Pickering’s 2025 Budget

Budget decisions can have a profound impact on our daily lives - explore the various ways that you can learn more about the City’s 2025 budget process below.

There were no amendments to the proposed 2025 Capital and Current Budgets, and as such, they were deemed adopted on December 30, 2024 in accordance with section 284.16 of the Municipal Act.

• Capital Budget & 2026-2034 Forecast(External link)
• Current Budget(External link)
• Approved User Fees(External link)
• 2025 Budget Highlights(External link)

2025 Budget Overview

In 2025, the City's portion of the residential property tax bill increased by 1.15 percent.

This equates to $82.62 on the average assessed home in Pickering of $586,000.

This increase, when combined with the Region of Durham and School Board increases, will result in an average increase of 5.35 percent on the total property tax bill (based on the Durham Region approved levy increase of 7.4%).

• The 2025 Current Budget is $94,227,956
• The 2025 Capital Budget is $96,939,550

A general rule of thumb for calculating property tax is to multiply your assessed value (or purchase price if recent) by the current tax rate. For example, if you paid $586,000 for your house, your taxes would be: $586, 000 x 2025 Residential Tax Rate (0.01288240) = $7,549.09

Facebook Live with the City’s Director, Finance & Treasurer

Did you miss the virtual presentation and Q&A on the Senior Staff Recommended Draft 2025 Capital Budget highlights? Watch the recording on YouTube(External link).
This recording is from a live broadcast that took place on Thursday, November 7, 2024.

Outdoor Fitness Equipment Selected as Top-Ranked Neighbourhood Project through City’s First Participatory Budget Process

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated in Pickering’s inaugural participatory budget process!

Residents had the opportunity to direct a portion of the City’s budget to their preferred neighbourhood project, aimed at enhancing the community’s quality of life.

As a result, $300,000 has been allocated in the 2025 Capital Budget, funded through casino revenues. This major initiative highlights the City’s dedication to fostering collaboration and encouraging active public participation in local decision-making.

Project Options Included:

1. Dog park enhancements (each Ward currently has an existing dog park).
2. Outdoor fitness equipment
3. Shade structure with outdoor gathering space
4. Urban street furniture – for social gathering or independent use
5. I'd prefer not to invest in any of these projects - don’t do anything

These project options support the City of Pickering’s Recreation & Parks – Ten Year Plan and Corporate Strategic Plan.

Project criteria
The project selected must:

• Represent a capital investment
• Be achievable by the City, on public or municipal property
• Aim at the collective interest (not benefit an individual, a small group of people, or private interests)
• Be implemented within the allocated budget amount
• Be achievable within two years after the vote

Who may vote?

• Anyone 19 years of age and older
• Must currently be living in the City of Pickering
• One vote per person

City staff will review the technical, regulatory, and financial feasibility of the project, along with its capacity to implement it, and report back on timeline and project progress through regular updates to this project page.

Budget Pressures

Pickering, like the rest of the Province, continues to face financial realities like inflation, high interest rates, labour shortages, and legislative changes that are further impacting municipal capacity to deliver services and invest in infrastructure.

Where do your tax dollars go?

• 12.50% of your tax dollars goes to the Boards of Education
• 56.78% of your tax dollars goes to the Region of Durham
• 30.72% of your tax dollars goes to the City of Pickering

Property tax dollars fund various programs and services, including:

1. City: Fire, recreation programs, municipal law enforcement, city planning, animal services, libraries, road maintenance, parks, streetlights, storm sewers and more.

2. Education: The education tax rate is established by the Province. The local school boards are responsible for determining how school taxes are spent.

3. Region: Police, maintenance of major roads, transit, waste management, social services, childcare, public health and ambulance, and more.

Exploring Funding Sources

While property taxes are the City of Pickering's main source of revenue, the City seeks out other funding opportunities to help relieve the residential tax load. This includes:

1. Actively seeking and applying for eligible funding and grant programs from both the Federal and Provincial governments.

2. Naming rights partnerships.

3. The City’s Municipal Contribution Agreement with Ontario Lottery Gaming Corporation, in which it receives revenues for hosting the Pickering Casino Resort.

Since Pickering Casino Resort opened in July 2021, OLG has issued non-tax gaming revenue payments to the City of Pickering for hosting the facility, as part of its Municipal Contribution Agreement with Ontario Lottery Gaming Corporation (OLG). Pickering also shares a portion of this revenue with the Region of Durham(External link).

Casino revenues have been used and/or are planned to be used for both Current and Capital Budget items like:

• Funding for community groups as part of the City’s Community Grants Program
• City Centre project-related planning activities and design costs
• Gravel lot parking upgrades (behind Chestnut Hill Developments Recreation Complex)
• Bay Ridges Kinsmen Park soccer turf replacement and Beverly Morgan Park track replacement
• Various fire station hall upfits
• Snow clearing program for seniors and persons with disabilities
• Accessible pedestrian signals
• Pickering Heritage & Community Centre
• Beachfront Park Master Plan
• Tennis court flooring replacement at Chestnut Hill Developments Recreation Complex
• Community Park rehabilitation and enhancements
• Make-up the development charge shortfall from Bill 23

How does the budget work?

Every year, City of Pickering approves the Current (also known as the Operating) and Capital Budgets. The Current and Capital Budgets outline how the City will use its revenues to deliver services to residents. The Current Budget focuses on day-to-day expenses, while the Capital Budget covers major infrastructure and equipment requirements.

Property taxes are the City of Pickering's main source of revenue, and the 2025 Budget process determined what the property tax levy was for 2025. The property tax levy is the amount of money that the City requires to provide services such as snow clearing, road repair, emergency services, parks maintenance, and libraries, to name a few.

Watch a short video on how municipalities build their budget(External link):

(External link)

Capital Budget

The Capital Budget is used for long-term investments, like infrastructure and facilities, that are paid off over time. This includes projects related to roads, bridges and sidewalks, vehicles and equipment, streetlights, playgrounds, and trails. It includes new infrastructure projects as well as the maintenance and rehabilitation of existing infrastructure.

Take a look back at 2023's key infrastructure projects:

Take a look back at 2022’s key infrastructure projects:

(External link)

Current Budget

The Current Budget, also known as an Operating Budget, covers the day-to-day expenses required to deliver services to residents. These costs can return year-after-year and include services such as roads, parks, and sport field maintenance, staffing and utilities for City facilities like libraries and community centres, and fire services.

Most of the funds for the Current Budget are raised through property taxes and the remainder comes from a variety of sources like user and permit fees and licences. This budget is prepared by each municipal department and reflects that area of responsibility.

User Fees

User fees are collected by municipalities to fund programs and services that provide direct benefits to an individual, group, or business, rather than the community as a whole.

This means, those enjoying the service, pay for a portion of the service. Some of the services a user would pay for include:

• Building Permits
• Planning & Development Applications
• Pet Licensing
• Use of Recreation Facilities

When setting user fees, the City reviews what services benefit the community as a whole; what services benefit a combination of individuals and community; and what services benefit only a specific individual/small group of individuals. The City then uses property taxes to pay for services that benefit the entire community, and charges user fees to help recover the costs for services that mainly benefit an individual.

Strong Mayor Powers

The Mayor has special powers and duties under Part VI.1 of the Municipal Act, 2001 S.O. 2001, c. 25(External link) and in accordance with O. Reg. 530/22(External link) and O. Reg. 580/22(External link). Part of these special powers includes the ability to prepare and propose the City’s budget, subject to possible Council amendments, and the Mayor’s ability to veto such amendments, which are subject to an override process that may be accomplished by two-thirds of the Council. As such, Mayor Ashe has provided Direction to the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) and the Director, Finance & Treasurer pertaining to the 2024 City of Pickering Budget. View Direction 01-2023(External link).

Legislative framework governing the Mayor’s special powers and duties under Part VI.1 of the Municipal Act, 2001 S.O. 2001, c. 25(External link)

Under O. Reg. 530/22, the Mayor is required to propose the budget by February 1^st. After the Mayor proposes the budget, Council can pass resolutions to amend the budget within 30 days. The Mayor may veto a Council budget resolution within 10 days after the expiry of the amendment time frame. Council may then attempt to override a mayoral veto with a two-thirds majority vote, within 15 days after the expiry of the Mayor’s veto time frame (under the legislation these time frames may be shortened). At the end of this process, the resulting budget is “deemed” to be adopted by the municipality. Learn more(External link).

See Schedule A (page 40) of the Procedure By-law(External link) for excerpts from the Municipal Act (the “Act”), pertaining to the exercise of the Special Powers and duties provided to the Mayor as the Head of Council for the City of Pickering. The provisions that follow are provided to inform Council and the public on the process to be carried out when the Special Powers are utilized. These Special Powers, commonly referred to as “Strong Mayor Powers”, are exercised under provincial legislation and take precedence over the normal rules of procedure outlined in this By-law, where applicable.

What were the 2024 Budget Highlights?

In 2024, the City's portion of the residential property tax bill increased by 1.25 percent.

This equates to $88.42 on the average assessed home in Pickering of $612,000.

This increase, when combined with the Region of Durham and School Board increases, resulted in an average increase of 5.42 percent on the total property tax bill (based on the Durham Region approved budget guideline of a 7.5% levy increase).

• The 2024 Current Budget is $87,429,155
• The 2024 Capital Budget is $108,596,900

Educational Videos

Take a look through our videos below to get a better understanding of each topic.

Municipal Property Assessment Corporation(External link) (MPAC) 101 - learn more about how your property tax is calculated.

(External link)

Quick Links

• View the Mayor's Final 2024 Capital Budget & 2025-2033 Forecast(External link)
• Visit pickering.ca/Budget(External link) to view past Current and Capital Budgets