Investment management is a vital professional skill missing from our public sector and municipalities in particular. Similar to the accounting profession, professional investors must complete a globally recognized professional qualification program. The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation should be a minimum requirement given the large size of Municipal balance sheets. This is not the case…

Local group in St. Catharines completes an annual report card on city council actions and decisions. Not very impressive. See below. Al McKay

The Niagara region has 13 Chief Administrative Officers (CAO) versus Hamilton which has one city manager. In 2023 Niagara taxpayers paid over $2.9 million dollars on municipal CAO salaries versus the City of Hamilton that paid $321,598. Niagara taxpayers paid an astounding $2.6 million dollars more on this one municipal position alone. Now let’s look at…

The average household will now be required to pay about $120 more in Niagara Falls taxes in 2025 when city council approves the 7.6 per cent increase to the draft operating budget. Overall property tax bills will be compounded by the Niagara Region’s 2025 budgeted tax increase of 9.6 per cent. Niagara Falls’ chief administrative…

On November 14, 2024, the PTA was invited to attend a Ministry of Finance presentation in Kitchener. The purpose of their meeting was to receive feedback from attendees on ways to reduce cost and put more money back in the pockets of Ontario taxpayers.It was an eye-opening experience. None of the attendees, other than the…

Council spent weeks struggling to bring down the regional tax levy and failed to even meet their high target of an 8 per cent tax increase. Council have spent weeks and weeks struggling to bring down the regional tax levy. The best they can do is a 9.48 per cent tax bill increase for 2025?…

“I became too frustrated here in Cambridge and have sold our home to move my family outside of the Waterloo region. It was the crime, addiction, encampments, overspending and property tax hikes that drove us out of Cambridge. Our numerous requests for Ward 4 Councillor Ross Earnshaw to hold a community discussion meeting for his…

Letter Posted In Cambridge Today – Dec 1, 2024 ‘Our property taxes are rising at two to three times inflation each year in large part to pay for these outrageous municipal wage increases,’ writes reader John B. Waylett. CambridgeToday received the following letter about the need to cut the 2025 regional budget. I am writing…

Article Published Nov 22, 2024, in the Waterloo Record Surely, we could legislate standardized financial reporting from one municipality to the next, so the increases in Cambridge are directly comparable to those in Chatham, writes Mike Farwell. The “strong-mayor budget” in Cambridge is not what it seems, and that raises a number of concerns. In…

To all members of Tiny Township council and CAO Lamb: Planning for success or failure in Tiny Township by Dr. David Jones I recently watched a YouTube video dealing with 5 or 6 questions to ask someone on a first date. The goal, of course, was for the couple to get to know each other…