$38,000,000construction contract for the recreation centre, signed after the end of 2025
The Town is building a Multi-Use Recreation Centre (the "MURC"). Its 2026 budget book puts the construction contract at $38,000,000, and the 2025 statements say the Town signed that contract after the year ended. Beside it sit two servicing projects (roads, water and sewers) of $9,465,000 and $9,332,000, so the three biggest sheets add up to $56,797,000 (worked out by us). The way the Town plans to pay has moved from one budget to the next. The 2024 budget planned $29,170 thousand of new debt in 2026 and $5,000 thousand of fundraising. The 2026 budget now plans $8,200,000 of debt for construction, $3,000,000 of donations and $13,308,000 from land sales. The Town's own forecast shows its savings (reserves) falling to $14,917,557 by 2027, and it has raised the most new debt it thinks it could borrow from $50 million to $65 million.
$13,308,000of the recreation centre's cost planned to come from land sales in 2026 and 2027
The 2026 capital budget counts on $7.4 million of "land sale proceeds" in 2026, and the recreation centre sheet counts on $13,308,000 across 2026 and 2027. In 2024 the Town sold part of its industrial land for net proceeds of $5,790,057. At the end of 2025 the land it still held for resale was carried at $2,195,747 in the statements. The statements say that figure is the lower of cost and what the land could be sold for, and they do not print what the land is worth on the market. The budget does not say which land is expected to be sold.
$25,662,411owed to the Township of South-West Oxford at the end of 2025 (2024: $25,101,105)
When 786 hectares moved from the Township of South-West Oxford to the Town on January 1, 2021, the Town agreed to pay the Township every year. The statements record that promise as a liability (money owed) of $25,662,411 at the end of 2025, up from $25,101,105 a year earlier. The Town says it is "unfunded", meaning no savings are set aside to cover it. The amount depends on future tax levies and new development on the annexed land, so it will keep changing.
$5,489,456general government spending in 2025, against a budget of $3,818,661
The 2025 budget set aside $3,818,661 for general government (council, administration and corporate costs). The statements show $5,489,456 was spent, which is $1,670,795 more (worked out by us). In the same statements, "contributions to others" were budgeted at $107,243 and came in at $1,629,842. In 2024 that same line was a credit of $1,389,909 (a negative number). The statements do not say what these contributions were. Overall the Town still ended 2025 with a surplus of $3,157,939 against a budget of $774,959.