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This is built from public records, which leave a lot out, and some of it may be wrong or out of date.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 Midland in the Province's latest release, so these pages use its 2023 report. It may simply be filed late.
Read by hand. We read Midland'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 · 2023

How Midland compares with similar towns

Is Midland 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 2023 return): 71 towns with between 10,811 and 27,307 people.

How to read this. Each grey dot is one similar town. The large dot is Midland, and the line marked "typical" is the town in the middle. The label and colour say where Midland 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 Central Ontario include Scugog, Uxbridge, Brock, Port Colborne, West Lincoln, Pelham, Thorold, Niagara-on-the-Lake.

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.

$4,553Higher than 64 of 71 similar towns. Typical: $3,042

typical

Town property tax

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

$3,570Higher than 71 of 71 similar towns. Typical: $2,283

typical

Running the town office

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

$866Higher than 67 of 71 similar towns. Typical: $474

typical

Council

Council pay, expenses and meetings, per home.

$114Higher than 62 of 71 similar towns. Typical: $47

typical

Roads and snow

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

$811Higher than 57 of 71 similar towns. Typical: $610

typical

Snow ploughing

Per home.

$86Higher than 36 of 71 similar towns. Typical: $86

typical

Police, fire and safety

Per home.

$1,221Higher than 68 of 71 similar towns. Typical: $685

typical

Fire department

Per home.

$477Higher than 70 of 71 similar towns. Typical: $212

typical

Police

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

$647Higher than 66 of 71 similar towns. Typical: $317

typical

Water, sewers and garbage

Per home.

$782Higher than 48 of 71 similar towns. Typical: $628

typical

Garbage, dump and recycling

Per home.

$0Lower than 44 of 71 similar towns. Typical: $46

typical

Parks, arena and library

Per home.

$734Higher than 61 of 71 similar towns. Typical: $518

typical

Planning and business

Per home.

$139Lower than 37 of 71 similar towns. Typical: $143

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.

128%Higher than 55 of 71 similar towns. Typical: 93%

typical

Savings (reserves)

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

$5,826Higher than 65 of 71 similar towns. Typical: $2,850

typical

Long-term debt

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

$2,695Higher than 58 of 71 similar towns. Typical: $1,276

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.

5%Lower than 50 of 71 similar towns. Typical: 7%

typical

Share spent running the office

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

19%Higher than 55 of 71 similar towns. Typical: 16%

typical

How worn out things are

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

31%Lower than 68 of 71 similar towns. Typical: 42%

typical

How fast costs are growing

Growth over five years (2018 to 2023), 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.

7%Higher than 38 of 71 similar towns. Typical: 7%

typical

Source: Ontario Financial Information Return (FIR), 2023, all 72 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.