After flirting with double-digits, Niagara Regional Council approves 9.6% budget increase for 2025

On December 5th, Niagara Falls resident Frances Cortese exercised her democratic right and addressed Regional Council. 

She delivered her remarks in a calm and measured fashion, recognizing that Councillors have a tough job; but emphasized that recent annual tax increases had been well above the inflation rate, were arguably incongruent with the Region’s declaration of a State of Emergency on homelessness and are not sustainable in the long run. When Budget Committee Chair Mayor Wayne Redekop (Fort Erie) advised Ms. Cortese that she had to wrap up her comments, as he had let her go past the 10-minute time limit for delegations, she concluded by imploring councillors to reconsider the proposed exorbitant increase (10.8 percent at the time) which would put more Niagara residents “on the brink of financial crisis”. 

A week later, Regional Council would pass the general levy—whittling the increase down to 9.6 percent.  

The 2022-2026 Regional Council has now delivered three budgets. Council approved a $38 million increase in 2023, requiring a property tax jump of 7.6 percent on the Regional portion of the tax bill. In 2024, the General Levy saw a 7 percent increase on the Regional portion of the property bill. With the 9.6 percent jump in 2025, it means the Regional budget has increased 24.2 percent in just three years. 

Regional Councillor Tom Insinna (Fort Erie), who was one of the most vocal members during this year’s budget deliberations as he looked for ways to bring it down, decried Council for supporting successive increases that add up to nearly 25 percent. The cumulative increase on the Regional portion of the tax bill of the average assessed property since 2022 has been $445, with an increase of $191 slated for the 2025 tax bill.

While council was able to slightly reduce the proposed 10.78 percent increase for 2025, significant increases are also projected for 2026 and 2027.

(Niagara Region)

During budget deliberations for the 2025 budget, regional councillors spoke to decisions of past councils; mandated programming, especially as dictated by the senior levels of government; the lack of revenue tools for municipalities; and the need for a “new deal” for the funding of services.

“92 percent of the services we provide or the amounts that we spend are mandated. They are not discretionary; they are mandated and therefore we have no choice. We have to provide (the services), not because we want to spend willy-nilly but because we're required by federal and provincial rules,” Regional Chair Jim Bradley said.

In a related response from Finance staff, it was noted that the gross costs of programs required of the Region by the senior levels of government equals $563 million. While the provincial and federal governments fund the majority of the programs, the Region has to fund $118 million of the program costs. 

Regional Councillor Rob Foster (Lincoln) placed blame on previous regional councils putting off needed expenditures that “have now come to roost.” He rhetorically asked, “are we going to not fund ambulances, EMS, water treatment? I don’t think so.”

Both Bradley and Foster noted the lack of revenue tools for a municipality, especially when the Region’s assessment growth has been consistently 1.5 percent over the last number of years, which poses a significant challenge.

Bradley noted that the senior levels of government have progressive taxes: the greater one’s income level, theoretically, the higher the tax the individual pays. Municipalities are primarily restricted to property taxes, which do not consider an individual’s ability to pay. The Regional Chair reiterated calls for a new deal for funding of municipal services.

The issue of mandated provincial programs also came up during the discussions on the Niagara Regional Police Services (NRPS) budget. Approximately 5.7 percent of the 13.2 percent increase to the NRPS budget was attributable, according to Chief Bill Fordy, to the implementation of the Community Safety and Policing Act enacted in April 2024.

While a motion passed by Regional Council calling on the $10.3 million in associated costs from the legislation to be funded by the Province, rather than through the tax levy, may be a long shot, the Province’s recent announcement of $77 million in relief funding to municipalities served by the Ontario Provincial Police, gave regional councillors some hope that their request would be considered.

Throughout the budget process, the NRPS budget was divisive, at least when it came to votes. The proposed 13.2 percent increase was approved in a 15-14 vote, only to be referred back to the NRPS Board to consider the deferral of the proposed hiring of an additional Deputy Chief, a superintendent and two inspectors. Despite the Chief offering to stagger the hiring to lessen the burden in 2025, the Board balked at any changes to the budget. Councillor Insinna, during the December 5th meeting, moved an amendment to cap the NRPS budget increase to 10 percent. The amendment failed by one vote.

Proving that the police budget was not set in stone until the very end, at the final budget meeting on December 12th, Regional Councillor Brian Heit (St. Catharines) moved an amendment that would implement the staggered hiring that had been proposed by Chief Fordy. His motion was seconded by Regional Councillor Huson, who had been miffed to learn that the Chief’s proposal had not been shared with Regional Council. The amendment passed, though the impact was a mere 0.17 percent decrease to the levy.

As a result, despite the nominal increase, the NRPS budget accounted for more than five percent of the consolidated budget increase, and more than half of the dollar increase to the owner of the average assessed property.

Councillor Heit had also successfully introduced cuts at the December 5th budget meeting that shaved the proposed consolidate levy increase: staff’s recommendation for Council to fund $4 million of the 2022 Tax Deferral was cut in half to $2 million and the $4.87 million earmarked for Smart Growth Development Charge Incentives, was also reduced to a $2 million impact in 2025. The impact of Heit’s amendments was a 1.01 percent decrease to the consolidated levy.

Despite the Council decision on the controversial developer incentives, their funding remained a hot button issue at the December 12th meeting. Unlike the funding of mandatory services that was espoused throughout the budget process, the Smart Growth Development Charge Incentives are an example of discretionary spending. At the December 12th meeting, Regional Councillor Andrea Kaiser (Niagara-on-the-Lake) expressed her frustration:

“I think the taxpayers are offended by us considering cutting core services in favor of more than $19 million going out the door (for developer incentives) over the next four years when the math says that we don't get the assessment growth that everyone talks about.”

Mayor Mat Siscoe (St. Catharines), who had championed the continuation of the program, reminded the members that Council had approved the extension of the $19.6 million incentive program and it would require a two-thirds majority to revisit the approval, effectively ending the discussion.

Councillor Insinna had delayed the final approval of the operating budget by a week, while successfully referring the possibility of a 50 percent reduction in “programming changes” back to Regional staff. The possible impact of the reduction would have been less than .5 percent off the consolidated levy.

The program changes accounted for an additional $4.6 million to the Region’s proposed operating budget. Although there were program changes, the majority of funding in the area was related to approximately 48 staffing additions. Despite the referral back to staff for possible cuts, none were proposed with staff reporting that, “removing and/or deferring any of these program changes come with legislative, operational or financial risk and may impact service delivery.” A motion for a hiring freeze failed, resulting in the Program Changes adding a 0.95 increase to the consolidated levy.

If there were some positives to be taken from the budget process, they included Council’s commitment to a 2.5 per cent increase to support needed investment in historically underfunded capital infrastructure assets, that had been the subject of an eye-opening presentation by the Commissioner of Public Works, and $1.3 million in incremental operating budget for the new South Niagara homeless shelter in Welland.

When the votes were eventually taken, the Consolidated General Levy Budget, with its 9.6 percent increase, was approved by a 19-8 vote of Council. 

An 8.2 percent increase already estimated for 2026 did not sit well with Regional Councillor Peter Secord (St. Catharines). “I don’t want to be in this position next year.” Secord then alluded to the Council’s strategic priorities of a prosperous and equitable Region before asking, “when are we going to commit to a sustainable-for-the taxpayer Region?” 

Chief Administrative Officer Ron Tripp promised that 2025 will see a “reimagined process” for the budget, with possible budget discussions happening throughout the year, as opposed to the recent practice of a July budget meeting, with most of the decision making happening from September to December.

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