By Pepper Parr
September 19th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Citizens get to see the Blue Print for the City Budget – Actual Budget goes public on the 24th of October
The first of the six budget meetings that will be held in each city ward took place Thursday night at the Haber Community Centre.
Thirteen people were reported to have taken part.
Mayor Meed Ward took the meeting through a 40-page document called the Budget Blue Print..
Mayor Meed Ward and Councillor Paul Sharman explaining the budget to a small audience. When it came to explaining the numbers, Sharman did all the talking.
Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman stood beside Mayor Meed Ward throughout the 90 minute meeting. Sharman pointed out that he is an accountant (not sure that he actually has a designation)and could explain the details for those who needed help. Mayor Meed Ward has never been a strong numbers person.
We will publish an exchange of views between Ward 4 resident Eric Stern and Councillor Sharman on some of the budget numbers in a separate article.
Sharman sees the process the city goes through as a Tax bill versus Budget – different things. It is not more complex than that.
Actually, it is more complex than that.
Set out below are two tables. The first is where the money comes from, where it is going and what the tax increase is in terms of dollars and percentages.
The second table is the timeline the budget process will follow.
Maybe Paul can use his skills to audit the swim RFP?
Paul Sharman is not the ward 6 Councillor
Thank you Eve fir catching our mistake
What are Sharman’s credentials re:Accountant?
Paul Sharman is not an accountant as far as I know!
What are his credentials and qualifications? And if in fact he has some, he should provide these to Burlington residents with what they are.
Mr. Sharman is the Ward 5 Councilor in Burlington and is not a member of the Finance Department at the City of Burlington.
As for the 2026 Budget; and all budgets before it, someone from the Finance Department at the COB, with the proper relavent credendiatials and qualifications
should be in attendance at All of the public Burlington Budget meetings so that all of the Burlington resident’s Questions get Answered correctly in real time by someone who is qualified to answer them.
Mayor Meed Ward does not have either the qualications or the knowledge to answer any of the questions on the COB Property Tax Budget.
I have asked Mayor Meed Ward questions on the yearly Budget in previous years, and she doesn’t know the answers and responds with “I will check and get back to you”. But this Never happens. And No answers are ever given!!
If a member of the Finance team is present at these Budget meetings, these questions can be easily and properly answered in real time at each meeting.
Time is long overdue for our Mayor and Council to be honest, open, transparent and frugal with the Property Tax Dollars they Bill out and spend year over year.
Guess you didin’t look vey hard.
From Sharman’s Linkedin.
His qualifications are UK based.
Education
FCMA, CGMA (CIMA/AICPA)
Masters equivalent, Management Accounting
1975 – 2025
Grade: Fellow Chartered Management Accountant
Activities and societies: CIMA
Appointed to the ranks of Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (FCMA). See the new CGMA. I now have a certification sponsored by AICPA!
During the presentation the mayor directed us to look at the column on the right for the tax increase – 2.98%. The word percent means out of each hundred or per one hundred. When you put the % sign next to a number it means out of 100, it means that all the percents shown should add up to 100.
I take a test, I get 51% of the questions right, implicit in this statement is that I got 49% of the questions wrong, 51 + 49 = 100. That is the definition of a percent. In the right hand column 2.98 + .67 + .84 adds up to 4.49 the numbers have a % sign but they are not percentages.
Sharman called the column on the right a weighted average, Meed Ward said it was information for residents. The heading says “Tax Increase (as a percentage)”. Last year it was the “impact of the increase”. It’s obvious the city will do anything to avoid telling us the real tax increase – 5.8%.