The Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) has approved updates to its Five-Year Financial Plan bylaw for 2025-2029, including a substantial increase to the mill rate for Class 8 (recreational) properties, following the rescinding and re-reading of the bylaw at the March 25 council meeting.
The most notable change was an amendment put forward by Councillor Ralph Forsyth to raise the recreational mill rate to 10 times the residential rate, rather than the staff-recommended 7.0 multiplier. The amendment passed with a 4 to 3 vote.
Councillors Forsyth, Jen Ford, Jessie Morden, and Arthur De Jong voted in favour of the amendment, while Couns. Cathy Jewett, Jeff Murl and Mayor Jack Crompton were opposed.
The increase will affect 12 taxable Class 8 properties. Previously, these properties paid a mill rate 6.1 times higher than the residential class. Staff’s rationale for the originally proposed increase is that the rate was significantly lower than what other municipalities charged to a large enterprise with an outsized role in the economy which consumes a large amount of local services.
The RMOW could not provide the exact properties affected by the change for privacy reasons, but Vail Resorts is the obvious main owner of properties that would be impacted.
Several other Class 8 properties aside from the 12 affected are non-profits, and therefore exempt.
After the meeting, staff told Pique the change will result in a year-over-year increase in municipal taxes between 78 and 105 per cent, based on property size, for affected properties. The funds will go primarily to the General Capital Reserve (GCR), which supports long-term infrastructure and community needs.
The Class 2 (utilities) mill rate was also increased, rising from $28 to $35 per $1,000 of assessed value. That increase aligns Whistler more closely with many other B.C. municipalities, most of which apply the provincial maximum to utility companies’ property.
Combined, the mill rate changes for Classes 2 and 8, along with an adjustment for non-market change (NMC) in 2024, are expected to generate an additional $1.2 million in tax revenue compared to the previously approved version of the financial plan. Of that, $300,000 will support payroll costs and $935,000 will go to the GCR.
During the presentation, RMOW chief financial officer Carlee Price explained the tax requisition adjustment is meant to account for NMC—employee housing developments as new properties added to the tax roll in 2024.
“This step of adjusting for prior-year, non-market change is a new one this year,” said Price. “Because in the past, it has largely been unnecessary.”
Whistler’s actual 2024 tax revenues came in higher than budgeted. The updated 2025 tax requisition now incorporates the additional $309,000 in unanticipated revenue from NMC.
Divided over mill rate
Council had a spirited debate about the balance between tax fairness and the potential financial impact on property owners in Class 8.
Forsyth, who introduced the amendment, said the increase was a way to distribute municipal costs more equitably.
“We have a revenue source that … can make things more equitable for everyone in the community,” he said.
Others expressed concern about the impact of such a large increase. Murl supported the original staff recommendation, calling it a more measured approach.
“We’ll be tackling this issue in future budgets. I think maybe a gradual increase, as [staff] proposed, makes more sense,” Murl said. “I’m not saying never. I’m saying just maybe not this time.”
The revised financial plan also includes six projects that were missed, unfinished, or recently came into view in the budget process—three funded by provincial Resort Municipality Initiative grants and three through the General Operating Fund. Another sub-project proposed in the amendment was a new short-term rental enforcement initiative tied to a federal grant application. If approved, Whistler would receive $540,000 over three years from the Government of Canada’s Short-Term Rental Enforcement Fund to support staffing, legal costs, and compliance efforts.
The amended 2025 budget maintains the previously announced 8.25-per-cent tax increase for residential, industrial, and business properties (Classes 1, 5, and 6), which together represent 99.5 per cent of the community’s assessed property value.
The amended Five-Year Financial Plan Bylaw was given third reading following the vote on the mill rate amendment, and was subsequently adopted at the April 8 meeting.
