Going into the new year, citizens in South Dundas and SDG Counties have a clear sense of what their 2026 tax bills will look like. While the budgets are not set in stone, both councils have had their budget meetings and largely settled on what tax increase residents will have to bear, and what they will get as services and capital projects in return for those taxes.
South Dundas’s budget, once officially passed early next year, will feature a 3.71 per cent tax increase. The inflation rate is lower than the tax increase, and while inflation and supply chain issues explain some added cost—especially in fleet replacement—higher spending remains the main cause.
While council did refuse to hire more staff, the budget choices were not difficult. There was no fulsome review of overall spending to find real efficiencies. It is good to see the lowest tax increase of this term, but it took almost the whole term to get there, and whether service levels have improved remains to be seen.
SDG Counties council, meanwhile, has had both hands off the tiller and has been searching through the couch cushions for money. Barring any last-minute changes, that council settled on a 4.48 per cent increase for 2026. Past SDG councils prided themselves on sound financial planning; this council has not. Before the deliberation meeting, council raided its Now Needs Roads reserves to avoid financing the County Road 22 project, using that fund, this year’s construction savings, and possibly other reserves. Now Needs Roads was created in the last term to save for all roads and avoid over-funding one large project.
SDG Council failed during their budget deliberations to look at the real spending questions that needed to be answered. The OPP mental health nurse program was meant as pilot funding until provincial support arrived. Now that it has, an additional person was hired, so Counties still pay one salary. Cutting the funding from the Social Development Council was appropriate, but a $130,000 wood chipper remains in the budget. The work of the St. Lawrence River Institute is important, but contributing an extra $15,000 to its capital project is not worth the added tax burden. Focusing on cost increases and funding needs, not wants, would have brought the tax increase closer to inflation and made it more palatable during an affordability crisis.
A month ago, Ontario Premier Doug Ford commented that municipalities have spending problems, not revenue problems. That should be amended to: municipalities struggle to focus on what truly matters to residents. Fiscal sensibility at tax time is clearly missing at all councils.
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