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This is built from public records, which leave a lot out, and some of it may be wrong or out of date.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

Is Thames Centre 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): 85 towns with between 8,500 and 22,338 people.

How to read this. Each grey dot is one similar town. The large dot is Thames Centre, and the line marked "typical" is the town in the middle. The label and colour say where Thames Centre 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 Mono, Shelburne, Puslinch, Guelph-Eramosa, Erin, Wellington North, Mapleton, Minto.

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.

$3,045Lower than 45 of 85 similar towns. Typical: $3,126

typical

Town property tax

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

$2,171Lower than 51 of 85 similar towns. Typical: $2,304

typical

Running the town office

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

$388Lower than 70 of 85 similar towns. Typical: $481

typical

Council

Council pay, expenses and meetings, per home.

$60Higher than 55 of 85 similar towns. Typical: $49

typical

Roads and snow

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

$596Lower than 53 of 85 similar towns. Typical: $685

typical

Snow ploughing

Per home.

$78Lower than 50 of 85 similar towns. Typical: $92

typical

Police, fire and safety

Per home.

$624Lower than 57 of 85 similar towns. Typical: $695

typical

Fire department

Per home.

$165Lower than 70 of 85 similar towns. Typical: $215

typical

Police

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

$338Higher than 49 of 85 similar towns. Typical: $324

typical

Water, sewers and garbage

Per home.

$680Higher than 47 of 85 similar towns. Typical: $630

typical

Garbage, dump and recycling

Per home.

$244Higher than 64 of 85 similar towns. Typical: $155

typical

Parks, arena and library

Per home.

$634Higher than 65 of 85 similar towns. Typical: $497

typical

Planning and business

Per home.

$89Lower than 59 of 85 similar towns. Typical: $129

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.

124%Higher than 61 of 85 similar towns. Typical: 90%

typical

Savings (reserves)

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

$3,775Higher than 59 of 85 similar towns. Typical: $2,897

typical

Long-term debt

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

$1,929Higher than 56 of 85 similar towns. Typical: $1,286

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.

7%Higher than 45 of 85 similar towns. Typical: 7%

typical

Share spent running the office

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

13%Lower than 66 of 85 similar towns. Typical: 16%

typical

How worn out things are

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

38%Lower than 57 of 85 similar towns. Typical: 42%

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.

4%Lower than 77 of 85 similar towns. Typical: 7%

typical

Source: Ontario Financial Information Return (FIR), 2023, all 86 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.