5% 'Allowance for Inflation' in Rossland Tax Increase is more than double last year's average inflation rate

I hope I'm wrong but what I'm seeing is:

"Under the proposed plan, five per cent of the increase each year would go toward offsetting inflation" (Mar 27, 2025, Rossland News, Rossland drafts financial plan with 10 per cent tax hike)

This is concerning given the actual rate of inflation in March was only 2.3%, Feb. 2.6 and 1.9 in January. That is an average Q1 2025 inflation rate of 2.3. Meanwhile, the average inflation rate for ALL of 2024 was 2.4%. Why is the City of Rossland proposing a 5% allowance for inflation which is more than double the average rate for the past 15 months? That is extravagant. Plus, "The Bank of Canada aims to keep inflation at the 2 per cent midpoint of an inflation-control target range of 1 to 3 per cent.". 

I'm not sure when the plan was developed but the inflation rate in Canada has not been 5% since 2023 and that was an anomaly in a year where the average rate was 3.9%.

If the one metric that can be correlated to a key economic indicator (that is tracked, calculated and published by the federal Government) is inflated 100% what does that mean for the rest of the plan? Unfortunately, this reflects extremely badly on the credibility of the total plan, and the checks and balances that should have occurred before it was presented to the alarm of taxpayers. 

This is a quick and necessary fix. Drop the arbitrary 5% rate to the previous year's average (2.4%) knocking 2.6% off the proposed tax increase, and going forward use past annual averages to forecast the future rather than randomly selecting a wildly inflated number that shockingly makes it into the final plan. On this point, I would like to see much more scrutiny of such a serious and widely impacting plan. Large, consecutive tax increases are a credible threat to the diversity of this community and the people who have invested their lives into living here. 

In closing, previous years' averages are much more reliable - and more widely accepted - predictors of the future. The published BOC monetary policy with respect of inflation is also a good reference. 

Inflation stats: https://www.rateinflation.com/inflation-rate/canada-inflation-rate/

Bank of Canada quote: https://www.bankofcanada.ca/core-functions/monetary-policy/inflation/