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This is built from public records, which leave a lot out, and some of it may be wrong or out of date.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

Is North Middlesex 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): 82 towns with between 3,830 and 10,077 people.

How to read this. Each grey dot is one similar town. The large dot is North Middlesex, and the line marked "typical" is the town in the middle. The label and colour say where North Middlesex 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 Southwestern Ontario include Amaranth, Mono, Shelburne, Puslinch, Minto, West Perth, South-West Oxford, Zorra.

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.

$5,869Higher than 79 of 82 similar towns. Typical: $3,251

typical

Town property tax

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

$3,568Higher than 79 of 82 similar towns. Typical: $2,314

typical

Running the town office

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

$648Higher than 65 of 82 similar towns. Typical: $467

typical

Council

Council pay, expenses and meetings, per home.

$648Higher than 82 of 82 similar towns. Typical: $54

typical

Roads and snow

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

$1,276Higher than 73 of 82 similar towns. Typical: $753

typical

Snow ploughing

Per home.

$44Lower than 72 of 82 similar towns. Typical: $91

typical

Police, fire and safety

Per home.

$832Higher than 58 of 82 similar towns. Typical: $700

typical

Fire department

Per home.

$294Higher than 61 of 82 similar towns. Typical: $215

typical

Police

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

$395Higher than 63 of 82 similar towns. Typical: $335

typical

Water, sewers and garbage

Per home.

$2,044Higher than 82 of 82 similar towns. Typical: $574

typical

Garbage, dump and recycling

Per home.

$236Higher than 51 of 82 similar towns. Typical: $209

typical

Parks, arena and library

Per home.

$604Higher than 65 of 82 similar towns. Typical: $392

typical

Planning and business

Per home.

$440Higher than 78 of 82 similar towns. Typical: $107

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.

113%Higher than 54 of 82 similar towns. Typical: 96%

typical

Savings (reserves)

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

$6,613Higher than 76 of 82 similar towns. Typical: $2,842

typical

Long-term debt

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

$771Higher than 43 of 82 similar towns. Typical: $713

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.

8%Higher than 48 of 82 similar towns. Typical: 7%

typical

Share spent running the office

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

11%Lower than 79 of 82 similar towns. Typical: 15%

typical

How worn out things are

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

40%Lower than 55 of 82 similar towns. Typical: 44%

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.

3%Lower than 75 of 82 similar towns. Typical: 6%

typical

Source: Ontario Financial Information Return (FIR), 2023, all 83 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.