Perth County council begins 2026 budget deliberations with a proposed 7.93 per-cent levy increase

Draft budget introduced in December, council dives into capital budget Jan. 8

By Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Perth County council has officially dug into this year’s draft budget, which carries a proposed tax-levy increase of 7.93 per cent, inclusive of growth.

The draft 2026 budget was introduced to councillors at the Dec. 18, 2025, council meeting. It proposes to levy roughly $27.5 million from ratepayers across the county, which is up by more than $2.4 million over last year’s $25.1-million levy. The county, however, saw 1.76 per cent or $442,000 in growth to its tax base last year, reducing the impact of the overall levy increase – roughly 9.7 per cent – down to 7.93 per cent or roughly $1.9 million.

“As we move further beyond the inflationary challenges of 2025, the 2026 draft budget reflects a continued trend of easing economic pressures,” Perth County treasurer Corey Bridges told council at its Dec. 18, 2025, meeting. “This marks a shift towards more financial stabilization and a more predictable planning environment. With no usage in the plan of reserves for 2026 county operations, Perth County is entering a phase of fiscally disciplined budgeting with an opportunity for strategic investment, turning the corner after a couple of challenging fiscal cycles.”

The total budget amounts to roughly $74 million in spending this year, with approximately $64.4 million of that spending in the draft operating budget and $9.6 million in the draft capital budget. The net levy includes an operation levy of $22.4 million and a capital levy of $5.1 million, the latter of which will be used in addition to reserve funds and government grants to pay for 33 capital projects slated for 2026.

“Major impacts related to the 2026 budget include winter maintenance and a shift of municipal-drains funding from operations to capital reserves, as well as paramedic wages and WSIB impacts accounting for the majority of the 2026 draft increase in operations (costs),” Bridges said.

“ … We continue to increase winter-maintenance expenses to ensure the county is maintaining our budget, as well as trying to generate a surplus within that depleted winter-maintenance reserve. The increase in 2026 is approximately $600,000 to winter maintenance. Municipal drain work continues to be a significant impact to operations, which is why our staff have moved the treatment of these municipal drains to be funded from the bridges and culverts reserve to ease the significant operational costs and smooth the fluctuations through capital-reserve funds. The reduction impact to operations is approximately $860,000.”

The county is also looking to hire the equivalent of two full-time employees within Perth County Paramedic Services, equating to an additional $231,000 in salary and benefits. Accounting for COLA and non-COLA salary and wage increases this year, the total salary and benefits cost increase in the draft 2026 budget is roughly $1.7 million.

For a single-family home assessed by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) in 2016 at $284,000, the proposed 7.93 per-cent tax-rate increase would see the property owner’s upper-tier portion of their tax bill increase by just over $81. Similarly, the county portion of farmland taxes for a property assessed at the average of nearly $1.6 million would increase by about $111; an apartment building assessed at $807,000 would see a tax increase of just over $230; a small retail commercial property assessed at $211,000 would see an increase of $75; and a standard industrial property assessed at nearly $502,000 would see a jump by almost $282.

County begins budgeting for an additional $10 million in costs for bridges and culverts over the next decade

After the budget was introduced to council on Dec. 18, 2025, councillors returned to the table in the new year to dig into the 2026 draft capital budget in more detail.

During the discussion that ensued on Jan. 8, county public works executive director John McClelland explained the need to increase the county’s contributions to its bridges and culverts reserve by $910,000 this year – an amount included in the proposed $5.1-million capital levy, which represents an increase by just over $1 million or 4.3 per cent over last year’s capital levy.

“Roads and bridges make up the bulk of this budget. Certainly, within all the county’s assets, roads and bridges account for well over 75 per cent,” McClelland said.

“ … That being said, we do see some impacts that we’ll be looking at down the road when it comes to bridges and culverts. Perth County will not be alone in this; this will likely be most municipalities within Ontario, if not Canada and North America. There are a significant number of bridges and culverts that were built in the 1960s and they will be coming to the end of their useful life within the next 10-15 years.”

With 43 bridges included in the county road network, McClelland said 30 of those bridges were built in the 1960s or prior and will need to be either rehabilitated or replaced in the near future. Many of those bridges have already been rehabilitated two or three times, and McClelland said costs for both rehabilitation and replacement projects continue to increase drastically.

“And rehabilitating one of these old bridges may not extend its service life much more than 10-15 years, if that,” McClelland continued. “ … It’s just not a great return on investment. … However, our current reserve and funding levels are insufficient to replace all the bridges at their end of life, so we will have to look at some of these projects from a rehabilitation standpoint and we need to be looking farther ahead so we have better options to present to you for rehabilitation versus replacement.

“So, we are looking farther ahead, and we are also looking at funding models with which to accommodate this.”

The following is a department breakdown as to how the county will spend this year’s $9.6-million capital budget:

• Technology services: Total spend – $298,500; projects include replacements of fire radio equipment, network equipment, printers, a new server, Toughbook laptops for EMS and desktop and laptop computers, as well as an upgrade to the Windows server and client access licences.

• Bridges and culverts: Total spend – $2.2 million; projects include culvert replacements on Perth Road 107 south of Shakespeare, Perth Road 163 north of Perth Line 8, Perth Road 129 and Perth Road 120 A. Preliminary design work will also be completed for a future rehabilitation or replacement of a bridge on Perth Line 20.

• Roads: Total spend – $5.3 million; projects include 22 kilometres of road rehabilitation on county roads including Perth Road 130 from Perth Road 132 to Sebringville, Perth Line 43 from Perth Line 119 to Waterloo Region boundary, and Perth Road 135 from Highway 8 to Perth Line 39. The 2026 draft capital budget also includes the development of a transportation master plan for the county.

• Facilities: Total spend – $522,000; projects include a number of capital maintenance projects at the county courthouse and work at the paramedic headquarters building in Stratford and the paramedic bases in Listowel and Milverton.

• Fleet: Total spend – $845,000; vehicle purchases include a Class A maintenance vehicle, a Class B tandem truck and a Class C pickup truck and SUV.

• Paramedic services: Total spend – $270,935; projects include replacement of medical equipment and AEDs, and the purchase of bariatric and pediatric restraints.

Perth County council will discuss the county’s draft operating budget at its regular meeting Jan. 22.