Money matters were on the agenda for the May Committee of the Whole meeting! First up, the internal auditor returned with the results from the latest value-for-money audit, which this time focused on the building permits office. For the rest of the meeting, the City of Guelph’s finance staff officially closes the book on the 2025 fiscal year with the final report save for the outside auditor’s double check next month. For now, here’s the recap!
Committee of the Whole Meeting – May 5, 2026
Money matters, and value for money, were the main points of interest for May’s Committee of the Whole meeting.
Hearing again from Internal Audit GM Robert Jelacic, committee was given the results of the value-for-money audit of building permit approvals and inspections. Jelacic said that his analysis shows a service that functions well with strong compliance and predictable timelines, meaning that there’s no bottleneck in development passing through that office. All the tested permits were finished in advance of the mandated timelines, and there was no deviation from service standards. In other words, the City of Guelph is not getting in its own way when it comes to getting more housing in the ground.
The only real areas of concern were the need for some kind of centralized complaint tracking system and the creation of new mandatory reporting to council and senior staff. The second one is an issue across many City departments, and staff are working on new standardization that involves some technical upgrades coming to the city hall in 2028. It was also revealed that a building permit fee review would be coming to council sometime next month. Mayor Cam Guthrie took a rhetorical victory lap about the good news report and committee received it.
Next was the 2025 year-end financial reporting, and the good news is that the deficit at the end of 2025 wasn’t as bad as feared, coming in at about $1.6 million. Financial staff separated the information into capital, operational and debt and reserves.
On the capital front, the City has been trying its best to align procurement with project timelines and has enjoyed some success though they are still struggling with capacity given the number and size of the infrastructure projects being undertaken. In terms of operating, that’s where the deficit hits because while there were some surpluses line by line in the areas of increased fees, increased ridership on transit, some land sales and fuel cost savings, but there were also some extra costs in terms of supplies and maintenance, plus staffing and nearly $2 million more for winter maintenance.
In terms of the debt and the reserves, staff noted that the pressure is increasing on the contingency funds, and that part of the 2028-2031 multiyear budget strategy will be to find a way to replenish those funds. Of particular note is the Development Charge Reserve funds, which only collected $13 million last year due to exemptions and the difficult economic conditions. Debt servicing is at 2.6 per cent, which is well below the 25 per cent threshold that the City’s allowed to run, but Guelph has just barely breached the 30 per cent debt-to-operating ratio that makes city hall look a little riskier in the eyes of S&P.
When pressed further about the risk to the City’s AAA credit rating, City Treasurer Shanna O’Dwyer said that the ratio is part of a broad number of considerations when it comes to establishing the rating. She essentially called it straight talk for council because otherwise the City is stable economically speaking despite the challenges. There weren’t too many follow up questions, and the three sets of recommendations for the report were approved unanimously.
The last item concerned the election… the 2030 election. Councillor Erin Caton’s motion asked the city clerk’s office to consider and prioritize voting methods to enable people to vote from home independently in advance of the 2030 municipal election. Caton said they appreciated the work staff did to find a way to make internet voting happen to their satisfaction for this election but looking forward they want to have something accessible in place by 2028. After some brief clarity that “prioritize” didn’t mean excluding traditional polling places, the motion was unanimously approved.
Click here to see the complete recap of the meeting.
Guelph Politico 