The District of Central Saanich has released its Draft 2026 Financial Plan, outlining how the municipality will continue to deliver essential services, maintain infrastructure, and plan responsibly for the future while keeping tax increases as modest as possible.
The Draft 2026 Financial Plan is balanced at $75.5 million and includes funding for core services such as fire protection, policing, transportation infrastructure, water and sewer services, parks and trails, building and planning services, bylaw enforcement, and municipal administration.
The District of Central Saanich is proposing a 7.37 per cent municipal property tax increase for 2026, representing approximately $205 for the average home.
“This is one of the lowest increases in the region; however it is almost $20 a month to the average home, and we respect that year over year, these increases add up,” said the District’s Chief Administrative Officer, Christine Culham. “We are very mindful of that, and our goal is to balance affordability with the need to maintain essential services and critical infrastructure.”
The budget includes the municipality’s planned replacement of Municipal Hall, Fire Station 2, Police Station, and Municipal Yard—none of which contributes to the tax increase. “We have worked hard to propose a plan that doesn’t impact taxpayers, and thanks to many years of managing debt and savings as well as looking at land sales, we are able to undertake this critical project,” said Culham.
For a typical residential property in Central Saanich, the proposed 2026 municipal increase sees $103 increase for municipal services including fire services; $45 for police services; $9 for library services; $34 for annual infrastructure replacement savings and $14 for annual new and active transportation infrastructure funding.
Residents can read the budget at LetsTalkCentralSaanich.ca/Budget2026 and at Municipal Hall. Questions or feedback can be sent to communications@csaanich.ca, and the public is invited to watch the presentation of the budget to Council on March 30, and April 8, at 6:00 p.m.; both meetings will be held in Council Chambers and livestreamed online. Agendas and viewing information will be available at CSaanich.ca/Meetings.
The municipal budget will make up approximately half of property tax bills or roughly $2,500 to the average home with the rest collected for regional agencies; property tax notices are mailed in late May.