City council decided on Monday night that they will reopen the operating budget to see if they can bring down property taxes to help business owners.

The motion was put forward by Coun. Brian Swanson with the goal of getting a tax increase of zero per cent.

“Although our ability to act is limited compared to the provincial and federal governments, I do think that we could be looking at our operating budget and paring down the two per cent-plus tax increase that was passed,” Swanson said.

Coun. Dawn Luhning amended the motion to exclude the zero per cent as she was unsure about how realistic zero per cent would be.

While Swanson questioned what kind of leadership is being shown if zero per cent can’t be established, Coun. Crystal Froese said she supported the amendment and said it wasn’t a lack of leadership if they can’t get to zero per cent. She said everyone knows the magnitude of the situation and it needs to be solved in a democratic fashion without assigning a digit to the outcome.

“To suggest that only landing on zero indicates we have good leadership or that we completely understand the situation in our community I think isn’t really fair,” Froese said.

“There are seven of us here around this table and we all come from our own backgrounds and connections within the community. I’m also certain all of us know the magnitude of the situation that our citizens are feeling right now.”

The motion to open the budget was carried unanimously.

A motion by Coun. Luhning passed asking administration to look at the number of property tax and utility bills paid by non-essential businesses per month. She said she wanted to look at the possibility of completely eliminating bill payments for 30 to 90 days to give businesses immediate relief.

Motions were also passed so that no penalties will be incurred to customer’s tax accounts between April 1 and Sept. 30.

No late charges will be applied to utility accounts for recycling, garbage collection, water, and sewer during the same time period.

Administration will be looking at the Tax Instalment Payment Program and Water Instalment Payment Program to help those who can’t pay their bills.

Administration estimates that it’ll cost the city about $260,000 that will be made up by reducing expenditures.

City administration will continue to produce regular tax and utility bills and the new terms clearly stated.

Finally, it was approved that city administration will manage the city’s capital projects with priority projects moving forward and non-essential projects being deferred to conserve cash flow.