Council finalizes budget focused on essentials, front line services and preparing for growth

Nov 28, 2023

Media Releases

Burlington, Ont.—Nov. 28, 2023— At today’s Special Council Meeting, Burlington City Council finalized the 2024 budget. Next year’s budget is focused on essentials, front line services and preparing for growth.

The City’s portion of the overall tax increase is 4.99%. When blended with Halton Region’s forecasted increase and no change to the Boards of Education, this results in an overall tax increase of 6.68%. This translates to $57.53 increase per $100,000 of urban residential assessment.

The property tax bill is made up of three portions, the City of Burlington (50.5%), Halton Region (32.8%), and the Boards of Education (16.7%).

The 2024 budget has been broken down into three categories:

Essentials – This area covers projects and items the City of Burlington must address and/or have already committed to, such as cost of inflation, necessary capital projects and infrastructure renewal.
Frontline Service – This area covers enhanced services that directly improves the quality of life of Burlington residents.
Planning for Growth – This area plans for and prepares for the expected increase in population, our Community Investment Plan, and allow us to catch up and prepare for the future.

This was the first budget under the new provincially legislated Strong Mayor Powers. The Mayor proposed the budget for 2024. The budget was based on the 2024 Financial Needs and Multi-Year Forecast Reference Document prepared by staff earlier this year.

Council brought 62 changes through amendment motions to modify the budget. Of those amendments, 27 were adopted into the budget. These were presented at Committee meetings on Nov. 21 and 23 and the Special Council Meeting on Nov. 28. The budget was finalized at the Special Council Meeting on Nov. 28.

Key investments

Enhancing frontline service delivery with additional transit operators, firefighters, by-law licensing clerks and customer experience staff to respond to your concerns
Funding for 3 new community facilities – Skyway Community Centre, the newly renovated Mountainside pool and the former Robert Bateman High School
$88.6 million of capital investment in 2024 to keep our infrastructure assets like buildings, roads and parks in a state of good repair
Funding dedicated to future land and facility needs for our growing and changing community
Free all-day transit for Seniors
Support for our Community Planning Housing Initiative
Support to bring the city’s Information Technology (IT) infrastructure into the 21^st century

For more information on the 2024 budget, visit burlington.ca/budget or getinvolvedburlington.ca/2024-budget.

Burlington is a city where people, nature and businesses thrive. Sign up to learn more about Burlington at burlington.ca/subscribe and follow @CityBurlington on social media.

Quick Facts

Residents and business owners were asked to share their feedback through the 2024 Budget Survey. This feedback helped the City to understand how respondents prioritize and value City services. This survey took place during August and September 2023. The feedback received centred around concerns with tax affordability, reducing taxes and prioritizing services such as roads, infrastructure, climate change/environment and affordable housing.

Residents and business owners were also invited to share their input at the in-person Food for Feedback engagement event in September 2023.

Burlington is growing and changing. With over 254,000 people expected to live in Burlington by 2051, the City is planning for future population growth to ensure quality community services for residents. Over the next 25 years, the City of Burlington is going to grow in its urban areas.
In June 2023, the Ontario government announced it was expanding additional authorities and responsibilities to the mayors of 26 large and fast-growing municipalities, including Burlington. Under this new legislation, it is the responsibility of the Mayor to propose the budget. The new legislation became effective on July 1, 2023. Mayoral decisions made under this new provincial legislation are available to the public.

Quotes

Joint statement from Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward and Deputy Mayor for Strategy and Budgets Paul Sharman

“We know these are difficult times for everyone with increased living and housing costs and Council had to make some difficult budget decisions. Working with each other and staff, while hearing from the community, we balanced the needs of the city with our current affordability crisis as best we could. At the end of the day, this is a Mayor and Council budget that focuses investments on essentials, frontline services and planning for future growth. It was created through a lot of hard work and learning through a new provincially-legislated budget process this year. It is our hope this budget sets us up for success in 2024 and for years to come in creating an inclusive, affordable, eco-friendly and caring community for all our neighbours. The 2024 Budget impacts people through the programs and services they receive every day in our city. Each time you have your road plowed, use a City park or trail, or cool off in a municipal pool or splash pad, you are using a City service and seeing your tax dollars at work. This budget continues to build on investments our community has asked for and needs and will only improve Burlington today and into the future.”

Burlington Chief Financial Officer, Joan Ford

“The adoption of this budget gives much needed support to essential city projects, front line services and infrastructure. As this was our first time establishing a budget under the Strong Mayor Powers, I’m thankful for the work and dedication of City staff and the collaboration with the Mayor, Deputy Mayor for Strategy and Budgets and members of Council to support this new process. The City's mission continues to be to balance the needs of all residents both today and in the future while maintaining the high quality of services that residents enjoy.”

Links and Resources

Visit burlington.ca/budget for information about the 2024 budget, or getinvolvedburlington.ca/2024-budget.
More information about the municipal budget process under Bill 3, the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act, 2022, can be found on the Provincial website.

-30-

Media contact:
Suzanne Vukosavljevic
Manager of Communications
suzanne.vukosavljevic@burlington.ca