By Joe Gaetan
December 3rd, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
The day after Burlington Council approved the 2026 municipal tax increase, one reality becomes painfully clear: governments of all stripes, wield an economic power most businesses could only dream of. When they need more money, they do not innovate, compete, or cut costs. They reach directly into the pockets of taxpayers.
We have watched this trend play out federally for more than a decade. Ottawa’s cavalier attitude toward public finances, expressed in throwaway lines like “budgets balance themselves” has trickled down into provincial and municipal practice. The cumulative result is the slow, steady erosion of household financial stability.
Here in Burlington, if you live in a house, condominium, or rental apartment, 2026 will cost you more than 2025. Full stop. Higher taxes, increased fees, costlier utilities, the list grows while incomes do not. And unless you are fortunate enough to enjoy an indexed pension or gold‑plated benefits, your options are shrinking.
Many residents will respond the only way they can:
Eric Stern: Focus Burlington.
Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns: voted against the take increase.
– Eating out less.
– Cancelling or shortening vacations.
– Selling the second car — or holding onto the old clunker far longer than planned.
– Downsizing their home, or even leaving the province.
– Making hard choices in a market where the concept of “right‑sizing” is becoming more fantasy than solution.
Against this backdrop, all but one Councillor voted to approve the 2026 increase. Voters cannot revisit that decision until October 2026. And given the power of incumbency in municipal politics, the same group with the same spending habits may well remain in place until 2030.
To be fair, councillors who supported this budget will undoubtedly provide explanations. Some will be reasonable. Some will be responsible. But others, the “nice‑to‑have” items and the “could‑have‑waited” items, are far more difficult to justify after the string of significant increases this council has passed since 2018.
A note of appreciation is due to Councillor Kearns for her vote, and to Eric Stern and Focus Burlington for their thoughtful and community‑focused delegation. Their contributions highlighted the need for transparency and restraint during a time of intense financial pressure on residents.
Council had a choice: to prioritize residents who are already stretched, or to continue layering new spending onto a heavy load. Yesterday’s vote shows which path they chose.
The question now is whether Burlington residents will remember in October 2026 and whether they will decide that their household budgets deserve as much respect as the municipal one.
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Addendum to my original comment:
At the 2026 Budget committee meeting on November 24, 2025, after all of the ammendments were discussed and voted on, and after the Indigenous Circle was given an extra $20,000.00 from Taxpayers; Our Budget was down by $370,000.00. So Council decided to increase the Budget by $370,000.00 to bring it up to what MMW wanted it to be at 4.49% overall for the City portion only!!!
With the majority of our tax increase going to City of Burlington staff salaries, staff pensions and staff benefits!!.
How do Burlington residents feel about this??
One thing I have learned trying to engage in this City, with this mayor, and Ward 1 Councilor, is that the Burlington Budget process is designed to discourage meaningful reductions. You can see the 50% increase under the MMW watch as mayor, in endless detail of justifications for everything, and babble arithmetic arguing about percentage increases in costs of everything in ever more detail.
This detail is designed to confuse, complicate, and discourage an understanding. What I do know is that all the details only says the cost is still increasing and still includes things we do not need, and could be cut a lot more, and life quality here would still not fail to improve as they say now.
One final thing I have learned by observation is that money, condo development, and most of all, obediently following Fords Failed, property, and tax cost deficit inflation plan, is the only thing that matters. No new development, or resulting City cost burden, is too many.
As usual, the primacy of money and power to do what they want, tells me that this Council and Province has really lost any recognizable Moral Compass regarding this matter.
The only way that this will change is to vote them out. Taxpayers had better pay attention to that.
Mayor Meed Ward decided that the 2026 Budget would be 5.8% with the overall tax bill at roughly 4.49% before the budget was even Drafted! Who does that with Budgets except MMW?
What our mayor should have said to staff was that she wanted the 2026 budget to come in at 2% and no more, which is the rate of inflation.
(Many Municipalities in Ontario have managed a roughly 2% tax increase, with some coming in at a zero% increase).
There is absolutley NO reason for the exhorbitant City of Burlington salary increases; (dollar for dollar on staff pensions will rise); and increases in benefits. Our city staff are already paid very well and their salaries far exceed those in the private sector.
In this very difficult time where most residents are struggling, the City of Burlington should be freezing all staff salary increases and putting a hold on any and all new hires.
Residents have been forced to cut back; and so should the City of Burlington!
The following excerpt is from Eric Stern’s delegation to Burlington council on December 2, 2025 and posted here in the Burlington Gazette:
“The change in salaries, wages and benefits is shown as $11,412,000. Meaning $11,412,000 of the $17,477,000 tax increase is going to salaries, wages and benefits”.
Burlington residents need to remember this in October 2026 when the next Municipal Election takes place.
Excellent explanation of what has and is happening with government spending and taxation at all levels, Joe. Federal and provincial budgets are allowed to create higher debts for current and future taxpayers, so they do because they can.
Whether it is idiotic projects like a tunnel under the 401 in Ontario or promises to build more affordable housing from the feds, but without a real plan or power to get the provinces to do so it is easy to spend our money on studies rather than actual accomplishments. The debt trough is always open and raising tax rates for the rich who can afford them, the biggest donors to political parties, is nearly impossible in our political system. So the middle and lower income taxpayers can never see themselves moving ahead in life, only sinking or at best standing still.
On the municipal level, there are always new spending mandate pressures from the province passed down, often without enough funding. And municipalities alone are supposed to balance their budgets. They are left with raising taxes every year for the “must haves” plus the “nice to haves”. And all these projects seem to need outside costly consultants to show the way when we supposedly have experts under the City’s payroll? And we pay them well and we add to their numbers each year because it seems every project suggested turns into a “must have” at budget time. No wonder City taxes must rise at twice the cost of living each and every year, making it harder and harder for those of average means to continue to live in Burlington.
In this next year of municipal elections, I want to hear from my ward and mayoral candidates just what they promise to change so that “nice to haves” are banished and “must haves” are studied and graded by cost and benefit so that the 2027 City budget has no higher than a cost of living increase.
Excellent synopsis. Council and City staff appear to be totally tone deaf and living in an altered universe. The budget town halls are farcical as no meaningful or material changes are made to a budget that has already been determined. Council and staff conveniently forget that their purpose is to serve the residents who pay their salaries, the city’s expenses and to provide good governance and stewardship.
As a resident of Burlington, I have never felt more dismissed or disrespected.
And residents must not forget how much their property taxes have increased during MMW’s tenure as mayor. Looking at my tax bill, they will be up nearly 50%. Since our incomes have not risen by anywhere near that amount, especially for lower middle income, lower income and pensioners, consider how much of a CUT in your standard of living MMW has mandated for you. And remember, this group of councillors has been complicit in this fleecing of your money.