Sources and method

Where this comes from

Everything on these pages comes from public documents. Here they are, with how we used them, so anyone can check our work.

Documents

1. Ontario Financial Information Return (FIR)

   Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing · retrieved 2026-10-01

   The numbers behind the money and compare pages: 2019 to 2024 for Addington Highlands, and 2024 for 13 similar towns. Figures are what the municipality reported to the Province for each year, prepared on the same basis as its audited financial statements.

2. Township of Addington Highlands, council remuneration and expense statements

   Township of Addington Highlands · retrieved 2026-10-01

   What each council member was paid, and spent on benefits and expenses, 2023 to 2025. One statement a year; the link is the latest, and the council page links each year.

3. Township of Addington Highlands, budget documents

   Township of Addington Highlands · retrieved 2026-10-01

   The town posts its draft budgets inside the agenda for each yearly budget meeting (department by department, with last year’s actual). It says the passed budget can be viewed or requested from the Treasurer; we did not find the passed budget as its own document.

4. Consolidated Financial Statements, 2025 (audited)

   Township of Addington Highlands and KPMG LLP · retrieved 2026-10-01

   Report dated June 2, 2026. Cash, taxes receivable, reserves, landfill closing costs (note 6), surplus against budget. Used for most of the financial figures.

5. Consolidated Financial Statements, 2024 (audited)

   Township of Addington Highlands and KPMG LLP · retrieved 2026-10-01

   Report dated May 6, 2025. General government and environmental spending for 2024 and 2023.

6. Consolidated Financial Statements, 2023 (audited)

   Township of Addington Highlands and KPMG LLP · retrieved 2026-10-01

   Report dated May 21, 2024. Taxes receivable; the 2023 change in landfill obligations.

7. Consolidated Financial Statements, 2022 (audited)

   Township of Addington Highlands and KPMG LLP · retrieved 2026-10-01

   Report dated May 2, 2023. Taxes receivable for 2022.

8. Consolidated Financial Statements, 2019 (audited)

   Township of Addington Highlands · retrieved 2026-10-01

   Report dated July 7, 2020. The 2019 starting point for general government and environmental spending.

9. Budget Meeting agenda, March 24, 2026 (2026 draft budget)

   Township of Addington Highlands · retrieved 2026-10-01

   Draft 2026 budget by department with staff reports, the Province’s grant notice, the missed asset-plan deadline, and the 2022 Asset Management Plan.

10. Budget Meeting agenda, March 20, 2025 (2025 draft budget)

    Township of Addington Highlands · retrieved 2026-10-01

    Draft 2025 budget by department, with 2024 actual against budget. Used for waste, general government and the levy.

11. Budget Meeting agenda, April 11, 2024 (2024 draft budget)

    Township of Addington Highlands · retrieved 2026-10-01

    Draft 2024 budget by department with the levy calculation. Used to explain the 2024 tax increase and the Denbigh landfill reserve.

12. Tax rate schedules, 2023 to 2026 (By-laws 0858/2023, 0922/2024, 0974/2025, 1036/2026)

    Township of Addington Highlands · retrieved 2026-10-01

    Schedule A to each tax-rate by-law. The 2026 file is linked; the 2025, 2024 and 2023 files are documents 82963, 60147 and 48569 on the same portal. Used for the levy by year.

13. Clerk’s Statement under Municipal Act s.284, 2025

    CAO/Clerk-Treasurer · retrieved 2026-10-01

    Regular Meeting agenda, March 17, 2026, PDF page 37. The 2024 (revised) statement is in document 68749 and the 2023 statement in document 58144.

14. Regular council minutes, 2024 to 2026

    Township of Addington Highlands · retrieved 2026-10-01

    Minutes folder for 2026; 2025 and 2024 are folders 67879 and 56895 on the same portal. Used for levy decisions, closed-session reports, the auditor’s presentations and conflict declarations.

15. Conflict of Interest Registry

    Township of Addington Highlands · retrieved 2026-10-01

    Declarations by council members, 2020 to 2026.

16. Statistics Canada, Consumer Price Index, annual average (table 18-10-0005-01)

    Statistics Canada · retrieved 2026-10-01

    How much prices went up each year, so cost growth can be compared with inflation.

How the numbers are worked out

Day-to-day spending

Total expenses as reported, minus amortization ("wear and tear"), which is an accounting cost rather than cash spent that year. Costs are shown in the service where they were recorded, before the town spreads its office overhead across services, so the cost of running the office stays visible.

Per home

An amount divided by the number of households the town reported to the Province for that year.

Similar towns

Ontario lower-tier municipalities with 60% to 160% of this population that had filed their 2024 return, in 2024. This gives 13 towns. "Typical" means the median: half of similar towns are above it and half below. The size limits are a judgement call; moving them a little adds or drops a few towns, so treat small differences in rank as noise. Per-home figures use the household counts each town reports to the Province. Towns do not all count the same way: some include seasonal homes, so per-home comparisons are a guide, not exact.

Faster than prices

Growth is compared with Canada's Consumer Price Index over the same years.

When a question is raised automatically

When a cost grew at least 25 percentage points faster than prices and faster than 80% of similar towns; when a measure of money health is worse than 80% of similar towns; or when a one-year tax increase is higher than 80% of similar towns and well above inflation. "Needs an answer" means worse than 90% of similar towns. When there are fewer than 20 similar towns, automatic questions go no higher than "Worth asking", because one rank moves a lot in a small group.

What this cannot see

These records show totals by category, not individual payments. They cannot show whether a particular contract was fair, whether a purchase was split to avoid tendering, or who was paid. That needs the town's list of payments (its cheque register or accounts payable list), which residents can ask for under Ontario's freedom-of-information law (MFIPPA). That is the next thing we plan to add.