On Tuesday June 17 Council agenda there is a staff report recommending how King Township can achieve compliance with a Provincial regulation which requires that we have a financial plan for maintaining our infrastructure assets. The big picture intent of the regulation is that these assets will be available and performing at standard for future users of the assets.  Staff have proposed that the financial plan for our assets should be fully funded in 10 years; to do this there needs to be a 2.33% increase in the capital portion of the 2026 tax levy.  I am very uncomfortable with approving this increase without understanding the total picture for our property taxes in 2026; approving this will certainly put pressure on addressing the rest of our budget. I recall how challenging it was to achieve 3.08% increase for 2025; the recommended increase for the Asset Management Plan (AMP) represents more than 2/3 of the total increase this year.

Given the above I am more favourable to being fully funded in 15 years which would amount to a 1.99% increase. I also want to explore the feasibility of not making the commitment for service levels of a couple specific assets until we do the budget in the fall so we can decide whether we can afford to provide this level of service.   I am thinking specifically of not completing the plan to have all gravel roads paved and to not continue providing higher quality paved roads than is required. I need to get more information about these options.

As always deputations can be made. To do so please register at clerks@king.ca by noon on  June 17 or If you prefer you can e-mail your comments to clerks@king.ca and they will be distributed to Council members and appropriate staff.