The Office of the City Clerk provides a variety of services and functions for the public and staff across the corporation through electronic and in person interactions. Statutory functions related to provincial regulations include, but are not limited to, the Marriage Act, the Vital Statistics Act, the Municipal Act, the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Municipal Elections Act. Secretariat services are provided to Council and involve the creation of meeting agendas, the administration of electronic voting and the recording of motions. The Clerk's Office administers licensing programs, such as the licensing of driving services.
Work continues to evolve in the Records Management Program in the area of electronic records and Data Governance. Records are being moved from common drives across the corporation to SharePoint, where they will be more efficiently stored and retrieved. The licensing program expanded in 2024 with the addition of the regulation of taxi cabs, limos and ride shares. Efficiencies in the administration of business licensing, request for records and road closures applications continue to be reviewed. The volume of requests for records under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act continue to increase. The allocation of appropriate resources and efficient processes to administer this service are necessary to ensure compliance with the timely issuance of records.
Municipalities are required to conduct an election every four years as per the Municipal Elections Act. The expense to conduct the election is the responsibility of municipality. An annual transfer to reserves creates the funds for the election and any by-elections. The contribution to the Reserve for 2025 is $175,000. The next municipal election will be held in 2026. The Election expenses included in the 2025 budget total $249,000 and include the hiring of temporary election staff and the securing of service contracts.
The increase in the 2025 budget is primarily due to Election work commencing in 2025 as well as approved salary and benefit increases.
Explore the City's budget using the interactive OpenBook feature, including expenses by department and division as well as a breakdown of what a typical residential property taxpayer pays per $100,000 of assessment.
The full budget information is available in the Draft 2025 Budget book.
The OpenBook budget tool enhances the transparency of the City's Budget by allowing us to share financial information visually in accessible and easy to understand formats. View our budget data using charts, tables, and graphs. We hope you find this helpful.
Through our OpenBook reports, you can start at the organizational level then click on a department to go down to the division/section/service level as you explore the financial information for the City. Flip between charts, tables and graphs to display the data in a way that visualizes the information based on your preference.In OpenBook tables, all column headers labeled as "Current Year" refer to 2025; "Previous Year" refers to 2024.
Please note: The 2025 Budget is the first year that the City has used this budget tool to enhance how it shares information with residents. We're learning how to use the new platform and will be adding features and reports as we explore the tool's capabilities.