MAPLETON – The first municipality in Wellington County to pass a 2025 budget is the Township of Mapleton, which approved a $30-million consolidated budget on Nov. 26.
The budget includes a 3.55 per cent net levy increase, which means an average property owner will pay about $66 more in the Mapleton portion of taxes next year.
The total budget and levy increase are about the same as those proposed by staff in October.
First in line
Being first out of the gate is significant, Mayor Gregg Davidson told taxpayers during a public workshop on the budget on Nov. 18,
It means Mapleton will be first in line to release bid documents for capital projects, he noted.
“This would optimistically allow the township to be the benefactor of best costing on several key capital initiatives,” states a staff report about the budget.
Tax levy
The general levy requirement for Mapleton’s 2025 budget is $10.2 million – a combination of operating expenditures, transfer to reserves and long-term debt servicing, less nearly $380,000 generated by assessment growth.
The remaining $20 million in the budget is capital expenditures, which will be covered by external grant funding, development charges, reserve funds, debentures and community donations.
Township staff reported a range of efforts to limit the levy increase, including deferring staffing changes, deferring and recalibrating capital initiatives, and deferring potential service enhancements.
Finance director Patrick Kelly did not respond in time for publication to an Advertiser request for specific examples of the above.
Thanks to the levy increase, the township will be able to “recalibrate some previous budget allocations, avoid a reliance on non-sustainable revenue streams, and increase the allocation to infrastructure reserves,” the staff report states.
Kelly did not provide details about what previous budget allocations were reallocated, or what non-sustainable revenue streams will be avoided.
Overall, the township’s levy-funded expenditures increased by about 7%, from $9.9 million in 2024 to $10.6 million in 2025 (before adjusting for assessment growth).
This table shows how operating expenses, transfers to reserves, debt servicing and levy funding compare between the 2024 and 2025 budgets. Image from budget report.
The township’s net operating expenditures will increase by about 8% from $6.1 million in 2024 to $6.6 million in 2025.
Operating expenditures include salaries, benefits, utilities, maintenance, repairs, materials and supplies.
Transfers to infrastructure reserves increased by almost 10% from $3.1 million in 2024 to $3.4 million in 2025. These support capital and long-term infrastructure needs, mitigating tax and user fee rate impacts.
Long-term debt servicing costs in Mapleton have gone down about 2% from $646,000 in 2024 to $633,000 in 2025.
Assessment growth
Assessment growth refers to new taxes generated by new or expanded homes and businesses.
“Assessment growth throughout Mapleton has been relatively low over the past few years [about 2% annually] due to limited water/wastewater capacity,” the report states.
“Recent investments, however, will generate more significant assessment growth in future years.”
In the 2024 fiscal year, assessment growth in Mapleton totalled 3.8%, generating $377,800 in funding.
“This funding is critical in supporting the continued investment in capital reserves,” the report states.
Capital spending
The capital budget includes spending on buildings, roads, bridges, fleet, water/wastewater and parks.
Big ticket capital expenditures in the approved 2025 budget are unchanged from the budget proposed in October, and include:
- wastewater treatment capacity increases, set to cost $18.5 million over three years (about $6 million in 2025);
- Drayton wastewater pumping station upgrades and force main twinning, almost $13 million over three years ($4.3 million in 2025);
- Moorefield water system renewal, about $6.3 million over two years ($3.2 million in 2025); and
- various road projects totalling $2.4 million, including sidewalk repair, asphalt patching and reconstruction on Sideroads 15 and 16.
Operating expenditures
The township’s operating expenditures include:
- $2.04 million for core infrastructure (down 12% from $2.32 in 2024);
- more than $1 million for roads (up almost 46% from $689,000 in 2024); and
- $864,000 for fire services and emergency management (up 13% from $765,000 in 2024).
New IT manager
The 2025 budget includes a full time IT manager set to start early next year, with a $93,768 net levy impact in 2025.
“Over the past few years, the township has experienced an increasing number of network shutdowns due to technical issues,” states the budget report.
“We have reached a point where IT management is critical to ensuring the continuity of services both for staff here and for the community that use those services,” Kelly noted.
“Given the recent modernization efforts through the deployment of IT software (eg CloudPermit), the stability and reliability of IT services at the township are more critical than ever.”
The new position will enable the township to respond more effectively to network outages, develop an IT master plan and disaster recovery plan, and create a cyber security strategy, the report states.
“It certainly seems that there is a great rationale for this particular position,” said councillor Michael Martin, “especially as the world evolves into even more reliance on this stuff, having the in-house support seems to make a lot of sense.”
Township staff are set to explore the possibility of sharing this staffer with another municipality in the future.
Public workshop
Mapleton council and staff held a public workshop about the township’s 2025 budget on Nov. 18 at the PMD arena.
About a dozen members of the public joined the mayor and councillors, along with eight township staff members, to ask questions and express opinions about the proposed budget.
Kelly described the proposed budget as “a budget we feel hits the mark for the community.”
He told attendees that the reason for the workshop was “to make sure it reflects your needs.
“It’s not just a formality that we are here – it is an opportunity to engage with the community.”
Mapleton resident Matt Dorscht expressed frustration about wastewater rates continuing to climb, noting he pays more for wastewater than for gas or electricity.
“We are paying a premium [compared to residents in other townships] but we don’t have good services,” he said.
Public works director Jamie Morgan described the four major water and wastewater projects underway in the township, noting the upgrades are necessary in order to allow Mapleton to grow.
Mapleton resident Liz Samis expressed concern about the price of recreational programming, noting it was “supposed to pay for itself.”
The 2025 budget allocates almost $50,000 for recreation and programs – almost four times the $12,728 allocated in 2024.
Kelly said this increase is because user-pay rates were initially unreasonably high.
He said he’d like to see an example anywhere in Ontario were a municipality’s recreational programming pays for itself.
Recreational programming will always be subsidized to a certain extent, he said.
Resident Bill Van Andel questioned the value of hiring a new full-time staffer for IT management, and advised councillors and staff, “You have to do more with less.”
Kelly described the township’s staffing model as “extremely lean,” particularly compared with other municipalities.
“And that’s because this team … does more with less,” he said.
There were three network outages the week before the workshop, which Kelly said shows the need for the IT position.
“We pay over $200,000 to outsourced IT providers … and the service level we receive from them is less than perfect,” said CAO Manny Baron, adding the cost of not being able to work during outages is “very significant.”
Kelly did not immediately respond an Advertiser inquiry about changes were made to the budget following the public meeting.
“This is a community’s budget. It’s not my budget, or senior management’s, or yours,” Kelly said during the regular meeting in which the budget was passed.
“It’s Mapleton’s budget, and I think it’s something that we can all be proud of.”
“With budget approval now in place, staff can move forward with issuing bids and tenders and recruiting for the new IT manager,” Kelly stated in a press release about the budget.
