Members of Chatham-Kent Council have finalized the 2025 budget with property taxes slated to increase by just under 5 per cent.
During the second night of budget deliberations on Wednesday, the Budget Committee was able to reduce the tax burden on local residents from 5.11 per cent to 4.99 per cent. The draft budget was initially tabled with a projected levy increase of 5.96 per cent.
The 4.99 per cent tax burden equates to an increase of $176 annually for the average household with a home valued at $176,200, or $100 per $100,000 of residential assessment value.
During deliberations on Wednesday, Councillor Ryan Doyle entered a successful motion that $250,000 be taken from the Corporate Severance for Frustrated Contracts reserve for one-time use to reduce the tax burden. The second part of the motion also moved that $50,000 be pulled from the same reserve, along with another $200,000 from the Corporate Sick Provision reserve, to be transferred to the Strategic Development reserve to possibly fund future Primary Care Family Physician incentives.
The change provided a 0.12 per cent decrease to the 2025 budget, which will likely have to be made up as part of the multi-year budget update for 2026.
Two other motions were made by Doyle and Councillor Rhonda Jubenville asking for additional funding to be taken out of several different reserves. However, both motions failed with the majority of councillors expressing concern that it would be downloading too much onto the following year’s budget, resulting in a larger tax increase.
Council voted 12-6 in favour of accepting the 2025 budget, with councillors Doyle, Jubenville, Michael Bondy, John Wright, Anthony Ceccacci, and Conor Allin voting against it.
Due to the Strong Mayor Powers legislation passed by the Ontario government, council’s vote no longer officially approves the budget but instead ends the review process. Mayor Darrin Canniff now has 10 days to veto any amendments, however, he indicated at the end of deliberations that he has no intention to do so.