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This is built from public records, which leave a lot out, and some of it may be wrong or out of date.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

Is St Marys 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 single-tier municipalities with 60% to 160% of this population that had filed their 2023 return): 16 towns with between 4,535 and 11,225 people.

How to read this. Each grey dot is one similar town. The large dot is St Marys, and the line marked "typical" is the town in the middle. The label and colour say where St Marys 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.

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.

$6,531Higher than 10 of 16 similar towns. Typical: $6,371

typical

Town property tax

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

$4,133Higher than 10 of 16 similar towns. Typical: $3,685

typical

Running the town office

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

$846Higher than 12 of 16 similar towns. Typical: $809

typical

Council

Council pay, expenses and meetings, per home.

$42Lower than 14 of 16 similar towns. Typical: $63

typical

Roads and snow

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

$507Lower than 16 of 16 similar towns. Typical: $974

typical

Snow ploughing

Per home.

$70Lower than 10 of 16 similar towns. Typical: $101

typical

Police, fire and safety

Per home.

$709Lower than 13 of 16 similar towns. Typical: $980

typical

Fire department

Per home.

$234Lower than 10 of 16 similar towns. Typical: $250

typical

Police

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

$349Lower than 14 of 16 similar towns. Typical: $541

typical

Water, sewers and garbage

Per home.

$948Lower than 11 of 16 similar towns. Typical: $1,086

typical

Garbage, dump and recycling

Per home.

$233Lower than 11 of 16 similar towns. Typical: $300

typical

Parks, arena and library

Per home.

$1,383Higher than 15 of 16 similar towns. Typical: $840

typical

Planning and business

Per home.

$228Higher than 9 of 16 similar towns. Typical: $164

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.

75%Higher than 9 of 16 similar towns. Typical: 68%

typical

Savings (reserves)

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

$4,876Higher than 9 of 16 similar towns. Typical: $4,213

typical

Long-term debt

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

$2,059Higher than 8 of 16 similar towns. Typical: $2,059

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.

5%Lower than 11 of 16 similar towns. Typical: 6%

typical

Share spent running the office

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

13%Higher than 10 of 16 similar towns. Typical: 12%

typical

How worn out things are

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

35%Lower than 16 of 16 similar towns. Typical: 48%

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.

5%Higher than 10 of 16 similar towns. Typical: 5%

typical

Source: Ontario Financial Information Return (FIR), 2023, all 17 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.