Keep an eye on your council

Everything a resident needs stays free. A subscription adds alerts for your towns, early articles, Ontario-wide data and the learning series, and it pays for reading more towns.

An honest note: it's early days

Council Books is a small, independent project, and the members' side is just getting started. A few articles and roundups are up, and more are on the way. Some of what you see below is still small.

Today a subscription mostly pays for the work behind the free site: reading more towns by hand, checking every number against its source, and keeping it all online. If Council Books has been useful to you, we'd be grateful for your support while we build the rest. You can cancel at any time.

Neighbour

For keeping tabs on your own town.

$4.99 /month

New-question alerts for 1 town
The monthly digest for your town
Early access to articles
Ontario data roundups and downloads
The learning series

Choose Neighbour

Insider

For engaged residents, journalists and candidates.

$9.99 /month

New-question alerts for up to 10 towns
Articles a week before they go public
Full Ontario data roundups: late yearly reports, savings, debt, tax and spending growth, unpaid taxes
CSV downloads for every municipality
The weekly members’ newsletter
The monthly digest for your towns
The learning series

Choose Insider

Civic

For people who want to understand how councils work.

$14.99 /month

Everything in Insider
New-question alerts for any number of towns
The full learning series included
Your name on the supporters page, if you like

Choose Civic

Everything your plan includes is on your own members page, sent to you by email when you subscribe. Already a member?

Always free, for everyone

Your town’s money and questions, the Compare section, follow-ups on whether councils answered, the budget calendar and every source document. No subscription will ever gate what a resident needs to know before they vote.

See it before you subscribe

Samples of what subscribers get.

A subscriber articleThree cities held 2026 taxes down with one-time money. What happens in 2027?Open sample →The weekly newsletterThis week’s find, quick reads, early access and what’s coming up.Open sample →A town alertWhat lands in your inbox when your town gets a new question.Open sample →Lesson 1 of the learning seriesHow a council actually works. Free to read.Open sample →

Subscriptions open soon

We are setting up payments. Leave your email and the plan you want, and we will tell you when it opens. One email, nothing else.

Questions

Does paying change what you write about a town?

No. Subscriptions pay for reading, never for results. No one can pay to add, change or remove a question, and councils can always answer for free. Our rules about money apply to subscriptions too.

Can I cancel?

Any time, from the “Manage or cancel your plan” link in your welcome email. You keep access until the end of the period you paid for.

Is it tax-deductible?

No. Council Books is not a registered charity.