City of Peterborough 2026 Budget Adopted

Peterborough, ON – The City of Peterborough’s 2026 Budget was adopted during a City Council meeting on Monday, December 8, 2025, setting a financial plan to largely maintain current service levels and continue investments in municipal infrastructure.

To help reduce the property tax increase in 2026, Council supported using an additional $3 million from the Legacy Fund Income Retention reserve account – a reserve fund that holds revenue or interest earned on investments made using the proceeds of the sale of assets of Peterborough Distribution Inc. The $3 million injection from the Legacy fund reduced the tax requirement in the 2026 Budget by 1.32%.

Council identified the Legacy Fund Income reserve as a way to reduce the tax increase and recommended several other changes during its budget deliberation meetings in November.

The City’s 2026 Budget reflects an operating budget increase of 2.11%, a 2.16% increase for infrastructure and capital needs, a 0.53% increase in the sanitary sewer fee, and a 1.76% increase related to external agencies that are funded by the City.

Mayor Jeff Leal thanked City Council for working collaboratively through the 2026 Budget process, particularly during the Budget meetings on November 17 and 18 when Council members reviewed the budget document together.

“Thanks to all residents who called, emailed, and spoke to City Council to provide their perspectives on the budget. Everyone’s input is incredibly helpful to meet our service requirements and ensure that our capital investment is sufficient to repair, rebuild and renew Peterborough’s capital infrastructure,” he said.

The 6.56% all-inclusive rate increase, including the municipal, education, and sanitary sewer surcharge rates, equals about $28.31 per month for the median or typical residential property.

The 2026 Budget process started in spring 2025 with community consultation on priorities and services. A series of public meetings were held in the fall of 2025 after the Draft 2026 Budget was prepared to share information, respond to questions, and hear feedback ahead of Council’s review of the Draft Budget in November 2025.

The 2026 Budget includes $453.9 million in spending on municipal services and $139.2 million in capital investments.

The $453.9 million is funded by revenues of $255.5 million from non-municipal property tax sources such as user fees, grants from other governments, recoveries, interest from investments, and service charges, resulting in a tax requirement of $198.4 million.

Capital projects include items such as the police station renovation and expansion, Lansdowne Street West between Spillsbury Drive and Clonsilla Avenue, Wastewater Treatment Plant revitalization, extending a taxiway at the Peterborough Regional Airport, road paving, purchasing transit buses, and water service distribution infrastructure.

A list of major capital projects and a breakdown of what a taxpayer pays for various municipal services is available at peterborough.ca/budget.

A breakdown of where your municipal tax dollar goes:

• 25.9% - Outside/external organizations, such as police, paramedics, and public health
• 23.9% - Community Services, such as social services, housing, fire services, parks, cultural services, the library, the museum and the art gallery
• 18.2% - Municipal Operations, such as public works, winter control, transit, and the airport
• 16.5% - Financial services, which includes financing costs for major infrastructure projects
• 6.1% - Finance and Corporate Support Services, which includes the City’s finance administration, emergency management, communications, and facilities management
• 5.4% - Infrastructure, Planning and Growth Management, which includes services such as engineering, managing major infrastructure projects, processing planning and building permit applications, physician recruitment and economic development
• 2.2% - Legislative Services, such as the Clerk’s Office, legal services, real estate transactions, the Provincial Offences Act office, and by-law enforcement
• 1.4% - Chief Administrative Officer’s office, which includes the City’s People and Culture Division
• 0.4% - City Council

Information on the 2026 Budget is available at peterborough.ca/budget. Residents can use the interactive OpenBook tool that is available at peterborough.ca/budget to view budget information in visual, accessible, and easy to understand formats with charts, tables, and graphs.

Under the province’s Strong Mayor Powers, Mayor Jeff Leal presented the 2026 Budget for Council's consideration – presenting a budget that reflected all the changes recommended by City Council since the Draft Budget was presented on November 3, 2025.

Through its budget deliberations, Council made various changes or directions related to the Draft 2026 Budget, such as:

• Reducing the proposed employee benefits cost requirement by $665,000 from what was included in the draft budget documents;
• On November 3, Council awarded RFP48-25 for shelter services and daytime drop-in program to One City, which added $1.12 million to the Draft 2026 Budget;
• Increasing the net tax levy by $90,137 in 2026 for the Community Development Program to offset a reduced funding from Peterborough County;
• Reducing the net tax levy requirement by $204,477 to reflect the increased final current value assessments from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation;
• Deferring until 2027 consideration of a $900,000 project for a public washroom at Jackson Park;
• Deferring $25,000 that had been requested to convert a washroom space into a kitchenette at City Hall;
• Deferring until 2027 consideration of a $375,000 budget for the Coldsprings Growth Area – Planning Studies;
• Extending the Community Service Agreement with Electric City Culture Council (EC3) for January 1 to December 31, 2026, including $100,000 for EC3 operations plus $50,000 for EC3 to provide Artsweek and the Individual Artists program, as well as increasing the funding by an additional $25,000 toward the Individual Artists program; and
• Increasing funding for the Peterborough Public Library collections acquisition by an additional $32,000 funded from the Library Materials Acquisition Reserve.

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