What to know going into the survey of Windsor’s 2025 budget

On Sept. 9, City of Windsor mayor Drew Dilkins unveiled the city council will be undergoing preliminary reviews of the city budget for 2025. By Sept. 11, city council took the bold step of splitting duties between three committees and announced a public survey regarding the budget between Sept. 17 – the 23. How did we get here and what should you know going into this upcoming survey? 

An Ontario city’s budget can be best explained by this definition from Ottawa.ca:  

“The City is required by the Ontario Municipal Act to balance its budget each year – which means that the money spent must be equal to the money raised. To balance the budget, the City can either increase its revenues using tools such as property taxes and fees, or through managing expenses by changing or reducing the services offered or projects completed.”  

Following Ontario’s Strong Mayor Powers, the mayor will present their budget by Feb. 1, 2025, and council has 30 days to review the budget and provide recommendations. 

The current issue tying up Windsor’s 2025 budget is the proposed increase to property tax. Mayor Dilkens discussed in the Sept. 9 meeting “It’s fair to say that it’s higher than we’ve seen in the past 20 years” providing no exact percentage increase but assures the increase will not exceed the double digits. The largest increase in the past 20 years was in 2004, a rise of 6.5 per cent. It is fair to assume the increase would be similar or higher than that number. The reported reason for such an increase is the result of inflation and contractural salary changes across city staff.

To avoid such an increase, the city is currently examining ways to save money across the board. Dilkens stated goal with his staff is “… all of council to be engaged and looking at service delivery to find areas for savings so that we can get this budget down to a level that residents would support.” According to Ottawa.ca, service delivery of a city includes “… emergency services (fire, police and paramedics), roads, clean water, parks and recreation, public health programs, garbage and recycling programs, libraries and the buses that take residents to work and home.”   

In the meeting held on Sept. 11, the mayor enacted a plan of splitting the council into three financial committees to focus their attention on specific areas the city can afford to make cuts. One committee is tasked with corporate and community services. A second committee looks into economic development and engineering. The last committee will investigate services filed under finance and social services. They will start working with city commissioners and conduct public deliberations (a practice of reaching out and having conversations with public figures) on Sept. 23.  

Some councillors shared concern over the plan, expressing their preference to discuss the issue at a big picture level. Whether concerns over the procedure will have an impact on how the budget is conducted is yet to be seen. 

Another anchor in this plan is the hosting of an online survey to allow residents of Windsor an outlet of providing feedback or suggestions on the budget. This survey will be held between Sept. 17 – 23 so keep an eye on  the city of Windsor’s website for when that survey is made available.

The strategy here shows The City of Windsor Council is taking their 2025 budget seriously and hopes to avoid a major tax increase during this already financially difficult time for Windsorites. It is important to acknowledge that lowering the tax increase is ideal for citizens, but if that cut comes at the cost of public services and basic amenities, citizens could be posed with new problems like delayed construction projects, strains on healthcare, or cuts to public transit.

If you are a citizen of Windsor and are concerned about the potential changes to be made with this budget, consider filling out the official survey when it is released on Sept. 17. You can also reach out to councillors who are on committees of topics you feel strongly about for their goals on the matter and offer suggestions to improve and maintain quality service.