Perth County council rejects proposed budget cuts, passes 2025 with 11.3% tax increase

Despite county council’s previous request to have staff bring the proposed tax increase this year down to an even 10 per cent, Perth County councillors couldn’t stomach the cuts proposed by staff and instead passed the 2025 budget with an 11.3 per-cent tax increase, inclusive of growth.

At a special meeting of county council April 10, councillors reviewed a list of cuts proposed by department managers and directors to the departmental budgets for the CAO’s office, economic development, archives, legislative services, information technology (IT), human resources, paramedic services, council and planning that would have the least operational impact on the county while reducing the proposed 2025 levy by nearly $286,000 or 1.29 per cent.

In presenting the list of proposed cuts to county council, county treasurer Corey Bridges suggested that instead of using the savings realized through cutting items like professional development for staff and deferring projects and purchases to the 2026 budget to reduce the impact on county ratepayers, council use that money to bolster the county’s capital roads reserve to offset the impact of planned drainage work by the lower-tier municipalities and the possible impact of 2025 winter maintenance costs based on the first two months of this year, which has already eaten up approximately 62 per cent of the county’s winter-maintenance budget for 2025.

“The items within that list are indicated by management to be mild in nature (when it comes to) the effect on their operations,” Bridges said. “(They’re) to be deferred but returned again in 2026 for the purpose of moving the organization forward. What we have provided to council now is that there are some major components within public works that are impacting the operation a little more significantly than the mild changes that were identified within the (list of cuts).

“ … The impact of municipal drains, the impact of winter maintenance; we haven’t seen a winter like this since, I think, I was born in 1977. Those components are where we reside when we talk about 2025 operations, and the recommendation to hold that money in the capital roads reserve (so it can be) utilized by council to deal with the impacts of where 2025 might reside at the end of the year, I think, is prudent on council to consider.”

Councillors, however, balked at the idea of making cuts only to “squirrel the money away” for future uses. Simultaneously, they disagreed with, on principle, the cuts themselves. Councillors Todd Kasenberg and Rhonda Ehgoetz, and deputy warden Dean Trentowsky each spoke against the cuts.

Ehgoetz, who led the charge in having staff bring back proposed cuts to the budget at a previous council meeting, said she felt it was unfair some departments like economic development, IT and paramedic services seemed to bear the brunt of the proposed cuts while other departments like public works and facilities seemed to get away without any cuts to their budgets.

“Why is our budget process so convoluted and hard?” she said. “… We’ve been at this for six months. This is ridiculous what we’re doing. Why is there not (cuts) from every department? Some departments got hit really hard and there’s some departments that aren’t here at all.

“To me, we’re all in this together. Everybody needs to give something up. … We’ve hit economic development pretty hard; they’re the ones trying to get businesses to come here. If we don’t have the businesses, we don’t have any economic development in our communities.”

Kasenberg and Trentowsky, meanwhile, suggested it isn’t prudent to cut professional development at a time when new technologies are making municipal operations more efficient amid rising inflation and an unstable global economy.

Ultimately, council voted unanimously to abandon the proposed list of cuts they had asked staff to bring forward and approved the budget as it stood.

The approved 2025 budget includes a tax levy of just over $25.1 million, an increase by $2.9 million or 11.6 per cent over last year’s levy. In 2024, the county saw 1.77 per cent in assessment growth, bringing the net impact on ratepayers down to an increase of 11.34 per cent.

This amount represents an additional $103.32 annually per household – about two dollars per week – based on the average 2016 MPAC household value of $282,000.

“Council understands the financial pressures faced by municipal governments,” county Warden Doug Kellum said in a press release issued by the county. “The 2025 budget was carefully reviewed to ensure all opportunities for cost-saving measures were considered while still maintaining current service levels. In light of inflationary pressures, council worked to mitigate this year’s increase by pausing some proposed projects for consideration in future budget years.”

“We appreciate the support of council with the approval of the 2025 budget,” added CAO Lori Wolfe in the release. “Staff work hard to ensure that the annual budget reflects the needs of the county for critical projects and services required each year to support the goals of the strategic plan while being mindful of budget pressures.”

The county’s annual budget allocates funds for both operating and capital expenses. The county also budgets for contributions toward reserves which are established to fund long-term goals and to mitigate unpredictable or fluctuating nature of some annual costs such as winter maintenance or drainage. The reserve contribution for 2025 represents 1.33 per cent of the total levy increase to stabilize annual costs. This investment also serves to close the gap and cover costs downloaded by the province.

A bylaw will be brought forward at the next regular council meeting on April 17, which will complete the 2025 budget process.