Council is preparing to debate the city's plans for its 2018 budget this week.
On Monday, council was given an overview of the financial plan, which will be reviewed at a special meeting all-day Thursday.
Finance Director Genelle Davidson explained the major elements of the proposed tax increase.
"The proposed tax impact is 3.59% for 2018, and this is made up of some requests from the Fire Department - so that's 12 new firefighters, a new fire truck, a $200,000 reno to the Glenmore station," she said.
"So that adds up to 1.59% of the 3.59% presented to you today."
She also broke down the cost of such an increase.
"Municipal tax is estimated at $2,009 for 2018. The increase is just under $70 per household, and again, this can be attributed to the additional firefighters, fire truck, RCMP members that you'll see in the budget," she said.
"So this works out to $6/month for the average assessed home, or $1.50 per week."
The biggest piece of the budget is 134 million dollars in operating costs, which is an increase of about 5% from last year.
Davidson talked about how much particular staff cost.
"At the top is police services, at $32.1 million. Currently they have 179 members, with an additional ask of four members, for a total of 183 members," she said.
"The fire department is the third-largest budget at the city, with $18.4.million, and they have 132 staff."
Along with the operating side, the 2018 budget includes $46.8 million in capital investment.
Thursday's budget deliberations kick off at 9 am in council chambers.