Not the full picture. Built from public records, which leave things out.Older reportDetails

This is built from public records, which leave a lot out, and some of it may be wrong or out of date. Check the sources, and tell us if you spot a mistake. What this site can't tell you
An older report. We have no 2024 report for Madoc in the Province's latest release, so these pages use its 2022 report. It may simply be filed late.
Read by hand. We read Madoc's own documents for this site in October 2026; the Sources page lists which ones. The comparisons with other places still come from the Province's yearly reports.

Compare · 2022

How Madoc compares with similar towns

Is Madoc spending a lot or a little? The fairest way to tell is to compare it with towns like it. We picked every Ontario town of the same type (Ontario lower-tier municipalities with 60% to 160% of this population that had filed their 2022 return): 29 towns with between 1,367 and 3,441 people.

How to read this. Each grey dot is one similar town. The large dot is Madoc, and the line marked "typical" is the town in the middle. The label and colour say where Madoc sits:

▼ Very low: lower than 90% of similar towns
▼ Low: lower than 75%
≈ Typical: in the middle half
▲ High: higher than 75%
▲ Very high: higher than 90%
Warning mark: unusual in a worrying way for this measure, like very low savings or a very high tax increase

Being far from the middle is not wrong by itself, but it is where to start asking why.

One thing to keep in mind: "per home" uses the number of households each town reports to the Province. Some towns count seasonal cottages as households and some do not, so comparisons with lake and cottage towns are rougher than they look.

Similar towns in Eastern Ontario include Frontenac Islands, North Frontenac, Addington Highlands, Deseronto, Marmora and Lake, Faraday, North Kawartha, Algonquin Highlands.

Spending per home

What the town spends on each service, divided by the number of homes. This makes big and small towns comparable.

Total day-to-day spending

Everything the town spent in a year, divided by the number of homes.

$2,676Higher than 16 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $2,659

typical

Town property tax

The town's own share of property tax, divided by the number of homes.

$2,104Higher than 16 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $2,072

typical

Running the town office

Council, managers, office staff and the town hall, per home.

$571Higher than 19 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $529

typical

Council

Council pay, expenses and meetings, per home.

$63Lower than 17 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $76

typical

Roads and snow

Per home. Towns with many kilometres of rural road spend more.

$1,080Higher than 21 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $828

typical

Snow ploughing

Per home.

$167Higher than 21 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $107

typical

Police, fire and safety

Per home.

$611Higher than 17 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $588

typical

Fire department

Per home.

$215Higher than 19 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $183

typical

Police

Per home. Most small Ontario towns pay the OPP under the same province-wide formula.

$323Higher than 18 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $310

typical

Water, sewers and garbage

Per home.

$141Lower than 24 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $374

typical

Garbage, dump and recycling

Per home.

$141Lower than 20 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $195

typical

Parks, arena and library

Per home.

$240Higher than 18 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $207

typical

Planning and business

Per home.

$4Lower than 26 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $62

typical

Money health

Signs of whether the town is living within its means.

Savings compared with spending

Savings, as a share of one year's spending.

50%Lower than 21 of 29 similar towns. Typical: 78%

typical

Savings (reserves)

Money set aside for repairs and emergencies, per home. More is safer.

$1,327Lower than 23 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $2,334

typical

Long-term debt

What the town still owes on long-term loans, per home.

$111Lower than 21 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $344

typical

Unpaid property taxes

Property taxes owed but not yet paid at year end, as a share of all taxes billed. The Province’s financial indicators treat 10% to 15% as a moderate risk and more than 15% as high.

25%Higher than 29 of 29 similar towns. Typical: 8%

typical

Share spent running the office

Out of every dollar spent, how much goes to running the town office.

21%Higher than 17 of 29 similar towns. Typical: 20%

typical

How worn out things are

How much of the value of roads, pipes and buildings has already been used up. Higher means older.

65%Higher than 24 of 29 similar towns. Typical: 51%

typical

How fast costs are growing

Growth over five years (2017 to 2022), and the latest one-year change in property tax.

Property tax increase, last year

How much more the town collected in its own property tax than the year before.

2%Lower than 20 of 29 similar towns. Typical: 4%

typical

Source: Ontario Financial Information Return (FIR), 2022, all 30 municipalities (archived copy). Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Retrieved 2026-10-01. Figures are what the municipality reported to the Province for each year, prepared on the same basis as its audited financial statements.

Towns sort costs into categories a little differently, and some share services with neighbours, so small gaps mean little. Big gaps are worth a question.