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 Halton Hills, and 2025 for 9 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 Halton Hills, budget documents

   Town of Halton Hills · retrieved 2026-10-01

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

3. Town of Halton Hills 2024 Financial Report (consolidated financial statements audited by KPMG LLP)

   Town of Halton Hills (auditor: KPMG LLP) · retrieved 2026-10-05

   The newest audited statements the Town has posted on its Financial Information page. 184 PDF pages. Opinion dated within the report; clean ("present fairly").

4. Town of Halton Hills 2023 Financial Report

   Town of Halton Hills (auditor: KPMG LLP) · retrieved 2026-10-05

   Downloaded for the year before. We took 2023 comparison figures from the 2024 report and did not otherwise use this file.

5. 2026 Budget and Business Plan (posted as a zip of twelve PDFs)

   Town of Halton Hills · retrieved 2026-10-05

   Overview, departments, Council, Corporate Revenues and Expenses and Supplementary Information. The book calls its figures "proposed". We did not find a separate adopted version.

6. 2025 Budget and Business Plan (zip of PDFs)

   Town of Halton Hills · retrieved 2026-10-05

   Used for the 2025 tax table and the Fire Master Plan explanation.

7. 2026 Budget Key Information (one-page sheet, Let's Talk Halton Hills)

   Town of Halton Hills · retrieved 2026-10-05

   A public summary of the 2026 budget. It is an earlier version than the zip (it shows 6.97% and 3.52%).

8. 2027 Budget page and key dates, Let's Talk Halton Hills

   Town of Halton Hills · retrieved 2026-10-05

   The Town's 2027 budget timetable and its note on strong-mayor powers.

9. Council meeting agenda, July 13, 2026 (eScribe)

   Town of Halton Hills · retrieved 2026-10-05

   Lists the 2025 financial statements presentation by KPMG and the whistleblower program report. We read the agenda page, not the attachments.

10. 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 9 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.