Exceptional inflation across fire protection, infrastructure, and specialty engineering influenced Tantramar’s 2026 municipal budget, according to Director of Financial Services Michael Beal.
Emergency services and infrastructure costs continue to rise
Tantramar’s Director of Financial Services Michael Beal, who has worked in municipal finance for more than three decades, said inflation is hitting the municipality especially hard.
Recently, Beal spoke with CHMA about what these cost pressures mean for Tantramar in the year ahead.
Listen to the story below:
“The biggest pressure is that the CPI, the cost of providing the services have increased drastically. The same fire truck with the same specs that we bought 10 years ago for $400,000.” said Beal, “Today it’s over $800,000. Road reconstruction is costing us three times the cost it was 10 years ago,”
He added that even long-planned projects have become more expensive.
“When we estimated the Dorchester Fire Hall project, we had estimated it at three and a half million. It is an over $6 million project now. The strain that we have is continuing to provide the same level of services within the budget that we have.”
Reducing borrowing to manage inflation pressures
To manage growing costs, Tantramar continues shifting toward funding more of its capital work directly from revenue and reserves rather than taking on new debt.
“Overall the budget, I believe, is a good budget. We have $1.85 million that we’ll be doing in capital revenue. By doing that without borrowing, we save significantly on interest payments,” said Beal.
Beal said this approach helps Tantramar limit the impact of rising infrastructure and equipment prices.
What’s happening with property taxes
For residents looking at their tax bills, the 2026 budget brings different impacts depending on where they live.
Sackville and Dorchester tax rates remain the same this year. Local Service Districts see increases within the province’s 5 cent cap, including 5 cents for the Sackville and Dorchester LSDs and just over 4 cents for Point de Bute.
Why Tantramar continues to contract out specialty work
Councillors have raised concerns in recent months about contracting out engineering and planning work instead of hiring more staff. Beal said the issue comes down to the type of expertise required.
“You want to use them when you need them and use them once. We don’t have a traffic specialist on staff, we don’t have an architect on staff, we don’t have an electrical engineer on staff. A lot of times you contract out because you need the specialty and you wouldn’t hire the specialty full time.”
According to Beal, employees are already working at full capacity, and adding permanent staff for occasional specialty tasks would cost more over time.
Tantramar’s service levels hold steady for 2026
Despite rising costs across several departments, Beal said residents can expect the same level of municipal service next year.
“The big thing with the budget is that we are providing the same services to the residents of Tantramar in 2026 that we provided in 2025,” he said.
The budget was presented in detail during council’s December 3rd meeting, available on the municipality’s YouTube page at tantramarnb.com.
Council meets again tomorrow night (Tuesday December 9th) to vote on the $1.85 million proposal for the 2026 budget.
