A sit-down with the mayor of Wilmot Township

Wilmot Mayor Natasha Salonen speaks about the past year at council, highlighting progress made behind the scenes and priorities heading into 2026. Photo courtesy of Wilmot Township

Lee Griffi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

“2025 has been a year.”

That was the response from Mayor Natasha Salonen when asked about the highs and lows of the past year as head of council.

“I am very excited about the momentum we are leaving 2025 with. We now have our new CAO that council unanimously voted in. We have Jeff Wilmer with us for the upcoming budget in early 2026. Working with KPMG, working with our staff, getting that ship course-correcting; some of the things we found throughout the year have been positive.”

Salonen used her Strong Mayor Powers to hire the consulting group to come up with the township’s draft budget due in large part to a staff shortage in the finance department after several years of turnover.

Wilmot recently received a report from StrategyCorp, one of Canada’s top government affairs, communications and management consulting advisory firm. It provides services like government relations, strategic communications and management consulting.

The report found there were gaps in institutional knowledge, data availability and poor staff morale. Council was also told the township’s most recent financial information return (FIR) submission, a mandatory annual report municipalities must submit to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, was last done in 2022.

“Those are all in and we are in compliance again and we are headed in a great direction with really good momentum out of 2025 to make 2026 a great year to continue building on the financial foundation we have been working hard to correct,” she said.

Salonen said the goal is to put Wilmot in a much better financial position than she and the other rookie members of council found it three years ago by the end of their term next year. She added government works slowly, even when it’s working well, and it takes time to make improvements.

“Like with most roles, there’s a learning curve and we had an entirely new council walking into a lot of things we, nor the general public, really had any concept of. It has taken time to get things done and I am not about brining in change for the sake of change. I am about understanding what’s going on and where things can be improved or corrected, then going in with a plan.”

Salonen admitted there has been some bumps in the road for the township over the past three years but added it takes time to get the right staff in the right positions to make progress.

“I am confident we are there. Some of the new hires as well as internal promotions that have happened are positive and speak to all of us moving in the right direction for the organization to better serve the community and, to some extent, the level of expectation people have always had.”

The mayor added it was a relief to conclude the Prime Ministers Path consultations and plan, though she isn’t able to talk about any future moves by the advisory committee due to her mother’s involvement. She said another win for the township is a website refresh she credited to staff.

“Our communications staff person, Brett O’Reilly, has been working on a complete website transformation which officially went live in September. We have had a lot of people pleased with how much easier it is to find things on our website and improving customer service for people using our online presence.”

She added all council members wanted to improve communication with the public and the website has allowed the township to take a big step in that direction. When asked what items weren’t accomplished in 2025, Salonen said providing direct messaging to the public has been a bit of a challenge with council’s support person on maternity leave.

“That has made resources for council a bit harder but that is something we want to continue to work on and improve. There are only so many hours in the day and these positions are not even part-time for councillors, they’re really a small job in terms of compensation and general expectations, but the public and the community continue to have more needs.”

Salonen expects the communications department to be fully staffed later in 2026 and added council has approved a few subdivisions leading to the hope for shovels in the ground to start responsible growth in the township.

“That would help with our tax base and some of the proposal have great options for different income levels to be able to attain home ownership in the community. Affordability is key in keeping our younger folks who want to stay and continue to be a part of the township. Allowing them to be able to enter the housing market is very important.”

She added council is waiting on final design plans in the hope developments will progress next year.