Learn
How your council actually works
Ten short lessons on how Ontario councils raise and spend money, borrow, save, get audited and make decisions, and how you can take part. Every lesson uses real examples from towns we have read, so you learn on your own council’s numbers, not textbook ones.
A two-minute introduction
Video coming soon.
The lessons
10 lessons · about 72 minutes in all · lesson 1 is free
- 1
How a council actually works
Who sits on a council, what the mayor can and cannot do, and why some meetings happen behind closed doors.
6 minutes · Read free →
- 2
Where a town's money comes from
Property tax, the levy, user fees, grants and development charges: the five main ways a council pays for things.
7 minutes · Part of the series
- 3
Reading a budget
Operating and capital budgets, budget versus actual, and why a surplus on paper is not money in the bank.
7 minutes · Part of the series
- 4
Reserves: a town's savings account
What reserves are, why too little or too much both matter, and why one-time money cannot pay for a lasting cost.
7 minutes · Part of the series
- 5
Debt: why towns borrow and where the limit is
How Ontario towns borrow, what the law lets them borrow for, and what the Province's debt limit means.
7 minutes · Part of the series
- 6
Growth and development charges
Who pays for the roads, pipes and parks that new homes need, and what happens when the charges are cut.
7 minutes · Part of the series
- 7
Audits: who checks the numbers
The yearly audit of the statements, what an audit opinion says, and how an Auditor General or internal audit differs.
8 minutes · Part of the series
- 8
Ethics and oversight
Conflicts of interest, the Integrity Commissioner, the closed-meeting rules and the Ombudsman: who checks the people who check the town.
8 minutes · Part of the series
- 9
Taking part: speaking up and asking for records
How to speak at council, comment in writing, give budget input and make a freedom-of-information request.
8 minutes · Part of the series
- 10
Asking good questions
How to turn a number you noticed into a question a town can answer, using the town's own documents.
7 minutes · Part of the series
Get the whole series
- All 10 lessons, read at your own pace, yours to keep
- Real examples from the towns on Council Books
- “Try it on your town” exercises and questions you can ask