other major capital spending plans which will require borrowing outside of grant allocation. 

That's precisely the reason this municipal election is important; if our revenues rise as expected, we will be able to create a stronger and more connected community, assist Kitimatians in thriving, and restore some of the financial flexibility that we have lost.

Projected Debt

Kitimat in recent history has not taken on high levels of debt. The 2026 - 2030 financial plan looks to change that story.

Debt servicing goes from $931,017 in 2026 to just over $4 million by 2029. 

This DOK chart shows projected debt financing in those 5 years.

While we haven't taken on much debt, we have allowed our buildings to age. 

The fire hall is a clear example.

Back in 2012, an assessment from IRC Building Sciences Group found that the firehall renovations to "meet building and structural upgrades to meet current post disaster requirements was greater than 75% of the estimated replacement cost."

We did another study in 2016 to find similar observations with "Major deficits in the building's ability to resist earthquake loads have been identified,and major retrofits to upgrade the building's seismic resistance are recommended"

(Read pg. 151 in the source 2026 doc*)

The current 5-year plan projects $55-million in debt financing to address this issue.

Low debt does not necessarily mean we have avoided all costs; there is a cost to waiting. The March 2nd 2026 council agenda states that "if the project is not advanced promptly, some of the work may need to be completed to maintain operations."

• Upgrade seismic resistance to post-disaster standard ($5.5MM – 2016 Cost Estimate)

• Replace flat roofing ($0.5MM – 2016 Cost Estimate)

• Replace windows and any rotten framing ($1.0MM – 2016 Cost Estimate)

• Replace boiler ($0.5MM – 2016 Cost Estimate)

• Replace domestic water piping ($0.35MM – 2016 Cost Estimate)

• Replace electrical distribution panel and wiring ($0.25MM – 2016 Cost Estimate)

When considering OH&S of our firefighter-paramedics, disrepair means risk placed upon the first responders who serve our community. We know that building needs to be replaced, yet, the bulk of the new detailed building design was deferred to Budget 2027. This line, I'm keeping a close eye on, alongside Mountainview Square, Lot 14 (next to the hospital).

The firehall is only one project (but by far, the largest), the water treatment plant, aquatic centre, and SCBA are going to impact the amount of debt we will have.

I believe the upgrades are necessary for our community. I also believe the public needs to know, and be able to comment on our spending. Exactly, why I write about this today.

What is the RBA?

You've probably noticed "RBA funded" and the mountain logo turning up around town lately, I wanted to quickly explain.

The Resource Benefits Alliance (RBA) has been formed by a group of 21 local governments that came together in 2014 to pressure the province to properly compensate the communities which host industry and generate revenue for BC. This resulted in the Northwest BC Regional Funding Agreement. 

The Province agreed to provide $250 million from 2024-2028 to address infrastructure pressures that come from having major industry in our towns. 

We have been allocated $19.5 million over these 5 years; about $3.9 million annually.

 As seen in the January 2026 budget deliberations, so far $16.8 million has already been earmarked/approved for capital projects. Here is this year's list produced from then:

• 1. Water Treatment Unit Construction ($460,000)

• 2. Detailed Design for Public Safety Building Replacement ($1 M)

• 3. Spray Park Construction ($1.5M)

• 4. Pool Duct Sox Replacement ($425,000)

• 5. Pool Sand Filter Replacement ($600,000)

• 6. Pool Heat Pump Replacement ($750,000)

• 7. Annual Walkway Reconstruction Program ($600,000)

• 8. Haisla Boulevard to Nalabila Boulevard Walkway ($700,000)

• 9. Street Reconstruction Program ($200,000)

• 10. Eco Depot Design ($300,000)

• 11. Indigenous Relations Manager initiatives, operational expense ($150,000)

(This list exceeds $3.9 million as there is a rollover of funds if unspent. Changes to this list in the 2026 capital allocation can be found here)

This includes the now $2.25 million Spray Park Development at the Lions Park. This project was initially budgeted at 1.5 million, but updated construction estimates required an extra $750k to cover development.