By Mike Renzella
The Haldimand Press
HALDIMAND—Last week, Haldimand County Council approved the 2023 Tax-Supported Operating Budget, the second of three annual budgets. With a total levy requirement of $80,305,850 in associated costs, Haldimand’s residential tax class can expect a 3.28% overall increase in their property taxes for the year.
The impact is up from last year’s 2.29% raise, and up two points from 2021 when residents saw only a 1% increase.
The operating budget is used to pay for the County’s daily operations, including salaries, utilities, insurance, and services such as running arenas/programming, maintaining locals parks and cemeteries, providing emergency services, garbage collection, and related activities.
County CAO Craig Manley said that the process for preparing the yearly budget takes a minimum of six months: “There is a review of what we call the base-budget changes, the things like utilities that are constant, and then there’s a business case that is required for all new initiatives.”
Initiatives are reviewed by department managers and a financial analyst to ensure that, before the budget moves forward to the County’s senior management team, it is supported at the department level. At the senior level, the budget is reviewed against Council’s targets for the current term and from a corporate perspective.
“It would be an understatement to say that this budget was challenging,” said Manley in a speech to Council last week. “When the budget was initially presented … it was well over 5%.”
Manley said that County staff had to slash $1.5 million from the total $80 million budget to lower the impact to residents, adding, “Staff conducted a rigorous review of controllable costs and did not bring forward any new initiatives that weren’t urgent, required by legislation, or wouldn’t directly benefit the public.”
“The County is in an unprecedented time of transition. This is a result of both growth and the demographic change we’re seeing. That’s impacting service demand,” he explained. “Virtually all municipalities have been facing the same challenges we as individuals have in terms of inflation. Last year, it was around 7%. It’s still around 6%, which is quite different from what we’ve experienced the last decade, which was around 2% and fairly stable.”
Manley listed increased costs for utilities, fuel, food at Grandview, vehicles, and construction as just some examples of the “significant inflationary pressures” facing County staff in forming a budget that meets community service expectations while mitigating the impacts of inflation as much as possible.
Some of the other major factors that influenced the 2023 Operating Budget include supply chain impacts, reduced/uncertain provincial funding, and the rising cost of insurance and contracted essential services.
“Not only are we dealing with inflation, we’re dealing with new requirements that put outward pressure on our budget,” said Manley of required initiatives due to new legislation and community need.
While the increased tax rate is eyebrow-raising, Manley asserts that it remains “lower than what many other municipalities are facing,” while employing “strategic foresight to ensure our strong financial position is sustained.”
Mayor Shelley Ann Bentley commented on the budget, “Thanks to the hard work and diligence of staff, we have a budget that balances maintaining the services our residents value with making investments to ensure Haldimand remains a prosperous, vibrant community for future generations.”
To view more information on the 2023 Tax Supported Operating budget, visit the County’s website at
HaldimandCounty.ca/financials/budgets.
2023 Tax-Supported Operating Budget highlights
- Introducing new, temporary staffing to oversee and expedite major projects, including the construction of Caledonia’s new Fire/EMS station, municipal website re-design, and the last year of the gravel road conversion program;
- Over $76,000 in grants to support organizations with community beautification initiatives;
- Continuing to roll out the Council-approved reorganization of the IT division to increase efficiencies, meet service delivery requirements, and strengthen cybersecurity;
- Increasing the staffing complement of Building Services to enhance the building permit application intake, inspection, and issuance process;
- Enhancing the County’s forestry management program and reducing external consulting costs with a new, in-house Urban Forester position to respond to service requests;
- Spearheading a recruitment and retention strategy to ensure the County can continue to recruit, retain, and develop existing staff;
- Investing in the development of a corporate training plan relating to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as recommended by the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion committee;
- In response to rapid growth, adding a Project Manager, Municipal Infrastructure to manage all construction associated with land development;
- Introducing six new summer students to facilitate the County’s roadside mowing program as a pilot project, with the aim of reducing costs and reliance on contracted services;
- Adding summer program staff in response to growth and increasing demand.
