Your town, in plain words
A clear, checkable guide to Chatsworth's budget, taxes and council decisions. A rural township in Grey County with a mayor, a deputy mayor and three 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.
+125%running the town office, 2019 to 2024
Chatsworth spent $1.0M on running the town office in 2019 and $2.4M in 2024. Prices only went up about 18% in that time. Only 2 of 82 similar towns had faster growth here.
Found automatically from the town's financial reports · 3 sources
2 yearsin a row with a qualified audit opinion on the same two points (2023 and 2024)
Each year an outside accounting firm checks the Township's yearly statements and says whether they "present fairly" the Township's finances. A qualified opinion means the firm found one thing it could not sign off on. For both 2023 and 2024 the firms say the same thing: the Township has not finished working out what it will owe to take old buildings, roads and other assets out of service (an "asset retirement obligation", a new accounting rule since January 1, 2023), and it records its landfill clean-up cost under an older rule that has been withdrawn. The firms say they cannot tell how much this changes the numbers. The statements themselves say management plans to finish the work as part of a facilities review after the year end.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 3 sources
December 24, 2025date of the auditor's report on the year ended December 31, 2024
The Township's year ends on December 31. The firm's report on the 2023 statements is dated October 26, 2024. The firm's report on the 2024 statements is dated December 24, 2025. The 2024 report also says the earlier year was audited by another firm. On October 5, 2026 the Township's budgets and financial statements page listed statements up to 2024 and no statements for 2025. We did not find a reason for the timing in the documents we read.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 2 sources
$1,573,712of capital assets unfinanced at December 31, 2024 (2023: $699,437)
Capital spending means buying or building things that last, such as trucks, roads and bridges. The 2024 budget planned $3,201,700 of it. The statements show $4,083,965. The notes show that $1,573,712 of capital assets were "unfinanced" at the end of 2024 (money spent that has no matching loan, grant or reserve behind it), up from $699,437. The Township also signed to buy two plow trucks, at $419,275 and $410,338, which it says will be paid for with long-term debt. At the same time the reserves it keeps for capital purposes fell from $5,323,745 to $4,649,350. The Township's own reconciliation shows how the year balanced.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 4 sources
$4,368,409net financial assets at December 31, 2024, down from $5,378,811
Net financial assets is what the Township holds in cash and money owed to it, minus what it owes. It was $5,378,811 at the end of 2023 and $4,368,409 at the end of 2024; the budget had planned $4,476,958. Cash and temporary investments fell from $7,083,296 to $6,101,952. The statements say the Township has an undrawn bank credit facility of $1,000,000 for operating needs. Annual surplus was $1,459,197; a surplus on paper is not the same as cash in the bank.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 3 sources
$3,160,539actual 2024 transportation spending, against a budget of $2,163,170
For 2024 the statements compare a budget of $2,163,170 for transportation services (mostly roads) with actual spending of $3,160,539. The same gap showed in 2023 ($2,154,341 budgeted, $3,124,441 actual). The statements show why: they print the budget for "Amortization of tangible capital assets" as nothing (amortization is the yearly share of an asset's cost, a way of counting wear and tear), while actual amortization was $1,564,131 in 2024. We worked out that without amortization, 2024 actual expenses were $8,332,609, which is under the budgeted $8,608,995. So most of the gap looks like a difference in how the budget is written, not an overspend.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 3 sources
$842,587put into reserves from the 2026 roads budget
The adopted 2026 budget raises $8,292,364 in taxation, against $8,047,567 in the 2025 budget, a rise of $244,797, or 3.0% (worked out by us). In the roads administration section the 2026 budget puts $842,587 into "Transfer to Reserves" and a further $181,348 into "Transfer to Reserves-Lifecycle" in the capital plan. Set against that, the audited statements show the Township's capital reserves fell by $674,395 during 2024 (worked out by us from $5,323,745 and $4,649,350).
Found by reading the town's own documents · 4 sources
2024 tax year · Chatsworth, Ontario
Enter your home's assessed value to see roughly what you pay in property tax each year, who gets it, and what Chatsworth's share pays for.
Ontario still uses property values from January 1, 2016 for tax, so your assessed value is probably well below what your home would sell for today.
It is on your property assessment notice from MPAC, and on your tax bill. We filled in the typical value in Chatsworth.
a year in property tax, at 2024 rates
Chatsworth council sets only its own share. County or region sets its share, the Province sets the school rate.
An estimate. It uses the residential tax rate, and splits Chatsworth's share by what each service cost in 2024 after its own fees and grants (for example, water bills pay for much of a water system). Real bills also depend on your property class, local charges and any rebates.
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Each number links to the public document it came from. Check it yourself.
We ask questions. Every one lists ordinary reasons a number could look odd.
Towns are only compared with places of a similar size and kind, from the same yearly reports.
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