Heather Wright/The Independent

Petrolia taxpayers will pay more for municipal taxes, water and sewer rates in 2026.

Town council took one hour and 12 minutes to discuss what changes it would like to make to the $6,917,389 operating budget and the $14 million in captial spending Tuesday. 

Councillors approved a two per cent increase in municipal taxes. That’s about $21 more a year,  bringing the total municipal tax bill to about $1,012 for every $100,000 of assessment on a home. 

That doesn’t include any increases passed along by Lambton County or the province for education taxes.

Last year the county tax increase was over five per cent.

Council also approved a three per cent increase in sewer rates and a four per cent increase in both the fixed water rates and a four-per cent increase on the consumption charges.

The information provided in the public budget documents did not say what the financial impact of the sewer and water rate increases would be on homeowners.

This is the first budget prepared under the province’s Strong Mayor’s rules. In May, 168 municipalities, including Petrolia were granted the powers by the Ford government in the hopes it would help mayors to prioritize building homes during the 2022 housing crisis. One of the powers now given to mayors is the preparation of the budget.

Petrolia Mayor Brad Loosley enlisted the help of Deputy Mayor Joel Field and Councillor Bill Clark to go through the documents prepared by staff.  It’s not clear from the information provided in the public documents what, if any changes, were made by them.

Councillors received the document Oct. 31. 

Chad Hyatt and Liz Welsh made a total of six suggestions to change the budget; three were adopted.

Council agreed to use a reserve set up last year to cut the tax increase, slated by Loosley at three per cent, to two. 

That reserve was set up at Hyatt’s request during the 2025 budget deliberations when a special grant for police was received but not reflected in budget.

Hyatt’s bid to limit the increase to water rates to four per cent for only the fixed portion of the bill and decrease the sewer rate increase to two per cent failed. 

Chief Administrative Officer Rick Charlebois pointed out that both the water and sewer rate increases since 2018 had not kept up with the rate of inflation. He said the sewer rates were lower than 2018 after a series of decreases approved by council after the federal government kicked in $14.6 million for the new sewage treatment plant. Charlebois said that plant and the water treatment plant will require about $15 million in work in the next 10 years.

Welsh’s suggestion to put a dog park on hold for a year was nixed by council (see below) but they agreed an $80,000 road project at the cemetery and $70,000 to repair the cedar roof at the Farmer’s Market could wait another year.

By far the biggest expenditure in the operating budget is wages and benefits. In 2026, the town will spend $3.57 million, a 3.9 per cent increase over last year.

Some departments had much larger increases in salary lines; there is a 23 per cent increase in arena salaries, an 11 per cent increase in public works administration costs; a 57 per cent increase in office administration for the fire department, a three per cent increase in firefighter salary; a 19.8 per cent increase in facilities salaries and a 20 per cent increase in general administration salaries line. Council received a five per cent increase.

Charlebois was not able to answer why the line items had increase prior to our press deadline.

The budget also moves some of the staff wages to the capital budget. Charlebois says the $183,078 covers staff time required to apply for capital grants and manage capital projects. 

The town will take in $9,321,000 in revenue in 2026, including $236,649 in new tax revenue. That’s 3.6 per cent more than last year.

The town plans to spend $6,917,389 in the operating budget, stashing away the rest – about $1.64 million into the working capital reserve fund. That’s about 8.6 per cent more than the town planned to save last year.

The town will pay about 4.3 per cent more to subsidize the operations at the community centre. With the $360,000 operating deficit and management fees to the Y, the town will pay $511,796 to cover the gap between the operating costs and the revenue. 

Petrolia taxpayers will also provide about $135,000 to update equipment at the Y. 

The fire budget had the largest increase this year at 22 per cent over last year. It included a bump in the fire chief’s salary line and a $20,000 increase in office administration costs. 

The town is also budgeting $16,000 to pay for the cost of operating the former ScotiaBank building. 

Loosley had originally planned to present the budget in January, but will now give a public accounting at the Dec. 8 meeting.

WHAT’S IN THE PETROLIA Capital BUDGET

• $7.4M for the second year of upgrading Petrolia’s water intake at the Bright’s Grove Treatment Plant- 73 per cent covered by federal and provincial grants
• $1.8M to complete second phase of Waterline expansion to Petrolia’s southeast quadrant for housing covered mainly by grants • $30K – for lighting upgrades at the Greenwood Recreation Centre
• $30K for a study of front door accessibility at the arena
• $5K for heating/cooling unit for the Kerr Building
• $60K for 2013 Explorer for Fire Chief
• $60K for Fire Hall facilities plan for washroom/decon – from reserves
• $264K for the second payment to replace tanker
• $15K to replace eight aging computers
• $20K at Kerr Park for bleachers and washroom roof replacement
• $10k to survey and set up the soccer fields
• $22K for a new dog park – location to be determined
• $75K for “general engineering’ to prepare projects in case of federal and provincial grant opportunities
• $265K to engineer King Street, Edward & Valentina, Hickory & School Street for Reconstruction this is in addition 
• $201K already approved for engineering for King and Hickory.
• $20K in sidewalk reconstruction
• $119K VPP elevator upgrade with $59,400 coming from VPP revenue