East Zorra-Tavistock budget timeline announced

By Lee Griffi

If all goes according to plan, East Zorra-Tavistock (EZT) will approve its 2026 budget on April 1.

Township CAO Karen DePrest gave council a report at its Feb. 4 meeting and explained Mayor Phil Schaefer chose not to utilize his strong mayor powers to table a budget himself.

“The strong mayor deadline was Feb. 1. As he had already committed, he had delegated the plan for us to do a council budget so council would oversee the process.”

She added Schaefer has been an active participant in the budget’s development.

“He sat alongside senior staff a week ago just to go through how we bring the budget document together. We are going to have another discussion about the capital budget, but this report is strictly to demonstrate the timelines and to put it out to the public.”

DePrest said she will present the draft document to council at the regular meeting on March 4 at 9 a.m.

“We are proposing a special meeting of council to be held on Tuesday, March 10, at 9 a.m. in council chambers to allow us to do a working session as we have in the past, going over each department one by one.”

A public meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 18, at 7 p.m., allowing residents to speak to council. The budget bylaw is expected to be presented for approval at the regular council meeting on April 1.

Schaefer said he appreciated having an active role in the development of the document.

“We’ve done the operating budget portion and will be finishing with the capital later today. I found it a very worthwhile exercise to be involved from that point. Just like other years, this is a budget that is built from the ground up, and council will have the ability to provide input.”

He is also hoping members of the public will provide input on what they would like to see in the 2026 budget.

“The public meeting and budget schedule will be advertised on our social media. The dates indicated in the council report … will be added to our budget page on the website. The draft budget will be posted on the EZT website on March 6.”

There were no delegations from the public during last year’s deliberations, but the township did not advertise the meeting.

Anyone looking to make verbal or written comments should contact EZT clerk Meaghan Vader before March 10 at 4:30 p.m. for inclusion at the March 18 meeting.

“Letting us know ahead of time with the nature of their comments is helpful for staff to be prepared to provide necessary context or more information if needed, but it is not required that they register. Anyone who shows up will be allowed to participate by providing their comments or questions to council during the public-meeting portion of the meeting,” the mayor added.

In keeping with the township’s adopted approach to capital planning, the five-year capital forecast now reflects projects planned from 2026 to 2030.

“The team also thinks it would be prudent to continue to have a separate, dedicated special meeting of council,” said DePrest’s report to council.

“Staff will also be doing a comparison review of the township’s user fee schedule as part of this year’s budget during February. Recommended additions/deletions or adjustments to the fee schedule will be included in the March 4 update. Any fee changes will come into effect on July 1 to give adequate notice to all users,” it added.