Meaford council will soon give final approval to the 2025 municipal budgets after having a final budget discussion during a special meeting held on March 17.
Version three of the municipal budget was presented to council by municipal Treasurer and Acting CAO Valerie Manning for discussion and refinement on March 17.
As presented by Manning, version three of the budget required a 4.72 percent blended rate increase (8.19 percent municipal portion, 6.16 percent with projected growth factored), down from 15.78 percent when initially presented to council on January 27.
For a property assessed at $600,000, a blended tax increase of 4.72 percent would mean an estimated annual tax increase of $343 or an increase of approximately $29 per month.
After council’s discussion on Monday, two small budget enhancements were approved by council totalling $132,150, increasing the required municipal rate increase slightly to 6.86 percent when forecast growth is factored, which will mean a roughly 5.16 percent blended rate increase once the county and education numbers are included.
The third rendition of the budget comes after much frustration along with significant delays.
When the first draft of the original 2025 municipal budget was presented to council on November 4, council had expected to have approved the 2025 budgets during their December 9 meeting. However, the departure of the CAO on November 26 resulted in a delay of the budget process. As initially presented on November 4, the draft budget, which was divided into ‘core services’ and ‘elective services’, would have meant an increase of roughly 36 percent in 2025 for Meaford ratepayers, had that draft budget been approved as presented.
After three full days of budget discussions in November, council was clearly frustrated with the budget that had been presented by the former CAO. They had approved the inclusion of some of the ‘elective services’, including policing, and had rejected others, resulting in a decrease of the potential 2025 rate increase to 21.48 percent. Prior to her departure, the now former CAO had committed to producing a second version of the budget for council to consider, but after her departure that task fell to the municipal treasurer.
One of the items discussed by council during their March 17 meeting was the size of municipal staff, which has grown to 104 permanent full-time employees.
“I’m going to be the devil’s advocate here, and I am sorry if I step on any toes. Ten years ago we had 73 staff, every year we add and add. We got everything done ten years ago,” Councillor Steve Bartley told council. “We are now paying more to staff than almost all of the other municipalities in the county,” Bartley told council. “I appreciate what staff does but it soon has to come to an end on hiring.”
Bartley added that it is council that has been responsible for the rising cost of staff due to the addition of services among other factors.
Deputy Mayor Shirley Keaveney countered Bartley’s comment by noting that in addition to adding services, the municipality is growing, which also can necessitate additional municipal staff.
“It’s just the nature of this particular point in time where we are at, with more demands from the province, and as we grow in population, it takes more people to look after this community,” Keaveney suggested.
Council’s longest serving member also recalls a much smaller municipal staff.
“I have witnessed the increase in staff, and the numbers have bothered me,” Greenfield told council, noting that he can recall a staff size of 43 shortly after the amalgamation of the former Town of Meaford with Sydenham and St. Vincent Townships in 2001. “Not just the number of people, but the dollar figures have bothered me. But I look at our current staff, and there’s a place for these people, we need these people, they’re doing a job, and to administer a modern day municipality, we have to reach out, we have to expand, and we do have to involve more financial resources.”
Municipal staff will confirm the numbers in the budgets now that council has completed their budget deliberations, and the final version of the budgets will be presented to council at their April 7 meeting for final approval.
All budget-related information is published on the municipal website (meaford.ca/budget).
