Budget Watch

As the city develops to meet the growing needs of the community, we have to pay for new infrastructure, facilities and service increases to accommodate that growth.

The development industry pays a portion of project costs to the City of Guelph to aid funding of new and expanded infrastructure and to aid in acquiring the needed land. Currently these contributions comes through different channels: development charges, community benefits charges, and parkland dedication contributions.

In preparing and approving the 2024-2027 multi-year budget, the City forecasts the infrastructure both replacement and expansion projects over the next decade. Staff and community capacity to deliver projects as well as City’s ability to finance the projects are considered.

We still need to take care of the existing aging infrastructure. The replacement value of the City’s assets was estimated at over $4 billion in the 2020 Asset Management Plan, and at that time over 30 per cent of those assets were identified as nearing the end of their useful lives and due for replacement within 10 – 20 years.

There are going to be challenging decisions ahead as part of the upcoming multi-year budget as Council considers all the priorities in light of overall affordability.