The Chief Administrative Officer Department is responsible for the co-ordination, administration, and direction of all affairs of the corporation, including direct oversight over the People and Culture division and the Physician Recruitment program.

The Office of Chief Administrative Officer budget is comprised of the CAO, an Executive Assistant, and Advisor Government Relations positions as well as the Physician Recruitment program. The position of Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), according to Section 229 of the Municipal Act, 2001, is responsible for exercising general control and management of the affairs of the municipality for the purpose of ensuring the efficient and effective operation of the municipality.

With approval of Report CAOGR24-003 dated April 2, 2024, Council approved a two-year pilot project for a new physician recruitment incentive program to run until December 31, 2025. The Whole of Village incentive program includes funding for the Physician Recruitment Coordinator position, incentives for family physicians recruited communications, advocacy and events to support physician recruitment and retention.

The 2025 budget includes increased costs for salary and benefits, professional development and advocacy. The overall decrease in tax requirement is due to Physician Recruitment program which was funded by more tax levy in 2024 but will be using funds from the Physician Recruitment reserve in 2025 as well as $130,000 of tax levy approved with the pilot program for 2025.

Recommendation

That any unused CAO Administration Budget at the end of 2025 be transferred to the Organizational Development Reserve, subject to the overall year-end position.

That any unused Physician recruitment budget at the end of 2025 be transferred to the Physician Recruitment Reserve, subject to the overall year-end position.

Interactive Budget

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.

OpenBook budget tool