Property taxes set to increase by 3.19%; Mayor says rise is meant to respect ratepayers and pressures facing municipality

Stratford Mayor Martin Ritsma’s 2026 budget was passed with few amendments – and relatively few disagreements. The most recent budget talks were the shortest in recent years.

CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

After the shortest budget deliberations in recent memory, the 2026 City of Stratford budget was approved with a projected tax increase of 3.19 per cent – the lowest in recent years. That figure translates to an approximate rise of $172 annually ($14 monthly) on an average home valued by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) at $317,000.

The draft budget was released in October of this year and debated in a lengthy six-hour meeting on Nov. 27. Originally set to rise 3.09 per cent, after approving the purchase of a Mini-X Excavator for $76,500, an accelerated replacement of the Devon Street playground for $20,000 and the approval of a Fire Master Plan for $90,000 – though some of these additions will be mitigated through reserve funds and will not affect this year’s tax increase – the bottom line increased by 0.10 per cent.

Typically, the city’s budget deliberations are a month-long process. Last year’s deliberations began in December, wrapped up in January and then were finally approved with a bylaw in February. Due to the strong mayor powers recently endowed to Stratford, however, this year was markedly different. The mayor effectively approved the budget the same meeting it was debated by reducing the veto period.

Another change this year was the budget’s development. Mayor Martin Ritsma put the budget together in consultation with senior staff, guiding the ethos of next year with a fixed goal of keeping the rate increase to 3.5 per cent or lower. Before deliberations began, Ritsma thanked everyone – staff, councillors and the public – for their dedication this season.

“This is our most important work,” Ritsma stated. “I believe that what we have before us is an excellent combination of respecting the ratepayers’ ability to afford a projected tax levy increase along with respecting the provision of services that they need, services that they require and, in many cases, they expect.

“… I realize and appreciate that these are anxious and stressful times for our residents and our businesses. As one mom shared with me a couple of days ago, we need our time to breathe. These stressful times are accentuated especially with the uncertainty around trade-tariff talks, especially around the (Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement) renegotiation, a trade agreement that has protected much of our local trading, local manufacturing, to date.”

Despite the relatively quick turnaround, there were many line items in Ritsma’s budget that sparked lively debate.

Coun. Jo-Dee Burbach pushed to divest the Stratford Municipal Airport. With an annual budget of $61,031, the airport is a small line item on the operational side – though the ten-year capital forecast tells a different story. The forecast predicts $5 million of investment by 2035 with lighting system upgrades, taxiway extensions, service expansion and upkeep.

“In the typical sense, I would not be thrilled about privatizing things,” Burbach said. “But in this case, I do. Privatizing the airport, selling it to someone who can run it as an airport, where we still get the benefit of having it – a local, nearby airport, but not having the capital costs and expenses that are coming up – I think would be a wise move. It would free up quite a bit of capital if we just sold it, which we could then invest within the boundaries of the city. There's discussion always about the Ornge helicopters that land there, which is really important. I would love to see an investment within the city boundaries, where the Ornge helicopters could land actually close … where people wouldn't need to hop in an ambulance and drive all that way.”

Burbach’s idea did not gain traction. While some, like Coun. Harjinder Nijjar, expressed a desire to see it become revenue-neutral in the coming years, most talked about the value of an airport despite its costs – and that they can only guarantee it stays an airport if they retain ownership.

“I think there's more opportunities there than challenges,” Ritsma said. “And we have to take account the economic impact, but also social impact of having got (that) asset.”

As part of the departmental overviews, Zac Gribble, executive director of Destination Stratford, requested $816,076 for the 2026 year – an increase of 3.5 per cent. Like last year, $150,000 of that was earmarked for the annual Lights On Stratford festival. Again, like last year, that money is to be funded through the Municipal Accommodations Tax fund (MAT).

“We do feel that that use of that portion of MAT … is an exemplary use case of municipal accommodation, investment and visitors contributing to the seasonality and the quality of life within our community, in particular for winter development,” Gribble explained.

Coun. Cody Sebben disagreed. While he acknowledged that Lights On does positive things, he argued that any board or department in the city could do positive things with extra funding, making a motion to not fund Lights On’s requested $150,000 through the MAT reserve.

“We have a MAT ad hoc committee that is in the process of being formed and to remove half of the funds prior to the implementation of the ad hoc committee from the MAT, it doesn't seem right,” Sebben said.

Other councillors highlighted the economic benefits of the program that perhaps go unnoticed and the winter activation it sparks – economic and social benefits.

“It is something that does much for us in the darkest days of the year and it brings so much joy,” Coun. Brad Beatty surmised.

Sebben’s push was defeated.

A delicate balance

Along with his motion for Lights On, Sebben put forward a number of other amendments which likewise didn’t pass. He advocated for cutting the addition of air-conditioning for council chambers at $50,000, Geographic Information System (GIS) enhancements at $50,000, Intranet enhancements at $50,000, the Unified Communication program (a phone system) at $200,000, two water pickup trucks at $80,000, a garbage truck at $250,000 and the city’s goose management program at $60,000.

Sebben said his reasoning came down to what are needs and what are wants.

“Generally speaking, those with more money are more able to move the line between needs and wants, whereas those with less must hold a firm line between what can be done now, later or never,” Sebben said. “Whether the proposed increase is 10, three or zero, we need to always be pushing to hold the line between needs and wants with the authority to impose property tax increases on the entire city. It's the responsibility of council to respect both those with the means to afford such an increase and also those who cannot bear any increase at all.”

The idea of balance was a sentiment shared by Coun. Mark Hunter, who sits as chair of the finance and labour relations committee. In his opening address, he spoke about the differences between the private and public world.

“It's a very delicate balance to make sure we have enough tax collected, but not too much, but enough that we get to the end of the year successful,” Hunter said. “… This is my fourth budget, now doing this. Our city staff presented a budget which balanced on that knife’s edge I think professionally well. So I want to thank Karmen (Krueger, director of corporate services) and her team and all the departments for bringing numbers that make sense, that are real numbers, and that do that balance between having enough to get to the end of the year and not overburdening our community.”

For the full, nearly 600-page budget, visit https://tinyurl.com/bdzb7t3x.

To watch the full budget deliberations, along with departmental presentations, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zobvgy4xMss.