Category: Budgets

Focus Burlington is a group of volunteers dedicated to promoting a safe, secure, and sustainable future for all residents of Burlington. Group members recently attended all the city’s town hall meetings on the 2026 budget. Accompanying the mayor at every meeting is our very own Deputy Mayor for Strategy and Budgets, our Ward 5 councillor. … Continue reading Opinion – Fact Checking the Budget Town Hall Meetings!

Focus Burlington, a group of volunteers, we took a look at the 2026 Budget Blueprint and here’s what we found. From 2022 to 2026, the Burlington line on our tax bill will increase by 45%. Here’s the explanation. Our tax bill has three lines on it: one for the city, one for the region, and … Continue reading Opinion – Burlington’s 2026 Budget Blueprint

Please complete the Focus Burlington Budget survey linked at the bottom of this post. The annual, City of Burlington, Food for Feedback event is back. Visit Central Park on September 13th, 2025 from 12 – 4 p.m. to participate. Through a Freedom of Information request, we learned that the city paid $47,657.37 for food at … Continue reading Opinion – Food For Feedback

Every year in August, the City of Burlington mails us a copy of the “City Talk” magazine. The magazine contains sixteen pages of “News from your municipal government”. Page 14 shows us the “Budget Projections as of July 15, 2025”. This paragraph accompanies the chart. When I read this statement, I walk away thinking that … Continue reading Opinion – Is respect a two-way street?

Many municipalities across Canada contribute to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), including Burlington and Hamilton. Our estimates indicate that Burlington contributed $41,416 in 2024. What services does FCM provide? Each member municipality pays an annual fee composed of a base fee and a per-person fee, based on Statistics Canada's population estimates.[1] Across Canada, municipalities … Continue reading What is the Federation of Canadian Municipalities?

In Ontario, rent controls are applied to buildings occupied before November 15, 2018. Ontario has capped rental increases at 2.1% for 2026. The cap is based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a common measure of inflation. If the inflation rate is above 2.5% rent increases are capped at 2.5%. If a landlord requires an … Continue reading Are property tax increases also rent increases?

$35,000 a year to provide homeowners with funds to host neighbourhood parties through something called the “Love Your Neighbourhood” initiative. A now-shuttered program for $170,000 in loans to provide homeowners with loans to install heat pumps. Thousands of dollars spent by civic officials to provide participants with food vouchers as part of the “Food for … Continue reading Opinion – CUT THE FLUFF !!