Average home taxes to go up $186.44 over the year

TEESWATER – The Council of the Municipal of South Bruce officially passed its 2025 budget, tax rates and levies recently, but there are still questions about the operation of the municipality’s two pools.

During council’s March 11 meeting, Director of Finance Kendra Reinhart presented the final budget to Council and, while she was prepared to discuss the budget at length, council members were really only concerned about the swimming pools in Mildmay and Teeswater and whether they would remain open on Sundays during the swimming season.

Coun. Ron Schnurr opened the discussion, saying that he wanted to revisit the issue of the swimming pools which had been dealt with during the process to prepare the budget. He suggested the municipality could charge more for individual swim passes to try and offset the cost of running the pools on Sundays, in contrast to council previously agreeing to stopping the operation of the pool. Council members said the total cost for operation of one pool, alternating between the municipalities, was estimated approximately $1,800.

“If we bump prices so it covers the cost of Sundays, that won’t impact our budget,” he said. 

Deputy Mayor Nigel Van Dyk also wanted to address the issue, saying that the Teeswater Kinsmen may be considering donating $2,500 to cover the cost of Sunday swimming. 

He said he would like to see the pools remain open using that funding. 

Reinhart, however, pointed out the group was already donating $2,500 to the municipality for the pool which was earmarked for subsidizing entries for “Toonie Tuesday” swims. She asked if Van Dyk had been told if this was an additional $2,500, or the re-allocation of that.

Mayor Mark Goetz said he had also spoke to the Kinsmen and that his understanding was they wanted the existing $2,500 donation moved to cover Sunday swimming.

Van Dyk said his impression was, if the $2,500 wasn’t put towards the operation of the pools, the municipality may lose the money, which led Mayor Goetz to say that, either way, the municipality could be out money.

After some debate, council decided it would proceed with the existing budget and look to change it later if necessary, however the discussion didn’t end there as Van Dyk asked if other sponsorships could be used to address the operating costs of the pools if council had already approved the budget.

While council could take that path, Mayor Goetz said he was under the impression that it wasn’t just funding that led to the recommendation to close the pools on Sundays, but also a lack of staffing, among other issues.

Mayor Goetz then addressed the public, saying that council didn’t look to shut down the pool.

“We weren’t looking to attack Sunday swims,” he said. “$1,800 isn’t a lot of money in this process, but at the start of the budget, we challenged staff.”

Mayor Goetz said the original budget considered included an 11 per cent increase in taxation, partly due to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) deciding on moving the proposed Deep Geological Repository (DGR) to Ignace instead of South Bruce.

He later said that council and staff basically “had to turn back the clock 12 years before the DGR project” in the budget process, since the municipality has benefitted to the tune of $25 million since entering the NWMO site selection process.

“We have to find our footing after that,” he said. “There will be trimming – we can’t keep putting this on the tax base, or it will deter businesses from moving here and setting up shop, which is the reverse effect of what we’re trying to achieve here.

“This is a wake-up call, as much as you don’t like to have to deal with it, we’re dealing with it,” he said.

Mayor Goetz said the DGR was a unique project that represented significant change and benefit for the community, but it wasn’t something the municipality could look to anymore.

“Now we have to look at other options to offset the tax increases, and we’re not going to attract other businesses if we’re the highest taxed municipality in Bruce County,” he said.

Mayor Goetz said the municipality is currently the second highest taxed in Bruce County, so staff had to find ways to keep the taxes low.

“Staff were challenged and got the budget under a five per cent increase,” Mayor Goetz said. “We have to keep, in the back of our mind, the fact that there’s a large portion of our residents on fixed incomes. We’re trying to let them age in place and keep them in the municipality, so we can’t keep raising taxes.”

He said that recreation is a little less than 10 per cent of the overall budget, which is “quite a chunk”, and that’s why he values volunteers and service clubs, like the Kinsmen.

After more discussion, council decided to approve the budget and direct staff to investigate the funds coming from the Teeswater Kinsmen to evaluate how that might impact the 2025 financial year.

In an interview with Midwestern Newspapers after the meeting, Manager of Recreation and Facilities Shawnette Crouse explained that the decision to close the pools on Sundays was not a financial one, pointing to previous reports. In the reports, she explained that Sunday was always the worst-attended day at the pool: in Teeswater attendance ranged from 128 on Sundays to 305 on Friday, while in Mildmay it ranged from 77 on Sundays to 536 on Fridays. 

“Given the lower Sunday attendance, the elimination of Sunday swims will allow the municipality to focus resources on well-attended programs throughout the week,” she said. “While public pools traditionally operate at a financial deficit, these adjustments help manage taxpayer subsidies while ensuring accessible and engaging aquatic programs.”

Specifically, Crouse said the funds, including sponsorship, would benefit programs like Toonie Tuesday and Fun Friday activities at the pool. 

She also said that staffing is a challenge on Sundays, even with the traditional schedule of alternating the pools being open on Sunday. 

“By reallocating staff hours to busier days, the municipality can ensure optimal coverage and service levels throughout the week,” she said.

Budget highlights

While Reinhart didn’t present the full budget, she did provide council with a slideshow outlining the highlights of the budget process.

On average, residential tax rates will be increased 4.1 per cent, or $64.62 per $100,000 of assessment. Farmland taxes are also up, on average, 4.1 per cent, or $16.16 per $100,000 of assessment. 

The municipal tax rate increased by .00040193 to 0.00970498, or 4.3 per cent, while the county tax rate increased by 4.9 per cent. The blended tax rate, including the municipal tax rate, county tax rate and education tax rate (which didn’t change) totaled 0.1649233, up 0.00064624, or 4.1 per cent.

Taking the above into consideration, Reinhart reported that an average residential house with an assessment of $288,504 would see its taxes increase by $186.44, or 4.1 per cent.

The municipality’s operating budget is $7,456,855, an increase of $328,548, with expenses totaling $11,597,474 and transfers to reserve totaling $2,971,765.

Water and sewer fees have increased this year, with base fees increasing $30 per year to $645, while sanitary sewer based fees have increased to $782, or five per cent for Mildmay residents and 28 per cent for Teeswater residents, as the latter have been under a rate freeze for several years.

Taxation per class has residential properties just over $8 million, farmland at approximately $3 million and commercial and industrial both below $1 million.

The major impacts to the budget include: a loss of $254,789 that were previously covered by funds from the NWMO; a loss of $86,700 due to reductions in Ontario Municipal Partnership Funding; a loss of $81,220 due to additional reserve contributions for capital purposes; a cost of $38,039 to address remaining Consumer Price Index costs, wages and other changes, including reductions in level of service to departmental operating budgets, $25,900 in additional insurance costs and $15,200 in additional costs for the local conservation authorities.

As a result of the NWMO site selection process, the municipality received $8 million – $4 million for declaring itself a willing partner for the project and $4 million as an exit payment. The funds are not being used for the budget, but will be invested so the municipality can benefit from the interest on the money.

Capital purchases include:

– $8,430,630 in environmental costs including work on the Mildmay sanitary sewer system work, Teeswater Formosa sanitary system, the Mildmay water system and the Teeswater water system;

– $3,787,600 in transportation costs including the replacement of a tandem plow truck, renovations to the Teeswater Public Works shed, bridges and culverts costs, road deconstruction, rural road resurfacing and drainage and stormwater management;

– $694,796 in recreation, parks and facilities costs including compressor replacement, renovations to the Teeswater Culross Community Centre, maintenance on pools, renovations to libraries, replacing a stolen vehicle, and others;

– $217,960 in fire and protection costs including on-line training software, decals for the fire chief’s truck, personal protection equipment, station maintenance, lightning upgrades, two-way radios, and generators for both fire stations; and 

– $113,250 in general government costs including new laptop computers, firewall hardware, budgeting software and $80,000 for a temporary loan to Belmore Community Centre upgrades.