The budget discussion for Tiny Township will be taking place over three days in early December, but without a 2025 budget survey Mayor Dave Evans wants residents to participate by phone, email and in-person.
An announcement was provided at the start of the recent regular meeting of council that the three days of budget discussions would take place on December 2, 3, and 4, starting at 5 p.m. in the municipal council chambers at 130 Balm Beach Road West.
The 2024 budget was approved early in the year at a 5.03 per cent blended tax rate increase, and an 8.19 municipal tax rate increase.
Evans spoke with MidlandToday after the meeting, sharing that he found budget talks to be “an interesting exercise”.
“I was reading a story about municipal taxes in Moncton, NB, today and they’ve gone up 18 per cent every year for the last three years, and they’re going up in the future,” said Evans. “Now I feel confident that we're not going to be an 18 per cent (municipality).
“At the end of the day, that's what we're all about is money and getting the most money for our citizens."
“The new facility will obviously be included in those discussions,” Evans noted.
Built in 1967, the current municipal building was addressed in a 2014 needs assessment and 2016 clerk’s report which concluded it was “inadequate for current and any future staff accommodations,” prompting council of the day to explore options.
When a 2022 asset management report identified an underfunding of municipal assets needing repair or replacement, the Tiny Township administration centre was pushed forward.
The announcement of the building was met with protest by township residents against the raising of municipal taxes for the facility, organizing a ‘Stop the Build’ obstruction campaign, and countered by others in the community as 'divisive'.
In June, an updated asset management report noted that the “line drawn in the sand” to close the gap for tax-funded assets would require an annual 2.39 per cent tax rate increase.
As well as the administration centre, Evans mentioned upgrades to the Midland wastewater treatment facility related to septage management within North Simcoe, as delegated during the recent Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference.
“That's an agreement we're really excited about putting together, between the town of Midland and township of Tiny, to come up with a solution for septage. And that may have capital implications; actually I could probably guarantee you it will,” said Evans.
Due to numerous factors, Evans declined to speculate on inflation numbers but stated his interest, namely from a net year-over-year functionality perspective.
“I think that people are going to find that some of the conventional wisdom is it's in the teens and the twenties; we're going to be below that,” Evans said. “But I don't at this time know exactly where we'll be.”
When asked how residents would be able to participate in the budget process prior to the December discussions, Evans said that a budget survey wasn’t able to be provided this year due to staffing issues.
“With the shortage we had in our CAO department and such – our deputy CAO came from our treasury department who is the one that puts that together – unfortunately, we weren't able to do that this year,” said Evans.
“We do get a lot of feedback from the community, good and bad, and we'll look forward to that. As part of the budget process, people will be able to come in and participate, and make deputations just like they do here.”
As the entire management of the township goes under budgetary scrutiny through the three-day span, Evans described the budget meetings as “pretty voluminous, and they have to be.”
Regarding a potential overabundance of deputations, Evans admitted: “Right now, I don’t know exactly what we’ll have in place, but it will be limited.
“But you can certainly call or email; that's unlimited, and we'll take everything into consideration.”
Further information on the 2025 budget discussions is expected to be available on the Tiny Township website within upcoming weeks.
Archives of council meetings are available to view on Tiny township’s YouTube channel.
