So….its Budget time again in North Bay and to be honest, I really have not given it much attention over the years. I have been aware of Don Rennick’s opinion that the process is flawed and contradicts the Municipal Act, but I always figured if that were the case, someone, somewhere would have held the municipality to account. I now know that would not necessarily be the case, as it appears some do not put much stock in policies, codes nor legislation.
I did become aware of the importance of budgets in relation to property tax as a result of my first article for Small Town Times about MPAC and the inequity of their assessments. The budget is used to determine the amount of money a municipality needs to raise (levy) and then the property assessment is used to determine an individual property owner’s share of that levy. If all assessments go up at the same rate, your share of the levy will not increase because of your increased valuation, but if the amount of money the municipality needs goes up (spoiler alert….its going up!) your taxes increase.
But still, I have never been too concerned about the level of taxation sent my way and quite happy with the services that contribution provided. Apparently though, taxpayer apathy can lead to sloppiness in the administration of municipal operations and if we turn a blind eye to it, poor performance measurement and management can lead to situations that trigger voter outrage.
See my latest article for how municipalities handle performance…(another spoiler alert…most usually don’t) But I digress….budgets are critical in the process and I should learn more about them.
With that in mind, I looked up the budgets page on the North Bay City website…gotta love that new search engine….brought it up as first link on a search for budgets. Budgets are presented in a different manner than the FIR statement and I was having a hard time figuring out where all the money was going until I looked at the 2024 Financial Statement. Now the Financial Statement is not available until well into the next year, but if timing is not an issue for you, the presentation on page 2 of the statement (page 8 of the file) shows the budget in the same format as the financial statement, and clearly shows how the budget exceeded the actual, which may lend some credence to Don Rennick’s claim that they are taking more in taxes than needed for that year. The tables below show municipalities are generally heading in the same direction and North Bay does not appear to be way outside the norm.
The problem with Mr. Rennick’s argument is that municipalities are allowed to establish and fund reserves and reserve funds, so if the excess is just going to reserves, I don’t think there is anything wrong with what the municipality is doing, other than never responding to Mr. Rennick’s criticisms in a way that simplifies the complex relationship between Discretionary Reserves, Obligatory Reserve Funds, Reserves, Cash and Investments. I seem to recall one public response in the media from the CFO or someone with knowledge of the situation, but the explanation never made any sense.
In an August 2025 article, Ms. Karpenko stated she did not know why the disposition of $9.4M of investments was not reported, but committed to bringing a report to council in September. That report was filed at the Sept 2nd meeting, but not posted nor discussed at the meeting.
Another strike against transparency and I’m still confused about city finances.
Anyway, Mr. Rennick is correct about one thing and that is the incorrect use of reserves to continually moderate the tax increase. The attention of council should be firmly focused on the administration’s plan to implement the KPMG organizational review. The budget is only the place to calculate how you find the resources to implement that review.
Administration can only lower costs by brining innovation into the workplace, either by changing labour practices, new technology or service level changes. The only way to do those things is by restructuring management through attrition, negotiation if the union is involved, and sharing the savings with the workforce you have left.
Council critics who are concerned about taxation levels are focused on the wrong process. Council needs to focus on the budget as well as the KPMG review.
Worked at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission for his career, in a number of positions, from front line supervisor to union leader. After retirement in 2011, he continued his interest in government policy and uses social media to stay active in political discussions. Send feedback to: [email protected]
