It’s too soon to say whether or not Kamloops taxpayers will have the deadline extended for paying property taxes.

Mayor Ken Christian says that decision lies with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.

He says the staff and council wants to do what’s right within the City of Kamloops during this pandemic because of COVID-19.

“But again, we have a payroll to meet, just like everybody else. So while it sounds good, and council could be patted on the back for deferring utility fees and deferring taxes, at the end of the day we have 750 employees who rely on us paying them every two weeks. Just like many other businesses do.”

Christian says this is a difficult topic, and the council Finance Committee is looking at what it can do locally.

“Denis Walsh chairs our finance committee, along with councillor Bill Sarai and councillor Mike O’Reilly. And they are busy looking to our finance director to provide some recast of our budget so that we will be able to get back to work in this new context, and figure out where we are with the tax increase.”