THUNDER BAY — The city was advocating for more power to push back against over-budget legislated agencies, boards and commissions at the 2026 Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference.
“We were lobbying the ministry to say we need some sort of mechanism to say, ‘listen, you can’t come in at 9.1 per cent.’ I know, although policing is something we hear in the community all the time, we need to increase the safety and decrease the crime, but a 9.1 per cent increase, it just affects us,” Coun. Trevor Giertuga, chair of the intergovernmental affairs committee, told Newswatch.
When asked if the province has an appetite to make these changes, he said “it’s a relatively new thing that’s coming forth.”
“It’s happening now, and it’s pressure with not just police, DSSAB, the health unit, and the conservation authority. I mean, there was only one that came within the 2.6 increase that we asked them to do,” Giertuga said.
Council directed administration to keep the 2026 tax-levy increase at 2.6 per cent, which the city administration achieved for city-delivered programs and services. But a few outside boards and agencies didn’t reach the city’s target, increasing the proposed budget to 4.4 per cent over last year’s tax levy total of $240.8 million.
“We just have to pay it,” Giertuga said.
There is a mechanism for the Thunder Bay Police Service to go into arbitration if council doesn’t approve their budget as requested,” Giertuga said.
Under the Community Safety and Policing Act, the city has the authority to set the overall police budget. The city can’t modify specific line items, but it is not bound to adopt the police board’s estimates.
The District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board, Lakehead Region Conservation Authority and Thunder Bay District Health Unit are provincially legislated, which means the city is required to pay those levies.
The Lakehead Region Conservation Authority set a $3.2 million budget for 2026 but halted a $590,000 reserve appropriation due to uncertainty around the province’s proposed consolidation with the Huron Conservation Authority.
The Thunder Bay District Health Unit set a 5 per cent increase to its budget and the DSSAB set a 3.6 per cent increase, with 3.3 per cent coming from the district municipalities.
“It’s just that the mechanism that we’re living in right now, we hold all the responsibility for the budget, yet none of the authority to push back or to manage or even just offer suggestions. It’s either accept this 9.1 per cent or don’t accept it at all,” Coun. Shelby Ch’ng said.
Ch’ng added that the police budget is also affected by the province’s new policing act which, for example, now requires the service to police local waterways.
“We need a boat, and what does that look like?” she said. “We heard very loud and clear — and I will do everything in my power to make sure this happens — but if we buy a boat it needs to be bought in Ontario. So those things do add significant pressures.”
On Jan. 26, administration will present the city’s corporate revenues and expenditures, along with budgets from the city manager’s office, corporate services and community services.
They then wrap up budget discussions with the infrastructure and operations department and agencies’ boards and commissions on Jan. 28.
Budget ratification is scheduled for Feb. 3.
