Trent Hills taxes to increase by 4.8%
Grant for OPP trims hike for this year, but creates fear of future costs
Trent Hills council has approved a 2025 budget that will hike property taxes by 4.8 per cent, down from the 8.39 per cent that was projected two weeks ago.
Since then the province has promised a grant of $431,000 to offset a $441,000 jump in the town’s annual bill for services from the Ontario Provincial Police. Provincial aid of some sort was expected after municipalities across the province complained of cost increases of 20 to 30 per cent. The bill for Trent Hills jumped 17 per cent.
The councillors were glad to get the provincial bailout but noted that it was only needed because the province negotiated a pay hike for OPP officers without any input from the 330 municipalities that rely on the force for local service.
The tax increase could have been 4.32 per cent, but at the urging of Deputy Mayor Mike Metcalf council added $80,000 to be set aside for next year’s policing bill, since there is no guarantee that the province will help out again.
“The OPP bill will come back to bite us if we don’t put money into the reserves,” Metcalf said.
The water and wastewater budget was passed unchanged from the draft that was discussed at the last meeting. You can read my story on the topic.
Metcalf echoed comments that I made in that story. He said that municipalities have legal obligations on what they must do to provide clean and safe water and wastewater treatment, so have “very little wiggle room” on what they spend.
Next Wednesday, Northumberland County council will take another look at its budget for 2025. Last month, it considered a draft with an increase of 9.7 per cent and council asked staff to suggest ways to cut that increase to 6.5 per cent.
Trent Hills councillors also passed two motions calling on the provincial and federal government to give municipalities access to other sources of revenue so they don’t only have to raise property taxes to pay for municipal services.
Councillor Gene Brahaney said successive provincial governments have downloaded services, such as roads, to the municipalities.
“They should go back to what they should be doing,” Brahaney said.
One motion from the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Council said, “Eastern Ontario’s small rural municipalities face insurmountable challenges to fund both new growth-related infrastructure and ongoing maintenance of their capital assets, including local roads and bridges, clean water, wastewater, waste facilities, and municipally owned buildings including recreational facilities and libraries.”
It called on the upper levels of government to invest in maintenance of existing infrastructure and construction of new facilities.
At the urging of Metcalf, council also supported a motion circulated by the Town of Aurora that calls for the province to share part of the provincial land transfer tax and for the federal government to share a slice of the GST on home sales.
You can read all Trent Hills News stories anytime on the website.
It appears this council did not discuss any of the comments submitted in open council. They just took the OPP costs out, put $80,000 in policing reserves and passed it. They may not think it is much of an increase but look out for County and Education and rate payers may be looking at fifteen percent increase in taxes. New assessments on new builds gives the administration more money to spend. Shouldn,t be patting themselves on the back. Need new ratepayers on council.