Penetanguishene council preparing to finalize 2025 tax rates
By: Derek Howard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Source: MidlandToday.ca, April 25, 2025
As Penetanguishene council looked to wrap up its 2025 taxes for residents, discussion of the projected multi-use recreation centre was touched upon.
The conversation occurred during the recent committee of the whole meeting as a finance and corporate services report for the 2025 tax rates, levies, and budget estimates was introduced.
Estimates were made late last year as staff waited for final numbers on the provincial education tax rates and county tax rates; council approved a municipal tax rate increase of 4.5 per cent and an estimated blended tax rate of 3.9 per cent.
However, an estimate on actual new assessment growth arrived at $19,300 lower than what the town had budgeted, which would have meant an increase for taxpayers if not balanced through the tax stabilization reserve to return those values to council approved rates.
Additionally, figures regarding an alleviation by the province toward municipal billing with the Ontario Provincial Police were addressed in the report, citing a nearly $210,000 reduction from the 2025 budgeted amount ($2.18 million to $1.97 million).
The report provided staff options on the assessment growth offset and the policing bill influx.
Mayor Doug Rawson made a suggestion, emphasizing it wouldn’t be for that night’s budget approval.
“I think as a group and as a community, we need to start turning our attention towards a future multi-use recreation centre. We have aspirations; we’ve said in ten years we want to do something,” said Rawson. “We’ve got to get to a point where we have opportunities like this and we say: ‘let’s put the $200,000 into a future community build project’.
“I think we’ve got to start turning our mind to that because we’re going to get sticker shock and that price is only going to go up every day,” Rawson added.
Coun. George Vadeboncoeur replied that Rawson’s suggestion “was music to my ears” and along his own line of thinking. However, Vadeboncoeur pitched that the transfer of the policing offset would be better suited in the policing reserve as per the staff recommendation, as a precaution against a possible future increase.
“Once we get where these reserves are in a healthy amount,” said Vadeboncoeur, “I think we need to start turning our attention to that recreation facility reserve. I think there’s, as I recall, about $918,000 in there right now in that reserve, and we’ve got a long way to go to build it.”
Filling the multi-use recreation centre reserve also rang a bell with Coun. Suzanne Marchand, who agreed with the others.
Said Marchand: “These were one-time offsets with policing, and we know that they’re not going to go down. I agree that once we have that piece – our vision and goal of a new rec centre – it would be nice to start putting money towards it as well.”
The committee of the whole approved the staff recommendations toward the final tax rates. The matter is anticipated to be addressed with possible ratification at an upcoming regular meeting of council.
Information on the 2025 tax rates, levies and budget estimates report can be located on the agenda page of the Town of Penetanguishene website.
Meetings of Penetanguishene council are held on the second Wednesday of each month, and can be watched live on Rogers TV cable 53, or on the Rogers TV website.
Archives of council meetings are located on the Town of Penetanguishene YouTube channel.
