Steinbach city council is planning to continue gradual annual increases in the city's Capital Development fees. Those are the fees the city charges developers to pay for things like the installation of infrastructure-related items, expanded fire protection and the construction of sidewalks and neighbourhood parks. City council has given First Reading to a bylaw to increase those fees by 2.5 per cent per year for the next three years to keep pace with inflation. Mayor Earl Funk says it's a balancing act to try an establish the correct amount of the increase.

"The challenge we're having now is that we're losing ground a little bit in the development fees because, many times, construction costs are growing by about four to five per cent (per year), so growing faster than we are recouping them with the inflation rate increases. But we're doing our best to maintain our ground and we want to also be fair. We don't want to overcharge, we want to make sure that we are still going to bring development to our community but we also need to cover those costs."

Councillor Damian Penner says he considers 2.5 per cent per year to be a fair increase.

"Generally what we look at with inflation in Manitoba over history is about two to three per cent (per year) so this is right in line with that."

There will be a public hearing on the bylaw before city council considers giving it final approval. Pending that approval, the development fee for a single family home in Steinbach would rise next year by $256 to to just over $3,611. Developers generally pass along those costs by adding them to the price of a lot.