Sources and method

Where this comes from

Everything on these pages comes from public documents. Here they are, with how we used them, so anyone can check our work.

Documents

1. Ontario Financial Information Return (FIR)

   Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing · retrieved 2026-10-01

   The numbers behind the money and compare pages: 2019 to 2025 for Port Colborne, and 2025 for 32 similar places. Figures are what the municipality reported to the Province for each year, prepared on the same basis as its audited financial statements.

2. City of Port Colborne, budget documents

   City of Port Colborne · retrieved 2026-10-01

   The city’s published budgets. Used to check its plans against what it reported.

3. City of Port Colborne, Financial Statements, December 31, 2025 (Doane Grant Thornton LLP, June 30, 2026)

   City of Port Colborne (auditor: Doane Grant Thornton LLP) · retrieved 2026-10-05

   Audited statements for 2025. Clean opinion dated June 30, 2026. 41 PDF pages.

4. City of Port Colborne, Financial Statements, December 31, 2024 (Doane Grant Thornton LLP, September 15, 2025)

   City of Port Colborne (auditor: Doane Grant Thornton LLP) · retrieved 2026-10-05

   Audited statements for 2024. Read for the opinion date. 42 PDF pages.

5. Report 2025-164, 2026 Capital and Related Project Budget and Levy Budget (Financial Services, November 4, 2025)

   City of Port Colborne · retrieved 2026-10-05

   The Mayor's 2026 capital and levy budget, received by Council November 4, 2025, with appendices. 325 PDF pages.

6. 2026 Budget Adjustment, Capital Funding Substitutions (memo and amended pages, November 4, 2025)

   City of Port Colborne · retrieved 2026-10-05

   Two small funding substitutions moved between reserves. Read, not used.

7. Report 2025-68, 2024 Year End Surplus and Project Close Out (Corporate Services, April 8, 2025)

   City of Port Colborne · retrieved 2026-10-05

   Unaudited 2024 results on the budget basis: levy surplus of $219,000, open projects and reserves.

8. City of Port Colborne Integrity Commissioner Annual Report, February 25, 2025 to February 24, 2026 (June 18, 2026)

   Office of the Integrity Commissioner · retrieved 2026-10-05

   One complaint, summarily dismissed. Billings $4,321.57. Two pages.

9. Statistics Canada, Consumer Price Index, annual average (table 18-10-0005-01)

   Statistics Canada · retrieved 2026-10-01

   How much prices went up each year, so cost growth can be compared with inflation.

How the numbers are worked out

Day-to-day spending

Total expenses as reported, minus amortization ("wear and tear"), which is an accounting cost rather than cash spent that year. Costs are shown in the service where they were recorded, before the city spreads its office overhead across services, so the cost of running the office stays visible.

Per home

An amount divided by the number of households the city reported to the Province for that year.

Similar places

Ontario lower-tier municipalities with 60% to 160% of this population that had filed their 2025 return, in 2025. This gives 32 places. "Typical" means the median: half of similar places are above it and half below. The size limits are a judgement call; moving them a little adds or drops a few places, so treat small differences in rank as noise. Per-home figures use the household counts each city reports to the Province. Places do not all count the same way: some include seasonal homes, so per-home comparisons are a guide, not exact.

Faster than prices

Growth is compared with Canada's Consumer Price Index over the same years.

When a question is raised automatically

When a cost grew at least 25 percentage points faster than prices and faster than 80% of similar places; when a measure of money health is worse than 80% of similar places; or when a one-year tax increase is higher than 80% of similar places and well above inflation. "Needs an answer" means worse than 90% of similar places. When there are fewer than 20 similar places, automatic questions go no higher than "Worth asking", because one rank moves a lot in a small group.

What this cannot see

These records show totals by category, not individual payments. They cannot show whether a particular contract was fair, whether a purchase was split to avoid tendering, or who was paid. That needs the city's list of payments (its cheque register or accounts payable list), which residents can ask for under Ontario's freedom-of-information law (MFIPPA). That is the next thing we plan to add.