Niagara Regional Council has passed its 2026 operating budget after some last-minute changes by Regional Chair Bob Gale that lowered the overall property tax increase from a proposed 6.98 per cent to 6.3 per cent.
Councillors gathered for a budget review meeting Feb. 12 that lasted for over three hours. After adopting most of Gale’s proposed changes, Councillors then reconvened as Council to pass the operating budget.
One of Gale’s changes includes an $850,000 reduction in the planned increase to the police budget, meaning the police budget increase will be responsible for 70 per cent of the overall property tax increase this year.
Gale noted that he worked with Chief Bill Fordy to get the police budget down. Gale’s proposed reductions to the police budget will be achieved by removing two additional planned hires and deferring one more until later in the year. The police board still has to accept the funding change.
Gale proposed eight other changes to get the overall property tax levy down, which were supported by CAO Ron Tripp. They were seconded by Councillor Wayne Olson (Pelham).
Councillor Bill Steele (Port Colborne), seconded by Councillor Mat Siscoe (St. Catharines), proposed using the Region’s Taxpayer Relief Reserve to get the property tax increase down to 5.7 per cent through using the reserve instead of going ahead with most of Gale’s proposed cuts. Steele’s proposal would have been coupled with a core services review.
Gale was skeptical of using the reserve fund to lower the property tax increase, as he felt it was necessary to keep the reserve fund intact in case of a catastrophic event.
“This doesn’t fit – this is not an emergency,” argued Gale.
Several other Councillors agreed and the proposed amendment was defeated.
Councillor Sandra Easton (Lincoln), who was responsible for delaying the budget and asking for Chair Bob Gale to come up with some savings, argued that Gale’s changes were necessary to try to reduce the property tax burden on hard-pressed taxpayers.
Several Councillors took issue with cutting things like funding to Innovate Niagara and contributions to low-income funerals. Other changes, such as cutting a DEI student internship, were supported by the vast majority of Council.
Each of Gale’s nine proposed changes were voted on separately. Five of Gale’s nine spending reduction proposals were supported by Council, while three were rejected. One passed with an amendment.
The final overall operating budget for 2026 will come in at $579.9 million.
Jay Goldberg is the Canadian Affairs Manager at the Consumer Choice Center. He previously served as the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and 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.
