With local residents facing a nearly five per cent tax hike next year, municipal officials are calling on the Ontario government to step up and provide Chatham-Kent with its fair share of infrastructure funding.
CK administration presented the 2026 update for the municipality’s 2024-2027 multi-year budget to council on Wednesday, which outlined a proposed property tax increase of 4.92 per cent. The proposed draft budget would result in an annual increase of $104 for the average household with a home valued at $100,000.
The tax increase for next year was initially forecasted to be 8.77 per cent, however, CK staff were able to find approximately $9.05 million in efficiencies. This was accomplished without cutting any existing municipal services.
However, according to municipal officials, nearly half of the tax increase is attributed to an “arbitrary” cap on provincial funding through the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF), which is designed to help rural municipalities build and repair essential infrastructure.
Chatham-Kent is one of only three Ontario municipalities that have a $10 million cap on OCIF funding, the other two being Sudbury and Thunder Bay. Essex County, Lambton County, and Elgin County will receive between $13 million and $18 million through the OCIF program.
Based on the province’s own OCIF formula that looks at population density, economic conditions, and infrastructure assets, administration said Chatham-Kent should be receiving $29.3 million for 2026. This leaves the municipality with a $19.3 million funding imbalance.
Mayor Darrin Canniff said Chatham-Kent is being “shortchanged” and the municipality has issued a “plea for help” to the provincial government.
“We’re asking the province to step up and treat us fairly, and get rid of that cap,” he said. “We need the province’s help. This is a major burden that’s being put on the taxpayers of Chatham-Kent.”
Chatham-Kent is home to 20 per cent of the drains in Ontario, the most of any other municipality, and nearly five per cent of the bridges in Ontario. CK is also responsible for maintaining 1,533 km of paved roads, 194 km of surface-treated roads, and 1,624 km of gravel roads.
Because of the significant network of infrastructure, CK CAO Michael Duben said the municipality is being left at a disadvantage.
“We have some of the greatest needs, and we’re getting the least amount of money,” said Duben. “I think it’s getting to a point where there’s just so much money being left on the table, and it’s absolutely holding back Chatham-Kent.”
While Chatham-Kent officials have been appealing to the provincial government to remove the OCIF cap, Ward 6 Councillor and Budget Chair Brock McGregor said CK is now asking members of the public to reach out to their local members of provincial parliament.
“I think we see it very consistently at council meetings, in our emails and our phone calls that the community thinks that funding infrastructure appropriately is really important,” said McGregor. “We’re hoping that same energy can be directed toward the provincial government so that the community can highlight how important it is for them, [and] how important it is for the agriculture industry that we see dollars flow to projects that need to happen in our community.”
Despite the lack of provincial funding, Chatham-Kent has the lowest average property tax rate in Ontario for municipalities with populations over 100,000, according to an independent BMA Municipal Study.
“We’re in very good financial health,” said Canniff. “That’s why we’re able to optimistically look forward and say, we can grow, we need to grow. We need to provide assets that people want… we need to give people reasons why they should move here [and] why businesses should locate here.”
The 2026 draft budget is available to view online by clicking here.
Local residents will be able to provide input and ask questions during two virtual community consultation events that are scheduled for later this month, on November 19 and 20.
Budget deliberations are set to begin at the Civic Centre on November 25.
