Monte Creek Fire Protection

The new service will result in a new fire department to offer exterior structural fire protection to homes and business in the Monte Creek area.  This service will include the construction of a new fire hall, purchase of a fire truck, purchase of firefighting equipment, and recruitment of volunteer firefighters.

The annual operating budget for the service is $175,000 per year. The money to cover annual operating costs will come from property taxes, which are based on the assessed value of each property. The maximum tax rate for ongoing operational costs is 66.5 cents per $1,000 dollars of assessed value. This means if your property was assessed at $1 million, the tax collected for the fire department operations would be $665 for that year. You can calculate the maximum tax rate for your property by multiplying the assessed value of your property by 0.000665.

Formula: (property assessment) x 0.000665 = annual property taxes

Example: ($500,000) x 0.000665 = $332.50

Please note: The 20-year parcel tax  is in addition to property taxes. This means a property assessed at $1 million would pay $665 towards the fire protection service operating budget, plus the $321 parcel tax.

Please also note that the parcel tax will only be collected until the capital loan is paid off after approximately 20 years, after which time only property taxes will be collected to cover ongoing operational costs.

The new hall will be located at the corner of Hook Road and Dallas Drive.  This land has been generously offered as a donation by the Herman Family.

This location is also centrally located within the proposed service area and offers excellent access to the highway for easy and fast response.

The capital budget for the service is $2.25 million.  This includes approximately $1.3 million for the construction of a new hall, $750,000 for a fire truck and fire tender, and $200,000 for personal protective equipment for fire fighters, including required self-contained breathing apparatus.

The TNRD has secured $1 million in grant funding. Ken Gillis, TNRD Electoral Area “L” Director, and Mel Rothenburger, TNRD Electoral Area “P” director, have each committed $500,000 from the Canada Community Building Fund. 

The remaining $1.25 million will be borrowed by the TNRD from the Municipal Finance Authority, to be paid back over a 20-year period by the property owners within the proposed service area (Monte Creek).

The money to pay back the loan will be collected through a parcel tax which will be imposed on all properties within the proposed service area. The parcel tax will be equal for all properties, regardless of assessed value. 

The parcel tax will be approximately $321 per property, per year, for 20 years. 

Taxation collected for a specified fire protection area cannot, and will not, be used for any other purposes. Any unspent tax collected for this service will either be used to offset taxes in the following year or put into a reserve fund devoted to the specific service.

We cannot guarantee reductions in insurance rates, as insurance companies act independently and consider various factors when setting rates.  However, generally speaking, homeowners see significant costs savings in insurance premiums if they have fire protection. In many cases, insurance premium savings are equal to or greater than the increase in taxation from a new fire department.

We can also confirm that most insurers in Canada use the rating system from the Fire Underwriters Survey (FUS) to set insurance premiums. For a property to be considered protected, the FUS requires that it be within a maximum of 8 kilometres (by road) of a recognized fire hall. The majority of properties within the service are within this maximum, however, there are some properties beyond this limit. Those properties may not benefit from the same level of insurance savings as those within the 8-km limit. 

We strongly encourage you contact your insurance broker with specific questions regarding costs for your specific property.

The service area includes the Monte Creek area, including Del Oro, Lafarge and East Barnhartvale. On the south side of the South Thompson River, the service area includes properties along the Trans-Canada Highway between the City of Kamloops boundary (near the BC Wildlife Park) and the junction with Highway 97. It continues up Hwy 97 to Barnhartvale Road, including properties at the east end of Barnhartvale Rd.   

On the north side of the river, the service area includes the properties along East Shuswap Road between Harper Ranch Road and Rivershore.  Please note the community of Rivershore is not included in the service area and properties east of Rivershore are also not included.

To confirm whether or not you property is within the service area, please use the interactive map on this page.

No. The service, and the costs of the service, only impacts properties in the Monte Creek Fire Protection Service area. This means that there are no costs or other implications for properties outside of the service area.

The new service began in January of 2023. There were no impact to 2022 property taxes for parcels within the Monte Creek Fire Protection Service Area. 

For more information, see the TNRD’s news release from January 9, 2023 by clicking here.

There is no option to opt out of a fire protection service once it is established.