Council Focuses on Long-term Stability and Asset Renewal in Financial Plan
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In 2026, Cumberland residents and businesses can expect the Village to prioritize the replacement and maintenance of roads and utilities along with the maintenance of existing assets. A moderate tax increase is included in the financial plan to fund the annual inflation and contract increases. The Village has completed significant capital projects in the past few years, including a new Fire Hall, upgrades to its drinking water system and ongoing upgrades of the wastewater treatment system, and continues to plan for other required capital projects in future years.
“The Financial Plan reflects how we put our vision into action and responds to the pressures we face: aging infrastructure, rising costs for core services, rapid population growth, climate impacts and extreme weather, housing needs, and the broader economic uncertainty affecting us all” says Mayor Vickey Brown. “Our goal, as always, is to maintain or improve service levels, invest in asset renewal, strengthen reserves for long-term stability, and keep tax increases as reasonable as possible.” The financial plan adopted by Council in January was developed around Council’s priorities of sustainable service delivery and asset management, community planning, and a diverse and healthy community.
Key projects scheduled for 2026 include:
- Reconstruction of First Street between Windermere Avenue and Penrith Avenue, including upgraded underground water, storm, and sewer utilities, sidewalks, boulevard greenspace, and formalized street parking
- Reconstruction of Penrith Avenue between First Street and Fourth Street, including upgraded underground water, storm, and sewer utilities, sidewalks, boulevard greenspace, and formalized street parking
- New sidewalk along Ulverston Avenue from Fifth Street to Tenth Street, which is identified as a priority safe school route
- New underground sewer collection lines that will separate the storm sewer from sanitary sewer, reducing storm charges into the new wastewater treatment plant in these locations:
- Alley south of Maryport Avenue from Third Street to Seventh Street, and
- Alley south of Windermere Avenue from First Street to Fifth Street
- Update to the Village Park Master Plan to reflect today’s community needs
- Review of how the Village charges for drinking water, sewer collection and treatment system, and stormwater collection system services, as well as fees for new connections
When developing the financial plan, Council again this year considered the Village’s sizeable financial reserves and healthy financial position, and reduced contributions to the Policing Reserve by $170,000 to fund existing services. This enabled the Village to keep the municipal property tax revenue increase under 4% for 2026 while maintaining sufficient reserves for future policing services. This has resulted in an estimated municipal tax revenue increase of 3.94% for 2026, which will provide $192K in additional revenues to fund the increases related to inflation, the recently approved collective agreement and other contract increases.
The Village also collects utility charges, frontage and parcel taxes to fund utility operations and capital debt. Residents and businesses will see moderate increases required to fund higher operating costs for the new wastewater treatment plant. The annual tax levy will also include an increase to the water parcel tax due to the expected rise in interest rates for the water system capital improvements debt.
The Village collects taxes for other non-municipal services, such as school and policing taxes as well as for regional services, hospital and library, which is estimated at a 7% increase for 2026. For an average single-residential property, the estimated total increase in taxes and charges for 2026 is $309 or $26 per month, taking into account taxes collected for other taxing authorities.
Community consultation on the financial plan took place last November at a Village Hall and open house after public budget workshops with Council and staff. Comments received throughout the year were also considered by Council. For more details on the 2026-2030 Financial Plan please visit cumberland.ca/financial-plan.
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