Building the 2022 Northumberland County Budget
Consultation has concluded
Northumberland County follows a rigorous process to create an annual budget that supports the delivery of the municipal programs and services on which our community relies.
This process is based on the 5 D’s:
- Direct (June): The County budget process officially begins in June each year, with County Council providing direction on a target base levy (property tax) increase around which staff then structures the following year’s budget for Council review.
- Develop (July-November): Based on this Council direction, each operating department develops an annual business plan and related budget between July and September, identifying program and service plans and related resource requirements, to be confirmed through the budget process. Departments also contribute to the review and update of the County's long-term plan, ensuring a rolling 10-year financial plan. The Finance Department oversees consolidation of all budget documents throughout the months of October and November.
- Define (August): While business plans are under development, the County also engages with community members in August to gather feedback and define public priorities for budget investment. Results of this engagement are presented to Council in October ahead of the presentation of the draft budget in December, in order to inform Council deliberations.
- Deliberate (December): In December, the final draft budget is presented to County Council at Special Meetings of Council for review and deliberation.
- Determine: Council may vote on the budget in December, or they may provide direction to staff to make further adjustments and deliver an updated version at a future meeting of Council for review, discussion, and determination.
Public consultation is a vital part of this annual budget process.
Join In the conversation
As we begin development of the 2022 County Budget, we want to hear from you!
How would you invest the 2022 Budget? What programs, services and infrastructure investments matter most to you? Take a few minutes to share your thoughts by completing our new Budget Simulation Tool. Using this tool, you can try allocating the proposed 2022 County Budget based on how you would prioritize program, service, and infrastructure investments.
Share whether you would increase, decrease, or maintain the proposed spending for each category of core services delivered by the County. Each option includes details about the related impacts to the overall budget and to the taxpayer (Note: based on assessment of a median single family detached home in Northumberland County as is assessed by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) and utilized for property tax calculations/billings). The County portion of property tax averages approximately 36%, local municipalities average 52%, and education averages 12%.
The choices you make in the Budget Simulation Tool will help County Council make informed decisions about the allocation of tax dollars in the 2022 County Budget and over the long-term.
The Budget Simulation Tool is intended as an informational tool, used for educational purposes only. Submit your proposed budget by August 31, 2021.
Other ways to get involved in the 2022 Budget consultation process include:
- Leave a comment in the ‘Comments’ tab below to help inform the 2022 Budget.
- Email us your comments or questions at Finance@northumberland.ca.
Feedback collected through the consultation process – submitted through any of the opportunities outlined above – will be used by Northumberland County and, if necessary, Bang The Table, solely for budget planning purposes. Feedback will be compiled into a report and shared with the Finance & Audit Committee on October 5, 2021, with a recommendation that this information be shared at the October 20, 2021 meeting of County Council as an important input to Council’s 2022 Budget review and deliberation process. Feedback will not be presented or compiled in any manner that could potentially identify a respondent.
The public engagement objectives for the project are to:
- Inform residents and stakeholders of the County’s annual budget planning and approvals process.
- Raise awareness of the services provided by the upper-tier level of government in Northumberland.
- Consult with residents and stakeholders to gather feedback about priorities for investment of the 2022 County Budget, to inform Council deliberation and determination.
Emergency shelter and housing have become of utmost importance in Northumberland County. COVID dollars have really provided much needed operational dollars and without that, the shelter would have closed. The board continues to struggle with fundraising due to the stigma associated with the shelter and I've watched our community provide so many funds for violence against women, health care and hospice. Our supporter base continues to decline as addictions and mental health increase in our community. It would be ideal to consider funding the program entirely in order to keep those well who provide the services. If the county is responsible for homelessness, yet Transition House's financial statements show only 69% of base funding, how is that the county supporting homelessness? If you cannot make an impact in the economy in order to provide affordable housing for people, then please fund the people who are doing that work. Fund them fully and provide them with benefits and a good wage as all county employees enjoy. That is taking responsibility completely.
Since municipalities have opened trails and roads to ATV's and snowmobiles, it seems only fair that the rules of the road should be followed, even on unpaved roads past farmlands and bush. Machines without plates, driven by children are becoming common. In a spirit of fair play to residents and wildlife, it is time that such machines should have effective mufflers and excessive gunning of motors should be banned. Also, in very dry times these machines should be banned from trails since fires in other places have been blamed on sparks they emit.
No economic benefit is derived from local ATV and snowmobile users, and visitors do not stop to visit local stores and businesses. All they want is dirt, mud and noise.
Police should make their presence known outside of towns where things are getting dangerous for ATVers who make back roads their playgrounds, and where a lack of auto insurance on certain vehicles may place a heavy burden on riders, drivers and families.
Studies elsewhere have shown the negative effect of snowmobiles on wildlife in the winter, and there is no good reason why they should be encouraged. Just because a person can afford to do something, isn't enough reason for him to be enabled and encouraged to do so on public land.
Thank you.
The County has ignored Mental Wellness in their plans for health support across this county as evidenced by the postcard you published indicating the ‘silos’ that you did support. While I'm certain that the other silos are important to cover, mental wellness could not be more important. In fact, arguably it is the single most critical category of healthcare that needs immediate funding. On July 31, 2021, Northumberland lost the primary care centre for Professional Cognitive Behaviour therapy. The Northumberland Community Counselling Centre (NCCC) saw and helped hundreds of underprivileged citizens annually. Today, if a woman suffered at the hands of rape the closest trauma support is Peterborough – meaning that the very same woman would be ripped away from family and friends and taken outside the city to recover physically and emotionally from her assault. The NCCC also ran programs that assisted the other side of the equation – those with violent behaviour. Court-appointed programs were successful at helping these individuals at far less cost to society and to the corrections stream. The County can't even support mental health assessments for the school boards leaving children and youth alone, without anything but remedial support. It took nearly 20 years to establish a professional counselling centre - which celebrated its 12 anniversary by closing down. COVID was harsh and a relatively small injection of funds could have maintained professional mental wellness care across our County. One thing is certain, there is an immediate need to replace this service. Don't believe for a moment that this service is already available through other agencies. It is my sincere hope that this need hits the top of your budget planning pile.
I would like to see lots of smaller and affordable homes built in Brighton 800-1,000 sq foot is plenty of space. We don’t need a large lot either, Maintenance and upkeep all adds up. We need to reduce the amount of property tax for 60+ too to at least 50 percent! We don’t make the big bucks anymore. Builders have exploded with profits over the past 5 years, they should be paying a builders tax to each municipality to build new construction.
I agree with the comment about the need to improve accessibility in a consistent and intentional manner. As the population ages, there will be an increased need for the County to go beyond the minimum requirements of the AODA. Given the dire circumstances of many people living on disability allowance, any budget surplus could be directed towards improving accessibility, welfare, and non-profit care for our elders (either in non-profit LTC homes or in their own homes) and those living with a disability.
Consider transitioning from a 100% tag based system for waste to a tax based system that allows all households to dispose one bag per week. The current model results in a significant accumulation of illegally dumped and discarded waste, especially by weekend residents (cottagers) and users of short term rental properties.
Dear Northumberland County Administrators,
As a disabled tax paying resident of the county and volunteer on the county's accessibility committee, I would really like to see a dedicated budget for accessibility. Perhaps 0.25% of the entire budget to enhance accessibility in the county. The accessibility advisory committee is a good first step, but as the chair, I feel powerless. All of our recommendations are 'advisory'. There's no meat to the committee. Things only happen with money, and it's my wish that Northumberland County be one of the few counties in our province that take accessibility seriously, and attach funds to our committee and let those (not county staff), that live with disabilities firsthand make financial decisions to enhance the accessibility in our county.
The above is a pipe dream, and likely to be glossed over unfortunately. However, an additional wish is to add proper financial reporting in the county's financial statements, audit, and future budgets.
This will make the county accountable, and accessibility enhancements more trackable in the future.
The financial reporting could add a line for accessibility (how much was spent), in each department, or the county as a whole. Theoretically, the county does already spend money on accessibility (most physical items such as ramps, door openers, etc), but it makes keeping track of how much is spent on accessibility in the county extremely difficult, unrealistic, and mediocre.
Ideally, the county could dedicate a portion of the budget specifically to accessibility and have the accessibility advisory committee control decisions, and at the very least, have proper reporting in each department for accessibility enhancements, or for the county as a whole.
Kind regards,
I'd like to see the county open the forest to the snowmobile clubs. Great for tourism, and for community relations. With out the snowmobile trials the forest would be mostly unusable by the other user groups.
signage, maintenance and establishment of trails were all a part of their work.