The budgeting process for Prince Edward County has come to an end, with the 2026 budget being formally adopted.
During Tuesday’s council meeting, Mayor Steve Ferguson officially presented the budget for council’s approval.
Council had already spent several days in deliberation over the budget, and the version presented was the result of those talks. During the previous talks, council proposed a rate increase of 3.59 per cent. This increase will result in a homeowner paying an additional $37.73 annually, or $3.15 monthly, per $100,000 of assessed home value.
Since the conclusion of those talks, the municipality was notified of increasing costs for OPP service. While the budget originally planned for a 6% increase, the increase in cost under the new OPP contract is 11%. In order to compensate for this increase, it was proposed to raise the municipal tax rate increase from 3.59% to 4.35%.
Councillor Brad Nieman put forward an amendment to use funds from several reserve funds to offset the unexpected expenses rather than increase the tax rate. He proposed using $143,500 from the operating year-end carry-forward climate reserve, $150,000 from the municipal accommodation tax reserve, and $96,979 from the waste diversion reserve.
“I don’t want to drain the reserves,” said Councillor Nieman. “This was the best possible scenario that we could come up with to make the best of a bad situation. I don’t expect to be draining reserves in the future if I’m sitting here.”
The motion sparked some debate among council, with Councillor Kate MacNaughton speaking against using reserve funds, warning that those funds would not be there if they were needed before the reserves could be refilled.
“I would never want there to be any sort of mid-year tax implication ever, and that when your reserves get low, that is a bit of a fear,” said Councillor MacNaughton. “There are a number of reserves that we can draw on, but they’re not healthy either.”
The amendment would later pass, and the budget was passed as amended with the original planned increase to the municipal levy.
