Council BooksSouth-West OxfordOntarioSign inSubscribe
Not the full picture. Built from public records, which leave things out.Read by hand, Oct 2026DetailsThis is built from public records, which leave a lot out, and some of it may be wrong or out of date.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
Read by hand. We read South-West Oxford'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.

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 South-West Oxford, and 2025 for 38 similar towns. Figures are what the municipality reported to the Province for each year, prepared on the same basis as its audited financial statements.

  2. Township of South-West Oxford, budget documents

    Township of South-West Oxford · retrieved 2026-10-01

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

  3. Township of South-West Oxford, Consolidated Financial Statements for the Year Ended December 31, 2025 (Scrimgeour & Company, July 14, 2026)

    Township of South-West Oxford (auditor: Scrimgeour & Company CPA Professional Corporation) · retrieved 2026-10-05

    Audited statements for 2025 with 2024 comparatives. 19 PDF pages, all scanned images. Read by eye from page renders; every cited figure was re-read on a second render and checked against totals on the same page.

  4. By-law 77-2025: adopt estimates of revenues and expenditures for 2026 (passed December 16, 2025), with Schedule A, 2026 Township Budget

    Township of South-West Oxford · retrieved 2026-10-05

    The adopted 2026 budget: expenditures $29,477,530 and revenues $29,477,530 on two summary pages. Scanned pictures, read by eye.

  5. By-law 94-2024: adopt estimates of revenues and expenditures for 2025 (December 17, 2024), with Schedule A, 2025 Township Budget

    Township of South-West Oxford · retrieved 2026-10-05

    The adopted 2025 budget: $16,449,467 on two summary pages. Scanned pictures, read by eye.

  6. Budget and Finance page, Township of South-West Oxford

    Township of South-West Oxford · retrieved 2026-10-05

    Lists budgets for 2014 to 2026 and statements for 2017 to 2025.

  7. 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 town 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 town reported to the Province for that year.
Similar towns
Ontario lower-tier municipalities with 60% to 160% of this population that had filed their 2025 return, in 2025. This gives 38 towns. "Typical" means the median: half of similar towns are above it and half below. The size limits are a judgement call; moving them a little adds or drops a few towns, so treat small differences in rank as noise. Per-home figures use the household counts each town reports to the Province. Towns 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 towns; when a measure of money health is worse than 80% of similar towns; or when a one-year tax increase is higher than 80% of similar towns and well above inflation. "Needs an answer" means worse than 90% of similar towns. When there are fewer than 20 similar towns, 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 town'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.