ACW Council passes 2025 budget after marathon final meeting
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
On Mar. 14, Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh (ACW) Council held a special meeting to collectively review and discuss the proposed 2025 budget. A 2.75 per cent increase to the 2025 tax rate was eventually agreed upon, which means that the tax levy increase over 2024 is five per cent. The decision will bring in $329,207 more tax dollars than last year.
To kick off the four-and-a-half hour meeting, Mayor Glen McNeil offered up a simple guiding principle. “We will look to our staff for options as to how we can accomplish a responsible budget on behalf of our residents,” he said.
Chief Administrative Officer Mark Becker followed up with a note of optimism. “Budget day is exciting to me,” he admitted. “I look forward to it, because at the end of the day, you go home, and you feel like, ‘Wow, we accomplished something,’ and it’s always great!” He went on to advise that nobody get bogged down in the little details. “I recommend that we stay focused on the big picture today - in my past experience, this is only my 36th municipal budget, getting caught up in small adjustments like changing 500 to 1,000 or vice versa doesn’t typically lead to significant outcomes at the end of the day,” he pointed out.
The draft used a zero per cent tax levy increase as a base, and includes all capital projects deemed high priority by staff. Council then discussed which capital projects should be included in the 2025 budget and which should be deferred until next year in order to reach an appropriate tax levy for the year. Cuts, transfers from reserves and various other changes were suggested throughout the day, with the goal of reducing the comprehensive budget into something workable.
McNeil reminded everybody that, with an inflation rate of two per cent, a two per cent increase to the tax levy is just breaking even. “It’s not doing anything for our residents, as far as accomplishing what some of their expectations are.” He also recommended that council be open to using the resources at their disposal to keep the tax levy increase manageable for the residents of ACW. “Previous councils and staff have done an excellent job with fiduciary responsibilities, and we have accumulated substantial reserves - and some - not all, but some - of those reserves can be accessed today to alleviate an increase in the tax levy. I think we should keep that in mind,” he said.
Deputy-Mayor Bill Vanstone felt that a tax levy increase of five per cent over the 2024 levy was a good goal - a number with which both McNeil and Councillor Jennifer Miltenburg concurred. Councillor Anita Snobelen suggested four per cent. Councillor Evan Hickey felt that four to five per cent would work. Councillor Wayne Forster opened with seven per cent. “That brings the tax rate to 4.6 per cent - I’m ok with that,” he said. Councillor Curtis Blake countered with two per cent. Last year’s tax levy increase was 10 per cent, and the year before was eight per cent.
Treasurer Ellen McManus anchored the presentation of the proposed budget, which contained detailed operating budgets for each department, as well as a comprehensive list of potential capital projects.
The draft budget predicts that revenue from the property taxes on residential units is $4,896,881, and farmland taxes are expected to net $1,335,352. The township will also be receiving $1,071,400 through the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund, a 20 per cent increase over 2024.
A number of the proposed capital projects include extensive work on a number of bridges. The estimated cost of repairs for Division Line Bridge #29 are $1,250,000, the Laurier Line Bridge demolition is slated to cost $285,000, and fixing Nile Road Bridge #43 would come in somewhere between $400,000 and $600,000, depending on whether council chose to repair the bridge or replace it.
Potential road resurfacing projects include $245,000 for a stretch of Dungannon Road from Lucknow Line to Saratoga Line, and $650,000 for Loyal Line, between Blyth Road and Nile Road. Gravel upgrades to Creek Line are estimated at $80,000, and the carry-forward cost of the culvert installation and realignment of Westmount Line Road is $580,000.
After some debate, council decided that repairing both the Division Line Bridge and Laurier Bridge would have to wait, and that it is more prudent to repair Nile Road Bridge than replace it, moves which collectively reduced the budget by $1,735,000.
When it came to the operating budget for protective inspection and control, McManus pointed out that it is quite a broad department. “It includes everything from fire, to policing, to animal control,” she said. A total of $1,737,452 in expenses are listed in its draft budget, including $325,200 for ACW’s portion of the Lucknow Fire Department budget, $350,917 for its portion of the Goderich Fire Department budget, and $952,835 for its share of the OPP policing costs.
Miltenburg wanted to know how the budget for coyotes worked. “How would you ever budget for coyotes? Because there’s a lot this year,” she pointed out.
McManus replied that all lower-tier municipalities are reimbursed by Huron County using the bounty system. “There’s a bounty on the coyotes,” she explained. “Then, the county will issue us a payment once the claim is submitted.”
Forster wanted to know how the budget worked for the livestock evaluator. “You have him budgeted at $4,000, and last year, he was $23,000 - why didn’t you up that?” he asked. McManus explained that the $23,000 in question includes any livestock claims, which are then reimbursed by the province.”If livestock is killed by a coyote, then a claim is submitted to the province,” she said. “And farmers will be reimbursed for the value of their sheep, or whatever. And so, in the revenue section, there’s a livestock recovery line, and the $22,000 is revenue to offset that expense. So it’s in and and out for those claims.” Becker added that the $4,000 they did budget for is there as a precaution. “We budget a little bit in there, just in case it wasn’t eligible, but we still paid the farmer,” he explained.
Vanstone wanted to know about a new expense in this section - $4,100 for an OPP Detachment Board. “Is that $4,100 just an honorarium, or do we pay the board as well?” he asked. McManus told him that, as of 2024, it’s a requirement of the Community Safety and Policing Act. “They provided us with a budget amount for this year,” she said.
She also let councillors know that they shouldn’t expect the cost of policing to go down any time in the near future.“I expect the cost of policing to go up next year,” she predicted. “I think any relief the province has provided may be short-term. It’s only pushing the expenses off for another year, so we’ll see… just looking at the cost of $163,000 - that alone is about a two-and-a-half per cent increase to the levy. I can appreciate that it does create challenges when developing the budget. We want to stick to a palatable levy, but when you’re challenged with policing alone being that high, yeah, it’s a challenge.”
Snobelen had heard similar talk coming from other municipalities. “I believe other councillors from other townships have been expressing concern about that over the past few months,” she added. “I was wondering how it was going to show up in our budget. It looks like about a 21 per cent increase.”
The Roads Department is expecting $45,000 in revenue from equipment sales, and came with a proposed budget of $616,500 for snow plowing, and an additional $159,000 for sanding and salting. Vanstone had a question about that for Public Works Superintendent Thomas McCarthy, although he was fairly certain it had something to do with the winter ACW just went through. “Under snow plowing, last year our actual was $394,000 and this year, you’re predicting $616,000 - so is that taking into account the spring for that extra and then next year maybe more?”
McCarthy confirmed that the weather was to blame for the big budget jump. “Obviously, we’ve had a ton of overtime for snow plowing,” he said. “Also, we’ve added another full-time employee out of Wawanosh - so, when you’re asking about the overtime for snow plowing, that’s where it’s reflected.”
After several hours of whittling down the budget by removing the least essential capital projects and choosing reserves to draw from, there was a break for lunch, and, when they returned, McManus let them know that, to get the desired tax levy increase down to five per cent, only $463,017 more needed to be removed from the budget. “We have to decide on a transfer from reserves or cut a project,” she told council, recommending that they transfer the amount from the general surplus reserve, which would balance the budget.
Before voting, Miltenberg wanted to know how much was being transferred out of reserves to balance the budget. McManus told her that it’s about $7,500,000, but that total includes $4,900,000 that is being carried forward from 2024. She also let council know that there would be about $7,900,000 left in reserves.
The motion was brought forth that council agree on the 2.75 per cent tax rate increase, with $7,500,000 coming out of reserves to balance the budget. It was moved by Miltenberg, seconded by Hickey, and passed with only Blake opposed.