Wilmot Councillors’ Buzzword

The “buzzword” heard in the Wilmot Council chamber during the 2026 Strong Mayor’s budget process was, “Transparency!”

Councillor Cressman said, “I’m lamenting the fact that we don’t have the pieces of information that I think we all want.” Councillor Dunstall said, “…one of the things that came through loud and clear last year during our budget process was that our constituents didn’t trust us… but it’s very clear to me with last year and again with this year, that transparency is key, and my question would be…would there be a possibility to have those line by lines you have obviously worked on…”.

A councillor asked about the 10-year capital plan that was posted on the website. The CAOs response was, “…frankly, in my opinion, did not warrant being published with this document…”,and, eventually, “… I don’t think it’s necessary for the public to see…”

The General Ledger (“line by lines”) is the comprehensive spreadsheet accounting of a municipality’s finances. Councillor Cressman asked that it be available to Council and tax payers. The CAOs response was, “…releasing the entire general ledger (to) the public is something we had concerns about…”

Councillors did try to get transparency, and their questions discovered that:

+ The mayor’s proposed budget did not balance the day it was proposed on January 9th. Oops. She added $5,514,020 to revenue on January 29^th.

+ The Capital budget was in deficit by $2,176,040 when posted. Oops. She removed a fire truck costed at $2,600,000.

+ The Capital budget was now in surplus by $423,960. Oops, we forgot to include 2-3 capital request forms (6 actually). When submitted, the 6 requests totalled $669,960, or $246,000 in deficit again.

+ A request for 5 trucks totalling $831,000 placed 4 trucks on the Capital list, but $26,000 was missing. Oh, we made a mistake, the price of one truck has now been accounted for as costing $26,000 less.

+ 4 trucks were costed on the Capital list, but 1 truck, costing $195,000 was placed on the Operating (day-to-day planning, etc. costs) Budget.

+ 6 requests that required outside consultants, described as “Studies and Other”, totalling $1,043,505, were not charged against the Departments’ operations budget, but were charged to Capital. Hopefully the newly hired Certified Professional Accountant will realign these apparent discrepancies.

Hired staff remained firm and resisted making cuts in Capital or Operating budgets as proposed by the mayor. Not even a new $80,000 pickup truck. Any reductions in the tax levy (7.9 > 7.1%) resulted from cuts made by councillors within their own Council Department budget.

With the Strong Mayor’s arbitrary time clock ticking down, Council ran out of time to make further cuts. They tried their best and will return to it after they get the documents that they needed and wanted now.

Councillor Dunstall is assuming the role of President of the New Hamburg Board of trade, and it’s rumoured that she will not be seeking a second term. In my opinion that’s a gain for the Board of trade, and a loss to Wilmot Council. Lillianne has displayed a good grasp of the information, and an analytical grasp on complicated financial and legislative data that is quite often contradictory from different sources. She has offered suggestions that she believed would make Wilmot a better place in which to live.

The good news, though, is that ward 4 voters may have time between now and October 26^th to seek out and encourage potential candidates for the 2 New Hamburg seats. People who have an ability to read and understand complex documents of information and supporting numerical data. People who can analyze data, separate the chaff from the wheat, synthesize new understandings and alternatives, ask probing questions seeking clarity and transparency, and comprehensively communicate their observations.

It is my opinion that the ‘Strong Mayor’s Budget Powers’ have not achieved their purpose, as stated by Doug Ford. The purpose was to build 1.5 million additional housing units in 10 years.

“Transparency!” is just a ‘buzzword’ in Wilmot. I await a transparent, direct correlation between this strong mayor’s budget and the construction of a single additional housing unit in Wilmot. This process failed to produce! Municipalities need leadership that demonstrates less hubris, and more humility. Fulsome transparency is a starting point!