Your town, in plain words
A clear, checkable guide to North Grenville's budget, taxes and council decisions. A municipality in the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, south of Ottawa, with a mayor, a deputy mayor and three councillors. Kemptville is its largest community. Every figure links back to the public record.
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Questions worth asking
Each one is a question, not an accusation. Every one lists ordinary reasons it could be true, and the documents it comes from.
+55%roads and snow, 2019 to 2024
North Grenville spent $2.9M on roads and snow in 2019 and $4.5M in 2024. Prices only went up about 18% in that time. Only 5 of 65 similar towns had faster growth here.
Found automatically from the town's financial reports · 3 sources
$24,596,336of debt proceeds in the 2026 capital budget, about 60 per cent of $40,898,987 (worked out by us)
Capital means money spent on buildings, roads and equipment that last for years. The 2026 capital budget is $40,898,987. Of that, $29,075,600 is under Planning Services, and the budget list shows $28,881,100 of it as the Bell Hall renovation (turning the building at Kemptville Campus into 60 affordable housing units). The funding table shows $24,596,336 of "Debt Proceeds", which is money the Municipality would borrow. The Municipality's news release describes the project differently: a "five million dollar investment" from North Grenville that helps "leverage an additional seventeen million in external funding". In the draft budget, all the debt the Municipality owed at the start of 2026 added up to a remaining balance of $7,754,100. The documents we read do not say who would repay the new borrowing.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 4 sources
1.9%final 2026 tax rate increase, down from 3.15% in the draft
The draft 2026 budget proposed a 3.15% tax rate increase, or $63.70 more a year on a home assessed at $300,000. The final budget, dated March 11, 2026, settled on 1.9%, or $38.45 more. Between the two, the plan to take money from reserves (savings set aside for later) in the operating budget rose from $1,097,889 to $1,297,889, and tax revenue fell from $20,646,124 to $20,521,124. The reserves used for the capital budget rose from $4,737,247 to $5,496,247 while $734,000 of projects were added. Meanwhile the draft slides show total municipal reserves falling from $23,400,185 (2022) to $20,479,061 (2024, unaudited). The Municipality says its reserves are "significantly above the threshold that the province uses to define a healthy, resilient municipality", but its documents do not say what was cut to get to 1.9%.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 4 sources
$17,000,000Sports Dome line under "Unbudgeted Projects" in the draft 2026 capital list
The draft 2026 budget lists "Installation of the 125,000 sq.ft. Sports Dome & 7500 sq.ft. Ancillary Building" as a 2026 objective. On the capital project list, under "Unbudgeted Projects - RECREATION", it shows "Sports Dome 17,000,000". The draft capital total for Parks, Recreation and Culture does not include it, and the final capital budget of $40,898,987 does not list it either. The Municipality's news release calls it a "proposed" dome and mentions only "ongoing preparatory work". The slides do not say how the $17,000,000 would be paid for.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 5 sources
Section 239of the Municipal Act, found contravened by Council in the investigator's report of February 26, 2025
A closed meeting is a council meeting that the public cannot attend, allowed only for listed reasons. On October 22, 2024, Council met in closed session for over 7 hours on five items, one of which was an Integrity Commissioner's report about a member of council. After a request from a member of the public, the Municipality's closed meeting investigator found that Council "contravened section 239 of the Municipal Act, 2001", because it made a decision on the report's recommendations in private, by what the Mayor called a "general consensus". The investigator also found that the report was then put on the consent agenda (a list of items passed together without discussion), which the Procedure By-law does not authorize, and that no formal reprimand had been issued. The report is dated February 26, 2025. The Municipality's 2026 budget slides list "Update procedural bylaw" among the Clerk's 2025 highlights.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 5 sources
$225,000for physician recruitment in the 2026 budget
The 2026 budget lists $225,000 for "Physician Recruitment", the largest single line in the "Within Departmental Budgets" part of the Municipality's community investments, which total $1,100,259. The draft slides say that in 2025 the Municipality "Awarded two incentives to new physicians to the community" and supported an application for a nurse practitioner-led clinic. The Municipality has also committed $90,000 a year for 10 years for a CT scanner at Kemptville District Hospital. The slides do not say how many doctors the incentives have brought, what each incentive was worth or what conditions come with it.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 4 sources
$(1,670,580)net debt at the end of 2023, from net financial assets of $3,933,768 a year earlier
"Net financial assets" is what a municipality has in cash and money owed to it, minus what it owes. At the end of 2022 North Grenville had net financial assets of $3,933,768. At the end of 2023 it had net debt of $(1,670,580). The statements explain a big part of the change. A new accounting rule began in 2023 and requires the Municipality to record the future cost of closing landfills and removing asbestos from its buildings as a debt. These "asset retirement obligations" came to $7,744,220 at the end of 2023, up from $3,379,347. The statements show the Municipality also spent $14,256,647 on capital assets in 2023, against a budget of $26,161,050.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 4 sources
2024 tax year · North Grenville, Ontario
Enter your home's assessed value to see roughly what you pay in property tax each year, who gets it, and what North Grenville's share pays for.
Ontario still uses property values from January 1, 2016 for tax, so your assessed value is probably well below what your home would sell for today.
It is on your property assessment notice from MPAC, and on your tax bill. We filled in the typical value in North Grenville.
a year in property tax, at 2024 rates
North Grenville council sets only its own share. County or region sets its share, the Province sets the school rate.
An estimate. It uses the residential tax rate, and splits North Grenville's share by what each service cost in 2024 after its own fees and grants (for example, water bills pay for much of a water system). Real bills also depend on your property class, local charges and any rebates.
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Each number links to the public document it came from. Check it yourself.
We ask questions. Every one lists ordinary reasons a number could look odd.
Towns are only compared with places of a similar size and kind, from the same yearly reports.
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