The Council Round-Up (January 2025)
A snapshot of what's happening in council chambers around Waterloo Region
Municipal Budgets:
Let’s take a quick look at where several municipalities ended up with their budgets for this year.
Waterloo residents will see a 6.3% increase to the city tax portion of their municipal tax bill (the municipal tax bill also includes the region’s portion and the education portion). That means the average home (assessed at $405,000) would pay $1,668 this year for Waterloo’s portion.
“Council is spending it to pay higher salaries, to hire more employees including firefighters and urban planners, to clear more snow from sidewalks, to slow the deterioration of buildings and roads, and to fight climate change by electrifying heating.”
Water bills in Waterloo will increase by 6.4% this year, adding $82 to the bill of a typical household.
Cambridge residents were looking at a 4.68% property tax increase this year until Council decided to shift stormwater charges from the tax bill directly to residents’ water bills. The net tax levy increase is now 1.28% which equals an increase of $23 for the average household (assessed at $341,000). Water and wastewater will increase by 3.49%.
“New projects in the 2025 budget, with a capital investment cost of $51 million, include a new dog park design, a Hespeler skate park design, a recreation facilities action plan, an arts and culture hub, a special events strategy implementation, a patio road closure review, road safety audits, and a Preston secondary plan.”
The property tax rate increase in Kitchener comes in at 3.9% and will add $49 a year to the average Kitchener property tax bill (assessed at $326,000). Other increases include: the water utility at 4.9% ($23/yr), the sanitary sewer utility at 6.9% ($41/yr), and the stormwater utility is up by 7.4% ($18/yr).
The press release notes that this increase continues “Kitchener’s trend of delivering one of the lowest property tax rates among large Ontario cities. During the past 10 years, Kitchener’s tax rate increases have averaged 2.47 per cent, below Ontario inflation which has averaged 2.64 per cent during that same timeframe.” (While fiscal prudence is important, what is happening in Wilmot right now should serve as a reminder as well about not keeping taxes so low that you can’t meet the needs of the community. See more below.)
Many Wilmot residents were surprised and angered to learn that they could potentially face a 51% property tax increase in 2025. Staff say such an increase is needed in order to bring its infrastructure and capital asset management up to speed.
The situation sounds dire. The township’s chief financial officer and acting chief administrative officer, Greg Clark said, “Our existing budget is scraped to the bone more than anything I’ve ever seen in my life before in my tenure in municipal finance.”
The staff report notes that no funds were accumulated in tax capital reserve funds in the last decade, as each year’s budgeted amount was used to fund current projects.
“All of this has come to bear on the fact that we have not historically put enough away into our reserves,” said Clark. “We have not collected enough for capital resourcing. An extra 2.5% a year for the last 15 years would have addressed this and we wouldn’t be at the situation we’re in today.”
As some local municipalities are touting their restrained tax increases, perhaps Wilmot’s situation serves as a necessary reminder that low taxes today can have harsh consequences down the road.
As I mentioned, the city or township portion is only one part of your municipal tax bill. The Region collects the largest portion of municipal taxes, ~55% of the total property tax bill.
In early budget talks at the Regional level, an increase of 12% was floated as a very real possibility (excluding the police budget). After several public input sessions and many hours-long meetings, Council found ways to bring that increase to 9.48% (including the police budget). That works out to the average property owner paying an additional $241 this year.
“The budget committee found savings by supporting staff options to reduce mail-outs, delay the reopening of Doon Village until 2026, recover $600,000 in project management costs from capital and start Grand River Transit summer service one week earlier.
Councillors voted against staff options to cut downtown waste collection and remove garbage cans from transit stops that some said would ultimately be downloading costs to lower tier municipalities.”
Housing News:
Last October, Regional Council decided to make the outdoor shelter on Erbs Road a permanent shelter option. The 50 cabins have an annual operating budget of $2.6 million, which Council approved until at least 2030. An additional $570,000 has been earmarked to replace an existing sanitary tank with new sewer infrastructure.
“It’s not perfect yet, but it’s working,” said Councillor James of the tiny home model. Joe Mancini, from the Working Centre (which operates the project), added, “We’ve seen the difference it makes for people to have that opportunity.”
Kitchener’s Not-for-Profit Affordable and Co-operative Housing Incentive program, announced its fourth funding recipient: the House of Friendship’s Friendship Village project.
The $500,000 grant, supported through the federal Housing Accelerator Fund, “helps cover early project costs for developments that provide not-for-profit supportive, affordable rental or affordable co-op housing units.”
“House of Friendship is proud to be a recipient of the City of Kitchener’s Affordable Housing grant,” said John Neufeld, Executive Director, “With these funds we can accelerate the building of Friendship Village, which will see 170 units of affordable and supportive housing, in a community where everyone can belong and thrive.”
Waterloo ward 2 Councillor, Royce Bodaly notes in his most recent newsletter that Waterloo Council approved Phase 1 of the Official Plan review. Bodaly notes that changes include “permitting small scale commercial uses in neighbourhoods, deferring a number of site specific locations to Phase 2 and an acknowledgment that we will look to increasing height permissions in certain areas of the city above 30 storeys.”
Waterloo Council also approved an amendment to permit up to four units and four storeys in all residential neighbourhoods across the entire city. Councillor Bodaly says that “Council heard that triplexes were not considered to be very financially feasible for property owners, however fourplexes (particularly with four storey permissions) get closer to being feasible.”
The city’s press release says that, “Allowing detached additional dwelling units and small fourplexes to be integrated into neighbourhoods will increase the range of building types available and help combat declining housing affordability.”
Deeper Dive:
At the final Kitchener Council meeting of 2024, Council discussed Inclusionary Zoning (IZ), as well as the potential for an Indigenous art installation alongside the Queen Victoria statue in the park. The following are a few of the comments from that meeting:
"If we would say IZ's got to start January 1st 2025 but nothing gets built, what's the benefit?" - Councillor Schneider
"We understand the total number of units that would be built in that one year would be 10 units. It's hard to imagine that it wouldn't be possible to build 10 units." - Delegate on IZ
"What I'm saying is government has to start building the deeply affordable housing, that's the only solution in my mind. We can leverage the private sector but the government has to get back in the game of building more affordable housing.” - Councillor Davey
"Installing Indigenous art while leaving the statue standing is not an acceptable solution. This is not reconciliation, it is performative and perpetuates harm. It suggests that Indigenous peoples must accept the glorification of colonial figures in exchange for tokenistic gestures of inclusion.” - Delegate opposed to keeping the Queen Victoria statue with an added artistic element
"We do not need more art installations in the park claiming to commemorate us, to honor us. We actually need action...we need healing, we need programming and support services for the survivors and their families...we need tangible resources that can help Indigenous people's heal." - Delegate opposed to keeping the statue
The staff report recommends the city “explore the opportunity for a co-led, co-developed commemorative public art installation in Victoria Park that honours local Indigenous history, promotes an understanding of the impact of colonization, and can work to bring the community together in the spirit of reconciliation.”
School Board Updates:
Community advocate and WRDSB parent, Lauren Weinberg, is back again this month to provide an overview of recent WRDSB meetings.
Former WRDSB director jeewan chanicka's abrupt departure has not been addressed at the last three board meetings, because trustees are forbidden to discuss it: “[A]ny HR person will tell you that we cannot speak about employment issues, we cannot make them public,” trustee Carla Johnson recently told the Record. chanicka has not responded to any media inquiries.
On January 13, Johnson brought a notice of motion urging the WRDSB to solicit community feedback on the board's future direction "in multiple ways." This was a response to Bill Cody, Mike Ramsay, and Cindy Watson's public call for a town hall to address the future of the board, an idea originally proposed by Record columnist Luisa D'Amato. "My notice of motion calls for an exhaustive outreach to the community," Johnson explained to CBC-KW. "I know there was discussion about a town hall, but in my mind that was just a very limited opportunity for people to have input, and it would be an opportunity for some of the loudest voices in the room."
Those "loudest voices" presumably would echo a few parents who have delegated to the board multiple times during the past few years, advocating book bans and restrictions of trans students' rights. They may also share Watson's opinion that declining WRDSB enrolment is due to "identity politics and ideologies [being] taught in the classroom."
My children are Grade 7 and Grade 4 WRDSB students, and all they have learned about identity politics is that bullying people because of their identities is wrong. That ideology is mandated by Ontario's Ministry of Education, but Watson nonetheless invoked "identity politics and ideologies" in the background of a January 13 motion requesting a staff report on the last decade's JK/SK enrolment data, alongside "regional growth and immigration rates." Although most trustees supported this motion, several, including Joanne Weston, objected to Watson's background text. Weston added an amendment requesting data from other Ontario school boards, to determine whether WRDSB's enrolment "is in line with provincial trends or an anomaly."
Trustee Scott Piatkowski reminded the board that the drop in enrolment was relatively small—"It works out to only two or three students per school," confirmed Supt. Nick Landry—and that multiple factors, including more affordable daycare, could have influenced it. "Thirty-nine percent of our schools are over capacity," said Piatkowski. The past three WRDSB meetings have featured announcements about the new elementary school opening in South Kitchener in September 2025, and other new schools planned for Cambridge and Breslau.
Unfortunately, Regional Council isn't making it much easier for students to take public transit to school: Although WRDSB staff participated in discussions about free GRT passes for K-12 students and consultations about the GRT 2025–30 business plan, Regional Council has only asked GRT to consider making transit free for kids 12 and under. (At least kids six and under will be able to ride free as of July 1, 2025; GRT is currently only free for kids up to age 4.) Board chair Maedith Radlein expressed disappointment, saying, "We will continue to hope for some positive vision."
Thanks again to Lauren for providing these informative summaries!
Have your say:
Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo are developing a Regional Cricket Strategy which aims to:
chart a path towards responding to community interest in cricket
support the growth of the game at a grassroots level
work towards a consistent and harmonious provision of cricket facilities
The region has seen a significant interest in cricket and it appears that the current cricket pitch inventory is not sufficient to meet this demand. Input is now being sought from all members of the community who are involved in cricket to help shape the Cricket Regional Strategy and associated recommendations.
Upcoming events:
Winterloo is the Waterloo's annual cold weather festival and is happening on January 25, 2025 (12-5pm). “Watch award-winning ice carvers, take part in winter-themed activities and sports, and explore all that uptown’s winter culture has to offer.”
Stories in Song: An Unplugged Concert Series, from Good Co. Saturday, January 25th, starting at 7pm. “This series features a different (secret) artist every month, performing totally unplugged to a small audience of 30 at Studio 27. An evening of storytelling, these shows create a unique opportunity for guests to come together through music in its most stripped back, authentic, and natural format.”