New Brunswick·NewMoncton council is combing through a proposed 2026 municipal budget that calls for holding the tax rate steady as spending climbs for policing and fire services. City council spends Tuesday going through 540-page spending planShane Magee · CBC News · Posted: Nov 04, 2025 3:53 PM EST | Last Updated: 37 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe draft 2026 budget calls for no tax rate increase in 2026. (Shane Magee/CBC)Moncton council unanimously voted Tuesday to reject adding 15 more RCMP officers next year over a lack of data. The afternoon vote came as council combed through the city’s 542-page budget. That proposed budget calls for no change in the municipal tax rate.The Codiac Regional Policing Authority board approved in September a $66.5 million budget with 15 more officers. The civilian board oversees Codiac Regional RCMP, which polices Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview. Once the board approves a budget, it goes to the three municipalities for consideration as part of their overall budgets. Riverview has yet to formally vote, but several councillors have said they will also reject the request. Moncton council’s vote Tuesday follows the three councils voting earlier this year to tell the policing authority they won’t approve further staffing increases until data is provided showing the impact of adding 17 positions this year. That data is only expected to be gathered next year. On Monday, after presenting the policing authority budget to Moncton council, the policing authority’s board chair Don Moore announced his resignation from the role. Budget proposes no change in tax rateMoncton’s proposed city budget calls for overall spending of $376,786,645. The budget calls for keeping the tax rate for most of the city at $1.3614 per $100 of assessed value. Areas amalgamated with the city in 2023 will also see the rate maintained at the same rate.The city’s water rate is going up, while the wastewater rate remains steady. The city projects a household’s average annual cost for both to be $1,138, up $10 from this year. Jacques Doucet, the city’s general manager of finance services, told council that the province’s assessment freeze meant the city lost about $11 million to $13 million in expected revenue growth. That led to some discussion earlier in the year about whether the city may need to increase the tax rate after several years of cuts. However, Doucet said the city is receiving about $9 million more in provincial funding than before.”That has really permitted us to invest in strategic areas and keep the tax rate flat,” Doucet said. He said if not for the freeze, staff would likely have recommended a tax rate cut.The budget calls for maintaining existing levels of services. The $236-million operating budget is up $12.5 million from 2025. The largest single cost, at $80 million, is staff wages and benefits. The city expects to have 835 full-time equivalent staff positions, up from 799. The budget calls for hiring 10 more firefighters for a rapid medical response truck. It’s one of several steps called for in a review of the city’s fire department. The second largest area of spending is the city’s share of Codiac Regional Policing Authority budget at $43 million. That’s up from $41 million last year and up from $24 million in 2020.Doucet said staff drafted the budget assuming no new RCMP officers next year, which is the motion council voted on in the afternoon. Even without additional officers, the budget for policing would climb because of contracts, equipment and other costs. If the councils and authority can’t agree on a budget, the province’s local government minister can step in to set the budget. Money for transitional housingThe capital budget calls for spending $92 million, with $17 million of that earmarked for “downtown facilities.” The budget says that could cover a long-discussed market relocation or new convention centre. A study of a convention centre was launched in 2023, but the results have not been presented publicly. There’s also $3.5 million for the city’s riverfront, Vision Lands development and building transitional housing. The budget says the city has “set aside funds to build transitional housing in our community.” The budget includes $10 million in 2027 for a new aquatics centre in the north end. Gregg Houser, the city’s deputy treasurer, said design work is continuing, and “the big construction would only happen in 2027.”Councillors have proposed several changes to the budget, including increasing spending on traffic-calming measures, which will be considered Thursday ahead of a final vote on the budget. ABOUT THE AUTHORShane Magee is a Moncton-based reporter for CBC News.
Moncton considers 2026 budget with no tax-rate change, no new RCMP officers
