Perth East adopts 2026 mayor’s budget with 5.33% levy increase

Amanda Modaragamage, Gazette Reporter

The Perth East 2026 mayor’s budget was officially adopted on Dec. 9, 2025. The annual budget focuses on the township’s corporate values: progressive, service-oriented, caring, fiscally responsible, collaborative and enthusiastic.

A change this year stems from the strong mayor powers announced for Perth East and the rest of Ontario in April 2025, which altered the budget process. The mayor now has a duty to prepare and propose the budget, whereas in the past, it was prepared by staff and adopted by council at a later date.

“Council and staff continue to work hard to present reasonable budgets that ensure we are maintaining the high-quality services our residents rely on every day,” said Mayor Rhonda Ehgoetz. “We never lose sight of the financial impact property taxes have on residents and businesses.”

With a capital budget of $8.6 million, this year’s key projects include ongoing updates to the Shakespeare water treatment facility costing $2 million; replacement of self-contained breathing apparatus for firefighters at $1 million; tandem and tri-axle vehicle replacements for public works at $685,000; replacement of a water well in Milverton at $450,000; and road paving and rehabilitation costing $1.6 million.

“The 2026 budget supports continued investment in key services such as roads, bridges, parks, recreation, emergency services and community programs,” said Ehgoetz. “I am confident this balanced budget delivers real value to our residents, allowing us to maintain what we have as a community while managing growth pressures in a responsible manner.”

The year-over-year levy increase is 5.33 per cent, meaning the after-assessment growth is 3.76 per cent. For a typical single-family home, that translates to a $92 year-over-year change for the Perth East portion of property taxes.

An 11 per cent increase in OPP, policing fees was also a factor for the 2026 budget. The Ontario government capped policing cost hikes for 2026 after many municipalities saw 20-30 per-cent increases in 2025. The cap is meant to ease budget pressures for the more than 330 communities that rely on the OPP, though many still face tax impacts and are calling for longer-term solutions.

“We had budgeted for, and it’s been confirmed, that our cost contributions towards OPP in our community are going up 11 per cent year over year, which is significant,” said Perth East CAO Mike Givens. “With policing costing about $1.9 million, that has a significant impact on our budget.”

Givens said American tariffs and U.S.-linked material and equipment costs are also a key driver behind ongoing budget pressure, even as other inflation pressures stabilize.

“Although we’re a small southwestern Ontario community, we are still seeing tax as it relates to costing for a lot of our capital projects,” he said. “Anything related to fire services, any materials that we historically relied on the United States for, we’re seeing significant cost increases around that.”

Perth East has a healthy reserve fund, which helps support major capital projects and manage rising costs while keeping this year’s levy increase low. This financial cushion allows the township to manage large projects without resorting to steeper tax hikes.

“We maintained a healthy reserve. That’s always been a goal of ours; to be prepared,” said Givens. “We have around $20 million on our broad reserve numbers, which is healthy and something that we’re proud to continue to maintain.”

Under the strong mayor powers, it was up to the mayor to present this year’s budget. The process began in July with the mayor’s budget visioning meeting, held to gather public, staff and council priorities. This included feedback from the public and the council budget survey.

Township staff presented their prepared operations budget to council in October. In November, staff presented the capital budget. On Nov. 24, Ehgoetz released the 2026 mayor’s budget to council members, which became available to the public on Dec. 1.

Council was given 15 days, from Nov. 24 to Dec. 8, to propose amendments; however, none were put forward. The mayor’s budget was adopted on Dec. 9.