Your town, in plain words
A clear, checkable guide to Carleton Place's budget, taxes and council decisions. A town in Lanark County, west of Ottawa, with a mayor, a deputy mayor and five councillors. Every figure links back to the public record.
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Questions worth asking
Each one is a question, not an accusation. Every one lists ordinary reasons it could be true, and the documents it comes from.
$116per home on council, 2025
Carleton Place spent about $116 per home on council in 2025. The typical similar town spent $50. Only 4 of 49 similar towns spent more.
Found automatically from the town's financial reports · 1 source
$139,000,000committed to the treatment plant expansions at December 31, 2025 (nothing at December 31, 2024)
At the end of 2025 the Town reported that it had committed $139,000,000 to the treatment plant expansions. A year earlier the same note shows nothing. Yet the Town's own debt, which it pays itself, is nil: the only long-term debt it reports is $3,150,300 that another body repays to the Town. The reserve set aside for the treatment plant expansion holds $6,495,239 and the water and sewer reserves hold $11,619,484. The Town's own explanation for the project is growth: it says the expansion is needed "to accommodate growth based on future development". We did not find a public plan that says how much comes from grants, from fees paid by builders, from borrowing or from water and sewer rates. The ten-year capital plan lists $40,000,000 for the water plant and $73,000,000 for the wastewater plant, which add up (worked out by us) to $113,000,000, not $139,000,000.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 6 sources
$830,431development charges left at December 31, 2025, down from $8,384,247
Development charges are fees builders pay when they build, to cover the cost of roads, pipes and other things growth needs. The law requires the Town to keep them in a separate fund. That fund stood at $8,384,247 on January 1, 2025 and $830,431 on December 31, 2025, a drop of about 90 per cent (worked out by us). The Town moved $10,676,702 of it into revenue during the year. The note on the segments shows $9,134,219 of development charge revenue went to environmental services (the water and sewer side). The same note says that in 2024 the Town let developers put off paying their charges: $1,095,180 of the 2025 balance and $1,200,044 of the 2024 balance is money owed, repayable between November 2025 and December 2030 with interest.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 4 sources
$11,114,306unfinanced capital projects at December 31, 2025
The Town's note on its accumulated surplus lists "Unfinanced capital projects" of $(11,114,306) at the end of 2025 and $(11,739,962) at the end of 2024. Put simply, that is work already built or paid for that is waiting for its funding (a grant, a developer payment or debt) to arrive. At the same time the Town held cash of $40,382,032 and reserves of $36,836,789. The Town also says it agreed to fund the up-front costs of water and sewer pipes on Highway 7 and McNeely Avenue and recover them from developers, and that $631,479 is still owed (2024: $1,425,257).
Found by reading the town's own documents · 3 sources
$1,123,739owed to the Town by the Health Hub corporation at December 31, 2025
The Town says it signed an agreement in November 2023 with the Township of Beckwith and CPB Health Hub Solution Corporation to attract family physicians by creating a public health hub. It has committed $45,000 a year toward lease payments for ten years. In 2025 it also lent the corporation money to fit out the Health Hub: $1,123,739 is owed to the Town, repayable monthly over ten years at 4.79% a year. The Town also holds a Health Hub reserve of $1,304,163 (2024: $1,394,163).
Found by reading the town's own documents · 3 sources
$494,800extra affordable housing and heritage grants in the draft 2026 budget
The first draft of the 2026 budget, shown to Council on November 13, 2025, proposed a 3% tax increase of $494,596, taking the levy from $16,486,530 to $17,301,010. Its list of significant changes includes "Additional Affordable Housing and Heritage Grants to Others $494,800", an amount within $204 of the whole tax increase (worked out by us). The same list shows the OPP contract up $214,000 (7%), the OCWA water and sewer contract up $184,000 and garbage collection and dumping up $170,000. We read only the draft; we did not find the adopted budget book, so we do not know what changed on November 20, 2025.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 3 sources
$25,959,157less capital spent in 2025 than budgeted (worked out by us)
The 2025 budget planned a surplus of $54,076,209 and the audited result is $29,811,908. Budgeted revenue was $90,873,060 and actual was $66,525,724. The Town explains in note 18 that its approved budget treats capital projects as spending, but the statements do not, so the two cannot be compared directly. The note's own table shows capital expenses of $65,244,983 budgeted and $39,285,826 actual, a gap of $25,959,157 (worked out by us). Development charges counted as revenue were budgeted at $35,770,048 and came in at $10,642,996.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 2 sources
$6,646,685accounts payable and accrued liabilities at December 31, 2025, against $2,656,994 a year earlier
"Accounts payable and accrued liabilities" are bills received or work done that the Town has not yet paid. At the end of 2025 they were $6,646,685, up from $2,656,994 a year earlier, a rise of $3,989,691. The statements do not say why. Over the same year construction in progress grew from $11,758,940 to $33,676,256, with $22,165,302 added. The Town says all its payables are current.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 3 sources
November 20, 2025date of the mayor's direction waiving the veto period
Under Ontario's strong mayor rules the mayor proposes the budget, Council can amend it, the mayor can veto amendments and Council can override a veto. The Town's budget timeline slide shows a veto period and an override period after Council's amendments on November 20, 2025, and says the mayor can shorten it in writing, after which the budget is deemed adopted. The Town's list of mayoral decisions shows that on November 20, 2025 the mayor issued a direction to "Waive the time period for Mayoral veto of budget amendments made by Council". The page gives no reason. The mayor also directed staff on August 21, 2025 to table the 2026 budget by October 31, 2025.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 2 sources
A property tax bill in Carleton Place pays for three governments. Only part of it goes to the town, and that part is what Carleton Place council controls.
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