Council Approves the Final 2025 Budgets

On March 18, 2025, City Council approved the 2025 Municipal Operating Budget, focusing on strengthening core municipal services. The 2025 Capital, Solid Waste, and Water and Wastewater Utility Budgets were approved on November 19, 2024. 

City Council and Administration approach the annual budgets with a primary focus on maintaining existing services while also addressing the needs of future generations. Our goal is to ensure residents have access to resources that foster a safe, healthy, and connected community. Each budget details how the City will fund essential services and programs while managing over $1.2 billion worth of critical infrastructure.

The budgets include critical projects initiated by City Administration, Council, and through community input. Throughout 2024, community feedback was gathered through formal Requests for Service, community surveys, public engagement, direct communications with Council, and constructive feedback submitted through the appropriate avenues to City Administration. These opportunities for community engagement have been instrumental in identifying priorities and addressing community needs. 

The draft 2025 Municipal Operating Budget was thoroughly reviewed during special budget meetings held on October 19, November 5, 26, December 2, 2024, February 3, and 20, 2025. This review process reflects both Council and City Administration’s commitment to assessing the status of projects in alignment with the City’s long-range plans, including the Three Year Operating Budget and the Ten Year Capital Plan. 

With a strategic vision for Kenora’s future, this budget presents opportunities for the City and Council to enhance the community. 

2025 projects

The City is excited to announce a robust capital investment of $11,422,300 for 2025, aimed at enhancing our community's infrastructure and services. Key projects for 2025 include substantial upgrades to roads, bridges, water and wastewater upgrades, and Keewatin Public Library improvements.

For details about 2025 key projects and future capital initiatives, visit the Frequently Asked Questions section of the Budget and Finances webpage.  

Challenges

In preparing the 2025 budgets, we faced several challenges, including:

• Increased levies to essential external organizations, for which the City is mandated by provincial regulations
• Uncontrollable costs related to insurance, fuel, utility rates, and repairs for fleet vehicles and equipment
• Municipalities face significant challenges in funding capital projects due to limited revenue sources and increasing demand for services.
• Ontario municipalities are still using 2016 property values for taxes because property reassessments were delayed during COVID-19. Since 2022, municipalities and others in the business community have called for regular assessments to ensure fair tax distribution based on current values.
• Inflationary pressures and geopolitical instability

To maintain services and infrastructure, we need an additional $2,820,424, a 9.09% increase from the 2024 budgeted tax levy. The estimated impact to ratepayers when considering the 2025 change in property assessment is 8.12%, allocated as follows:

• $1,107,832 or 3.57% to go toward expenses to External Organizations
• $1,052,267 or 3.39% to go towards Operating Budget
• $359,975 or 1.16% to go towards Capital Budget

It is important to note that this increase does not formally establish a tax rate increase for taxpayers. The final tax ratios will be approved by Council at a future date. 

Committed to taxpayer relief

We understand the financial challenges residents face after the pandemic, compounded by rising inflation, living costs, and uncertain times. To address these issues, the City has focused on identifying cost-saving measures and exploring alternative funding sources. Our goal is to minimize the impact on the residential tax rate while ensuring sustainability for the future. 

The City secured $5,822,321 to put towards the Capital and Operating Budgets, lessening the impact on taxpayers and reducing the operating budget from what was initially proposed in October 2024. For a list of notable funding sources visit the Budget and Finances webpage. 

“This year’s budget process was exceptionally challenging due to economic factors and provincial requirements beyond our control. Thanks to the hard work of Council and City Administration, we secured grant funding to lower operating costs, maintain infrastructure, and reduce policing expenses. Strong fiscal management has also helped reduce debt and grow the Prosperity Trust Fund. Despite these challenges, we successfully sustained and enhanced our core infrastructure and services. City Administration looks forward to advancing these priorities,” states Kyle Attanasio, Chief Administrative Officer. 

The City of Kenora will continue to seek opportunities for improvement to deliver efficient services and strong customer service. We appreciate the hard work of City Administration and Council in developing a budget that maintains and enhances programming and services to make Kenora better for the community.

Media Contact

Ryan Marsh, Director of Finance
City of Kenora
rymarsh@kenora.ca