By Eric Stern
June 26th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Eric Stern delegating at City Council
Budgeting is an annual event in the City of Burlington. During the last few months of 2025, our council will vote on the city’s budget for 2026.
All municipalities in Ontario have operating and capital budgets. Burlington’s 2025 operating budget covered $346.2 million in spending, and the capital budget covered $88.6 million in spending.
In April, the 2026 Budget process, was presented to our council.
The report contains this draft schedule.
The new date for the 2026 Financial Forecast is now July 7, 2025. There is a council meeting (Committee of the Whole) scheduled for July 7th, but no agenda is available.
In past years, the financial forecast has been an opportunity for city staff to present their “needs” to the council. In some Ontario municipalities, the mayor and councillors chose to direct staff to limit the budget increase to a specific percentage.
This does not happen in Burlington.
Every organization I’ve worked in had needs. In the private sector, the need to make a profit helped prioritize these needs.
In the public sector, residents elect representatives to help with the prioritization.
Ontario’s Strong Mayor Powers legislation only allows budgets to be reviewed for 30 days.
We can see the impact of this legislation with the release of the proposed budget taking place on November 3, followed by the council review on December 2.
Here are more key dates from the report:
A reliable source has said that the Telephone Townhall is now scheduled for November 5th, starting at 7 pm.
Looking at the timelines, the budget is being released on November 2, a scant 3 days before the Telephone Townhall and well after the “Feedback Opportunities” for residents.
The same source has said that a “draft summary budget” will be released mid-September. This is similar to the process followed last year.
Last year, a summary budget was released; this year, we’ll see a “draft” summary budget. In last year’s summary budget, 434.8 million dollars in spending was described in a 25-page document. Last year’s summary document is available here
Last year, the “Feedback” opportunities consisted of residents looking at about 10 pages of details on the operating budget, capital budget and reserve funds. The other pages include a title page, a statement from the mayor with the obligatory picture, etc.
During the feedback opportunity I attended, no details were shared, and I found it impossible to provide feedback on a purposefully vague and high-level summary budget.
Oakville’s approach is to release a draft budget 30 days before the proposed budget; this gives residents and councillors 60 days to review and comment before the budget is voted on.
Burlington’s process denies residents and councillors the opportunity to review and comment on detailed expenditures.
As we see over and over again, our elected representatives are not interested in what taxpayers have to say.
Eric Stern is the co-founder of Focus Burlington; a grass roots group that wants to see better financial prudence on the part of the city and genuine citizen engagement.
You’re doing what this city desperately needs—calling out the weak leadership and political cowardice at City Hall. The mayor and council continue to operate in an echo chamber, ignoring residents while ramming through bloated budgets, vanity projects, and tax hikes with zero accountability.
The recent budget process was a disgrace—rushed, vague, and built on assumptions that insult the intelligence of every taxpayer in Burlington. While residents are told to tighten their belts, this council protects its pet programs and expands bureaucracy. It’s government for insiders, not citizens.
Your refusal to stay quiet, your relentless focus on facts, and your demand for transparency and accountability are exactly what this city needs. Keep the pressure on. You’re not just speaking out—you’re giving the rest of us a voice.
Don’t stop.