Your town, in plain words
A clear, checkable guide to St Joseph's budget, taxes and council decisions. A township on St. Joseph Island in the Algoma district, run by a mayor and four councillors elected at large. Every figure links back to the public record.
Follow St Joseph in one tapWhere it goes
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.
The budget page links an "Approved Budget 2026", but the link leaves the Township's website for a SharePoint address that tells automated readers to stay out. We could not open it, so we could not check anything in the 2026 budget. We also did not find a council pay and expenses statement on the pages we read.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 1 source
A reserve called Homecare Services stood at $202,618 at the end of 2025 and was blank (nothing) the year before. The statements do not say what it is for or where the money came from.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 2 sources
$559,124environmental services expenses in 2025, against a budget of $397,224
Environmental services expenses were $559,124 in 2025 against a budget of $397,224 in the same statement. The 2024 actual was $559,029 (we did not find the 2024 budget). The gap may be mostly amortization (the yearly wearing-out of equipment and pipes), which a budget often leaves out, but the statements do not show the budget split by type.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 3 sources
Environmental services show a deficit of $(131,771) in 2025 after amortization and accretion, which are not cash costs. Leaving those two out (worked out by us), the department took in more than it spent in cash terms. We note it for context.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 2 sources
The Township planned to buy or build $1,825,787 of capital assets in 2025 and spent $793,747. That is about 43% (worked out by us). Spending under budget is not a problem by itself.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 2 sources
On the pages we could read, the Township had net financial assets (money and receivables minus what it owes) of $5,632,380 at the end of 2025, and had not drawn on a $400,000 line of credit. We could not read the balance sheet page itself, so this rests on the change-in-net-financial-assets and cash flow statements.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 2 sources
The posted 2025 statements file includes an engagement letter from the audit firm to a different organization, dated June 1, 2021, inside both the Township's auditor's report and the trust fund report. Two pages have no readable text. The 2024 statements are posted as a scan with an unreliable text layer. We used nothing from the unreadable pages.
Found by reading the town's own documents · 1 source
A property tax bill in St Joseph pays for the town and schools. Only part of it goes to the town, and that part is what St Joseph council controls.
Local businesses can sponsor this page · How it works →
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.
Council meetings are open to the public, and councillors answer to you. How to reach St Joseph's council · Council Books is free and paid for by readers: support this work.