2024 South Frontenac Budget

South Frontenac Township Council has passed its 2024 budget. The Total Operating and Capital Budget of $44,553,398 million represents a 2.74% increase to the average household or $47.04 a year*.

The budget addresses ongoing priorities such as road and bridge projects, facilities and fleet upgrades, recreational programming and events, technology improvements, climate change, an economic development strategy and transportation master plan.

The 2024 Budget has a tax requisition of $22.4 million and transfer from reserves of $16 million with the remainder being funded from grants and user fees and permits.

Residents were invited to participate in a survey to share their input on the budget. 564 people responded. 70% preferred a reasonable increase to property taxes to maintain or enhance services, citing roads and emergency services as the most important day-to-day operations and roads as the most important capital projects.

“We heard from our residents that a reasonable increase of under 3% would be acceptable to maintain or enhance or services,” says Mayor Ron Vandewal. “We’ve listened to their feedback and the 2024 Budget focuses on maintaining our current levels of service while also incorporating some enhancements so we can continue to grow and provide the services our residents are asking for.”

Budget Highlights

• Operating budget of $26,792,892
• Capital budget of $17,766,740
• $2,030,000 in fleet replacement for Fire and Public Services including a new pumper firetruck and two tandems
• $2,450,000 for Highway 38 reconstruction – transfer to reserves for future funding
• $3,500,000 for Town Hall expansion
• $1,432,000 for Bedford Road reconstruction
• $100,000 for Climate Change initiatives

As part of its 2024 programming, South Frontenac is hoping to offer swim and day camps at three locations next summer, opening a new site at McMullen Beach in Verona.

The budget reflects inflationary pressures, such as rising wages and the costs of materials and services like insurance, utilities, and gas. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) levelled out to 3.1% in October 2023 compared to 6.8% in 2022, 3.4% in 2021 and 0.7% in 2020. The increase in 2022 was a 40-year high.

The budget is aligned with the Township’s long-range financial plan which considers the Township’s ability to fund capital and operations over a 10-year period.

Final budget documents have now been posted on the Township’s public engagement site, engagefrontenac.ca.

*based on an average assessment of $278,126

The Draft 2024 Budget will be discussed at the December 12, 2023 special Council meeting starting at 9 am. If you’d like to participate via Zoom, click on the meeting link on our Events calendar.

We’ve now posted these documents under Documents:

• 2024 Draft Budget Book – REVISED Dec 12, 2023
• 2024 Capital Budget List
• 2024 Budget Presentation
• 2024 Long Range Financial Plan

Draft Budget Highlights

• 2024 budget: $44,559,632
• Total operating budget of $26,792,892
• Total capital budget of $17,766,740
• $839,312 overall Township levy increase being proposed
• This represents a 2.77% increase to the average taxpayer (Township portion only) or $47.53 a year
• Assessment growth is 0.99% or $219,780

A few things to note:

• At the December 12 meeting, Council and staff will review the full draft budget document which has significant variances highlighted at the bottom of each departmental section.
• The Capital Budget List outlines the list of proposed capital projects

If you have comments or feedback you’d like to share and can’t attend the Dec 12 meeting, please feel free to post a comment on this page.

Most people are familiar with a budget: a single-year view of the Township’s income and expenses, but some people may not be as familiar with a Long Range Financial Plan.

A Long Range Financial Plan is a key tool to help municipalities plan for the future and challenges such as infrastructure costs, impacts from climate change, economic uncertainty, legislative changes, capacity pressures and increased expectations from residents related to service delivery. It helps us plan for tomorrow, while addressing the priorities and needs of today.

It includes key projections, like population growth figures, what we can expect to collect in taxes, assessment, inflation and projects operating expenses and revenue for a 10 year period. The plan also includes important information on the financial health of the Township.

It’s important to understand Council is not committed to any of the items or figures included in the plan. It is simply a forecast to help plan ahead for anticipated future needs. Everything continues to go through the annual budget approval process.

You can read our Long Range Financial Plan which was presented to Council at the November 7, 2023 Council meeting in the Documents pane.

Did you know?

South Frontenac has one of the lowest residential tax bills when compared to neighbouring municipalities? See the plan for full details!

Council invites residents to provide verbal or written comments on the proposed 2024 budget at the Tuesday, November 7, 2023 Council meeting. To be placed on the agenda, contact Michelle Hannah, Deputy Clerk at 613-376-3027, x2222 or by email at mhannah@southfrontenac.net. Requests must be sent in by noon on October 27, 2023.

Higher inflation and the costs of goods and services will be a key factor in setting our 2024 budget. These two charts show the impact of inflation.

Consumer Price Index (as at end of August 2023)The Consumer Price Index captures the cost of a fixed basket of goods and services relevant to Canadian consumers. As you can see, while the CPI is on a downward trend, prices are still higher than they have been historically, affecting households and all levels of government.

Inflation Rate (as at end of August 2023)

The core inflation rate as of July 2023 was 3.42% after peaking at 5.53% in July, 2022. While inflation is trending downward, the accumulative effect of higher inflation is being seen in the prices of goods and services throughout the economy. This will have an impact on the cost of Township goods and services and factor into our 2024 budget.

Source: Bank of Canada

South Frontenac Township has started to prepare its 2024 budget and is asking residents to take a short survey to share their input. Residents can take the survey at surveymonkey.com/r/SF2024budget by November 8, 2023.

“Engaging the public and hearing what it has to say about services and what impacts their community is important to the Township” says Shelley Stedall, Director of Corporate Services and Treasurer for South Frontenac.

In the past, the Township has asked residents whether they would like to see a reasonable increase to enhance services, increase taxes only enough to maintain current services, or cut services to reduce or maintain the current tax rate. The Township’s 2023 budget resulted in an increase of 2.62% for the average taxpayer, lower than many other municipalities and saw a balance of maintaining services with some enhancements.

One new question in this year’s survey is asking residents what they would define as a “reasonable” increase to ensure the right balance of taxation with providing key services while balancing inflationary pressures.

“I think we’ve done a good job in the past of finding the right balance between taxation and being able to maintain and grow our programs and services. We want residents to weigh in this year to help us understand what our key priorities should be,” says Mayor Ron Vandewal.

Residents can learn more and sign up to receive updates on this year’s budget process on the EngageFrontenac.ca project page.

If you have questions about the survey or the budget process, email communications@southfrontenac.net.

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Contact:
Laurie Swinton
Executive Assistant & Communications Officer
613-376-3027 ext.2260
communications@southfrontenac.net