2025 Orillia Budget Preview Day One
By John Swartz
Orillia council has the first of 4 all day 2025 budget meetings Tuesday November 5. In the morning they will concentrate on the requests from outside services – OPP, the health unit and the County of Simcoe – from which the city outsources by provincial regulation elements of what we think of as local service and the City is obligated to pay for. They will then look at the general operating budget and decide what rates will be for the water services and parking.
The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit has submitted their budget to the City and Orillia’s share of their operating cost is going up by only 2%. Considering the types of increases we’ve all seen for various things in our daily lives, it’s almost a relief something is only headed to a 2% increase. The total bill form the health unit is $ 524,169.
The OPP on the other hand are presenting a hefty increase. Acting inspector Robert Flindall, detachment commander of the Orillia O.P.P. is expected to appear to answer council’s questions about their submission.
They are saying Orillia’s policing costs will be $11.65 million, which is a $2.361 million, or 25.4% increase over 2024. Included in the figure is a charge from 2023 of $665K, which is an adjustment because of pay increases negotiated after the budget was set.
Some of the costs, rates charged per call, court security and etc. are charged on a per call basis and calculated on the previous year numbers. Post-pandemic those projections were too high at budget and refunds were sent, but have returned to levels pre-pandemic and were under-calculated for the 2024 budget. This also accounts for part of the extra charge.
The county provides social/affordable housing, Ontario Works, long term care, children’s, and paramedic services to the City. In total the bill from the county is going up 14%, or $1.3 million.
The way the system works, all municipalities and the Cities of Orillia and Barrie pay into the county’s operating budget, but spending does not directly go back to those communities dollar for dollar.
So for example Orillia pays a share of the costs for things like housing developments in Barrie and Collingwood (and to be fair those communities had a share of costs for the County’s new facility on West Street), and new paramedic stations in Springwater and Waubaushene.
Operating
Staff are proposing a budget which has a $5.9 million increase. This is offset by $850K of expected new tax levy revenue for a total hit on tax bills of $5 million over 2024, or a 6.94% increase. It is not likely that increase will be the actual figure by the end of deliberations. The property tax levy only accounts for 75% of the City’s revenue.
The 2024 tax levy was $72.9 million (this is not the total amount of spending), so each 1% increase or decrease in the budget in 2025 amounts to $729K. This translates to $92 per $100k of property assessment. The City is actually projecting to spend $104 million in 2025, with other funding sources amounting to $26 million (grants, fees, etc.) making up the difference with the tax levy.
The cost of people working at City Hall accounts for 43% of the total budget. The wages line of the budget has gone up by $1.7 million. The second largest accounting group of expenses is contributions to reserves. Last year council raised the contribution amounts for some reserves over prior commitments to be continued through future budgets. The amount is increasing in 2025 by $1.6 million, or 8.4%.
The costs for a number of services the City pays for but are provided by others (not the County) is going up 3.3% ($392K). These services are transit, solid waste, facility maintenance, some public works, and some information technology.
Included in costs is $1.9 million for debt repayment. The two largest items accounting for debt the City has taken on are the Laclie Street Phase 2 reconstruction and rebuilding Brian Orser Arena.
The user fees and charges budget line is going up 40%. Staff expect the take to go up by $675K and say new revenue from tickets resulting from speed cameras will make up $500K of that. This kind of puts the lie to the statements speed cameras are about safety. If that amount was taken out of the budget, property taxes would have to go up another .69% because the amount of fines collected is figuring into how much the City spends. Speed camera revenue will show up on the engineering service budget resulting in a 79% decrease in that department’s share of the total operating budget.
Investment income is also a significant revenue generator. The City expects to receive $1.1 million, up by 35%, but staff are warning this won’t continue with bank rates falling and say some attention will need to be paid in order to not affect budgets next year and beyond.
By the end of Tuesday’s meeting council should have dispensed with most operating budget items relating to City Hall and municipal services and wrap that part up Wednesday morning.
Wednesday afternoon they will hear from boards, committees and agencies about their budget requests.
Next week council will deal with the capital budget on Tuesday and Wednesday.
You can watch the November 5 meeting live on the City’s Youtube channel.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia; Images Supplied)
