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 Centre Hastings, and 2025 for 32 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. Municipality of Centre Hastings, council remuneration and expense statements

   Municipality of Centre Hastings · retrieved 2026-10-01

   What each council member was paid, and spent on benefits and expenses, 2021 to 2025. One statement a year; the link is the latest, and the council page links each year.

3. Municipality of Centre Hastings, budget documents

   Municipality of Centre Hastings · retrieved 2026-10-01

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

4. 2026 Municipal Budget package

   Municipality of Centre Hastings · retrieved 2026-10-01

   The 2026 operating and capital budget (51 pages): tax levy, service-by-service notes, 10-year capital plan, reserves and the unfinanced capital schedule.

5. 2025 Municipal Budget package

   Municipality of Centre Hastings · retrieved 2026-10-01

   The 2025 budget, used for the 2024 to 2025 tax levy change (page 50) and the pool entries.

6. 2025 consolidated financial statements

   Municipality of Centre Hastings (auditor: Baker Tilly KDN LLP) · retrieved 2026-10-01

   Audited statements for 2025, with the clean audit opinion dated May 22, 2026, debt, reserves and unfinanced capital.

7. Purchasing and Procurement Policy FIN-001 (By-law 2026-57)

   Municipality of Centre Hastings · retrieved 2026-10-01

   The rules for tenders, quotes and no-tender (non-competitive) purchases and who must approve them.

8. Special council agenda, September 29, 2026

   Municipality of Centre Hastings (CivicWeb) · retrieved 2026-10-01

   The Madoc standpipe tender results, the cost forecast and the no-tender controls contract for Well No. 3.

9. Regular council agenda, October 15, 2025

   Municipality of Centre Hastings (CivicWeb) · retrieved 2026-10-01

   Includes the Madoc pool task force follow-up report and the decision to close the matter.

10. Madoc Pool Task Force report

    Pool Fundraising Task Force · retrieved 2026-10-01

    The task force's September 17, 2025 report, with the pool reserve fund amounts and the public survey results.

11. Special council agenda, March 28, 2025

    Municipality of Centre Hastings (CivicWeb) · retrieved 2026-10-01

    Tender results and financing plan for the St. Lawrence and Durham Streets reconstruction.

12. 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 32 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.