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 2025 for Bancroft, and 2025 for 30 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. Town of Bancroft, council remuneration and expense statements

   Town of Bancroft · retrieved 2026-10-01

   What each council member was paid, and spent on benefits and expenses, 2022 to 2025. One statement a year; the link is the latest, and the council page links each year.

3. Town of Bancroft, budget documents

   Town of Bancroft · retrieved 2026-10-01

   The town’s published budgets. Used to check its plans against what it reported.

4. 2026 Municipal Budget presentation (January 27, 2026)

   Town of Bancroft (Mayor’s proposed budget) · retrieved 2026-10-01

   Department budgets, reserves, debt, grants, the tax increase and the Mayor’s discretionary reserve contribution. Used for the council, garbage and recycling, and reserves figures.

5. 2025 Municipal Budget presentation (May 5, 2025)

   Town of Bancroft · retrieved 2026-10-01

   The 2025 department budgets compared with 2024, and the town’s list of pressures on costs and revenues.

6. 2025 Consolidated Financial Statements (audited)

   Town of Bancroft and Baker Tilly KDN LLP · retrieved 2026-10-01

   Audited statements signed May 26, 2026, with the landfill closing-cost note and the spending by service.

7. 2022 to 2024 Consolidated Financial Statements (audited)

   Town of Bancroft and Baker Tilly KDN LLP · retrieved 2026-10-01

   The 2024 statements are linked; the 2023 (document 140928), 2022 (117492), 2021 (106662), 2020 (87593) and 2019 (73166) statements are in the same folder. Used for the dates the auditor’s reports were signed.

8. 2025 Asset Management Plan (received May 13, 2025)

   Town of Bancroft and PSD Citywide Inc. · retrieved 2026-10-01

   What the town owns, what it would cost to replace, and the yearly funding gap.

9. Landfill Optimization Study staff report (May 26, 2026 agenda)

   Town of Bancroft (General Manager) and Cambium Inc. · retrieved 2026-10-01

   The town’s own account of the landfill’s operating deficit, the loss of recycling revenue and the landfill savings account.

10. 2024 Dungannon Waste Disposal Site annual report (in the May 13, 2025 agenda)

    Greenview Environmental Management for the Town of Bancroft · retrieved 2026-10-01

    Yearly monitoring report on the landfill: how much goes in, how much room is left, and waste accepted from a neighbouring township.

11. Councillor remuneration and expenses reports, 2022 to 2025

    Town of Bancroft (clerk and treasurer) · retrieved 2026-10-01

    The yearly statements of each member’s pay and expenses (Municipal Act s.284).

12. Mayoral decisions, 2025 and 2026

    Mayor of Bancroft · retrieved 2026-10-01

    Written decisions under the Mayor’s strong-mayor powers, including the one veto, March 3, 2026.

13. 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 2025 return, in 2025. This gives 30 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.