Property taxes appear to be rising in Yorkton in 2026.
The proposed budget – publicly unveiled at a special meeting of Yorkton Council Jan. 7 — included an overall property tax increase of 3.85 per cent, explained Ashley Stradeski, Director of Finance with the city.
The increase is split with 2.75 per cent required for the proposed operating budget, and 1.1 per cent for capital.
Adding at least one per cent to the capital budget was already planned and approved in the 2025 / 2026 Capital budget during the prior year’s deliberations, reminded Stradeski, adding after Council deliberations this year, it was decided to increase this amount to allow for more annual funding for important capital projects, and as such this has been increased to 1.10 per cent which brings the annual increase for our Capital budget to $337,000 in 2026.
In addition, Stradeski noted an additional one per cent is budgeted for 2027’s Capital budget.
The Capital budget is a two-year budget, done to allow planning of larger projects such as infrastructure and construction, facility upgrades or new builds, and other initiatives that are not ongoing.
By doing two-year budgets, the city can have lead-up and design time on the larger projects, said the Director of Finance.
The Operating budget is the City’s regular and ongoing operations, including things like snow removal, grass cutting, and everything else the city regularly does on a daily basis.
The budget process was undertaken initially with the premise of maintaining a service level status quo budget as a starting point, said Stradeski. This means that costs reflected in the preliminary budgets for most departments are estimated to provide the same level of services to the residents of Yorkton as the year prior.
While noting most service levels were maintained, Stradeski said there are some increases, and some decreases as well.
Overall, Stradeski said the creation of the budget introduced publicly at the meeting is the result of many months of internal effort and behind closed doors deliberations.
Budget preparations began by the individual departments in September and October, with those compiled, analyzed and adjusted through a cooperative process over October and November, and initially brought before Council at the Strategic Planning meetings throughout November and December to present, discuss, and to seek direction from Council, said Stradeski.
Stradeski said the 2026 increases will mean ‘roughly’ $7.60 per month to the average residential homeowner.
Council unanimously approved a recommendation to post the dual budget documents on the city’s website for public review and that administration bring a budget report and summary of feedback to the next regular meeting of Council set for Jan. 26.
