The City of Greater Sudbury’s 2026 tax levy hike is now tentatively set at 5.5 per cent.
At least, that’s how the city’s elected officials left things after Day 1 of budget deliberations on Tuesday, during which they got through the majority of it.
With only a few business cases left which propose service-level changes, city council members only have a handful of decisions left to make during the second day of deliberations on Wednesday. That is, assuming members don’t tack on additional amendments between now and then.
After approving the majority of business cases throughout the day, city council capped Tuesday’s meeting with two back-to-back rejections.
A business case proposing that an enhanced winter sidewalk maintenance pilot project be made permanent was deferred until 2027, and a proposal to help pay for the Westmount Outdoor Rink project’s completion ($136,000) was voted down.
This, despite the efforts of Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer, who championed both business cases.
Reflecting on what was by that point in the meeting a 5.5-per-cent tax levy hike, Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin led the pack in deferring the winter sidewalk maintenance proposal.
“This is bringing the ticker in the wrong direction,” she said, referencing a tax levy ticker staff brought up on screen whenever requested which showed where the tax levy hike was at.
Although the business case was deferred to next year, the enhanced winter sidewalk maintenance pilot project is still approved to continue during the 2025-26 winter season, per a September vote of city council members.
The program, which has been supported by local grassroots organization Greater Sudbury Safer Sidewalks, includes the addition of three seasonal employees to supplement the existing 22 who undertake annual sidewalk winter maintenance efforts.
Similar to downtown sidewalk maintenance processes, these three additional employees maintain sidewalks within their respective sections on a rotational basis during business days and not just immediately following snow events.
The main holdup during budget talks was the one-time cost of purchasing three additional sidewalk plow units, at $694,362.
During Tuesday’s deliberations, a business case to create an outdoor sport court at O’Connor Playground was deferred to next year, the decision to hire a food systems co-ordinator was postponed to 2027, and a business case proposing the city spend $162,000 toward the construction of a playground in Wanup was voted down.
Meanwhile, the 19 other business cases up for discussion were all approved.
Among the more notable business cases to be approved included ones to hire four additional firefighters, make accessibility improvements to Kalmo Beach, and hire two additional mechanical officers for Greater Sudbury Fire Services.
The additional firefighters were promoted by Chief Rob Grimwood as helping mitigate overtime which is anticipated to exceed $3 million this year, and the mechanical officers will be charged with repairing equipment and helping the department meet Ministry of Labour orders.
Mayor Paul Lefebvre argued that there was no viable debate when it came to the decision to follow through with efforts to meet Ministry of Labour orders, and council approval was unanimous.
Early in Tuesday’s meeting, city council members were near unanimous in passing all partner agency budgets as approved by their respective boards, including Greater Sudbury Police Service’s 10.21 per cent hike. They also greenlit a 4.8-per-cent water/wastewater rate increase for 2026.
Sudbury.com will also attend Wednesday’s budget meeting to report on its final outcomes. Certain areas of the budget will also be pulled aside for more in-depth reports to be published later this week. Two areas coming out of Tuesday’s deliberations which warrant a closer look include city council funding to parks and Greater Sudbury Fire Services.
The starting point for Tuesday’s deliberations was a 5.3-per-cent tax levy hike, which is up slightly from the 5.2 previously forecast. A key factor in the inter-meeting hike was this year’s assessment growth forecast to hit 0.8 per cent and not the one per cent initially anticipated, yielding a tax revenue loss of approximately $750,000.
Another change made early on in Tuesday’s deliberations was a city council decision to strike the city’s 2027 operating budget from their decision-making process to focus solely on 2026 and the remaining two years of the city’s four-year capital budget.
This is a break from the city’s multi-year budgeting process, which has seen councillors tackle two years of operating budgets and four years of capital budgets in one fell swoop, with annual budget deliberations outside of key years serving as check-ins and updates prior to readoption.
With a newly hired CAO (Shari Lichterman) eager to dig deeper into municipal operations and a municipal election slated for Oct. 26, 2026, Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin argued that there’d be little sense in approving the city’s 2027 budget so early.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.