Budget Questions Part 2
I listened to the November 12, 2025, Committee of the Whole Discussion this afternoon - agenda item 7.2.
Watching the video from the Agenda is the easiest way to review municipal content.
It boggles my mind how this staff report was presented to Council. It is just a bunch of random disconnected items in written form, devoid of history and context. Consequently, I wasn’t surprised by the statement after a few hours of review by Council, when the Financial Officer Teri Vetter stated that Council spending was now requiring a 13% tax rate increase even though the whole entire point of the staff report was to respond to past direction from Council that any tax rate increases for 2026 be kept to 5%.
So why did this happen?
This happened because as you hear CAO Ted Swabey state multiple times, “we provided this info (the staff report) instead of doing business planning.” In response to which I ask, how can Council reasonably be expected to assess the projected 2026 budget if they are not provided with measurable/assessable business plans? This lack of context meant that Mayor and Council spent equal amounts of time during the Nov 12 meeting on $25,000 in new spending as they did on $2 million in spending which is 100% faulty from an accountability perspective.
As an example of this lack of context, there was no apparent public disclosure during the Nov 12 discussion of the current status of any of the municipal reserve funds which are established and maintained as a function of the municipality’s Reserve Fund bylaw. This lack of disclosure was despite a number of the staff report items being funded by reserve funds.
So I started looking at public documents including the 2025 -2029 Financial Bylaw bylaw which showed planned transfer of a few million each year from municipal reserves towards annual capital budgets:
The Capital Budget portion of the 2025 - 2029 Financial Plan bylaw for the Municipality of North Cowichan
Then I looked at the 2024 Annual report knowing that this document contains a lot of significant data and found the following table on page 105 which sets out the value of each reserve funding maintained by the municipality at the end of the 2024 Fiscal year:
Current status of affected reserve funds should be before Council as part of budget planning.
To get ideas about how the methods of North Cowichan compare against other comparable municipalities when they engage in planning efforts related to municipal budgets, I took a look at the budget budget information provided by other municipalities for some ideas on how North Cowichan could enhance its disclosure:
The City of Langford has this 2025 budget document that clearly outlines accomplishments by business unit and also sets out business unit line items for the upcoming year. We should strive to accomplish this level of transparency.
Oak Bay provided an update on current economic variables for their municipality as part of their 2025 budget planning.
Port Alberni appears to have been publicly discussing their 2026 budget for longer than North Cowichan has even though, as shown in their 2025-2029 Financial Plan Bylaw, they collect and spend less money than North Cowichan.
Campbell River already had their 2026 Budget nailed down and limited to a 2% tax increase as shown in this early December 2025 news release.
The Municipality of Squamish has an impressive record of public consultation efforts and documented priorities related to their 2026 Financial Plans available from their engagement site. I highly recommend you check out this extremely detailed staff report to Council for an upcoming council meeting that clearly outlines all parts of their pending budget and also provides a 2026 - 2035 financial plan bylaw.
So what does this mean?
We should be worried because it appears that both staff and Council at North Cowichan are struggling with budget management and budget planning. But why? Other municipalities, including those flagged as comparative municipalities by the Municipality of North Cowichan on our Budget Connect page, already have their budgets and budgets consultations complete.
Additionally, it should be front of mind, as shown in the North Cowichan budget dashboard, that we appear to have failed to spend the majority of the 2025 capital budget. So I have to ask: hat’s the point of putting money aside if we don’t event spend it?
