{"id":6504,"date":"2026-01-23T19:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/?page_id=6504"},"modified":"2026-01-26T21:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:54:16","slug":"budget-2026-wilmot","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/?page_id=6504","title":{"rendered":"Budget 2026 – Wilmot"},"content":{"rendered":"

A First Glance at the numbers<\/span><\/strong>: The document below was tabled by the mayor on page 7 in her budget document titled, “Wilmot 2026 Budget A responsible plan for today and the future<\/em>“. Refer to the “Snapshot” on the right. Add up the first 3 items, that’s the total of tabled expenditures. ($31,699,081) Add up the total of the last 4 items, that’s the total of the tabled revenues. ($26,185,061) Do they balance? Why not? I think we need to know!<\/h4>\n

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Table of Contents<\/h2>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/span> [Click on highlighted text headings to take you to a details page]<\/strong><\/h5>\n

ANALYSIS ONE – Includes $2,600,000 for an aerial ladder fire truck as tabled as item #23 in Appendix:A<\/h3>\n

Analysis of Capital Budget<\/span><\/a>:<\/strong> as Tabled by the Mayor (deficit of $7,690,060 with water & wastewater, and Nithview excluded, BUT with $2,600,000 included for an aerial ladder fire truck) > Needs a 14.4% tax increase to balance the tabled budget.<\/h5>\n
Analysis of the Operating Budget<\/span><\/a>:<\/strong> as Tabled by the Mayor (deficit of $8,474,187 with water & wastewater, and Nithview excluded, BUT with $2,600,000 included for an aerial ladder fire truck) > Needs a 14.89% tax increase to balance the tabled budget.<\/h5>\n
Analysis of the Operating Budget and\u00a0<\/strong>Non-taxation Revenues<\/span><\/a>: as Tabled by the Mayor (deficit of $9,337,087 with water & wastewater, and Nithview excluded, BUT with $2,600,000 included for an aerial ladder fire truck) > Needs a 15.42% tax increase to balance the tabled budget.<\/h5>\n
Add SWM Facility at Nithview<\/a>:<\/strong><\/span> and the capital budget increases by $95,000 in 2026 and $500,000 in 2027. Tax levy increase becomes 15.48% in 2026.<\/h5>\n

Analysis of Capital Budget with SWMF<\/span><\/strong> + firetruck<\/span><\/strong><\/a> $300,000 deposit. Storm Water Management facility at Nithview ($95,000) is in the 10-year capital plan, and the expenses are occurring now. The aerial ladder fire truck is budgeted at $300,000 for a deposit upon ordering it in 2026. The totsal budget = $32,454,251. A tax levy increase of $22,962,130 (14.0%) is needed.<\/h3>\n

ANALYSIS TWO – EXCLUDES $2,600,000 for an aerial ladder fire truck as tabled as item #23 in Appendix:A ($300,000 for a purchase deposit instead)<\/h3>\n

Webmaster: This section is still under construction.<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n
Analysis of Capital Budget<\/span><\/a>:<\/strong> as Tabled by the Mayor (deficit of $7,690,060 with water & wastewater, and Nithview excluded, BUT with $2,600,000 excluded for an aerial ladder fire truck) > Needs a 14.4% tax increase to balance the tabled budget.<\/h5>\n
Analysis of the Operating Budget<\/span>:<\/strong> as Tabled by the Mayor (defecit of $8,474,187 with water & wastewater, and Nithview excluded, BUT with $2,600,000 excluded for an aerial ladder fire truck) > Needs a 14.89% tax increase to balance the tabled budget.<\/h5>\n
Analysis of the Operating Budget and\u00a0<\/strong>Non-taxation Revenues<\/span>: as Tabled by the Mayor (defecit of $9,337,087 with water & wastewater, and Nithview excluded, BUT with $2,600,000excluded for an aerial ladder fire truck) > Needs a 15.42% tax increase to balance the tabled budget.<\/h5>\n
Add SWM Facility at Nithview:<\/strong><\/span> and the capital budget increases by $95,000 in 2026 and $500,000 in 2027. Tax levy increase becomes 15.48% in 2026.<\/h5>\n
Data Sources<\/span><\/strong>:<\/span> what publically available data sources dis we use?<\/h5>\n

Questions<\/span><\/a>: <\/span>that a fair and reasonable citizen would want answered prior to a budget vote<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Amendments<\/span><\/span><\/a>: Needed Prior to a budget vote<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Motions:<\/span> suggested to councillors leading to budget amendments \u00a0– including multiple WHEREAS’s – (coming after November 27th Townhall meeting at Wilmot Complex, Community Room, on Nafziger Rd, 6:30 – 8:30, held by Kris Wilkinson Ward 2 councillor)<\/strong><\/h5>\n
INTRODUCTION<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The budget setting process in Wilmot Township has historically been \u00a0conducted in a cooperative manner with active participation by tax payers.<\/p>\n

In the past, the CAO would direct the Finance Department to compose a draft budget based on consultation including: department heads and Councillors (including the mayor as a councillor).<\/p>\n

Benchmarks for setting priorities would include references to the Strategic Plan, the current 10-year Capital Forecast, the Asset Management Plan (which would include research about the condition of assets above and below the ground surface – meaning buildings, parks, roads, etc. AND underground water and wastewater services), the previous year’s audited budget, the previous F.I.R. (Financial Information Return) submitted each year by May 31st to the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs.<\/p>\n

With the passing of an amendment to the Ontario Municipal Act, referred to as “Strong Mayor Powers” \u00a0the process has been upended. Now it is the municipal mayor who tables a proposed budget, and previous steps have been made optional.<\/p>\n

For the 2026 Budget, the mayor has given responsibility for setting priorities for the contents of the capital and operating budgets to its staff and KPMG, a consultant being paid $130,000 to do the work that should have been completed by the previous Chief Financial Officer. This year KPMG had to re-create the 2025 budget from “actuals” spending, submit missing F.I.R.s for 2023 and 2024, and in a rush to meet an artificial timeline, to create the capital, operating and utilities budgets.<\/p>\n

This year there is no 2025 budget with line-by-line spreadsheet details, there is no current 10-year capital forecast, there is no asset management plan, there is no 2026 budget document with a line-by-line proposal for operating budgeting, there is no Human Resources report that lists the job categaries for all employees, there FTEs and the compensation break-down including benefits for every department (it’s all lump into one number), and no list of how many FTEs exist for ppositions that are 1) filled, 2) vacant, 3) need to be hired in this budget.<\/p>\n

Clicking on the links will take you to the headings listed above. The calculations are based on the data available to the public as provided on the Township’s website. Analysis, synthesis, and assessment of the tabled budget. numbers was done by me – my understandings of reality as presented to us. All my numbers, calculations, conclusions about deficits and tax revenue required to balance a budget were checked, amended, and eventually confirmed by a Certified Professional Accountant who is also the treasurer of an Ontario Corporation.<\/p>\n

Both of us are much surprised at what seems to be obvious inconsistencies in data and lack of balance between expenditures and revenues when prepared by an apparently reputable firm – KPMG. we guess that this may be a result of a rush to prepare very complex, interacting financial documents, just to meet an arbitrary deadline decided upon by the mayor. Our hope is, that there is financial data that is not available to the public and may rationally explain the numbers presented. If so, then this is an irrespnsible budget (MY OPINION ALONE) that is not transparent, clear, fulsome, and probably disingenuous. It’s easy to fool me alone, but not so easy to trick a C.P.A., so I stand by my results until proven otherwise. Please prove otherwise with more data!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A First Glance at the numbers: The document below was tabled by the mayor on page 7 in her budget document titled, “Wilmot 2026 Budget A responsible plan for today and the future“. Refer to the “Snapshot” on the right. Add up the first 3 items, that’s the total of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6504","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6504"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6595,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6504\/revisions\/6595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}