KITCHENER -- The average Kitchener homeowner will be paying $23 more in taxes this upcoming year following approval of the city's 2022 budget.
In a Monday news release, the city says the 1.99 per cent tax increase is the lowest among Waterloo Region municipalities.
Average homeowners will also be seeing a 2.2 per cent increase in water utilities, which comes out to $26 a year, and a gas increase of 10.4 per cent, which comes out to $74 a year.
The 2022 budget includes a $2 million investment to create an affordable housing reserve fund.
"We’ve heard and seen that housing affordability has become the most urgent of those priorities, and we’re committed to work collaboratively with partners and taking any action available to us by funding the actions outlined in our Housing for All strategy," said Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic in a release. "These housing dollars will allow us to support various investments initiatives including the offset of development charges normally incurred by new housing projects.
"As a local municipality, covering development charges is one of the best ways we can encourage and support affordable housing projects in Kitchener."
The City of Kitchener also received $6.6 million on Monday from the federal government to go toward three affordable housing projects.
A number of city facility and trail upgrades that were put on pause in 2021 due to the pandemic will resume in 2022, according to officials.
