September 23, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
The Burlington Residents Action Group (BRAG) has begun to drill down into the budget numbers that have been made public. While the analysis is yet to be completed – a few pieces of information stand out.
The highlighted salary and benefits line shown on page 9 of the summary budget as something that the city, in fairness to taxpayers, should expand on. We can see that salaries and benefits will increase 6.6%.
Statistics Canada has the CPI (Consumer Price Index) increasing 2.5% in July 2024 (year over year) with all indicators pointing towards further cooling of inflation in 2025.
What we can’t see is how much of this budget increase is for raises to current employees and how much of this budget increase is for new hires.
With low assessment and population growth, it’s difficult to understand why the city is hiring; residents are left with the assumption that salaries and benefits for existing employees are increasing by 6.6%.
Looking back to the 2023 budget, page 468 shows a 12.3% increase to the “Human Resources” expenditure line.
Looking back to the 2024 budget, page 728 shows a 10% increase to the “Human Resources” expenditure line.
“These increases are simply jaw dropping “said BRAG President Eric Stern.
Much more to come on this file.

Property taxes should be abolished and replaced with a regional tax based on income.
Since salaries and benefits represents half the total budget, “key investments” needs to be explained.
Looks like the “key investments” calculate out to about 1% of the base budget. This might be the new investments in staff (.ie new hires for 2025). Either way as you say, staffing is half our taxes and the departments just keep on growing.