Algonquin Highlands mayor Liz Danielsen has described her council’s 2025 budget deliberations as a belttightening affair, with the township limiting its tax rate increase to 4.26 per cent – the lowest in Haliburton County.
That will see residential ratepayers cough up an additional $15.98 per $100,000 of their home’s assessed value, with the commercial hike at $23.70 per $100,000, and industrial $27.64 per $100,000.
Discussions stretched across two full days Feb. 27 and 28, with council tentatively approving costs of $19.3 million for the year on March 6. Taxpayers will cover just under $7.1 million of that – a 5.62 per cent ($376,250) increase from last year, with $12.2 million coming from provincial and federal transfer payments and municipal revenues.
“We’re well ahead of anybody else, which is good… I think council and staff did a really good job landing on something that is as reasonable as we can possibly make it given the times we’re living in, the projects we have coming up, and what our priorities need to be,” Danielsen said.
Council shaved about 1.4 per cent off the tax rate increase by eliminating $94,650 from the first draft of the budget, reducing the amount set aside for a parking master plan for the township including municipal docks and landings, limiting contributions to trails reserves, scrapping plans to add a stationary truck service to its existing waste services, and building new pickleball courts in Stanhope, Dorset and Oxtongue.
The transportation department accounts for the largest slice of the municipal pie, with anticipated costs of $8.4 million (43.73 per cent). Next is parks and recreation at $3.4 million (17.53 per cent), emergency services $3 million (15.5 per cent), and general governance $2.1 million (11 per cent).
Costs at Stanhope Municipal Airport are projected at $699,000 (3.62 per cent), with planning and development expenses $338,000 (1.75 per cent), and health expenditures $20,265 (0.1 per cent).
Municipal reserves are down approximately $490,000 – a six per cent decrease. Treasurer Jean Hughes said the township is adding $1.875 million to its various reserve funds, but drawing $2.364 million. Danielsen said she had to be “uncomfortably comfortable” with that.
“I get really nervous about reducing them too much – but considering we started out with an 11 per cent reduction at first draft, I think we did well,” she said. “Costs to run a municipality have increased dramatically over the past five, six, seven years… it seems to me like there needs to be a better balance [with the province] over who is responsible for what.
“Some of the things that have been downloaded to us for healthcare, housing, and other social services… it adds up. And when you consider the increased costs to maintain and replace infrastructure, for things like policing – stuff we have absolutely no control over – it’s getting harder to toe the line.”
Danielsen believes Algonquin Highlands has “a pretty low [tax] levy compared to a lot of other municipalities in Ontario.”
Where money going
Danielsen said council approved a four per cent increase to staff wages in 2025, up from an initial two per cent, which along with some additional hires added $274,000 to the budget. She said that was done to ensure non-unionized workers got the same raise as those in unionized positions.
Just over $2.3 million will be spent on roads, through the redesign and repair of a 2.2-kilometre portion of North Shore Road and surface treatments on Braelock, Airport, Green Lake, and Heron Landing roads as well as Havey Avenue East.
Danielsen said she expects work to wrap on the new $4.4 million public works garage in Stanhope this year, which she described as a “really, really big project.”
Around $525,000 will be invested into the Dorset Recreation Centre for HVAC upgrades, a new digital sign and electronic vehicle charging station; the Dorset Tower will receive $225,000 in upgrades to enhance lightning strike protection; $150,000 has been budgeted for firefighter hall repairs, training group enhancements, and more specialized firefighting equipment; with $110,000 earmarked for the airport for runway lighting upgrades, installation of new gates and fencing, tree clearing, and hangar repairs. T
he township’s four landfill sites – Maple Lake, Pine Springs, Oxtongue Lake and Dorset – will see $100,000 for trench development, bin replacement, scale software implementation and site improvements.
A new $50,000 vehicle has been approved for the bylaw department for monitoring and inspections related to the new short-term rental program.
