2023 financial statements have been made public, better late than never.

By Eric Stern

August 25^th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

Burlington’s 2023 financial statements have been made public, better late than never.

Here are some highlights.

Uncollected taxes indicate if people, and businesses, are struggling to pay their tax bills after the significant tax increases of 2022 and 2023.

All amounts are in thousands of dollars so the city is trying to collect $16,810,000 in past-due taxes. The uncollected amount increased, 2022 to 2023, by 37%.

The value of the city’s investments has increased 12.29%, over the 2022 number, to $321,214,000.

Obligatory reserve funds increased to $113,136,000, a 45% increase over 2022.

Reserve funds set aside: Left column 2023 – right column 2022

Reserve funds set aside by the council now total $145,306,000. This block of reserve funds has increased in value by 7.69%.

Long-term debt repayments over the next 5 years total $114,403,000.

The segmented expenses show that salaries and wages increased by 7.74% over 2022.

Sheila Jones, formerly an Executive Director with the City left with basically no notice. The circumstances of her departure were never very clear.

The percentage increase in the number of people working for the city continues to exceed the percentage increase in Burlington’s population. Unfortunately, severance costs are not stated in the financial report so it remains unclear what the senior-level departures of people like Brynn Nheiley and Sheila Jones cost taxpayers. Significantly above inflation salary increases also contribute to this change.

The full financial statement can be found on the city’s website by googling Burlington Ontario 2023 financial statements.

Ontario requires municipalities to use the Canadian public sector accounting standards or PSAS for short. This is the first financial statement, from Burlington, that follows the PSAS standards.

Eric Stern is a Burlington resident who is not an account.  His experience was in the tech world where he ran a private company quite successfully for a number of years and then retired.