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 Fort Erie, and 2024 for 35 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 Fort Erie, budget documents

   Town of Fort Erie · retrieved 2026-10-01

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

3. 2026 Levy Budget, Council-in-Budget Committee presentation (January 28, 2026)

   Town of Fort Erie, Corporate Services · retrieved 2026-10-05

   35 PDF pages of slides. Base and supplementary budget, reserves, tax comparisons, risks and forecasts.

4. 2026 Capital Budget, Council-in-Budget Committee presentation, Report CBC-01-2026 (November 19, 2025)

   Town of Fort Erie, Corporate Services · retrieved 2026-10-05

   30 PDF pages of slides. The capital program, how it is paid for, debt and asset management.

5. 2026 Proposed Water & Wastewater budget, Council-in-Budget Committee presentation, Report CBC-03-2026 (December 3, 2025, amended)

   Town of Fort Erie, Corporate Services · retrieved 2026-10-05

   31 PDF pages of slides. Region treatment costs, rates, reserves and risks. Some figures on the slides are struck out and replaced by amended ones.

6. 2024 General Levy Budget presentation, Report CBC-06-2024

   Town of Fort Erie, Corporate Services · retrieved 2026-10-05

   39 PDF pages of slides. Used for the reserve balances and forecasts the Town gave two years earlier.

7. 2024 Capital Budget presentation

   Town of Fort Erie, Corporate Services · retrieved 2026-10-05

   34 PDF pages of slides. Used for the asset management gap and capital reserve balances in 2024.

8. 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 35 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.