Town council moving through 2026 budget - operational budget complete

Town council worked on budget deliberations at Town Hall on Monday night.

Amherstburg town council are working through the 2026 budget deliberations at a more rapid pace than normal, with deliberations wrapping up around the noon hour Tuesday.

Town council started discussions on the capital budget Tuesday morning and, based on Strong Mayor powers, the budget has to be returned to Mayor Michael Prue. Prue has already has had his veto power reduced to zero.

The River Town Times is planning additional coverage next week and on our website to provide additional information that was not able to be printed in this issue due to our deadline. 

Prue called it one of the best budget years he's experienced, noting there were disagreements but everyone remained collegial. 

Entering budget deliberations, town council were looking at a 2.86 per cent tax rate increase with the first night of council discussions seeing only $1,000 removed from the budget. Day 2 saw items shuffled during capital, but little movement on the overall budget impact. That $1,000 cut was on the first issue paper council members discussed regarding council training and conference expenses.

That line item was cut from $3,500 to $2,500, with that reduction being $500 for each of the mayor and deputy mayor as they can utilize the County of Essex to cover expenses as they are also members of Essex County council.

Councillor Molly Allaire did question why $3,500 would be needed, stating council members are encouraged to borrow from one another if not all council members are going to spend as much on council expenses like training and conferences.

Deputy Mayor Chris Gibb pointed out he and Mayor Michael Prue have access to county funds, and credited Prue with the idea there be a cut in that area. Prue said when they go to such provincial conferences as ROMA and AMO and want to meet with government officials, it is better to have larger contingents from municipalities.

“I always take the money from the county,” said Prue, adding what he expenses to the town is “miniscule.”

Prue added the motion to cut the line item by $1,000 would have little impact.

“This is not going to harm us in the least and save us $1,000,” he said.

Councillor Peter Courtney said he would like to hear more from council members on what they learn at conferences and believed there should be more of a strategic approach on how many council members have to go to a conference and who goes where. Courtney indicated he would have been fine to eliminate the $3,500 increase altogether.

“To me, turn it down and leave the status quo,” he said.

Town council voted to move a $100,000 amount for a consultant’s report for the Carnegie Library from 2027 to 2026, swapping that amount for a generator at the Libro Centre. Council voted 5-2 to move that money forward, with Courtney and Councillor Diane Pouget opposed.

Allaire noted town council had previously discussed the issue and she believed the library should be looked at in its entirety.

“Are we able to do something sooner so we can start acting on it?” she asked.

Allaire added the town has assets and “we have to maintain them.” People work in the library daily and Allaire said she is an advocate for the public library. She added ERCA did the same type of thing when they made upgrades at John R. Park Homestead.

“Let’s set up the next council so they are properly equipped to do the right thing,” she said.

Pouget agreed they have to maintain their assets but was “adamantly opposed” to the motion, as she believed the town’s facilities manager could start the process and the town could save $100,000 instead of spending it on another consultant.

Gibb said he was supportive of moving the money forward for a consultant. He said the sooner they are able to work on the building, the town could save on costs.

Gibb added the consultant could tell them exactly what is wrong and what has to be done in what order.

“We don’t know what we don’t know,” he said, adding council owes it to taxpayers to do it right. He said a heritage building can’t be repaired “on the fly.”

Councillor Linden Crain supported the move, also wanting administration to look at ways to move the $1 million earmarked for 2029 forward as well. He wanted to know if the consultant’s report would give them more precise costs. Director of parks, facilities and recreation Heidi Baillargeon said it would give the town a better idea on what items would cost, and she compared it to the Gordon House issue.

Prue said he wanted it clearly shown how money would be spent, adding he believes the last thing a heritage building would have repaired is windows. He wanted the study to show what is needed, noting they have had costs ranging from $4-7 million to repair the building in its entirety.

Courtney said he was “consulted out” and “engineered out” and didn’t support the motion on the library. He believed the town could look at what needs to be done and believed a consultant’s report would simply result in a list, with no work being done.

“This is $100,000 and we will be doing zero,” he said of repairs. “To pay $100,000 for a consultant is absurd.”

Courtney suggested moving $10,000 back into the budget for financial reporting software, noting the matter was discussed by the audit and finance committee. He believed if it was an asset to have and could make things better, he was all for it, noting the issue paper must have been something staff had been behind. Treasurer/Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Tracy Prince indicated the idea came from the committee, but she found by looking into it there would be no real savings to the town as there would still be work that would have to be done manually.

“We don’t really feel it’s real value added,” she said. “It’s probably not a good use of funds.”Crain, who chairs the audit and finance committee, said the software suggested “may solve half the problem” and “I don’t believe it’s money well spent.” Gibb, another member of the committee, said customized software they could use may cost $150,000-$200,000, if he recalled correctly.

Council voted not to put that $10,000 back in the budget.

Fire department overtime increases totalling $186,250 were left in the 2026 budget, though that did catch members of council’s attention.

“We monitor the costs for overtime annually,” said fire chief Michael Mio. “Every year, they go up.”

There have been some savings as the fire department transitions from a three-station model to a two-station model, but he said overtime comes into play when someone has to cover off another person’s vacation or training. He added much of that is contractual, with it also having to do with parental leaves, bereavement days and the aforementioned vacation requests.

Mio added the department could request another full-time body in the future, but 2026 was not the year to do that.

“To hire someone at this point would not make sense,” the fire chief stated.

Gibb compared to a situation he said was discussed at county council’s budget deliberations regarding staff with Essex-Windsor EMS.

Crain brought up motions passed by the audit and finance committee regarding reductions to professional fees in the clerk’s department as well as expenses in the human resources department. Clerk Kevin Fox recommended against that, stating the town will spend roughly what it budgeted for in 2025 in that department and there is still training and other matters such as integrity commissioner-related expenses that could arise next year. The training would be due to a new council coming in late in the year.

The human resources cuts were not recommended by CAO Valerie Critchley, who stated there are still expenses related to non-union pay equity and other matters being worked on by the town.

An expense in information technology that the committee was also brought up, but like the others, ended with no motions being made.

Community grants were kept within the same $51,547 spent last year, and that included a $2,000 pre-commitment to 2^nd Amherstburg Scouting. Christ Church will receive $1,000 to maintain its historic cemetery that sits around its Ramsay St. site, though other causes will get proportional reductions to stay within what was spent last year.

Amherstburg Community Services will go from $15,000 in 2025 to $13,612.50 in 2026. The Amherstburg Food and Fellowship Mission will drop from $20,000 to $18,150, the Amherstburg Freedom Museum will drop from $8,500 to $7,713.75 and the Park House Museum will go from $10,000 to $9,075.

More on the community grants debate will come next week, though Prue said it was a tough decision but every group that made a request got something.

“It’s still a good thing to do,” he said of the donations.

Allaire added everyone can still donate to these causes and “you can easily make an impact.”

Tuesday discussions were slated to be on the capital budgets, with the intersection of Lowes Side Road and Sandwich St. S. moved from operations to capital. H. Murray Smith Centennial Park was also set to be a topic of debate during the deliberations that occurred right before the RTT’s press time.

Town council heard from four delegates Monday night on budgetary matters. Bill Petruniak made several suggestions he believed would generate revenue without raising taxes.

“I get it, this is an election budget. You don’t want to make people mad,” said Petruniak. 

Petruniak stated the town owns 52 buildings that all need repair, but doubted the town needs all of those properties.

“Get professional appraisals for all of the surplus properties and sell them,” he said. “Use the money to repair and maintain our underfunded infrastructure.”The Carnegie Library “looms large” over this budget, he added.

“If you spend $4 million on the library, that is $1,250 per square foot. At $7 million, that’s $2,187.50 per square food. These estimates are totally ridiculous,” said Petruniak. “Compare them to what moving the town hall to the old high school would have cost. Until you have money and a plan, put a band-aid on the windows, step back and think.”

Petruniak also called for a hiring freeze, and for council to reduce total staff through attrition.

“Amherstburg has too many employees,” he said. “My research shows 10 per cent more than any other municipality in Essex County other than Windsor.”

Petruniak added “overtime is done! If managers can’t control overtime, there should be no salary increases for them.”

While there were requests for new positions, the town’s senior management team did not recommend them for this year and town council agreed not to put in any new positions in the budget.

“You can’t justify updating our accounting software because it costs too much, but you can spend a few hundred thousand dollars on pickleball courts?” he added. “Stop being penny wise and pound foolish.”

Petruniak also called for the town not to spend on studies for project that can’t be afforded for years to come. He also urged council to get a long-term investment strategy.

“Hire professionals that can make our money work for us,” he said.

Stating “the town needs money,” Petruniak also suggested using a third party firm to go after delinquent tax files. He also said the town should stop “generating frivolous litigation,” as “these cases are costing the town too much money.

“Amherstburg deserves better than our proposed 2026 budget is offering,” he said. “Stop playing Russian Roulette with our assets. Stop wasting time and money.”

Gary Bowerman, with the aid of his wife Eloise, told council “the town is at a critical juncture” and meaningful contributions over extended timeframes will allow for the deficit gap to shrink until the town can self-fund its existing assets.”

Bowerman spoke on the asset management plan (AMP) and pointed out the town was able to use a pay-as-you-go strategy to manage cash flow for the purchase of assets, such as the fire ladder truck.

“By self-funding this project over five years for $3 million, the town was able to avoid the cost of debt for the replacement of this ladder truck,” said Bowerman. 

Bowerman said there is “only a very brief mention of investment growth” and stated over the past three years, $1 million has been deposited in dedicated reserves. He said the four elements of municipal financial stability are taxation, user fees, debt and investment growth. He questioned how a long-term investment strategy could be be devised that allows Amherstburg to achieve self-funded pay-as-you-go funding versus debt.

Dane Weaver spoke on the issue of bike lanes, stating he was ecstatic to read the transportation master plan and its statements on bicycle lanes. He believed some roads could be wide enough to have bicycle lanes installed. He noted he is not an engineer but believed there could be room on some roads and asked the town look into it.

Weaver said he sent 24 e-mails in seven months to town staff but achieved little progress. He said there has been no evaluation of roads to see if they are wide enough but has been told some roads may need to be reconstructed before a bike lane could go in and that a traffic engineer would have to sign off on bicycle lanes before they are approved.

Among the roads suggested were Dalhousie St. from Front Road South to Gore St., Laird Ave. from Fort Malden Dr. to Alma St. and Front Road South from County Road 20 to McLeod Ave. Crain said some ideas should be investigated and wanted the town to “get the ball rolling,” but others believed it was not the correct time to discuss the matter. Pouget said the suggestions were “pre-mature” and that other needs require council’s attention. A motion for a report failed, though Prue told Weaver it doesn’t stop him from coming back at a regular meeting to bring his ideas back.

Frank Cerasa wondered if talking about fiscal responsibility to council was “a total waste of time,” stating that “raising taxes without a balanced budget is not a success story.”

Cerasa said the town is loosing jobs and is not doing enough to stay competitive, adding “we are being set up for total failure.” He said council is showing “a lack of understanding of how resources should be spent.” A new municipal building and library is a want and not a need, he added, and called the new fire hall “a Taj Mahal” that should have been made smaller. 

Cerasa also said council approved a pay raise as well as tax increases of over 17.5 per cent over the last three years, both points challenged by members of council. Courtney said town council did not raise their own pay, and pushed it to the next council so they could make a decision. A pay raise was approved by county council, he added, with Prue and Gibb voting against.

“You, unfortunately, are wrong sir,” he told Cerasa. “You are wrong on this one.”

Prue said it was he who stated he’d donate his county council raise.

Administration was also asked to list the tax increases over the previous three years, with Prince quoting figures of 5.12 per cent, 4.81 per cent and three per cent.  

Town council moving through 2026 budget - operational budget complete

By Ron Giofu