Like every municipality in Ontario, Essa Township is facing some challenges when it comes to keeping taxes down as much as possible heading into the new year.
When the township held its first budget meeting on Nov. 20, it was working off a few assumptions, including a $620,000 increase in policing costs.
Based on those assumptions, the municipal tax impact on an assessed home of $394,000 would be an increase of 8.32 per cent or $110 annually. Township residents faced an 11.2 per cent hike — or $130 — in 2024.
The blended tax rate, which includes the municipal and county increases, for 2025 would be 5.48 per cent or $170 annually. In 2024, those increases were 5.9 per cent or $172 annually.
Since that first budget meeting, a number of changes have occurred, including a provincial government proposal that would provide more than $77 million in financial relief to municipalities to help offset the increased costs of municipal police services offered by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
The Ontario government’s proposal would support small and rural municipalities by offsetting the 2025 impacts of OPP salary increases.
This includes:
- A 3.75 per cent bill reduction on 2023 total reconciled costs,
- A 44 per cent bill reduction on 2023 reconciled overtime costs
- A 10 per cent bill reduction on amounts invoiced for 2025 policing costs.
In addition to these changes, the provincial government is continuing its annual $125-million Court Security and Prisoner Transportation Transfer Payment Program for the 2025 calendar year.
“We’re digesting these numbers and we’re hoping to stay where we were last year,” Michael Mikael, chief administrative officer for Essa Township, said during an interview on Friday. “Our first budget meeting was Nov. 20 and our second one will be Dec. 10.
“We’ll have a clearer idea of where the tax rate will be at that time,” he added.
According to Mikael, Essa is dealing with challenges unlike anything municipal officials have seen in years.
“Essa has been hit hard by factors out of our control, including reduced funding from the provincial government, inflation, escalating costs and policing costs,” Mikael said. “We’re working on initiatives now to reduce the impact.”
One program that might provide the greatest impact to Essa’s financial outlook is its Joint Processing Data Centre (JPDC) for automated speed enforcement (ASE).
The JPDC is a facility where Provincial Offences officers review images captured by speed cameras. The JPDC processes those tickets and then sends them to the vehicle’s registered owner for payment.
According to the first draft of the budget, township officials are projecting JPDC revenues of just under $2.5 million in 2025.
“Those are projections,” Mikael said. “We’re hoping we can meet that number or go higher.”
According to Mikael, if the township is able to secure that level of revenue, it will fund a lot of infrastructure and help keep taxes low.
He said that while ASE and the JPDC have no impact on taxpayers from a cost perspective, they will play a key role in keeping tax increases lower.
“All of the revenue will be used to fund different capital projects, reducing the impact to taxpayers,” Mikael said. “If we have a bridge that might cost us several millions to replace, we’re now looking into ways to fund it from ASE and JPDC.
“So, instead of allocating funds from taxation, it will result in tax savings,” he added.
Since launching the JPDC, Essa has secured a number of municipalities as customers, including Springwater Township, which recently approved the roll-out of speed cameras in that township.
According to Springwater officials, the township would retain 46 per cent of the net fine revenue for each ticket processed.
Mikael wouldn’t comment on what the financial split was for other municipalities.
“Those are confidential agreements and I’m not at liberty to discuss them,” he said.
He allowed that Essa has a number of JPDC customers, some of whom are local and some of whom are not.
While ASE was originally initiated to improve driver behaviour, Mikael concedes the revenue is an attractive side-effect.
“Our long-term vision was to generate revenue so we could improve our level of service and reduce the financial impact on taxpayers,” Mikael said. “With us having the JPDC, it’s making everyone else’s process that much easier.
“It’s a turnkey solution. They don’t have to worry about it — it’s all done and ready for them.”
