Council Preview 2026 Service Agencies Budget
By John Swartz
Orillia council has a long day Monday, November 17 with four types of meetings scheduled. The day begins at 9 a.m. with two meetings about the 2026 budget. A public planning meeting and the regular council meeting will take up the afternoon starting at 1 p.m. and a preview of those agendas will be published separately.
First up in the morning are presentations by service agencies relating to the Mayor’s proposed service agency budget.
Trevor Wilcox, Mina Fayez-Bahgat, Jane Sinclair, County of Simcoe treasurer Lealand Sibbick, and Warden Basil Clarke will be present to defend the request for municipal funds.
Parts of the budget they will be presenting are projections because the actual numbers will not be available until later in the year or in early 2026.
There are several services (social welfare, housing, paramedics, etc) the county manages on behalf of all the municipalities.
The county bills Orillia 11.3% of their budget based on case load for Ontario Works and homelessness and addition recovery. The total case load is expected rise by 80 to 917 people receiving benefits.
Early learning and child care services are also charge on a case load basis and the County charges Orillia 8.83% of the total budget, which is up from 7.99% in 2025.
For housing, some of the budget comes from the province and the feds. It is not clear if the increase for the municipal rent supplement of $237.5K is Orillia’s share, or an increase to the total budget. The budget charge for maintaining social housing is $1.3 million for what the county calls provider loans; there is no explanation of what that means.
Orillia pays a percentage of the total budget for paramedic service based on caseload and the county is projecting Orillia’s share will remain at 10.6%. The 2025 figure of 10K calls was slightly lower than projected; nevertheless the county is factoring in an increase of calls for a total of 10,780. In 2024 there were 9,869 calls for service.
When it comes to the actual dollars being asked for, the county has lots of charts, but one of them show what the previous year’s budgets were so an idea of what kinds of increases are being applied can be reported.
The following chart shows how much they are asking from Orillia compared to what Barrie and County budgets are contributing to operating budgets for specific services.
This chart shows Orillia’s share of capital costs compared to Barrie and the county’s shares. It’s interesting to note the figures (totals on pink lines) for Barrie and Orillia. Barrie has five times the population, yet their contribution for long term care is not even two times as great as Orillia’s.
It appears by the following chart, Orillia will be sending $9.9 million to the county for the services listed. You will note if the operating and capital figures in the above charts are added, that figure is higher.
Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit
The medical officer of health, Dr. Lisa Simon, and Karen Ellis-Scharfenberg will be present at the budget meeting. The province is upping their funding to the health unit by a whopping 1% and they only contribute 72.7% of the SMDHU budget. Orillia was charged $529K in 2025 or 4.790% more than in 2024. The health unit typically does not set it’s budget until the new year and there is no indication now of how much they will be charging the City, but the presentation will likely indicate a ball park figure.
OPP
The Couchiching OPP Detachment Board chair, Councillor Ralph Cipolla, Angela Harwood, and detachment commander Inspector Todd Landon of the Orillia OPP will be present. The document submission from the board does not address actual policing costs, historically, or proposed for 2026. The board did submit a 2026 budget for the board’s operating expenses of $90K, which is $4,500 less than in 2025.
The agenda does not included any projections, or estimates on what the budgets will be for 2026. In past years staff plugged in best guesses after consulting with the service agencies, so council had some idea of what they were committing to. The issue has always been those agencies never had budgets to give to the City, sometimes until March, so staff estimates tended to be on the high side.
There are no accompanying notes from staff, or statement from the mayor about what the dollar amounts are likely to be. A note from the clerk, Dan Kirby, informs council the mayor will present a budget when numbers are received from the agencies and then a similar process of amending the mayor’s proposal will apply at that moment.
Operating Budget
Last week, council had a meeting to consider amendments to the mayor’s proposed budget. This week is a ratification action on the amendments passed last week. Details of the proposed amendments can be found here.
The amendment to created a sewage backflow rebate pilot program did not pass, nor did a proposal to add $300K to the budget as a contribution to the affordable housing reserve, or a proposal to grant $100K to Green Haven Shelter for Women and Children for a transitional bed pilot program.
Unlike with the Capital budget where the mayor waived veto on the same day amendments were ratified on October 20, setting the 2026 capital budget, there is no such statement or motion for the operating budget or its amendments.
This suggests Mayor Don McIsaac will veto some or all of the amendments despite ratification by council at this meeting. This means a process to override any veto won’t come back to public airing until December 11.
Council meetings are open to the public or can be watched on the City’s Youtube channel.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia)
