Timmins approves 2025 budget with 4.48% tax levy increase

Timmins property taxes rise 4.5%, adding $13/month for a $193K home & $348/year for median commercial properties after council approval.

Timmins City Council has approved the 2025 tax levy at $96.5 million, which represents a 4.48 per cent levy increase from 2024.

The residential tax rate will increase by 4.19 per cent, while the commercial and industrial tax rates will increase by 3.66 per cent and 3.81 per cent, respectively.

The municipal portion of the levy alone is set at $81.9 million. When combined with education taxes, the total levy rises to $96.5 million.

Water and wastewater rates will also climb by 5.49 per cent.

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Challenges ahead: CAO warns of rising costs

Timmins Chief Administrative Officer Dave Landers cautioned that maintaining previous tax rate increases of three per cent or lower will be difficult moving forward.

“With activity surrounding the city and all the infrastructure investment that we’ve been doing in the last number of years, I think we have to face the reality that tax rates at three per cent or less are going to be difficult to achieve any longer,” Landers said.

He cited ongoing construction at the Golden Manor as one factor influencing budget pressures.

Debate on public health, policing budgets

The budgets for Northeastern Public Health (NEPH) and Timmins Police Service (TPS) drew significant discussion, as both saw the highest percentage increases among the city’s agencies, boards, and commissions.

NEPH, newly formed from the merger of the Porcupine and Timiskaming health units, increased its budget by 10 per cent ($1.7 million in 2024). Over the past five years, public health spending in the former Porcupine Health Unit area has risen 43 per cent.

Coun. Steve Black questioned whether the merger was financially detrimental, noting that while Timiskaming residents face a four per cent increase, Porcupine-area residents are absorbing a 10 per cent hike.

“I was assured this health unit merger would not be detrimental, and when I see Porcupine Health Unit at a 10 per cent ... and Timiskaming at a four per cent, I’m wondering if that’s considered detrimental,” Black said.

Mayor Michelle Boileau defended the harmonization, stating the Porcupine Health Unit had been underfunded.

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Without the increase, she warned, nine staff positions would have been cut and district offices closed.

Timmins Police Service received a 9.59 per cent budget increase, bringing its 2025 funding to $1.78 million from 2024.

Coun. John Curley proposed sending both the health unit and police budgets back to their boards to reduce increases to five per cent, but his motion failed.

Black, who sits on the police board, acknowledged dissatisfaction with the hike but defended it as necessary for modernization under Police Chief Sydney Lecky.

“I do believe the budget is what we need to do to move the service in the direction that we’ve been asked to move it, both by council and the residents of this community,” he said.

Council revisits familiar debate

The discussion mirrored last year’s tensions, when council rejected initial budgets from public health and the Cochrane District Social Services Administration Board before ultimately approving them unchanged.

Coun. Bill Gvozdanovic urged practicality, saying, “Let’s stop just playing these games. The time to do the work was when we were in our own budget.”

He suggested cutting $500,000 from the capital budget instead, though no such motion was tabled.

Slower increases compared to other municipalities

The city emphasized that Timmins’ tax hikes remain below the provincial average for similar communities.

Residential taxes on a median bungalow are rising more slowly than in many other Ontario municipalities.

Approved budgets for 2025

• Mattagami Region Conservation Authority: 3 per cent increase ($636,500)
• Timmins Public Library: 3.43 per cent increase ($2 million)
• Cochrane District Social Services Board: 4.86 per cent increase ($11.9 million)
• Timmins Police Service: 9.59 per cent increase ($18.6 million)
• Northeastern Public Health: 10 per cent increase ($1.7 million)

Over the past five years, the city’s levy (excluding agencies, boards, and commissions) has risen 16 per cent or $7.1 million.

Final tax breakdown recap

• Residential tax rate: 4.19 per cent increase
• Commercial tax rate: 3.66 per cent increase
• Industrial tax rate: 3.81 per cent increase

The approved budget funds core services like road maintenance, waste collection and emergency services, with residential taxes accounting for 63 per cent of municipal revenue.