CollingwoodToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via our website. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter was submitted by a resident who wished to comment on the town's tax level relative to its employee complement. Note, not all employee salaries and benefits are paid by revenue collected through municipal property taxes.
I think Collingwood residents have a taxation problem, at least as compared to our neighbour, Wasaga Beach.
The chart below shows that we have virtually identical population numbers.
I don’t perceive that services and amenities provided are so very different. So why do we pay 21% more residential tax?
Collingwood needs (2022 data) $80.2 million to run the town. Wasaga Beach gets by on $66.1 million. Collingwood needs (2022 data) 202 full-time employees, Wasaga Beach needs 166.
I presented this to council during their 2023 budget deliberations, and again recently during the 2024 budget process.
To date, I have had no real explanation as to the disparity.
Our treasurer has stated that Collingwood has older, and therefore more expensive, infrastructure, and that may well be the case, but $14 million (21 per cent) more and 36 (22 per cent) more full-time staff?
I think it’s time for our elected council to dig deeper into this issue.
The median assessment home in Collingwood in 2022 was $327,000.
Comparison between Collingwood and Wasaga Beach for that same home:
| Collingwood | Wasaga Beach | Difference | |
| Mill rate (2022 tax per dollar) | 0.0071821 | 0.0059375 | 21% |
| Tax paid (house assessed at $327K) | $2,349 | $1,941 | $408 |
| Population (2021 census) | 24,811 | 24,860 | <1% |
| Total Households (2021 census) | 13,216 | 13,768 | (4%) |
| Tax revenue (2022) | $38.5M | $28.4M | 36% |
| Total revenue (all sources) | $80.2M | $66.1M | 21% |
| Full-time employees | 202 | 166 | 22% |
| Part-time employees | 88 | 22 | |
| Seasonal employees | 50 | 68 | |
| Salaries and benefits total | $24.6M | $18.6M | 32% |
Most data from Province of Ontario Financial Information Return for 2022, latest year available and from 2021 census.
John Megarry
Collingwood, ON
