Budget and Finance

2022 Budget and Business Plan - download PDF

The first Long-Term Financial Plan was created in 2017 and was updated in 2022 for the next 10 year term.

The update reflects changes in costs, market conditions and City growth over the last five years. The plan consists of four strategies – revenue, reserves, people and debt.

Debt Strategy

At the April 5, 2022 Committee of the Whole meeting, Jennifer Stover, Director of Corporate Services presented to Council the progress to date on the strategies that will form the basis of the updated Long Term Financial Plan (LTFP).

The first Long Term Financial Plan was created in 2017 and is being updated to reflect changes in costs, market conditions and City growth over the last five years. Although the plan consists of four strategies – revenue, reserves, people and debt - Stover focused the bulk of the discussion with Council on the debt strategy.

Watch the presentation on You Tube and read the press release.

Debt limit set by Council

At the October 5, 2021 Committee of the Whole meeting (watch on You Tube), a preview of the Long Term Financial Plan was presented to Council. One of the recommendations was for Council to raise the debt ceiling for the City from 6.3 percent to 7.5 percent of total City revenue including taxes, grants and user fees.

At the October 19 Regular Council meeting, Council directed staff to return with options to incorporate a fixed debt ceiling. A report will come to Council later this year.

The debt ceiling for the City has moved from 6.3 percent to 7.5 percent of total City revenue including taxes, grants and user fees.

Plan update goes to Council

At the August 10, 2021 Special Council meeting, Council was presented an update on the municipality’s long-term financial plan. The presentation focused on the challenges with developing a financial plan that balances the City’s long term capital and operating needs while maintaining affordability to the taxpayer. Staff provided Council with an overview of the forecasted capital plan for the next ten years, including the redevelopment of Victoria Manor, the Lindsay Water Treatment Plan and expansion requirement for Kawartha Lakes housing.  

Recommendations to restrict debt and create a dedicated 1.5 percent capital levy were brought forward and received by Council to be included as resources to help inform and shape long term financial planning for 2022 to 2031. To learn more, download the Kawartha Lakes Long-Term Financial Plan report, watch the presentation on YouTube, or
download a PDF of the presentation.

 2021 Budget

Download a PDF copy of the Adopted 2021 Budget and Business Plan

Kawartha Lakes Council approves lowest tax increase in over a decade

On February 16, Council deliberated the 2021 Water and Wastewater Budget, Special Projects Budget and Operating Budget. Council received a record of all public questions that were submitted on the Jump In Kawartha Lakes website. In total, 630 residents visited the 2021 Budget project page, 104 residents downloaded information and 23 questions were answered.

As requested by Council, Jennifer Stover, Director of Corporate Services, provided a report with a variety of options for Council to consider in order to reduce the tax levy. Going into deliberations, the tax levy increase was at 3.84%. Options included leveraging provincial modernization funding ($300,000), allocating Safe Restart funds to cover projected lost revenues and pandemic costs ($836,000), applying the 2020 surplus to certain area rates ($365,000) and using established reserve funds ($131,000). Once all these options were applied, Council unanimously chose to further offset forecasted pandemic costs using the Safe Restart funding, which in turn reduced the 2021 levy increase to 1.5%. Read the full news release.

Read how Jennifer Stover, Director of Corporate Services, explains the context of the municipality's debt to The Lindsay Advocate.

Download the 2020 Adopted Budget and Business Plan

• 2021 Consolidated Financial Statements
• 2020 Consolidated Financial Statements
• 2019 Consolidated Financial Statements

Please contact our Treasury department for accessible versions of these documents.

• City of Kawartha Lakes 2022 Asset Management Plan
• Strategic Asset Management Policy