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413 Ontario towns and cities · 405 read by hand

Your town's money, in plain words.

Town budgets are public, but they are hundreds of pages long and written for accountants. Council Books reads them for you. It shows where the money goes, compares it with similar towns, and points out the things residents may want explained.

Browse by regionHow this works

Looked at closely

405 places where we have also read their own budgets, financial statements and reports, and written questions by hand. The biggest are below. See what keeps coming up across them.

Ontario, CAToronto$15.9B spent in 2025 · 17 questionsExplore →Ontario, CAOttawa$4.8B spent in 2025 · 10 questionsExplore →Ontario, CAMississauga$1.1B spent in 2025 · 12 questionsExplore →Ontario, CABrampton$1.0B spent in 2025 · 14 questionsExplore →Ontario, CAHamilton$1.8B spent in 2022 · 12 questionsExplore →Ontario, CALondon$1.4B spent in 2025 · 11 questionsExplore →

Every Ontario town and city

All 413 Ontario municipalities that run their own local services. Every Ontario page is built from the yearly report each town sends the Province: the money, how it compares with similar places, and automatic questions. Places marked "read by hand" also have their own budgets, minutes and reports read for this site.

413 places

Central Ontario62
Eastern Ontario103
Northeastern Ontario110
Northwestern Ontario33
Southwestern Ontario105

  • Every fact, sourced

    Each number links to the public document it came from. Check it yourself.

  • No accusations

    We ask questions. Every one lists ordinary reasons a number could look odd.

  • Compared fairly

    Towns are only compared with places of a similar size and kind, from the same yearly reports.

Free, independent, and paid for by readers. No ad networks, and no money from candidates, parties or councils. If this helps you, help us read the next town.

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