Niagara Regional Councillors met as a Committee of the Whole last week to hear from staff about their plans for a budget timetable for the Region’s 2026 budget process.
CAO Ron Tripp delivered the presentation. Tripp noted that the plan staff have drawn up includes one information meeting per month from May until October to set the table for the budget process. Then, beginning in November, meetings will ramp up as councillors begin to decide on the contents and vote on final budget items. Tripp promised to make all budget material as user friendly as possible, both for the sake of councillors and the general public.
The 2026 budget process will be divided into two phases. In phase one, councillors will discuss the budgetary needs of various areas of Niagara Region services.
There are six proposed phase one meetings. All phase one meetings will be discussion and planning oriented.
- May 22: Budget overview meeting.
- June 5: Public Health and Community Services.
- July 3: Public Works and Infrastructure.
- Aug. 14: Water and Wastewater Rates.
- Sept. 4: Niagara Regional Police Service.
- Oct. 2: Niagara Regional Transit.
“Through the phase one process, we hope to pull all the ideas and desires of Council…the idea being that when we come back in phase two for the real decision-making of the budget process, we can provide [all necessary] information to Council how that can be done,” said Tripp.
There are also six proposed phase two budget meetings. These phase two meetings will be scheduled for councillors to actually hash out and vote on various elements on the Region’s 2026 budget. The phase two timetable is far more consolidated than the phase one timetable.
- Nov. 13: Consolidated Budget Overview, Capital, and General Government.
- Nov. 20: Regional Levy Departments and Waste Management.
- Nov. 27: Budget Basics and Niagara Regional Transit.
- Dec. 4: Water and Wastewater Rates.
- Dec. 11: Consolidated Budget for Debate and Approval.
- Dec. 18: Budget and User Fee By-laws.
This approach would see Budget 2026 approved by the end of 2025. However, in previous years, when councillors have been unable to agree on a final budget or there has been debate over what the final property tax increase should look like, debate has spilled into January of the following year. This past year, however, the budget was in fact finalized in December.
The meetings are either scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. or 6:30 p.m.
Councillor Haley Bateman (St. Catharines) suggested that some of the meetings be held starting at 9:00 a.m., noting that some important budget topics can take several hours to get through. She specifically singled out the police budget.
Tripp noted that he was hesitant to schedule anything during the day, given councillors’ schedules, but indicated a willingness to add additional days to discuss specific budget items if necessary.
Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop, who is the Region’s budget committee chair, said that he fully supports staff’s proposed schedule and expects things to go smoothly based on the extended timetable drawn up by staff.
Councillors voted to approve staff’s proposed schedule and the proposed dates as outlined by staff will proceed.
Jay Goldberg is the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He previously served as a policy fellow at the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Jay holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
