Happy new year to our readers. I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season filled with friends, family, and fun, and that this new year will provide a healthy mix of challenges and celebrations.
Here at The Independent, we are back to work after taking a bit of a break over the past two weeks. Our first newspaper of 2026 has now been published, and we are looking forward to another busy year ahead.
With the holidays out of the way, I am very much looking forward to our council getting back to work next week, as they enter the home stretch of this term of council, with the October 26 municipal election day highlighted on this year’s calendar. For council the next six months will be busy, and hopefully productive, before election campaigning gets into full swing this summer.
Council’s first major task will be to work through this year’s municipal budget process, which will be new to us all after the province imposed Strong Mayor Powers on an additional 169 municipalities last year, including the Municipality of Meaford. We will watch the new process unfold together. With the Strong Mayor Powers, the mayor is given the responsibility to propose the municipal budget, and then the other six members of council will have an opportunity to propose amendments.
Mayor Ross Kentner will present the budget on January 14, and three council budget review sessions have been scheduled: February 2 for the operating budget, February 3 for the capital budget, and February 6 for user fees and a final budget review.
Budget time is always a challenging time for council, and 2026 will be no different, aside from the fact that council must transition to a new way of approving the budgets for the coming year. But the pressures to deliver a budget that can support all of the services expected by ratepayers, while keeping any required rate increase as low as possible, is never an easy task.
The budget aside, there are many pressures facing our council in the coming year, including the contentious pumped storage proposal, which will of course continue to be front and centre with council and with many residents. Baseline water testing of properties in proximity to the military base will begin by the second quarter of this year, which will provide important data that will be used to compare to future testing during the construction phase, should the proposal ultimately be given the green light to move forward, and of course afterwards for many years to come.
As always, new development proposals, roads in need of repair, ever increasing water rates, and many other issues will face council in 2026, so as always we will have a busy and interesting year ahead in the council chamber.
There is more to life than council meetings and serious issues however, something I need to remind myself of with some regularity. All of those challenges aside, this community has much to look forward to in 2026, which incidentally marks the 25th anniversary of the amalgamation of the former Town of Meaford with the former townships of St. Vincent and Sydenham to form the Municipality of Meaford that we know today. That 25th anniversary will of course be celebrated with a number of events throughout the coming year.
That special anniversary aside, we will of course have many opportunities to come together as a community over the coming year.
From the farmers’ market to Summerfest to the Scarecrow Invasion & Family Festival, this community and its large number of volunteers know how to create and host events that the community loves to attend.
This community can boast of many fun events, all driven by enthusiastic volunteers. In every season we have fantastic events to attend, including events like the Meaford & St. Vincent Fall Fair, or the Christmas on the Bay event at market square, and of course the Kinsmen’s Santa Claus Parade.
All of these events (and many more which I simply don’t have space to list) provide an escape from the harsh pressures of this modern world, and I don’t think any of us can thank all of those volunteers enough for the time and effort that they put into making them happen.
As each new year begins we often look forward to the known, to the events and activities that we know will be part of the coming year, but of course as each year progresses there are always surprises, some good, some not so good, that come our way. As 2020 began, for example, who could have predicted that it would be the beginning of three years of a global pandemic that altered all of our lives in ways that are still being hotly debated today. So while we might know much of what will unfold in the coming year, surprises happen, from major weather events, to global conflicts, to unexpected economic pressures, and we must take what comes our way and work with it the best we can.
So there are many challenges ahead of us in 2026, but there will also be many opportunities for fun and celebration, so don’t let the serious issues get you down, there will be plenty of opportunities to set them aside in favour of having a little fun.
I wish all of our readers the best in 2026. Be safe, be kind, and don’t let a few hurdles get in the way of making the coming year the best that it can be.
