Transcript - Finance Reviews 2025 Tax Arrears - Finance Committee

Good evening and welcome to the finance committee meeting of Thursday and it is March 26th I believe of 2026. Um and I would like to call the meeting to order at this point. As is our usual practice we start by um reading the land acknowledgement. Grimby is situated on treaty land. This land is steeped in the rich history of the first nations such as the Hadawanderank, the Hodano Hodeno Shaun and the Anishian including the Missosagas of the Credit First Nation. There are many First Nations, Matei and Inuit people from across Turtle Island that live and work in Nagra today. The town of Grimby stands with all indigenous people past and present in promoting the wise stewardship of the lands on which we live. The next item on our agenda is to ask our committee members if anyone has any disclosures of interest to declare. I'm not seeing any hands up. Uh so if I could have a mover and a seconder to approve the agenda before us this evening. Councelor How has so moved. Member Scandinavo. Thank you. Then resolve that the agenda for the March 26, 2026 finance committee meeting be approved. All those in favor by show of hands, please. Councelor Barty, we can see you. So, if you'd like to put up your hand um to vote, that's great. Or I guess you can use your virtual hand. Thank you. Oh, very good. Member Deair has joined. Thank you. Then on to item five on our agenda which is the receipt of the previous minutes. If I could have a mover and seconder to receive the previous committee minutes. Councelor How? I think those of us who are physically present this evening, I'll probably be picking on. Thank you, members. Any questions or uh concerns about the minutes as drafted? If there are none, then resolve that the following minutes be received. the Finance Committee minutes of February 26, 2026 and the Grimby Economic Development Advisory Committee of March 5th, 2026. By show of hands, all those in favor, please. And member Deare, can you see his hand up? His hand is up. Thank you. So, that is carried. This evening, we don't have any delegations or presentations. Neither do we have any consent reports. So, we will move right on to item eight on our agenda, which is finance report 26-07. But before we can discuss it, I need a mover and seconder to get it on the floor. Councelor Vardy and Councelor How has seconded that. So, I will turn it over to Mr. Del Monaco to um to kind of walk us through the report on summary of the 2025 tax writeoffs. Thank you. Good evening. Uh, under sections 357, 358, and 359 of the municipal act, uh, that permits coun councils to cancel, reduce, or refund property taxes under specific circumstances. Typical examples of these write-offs relate to properties damage or raised by fire, property demolitions, repairs, or renovations, or assessment errors. Uh, in terms of those assessment errors, we're talking clerical errors, not people disputing their assessed values. In 2023, council delegated this authority to town staff. Uh, and the delegation authority requires staff to provide council with an annual update on these write-offs, which is the purpose of this report. So, we received 17 applications, excuse me, in 2025. In total, these section 357, 358, and 359 write-offs amounted to 28,000, only 6,600 of which related to town taxes. The write-offs that were processed have been summarized on the chart on page two of the report. Thank you. Do any committee members have any questions? Councelor How, go ahead. Oh, thank you. Through you, chair. Um, and I should have asked this a long time ago, but repairs or renovations? Um, I guess I I think I I read that I think they're doing improvements to their to their unit, which we all do repairs to our house all the time, but what would prompt them for a um for a tax write off? reading at that. I'm probably being very simplistic about that, but yeah, thank you. Yeah, that's a good question. Um, we were originally supposed to have our manager of revenue collections on the line. I'm sure she could answer that on the spot, but my understanding is that is um related to cases where um the property is um not habitable because of the repairs or renovations that need to take place. But I could have uh I could touch base with Lisa and get back. I'll touch base with Thank you. Okay. Thank any other questions from any of our committee members? Then I have just one. Um I don't see a column here um for the downtown improvement association. So would that mean that all of these tax write offs were outside of that catchment area? Yes, I think that's safe to say. Um, they might be included under Town General, but um, given that it's only the 27 properties, I would suspect it could be outside. Yeah, I just wasn't sure if it was included in the town general column or if we usually had a separate column for them. Okay, thank you. Any other questions from committee members about this report? If there are no hands up for questions, then the motion on the floor is resolved that report finance 26-07, the summary of the 2025 tax write-offs that's dated March 26, 2026 be received as information. And by show of hands, all those in favor, please. And that motion is carried. Thank you. We will now move on to the next report and that is report 26-08 on tax arars. If I could have a mover and seconder to put it on the floor please. Councelor Vardy and member Scandinavo has seconded that. Mr. Del Monaco it's yours. Thank you. Uh this report provides a status update on our property tax arers as of the end of 2025. Our tax arers were 5.4% as of the end of the year. That's a slight uptick from 2024 which was at 5.1%. But we do remain slightly below our past 7-year average which was 5.6%. The value of tax arers in the chart on page one of the report represents total taxes owing that's town regional educational and tax rears have been trending down postco but recently have been trending back up since 2023. Still we do remain below levels we experienced in 2019 and 2020. Looking at how we compare to others, our AR's levels are third lowest in the Niagara region. From the graph on page two, you can see that pretty much all of our Niagara region peers have been seeing an increase in a rears from 2022 to 2024, although most others are more pronounced than what we've seen. Uh, of the accounts in a rears, 27% owe less than $100 and only 20% of those accounts owe more than 5,000. From an aging perspective, things look good. There's 77% of those rears are current year sur one year old, two are 2 years old, and six are three or more years old. In 2025, we registered 21 properties for tax rears and as of now only five of those 21 remain outstanding and are subject to potential tax sale in 2026. There's any questions? Thank you, councelor Vardy. I see your hand up. Go ahead. Uh, thank you. So, I'm just trying to understand like when I'm looking at this graph of 2019 to 2025, um, how much money is actually owed to us at this time? So through the chair at this time the tax of rears is the 2025 value the 4.3 million and keep in mind that that relates to taxes total taxes region education and town ours is only a portion of that as the town. Can you tell me how much is owed to the town? I guess I've got two questions. How much is owed to the town? And the other question is, is the town on the hook for the regional portion? Um, like do do we have like does the region say to us, I don't care if you didn't collect it or not, you owe it to us. If you could just uh explain that, please. Yes, that's correct. Yes, it's it's our obligation to collect these taxes uh and and remit them to the other authorities such as the region and um and the school boards. So, um, so yes, it's it's our obligation to to collect those and remit them. Okay. But maybe I'm if if I may, maybe I'm not making my question clear. Even if we don't collect the tax that's that's in a rears, do we still have to in the current year where we're not getting the money from the residents, do we have to out of our coffers of of what we did get pay the region and the school board? So yeah, through the chair, yeah, we do remit to the Niagara region um four times a year based on um based on the the collection zing and um we could have uh we could have the manager follow up with you on that process of the uh as it relates to the region taxes. I can follow up with you offline. I I I'm sorry, but I'm I'm sorry. Forgive me because I'm probably still not getting it. Like if our aars right now are 4.3 million roughly um is that is that money have we already paid out the region and the school board and that 4.3 million is what's owed to us now? Yes, we have paid them out. Um I'm just unclear if there's a a situation where if we were not to collect it for whatever reason that it would be then u uh reduced from our future payments to the region if that makes sense. Delight do you understand my question but I was hoping I did but let me take a try at it. Um it's just like remember one of the developers owed some money to the town and that we it's our responsibility to collect it. Only a portion of that money that was owed is for us, but the rest of it was for the region. But the region says, I don't care if you collect it or not, you still owe it to us. So, are we paying those debts every like are we paying the region and the school board even though we haven't collected the money from the residents? My answer is yes. But I will u and Tony is is nodding his head as well. So the region just like the DIA um submit a budget request for the levy. We levy that and then four times a year. We make the payment out of our bank account to the region to the school boards to for example our downtown business improvement and association and that is irrespective of what we have collected. So we have to make the payments on the due dates to those other government entities I'll call them. Um and then we must pursue collection. Now fortunately we have a very big stick under the municipal act and other pieces of legislation to be able to collect these. Um so it really is I'll call it a temporary um cash flow issue. Um, but yes, we have to make the payment to them if for whatever reason we have write offs as in the report that just came to us. Um, and I'm not I I'm not putting um words in Mr. Del Monaco's mouth cuz he can add to this. But traditionally once or twice a year we will calculate what everybody's share of the write off is and then when we make a payment to them we will adjust it by their share of the write offs. Is is that still how it's done? Yes. So like you said we typically would would go through the tax sale process recover the taxes only at that time and everyone would be made whole. Did that help? But we've already made every we've already made everyone else whole, right? It's just us who need to get the money. Yes. We've paid off the others. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions from council, our committee members? Yes, I have a question. Uh go ahead, uh member de Mayare. Yeah. So, I'm looking at the uh from a business point of view, accounts receivables, it's a job to stay current. So, that's always chasing those outstanding accounts and you got to be on top of it with staff or if staff aren't on top of it, it gets gets longer and then what companies do for that longer part is they give it to uh collection agency. So I don't know what the town and Grisby has in sense of collection how strong they are and what how they turn up the volume as it were to chase down outstandings and question is do they eventually go to a collection agency to catch the uh the ones who are not going to remit dollars because obviously the last part we have we have to wait you know and then we can sell it and by that time hopefully everybody is paid. So I'm just wondering if there's what is the process that the town does the accounts receivable how how it's managed uh what is it like it certain time frames it you know you ratchet it up more and more and more to catch up the the uh the outstandings or do you also send send to a collection agency so that was my question thank you member de Mayare before we answer it though um the sound wasn't coming through really strong really clearly um so I'm just going to rephrase your question to make sure that we're answering your question correctly. Um, one was you were asking about the steps that staff take to um, enforce collection or how they go about collecting the taxes and I think your second question then was, you know, when we have exhausted all avenues of collection, what is the process as to how the town then collects it? Would that be a good summary of your of your questions? Yes, I had a an audio problem. I think I I thought I was fixing I just changed it so now can you hear me better? Yes, we can actually hear you much better. Thank you. So, if I can restate my question for sure. Go ahead. So, I guess in the business world, accounts receivable, you know, it's a job you got to stay on top of, stay current, uh otherwise it gets away from you. So, it's a there's a process everybody has to, you know, in the accounts receivable department to chase down, you know, people. And if you get them before it gets too long, you cap you capture everybody. Um, but if it lets too long and you don't do a job effectively, it gets to be too long as far as the outstandings. And the question is some companies will send to a collection agency to deal with the the lagards as it were. So I don't know if the town has uh collection agency involvement or what are the uh uh things that the town does to really get at the collections right off the bat. Otherwise, don't let it get stale. Thank you. Yeah. Through through the chair. Yeah. Um we don't use a an outside collection agency although we do have um you know unique tool available to us through the the tax sale registration process. So just to give you some highle timelines on that um properties can be registered um between one and two years of overdue. So for example, um properties with any tax reers owing in for from 2024 amounts could be put up for tax sale uh or registered for tax sale in 2026. Um that then starts a 200 day window where um uh if not if not paid in full then then a property could be advertised for and put up for tax sale. Um, and so using those those proceeds of the tax sales, we would recover our taxes owing and um, in the past we used to be able to retain the access proceeds, but now that's legislation's been changed. It has to go back to the province. Does that answer your question? Um, members mayor, um, perhaps we could just ask Mr. Del Monaco also to just give a brief summary of the work that our staff do to actually collect um and um in the meantime until we get to the tax sale proceedings because um I'm sure there are steps they take to actually remind people. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, there's various steps along the way. Um, reminders and notices. Um, you know, the outstanding amounts do continue to acrue interest at 1.25% per month. Um, and so there are there's various multiple opportunities to um to get those payments up to date. Um, and the tax sale really is kind of a last resort that we try to avoid. Did that help? Member Deare, do you have any further questions and followup? Yeah, I just wanted to know how aggressive that those those points are because you can put a 2.5 on on a tax notice, but you'd also pick up the phone and call them and talk to the the resident and say, "Okay, well, this is going to go on your bill. You know, are can you make payment now? Can you come to arrangement?" So, a little more aggressiveness might pick up some of these things. And the second point he's talking about were, you know, um, putting the sales up sooner, like going down that path makes sense. You know, okay, we're going to sell your property. If you don't pay the taxes, that might easily get some sort of response fairly quickly. Um, but you're saying if the proceeds are done that way, it goes to the goes to the province. So, what's the motivation for us to do that? But I think if he's saying, I'm going to sell your property, usually the resident would do something about it fairly quickly. I think we I think we just need to clarify. Um, so it's not that we sell the property and all the proceeds go to the province, we collect what we are owed and only the difference. Um, so there is a great motivation for us to continue to pursue it so that we can collect what is owed to us, what is owed by us, to the region, um, you know, to the downtown business improvement association, to the school boards because we're collecting on behalf of those entities as well. So um, do you want to add anything to that, Mr. Del Monaco? No, that that sums it up. Yeah. What about the aggressiveness I said about being more on the phone to potential non non-payers just saying picking up the phone to the tax to to the resident saying, you know, we have a tax bill. It's going to come your way. Um it's going to have this much money owed to it and we're going to have this, you know, this financing fee to it. Are you interested in making some payments? And that way sort of a discussion rather than just sending out another another piece of paper that's ignored. Yeah, it's primarily done through through notices. Um, you know, we don't really don't have the the time to go through that extra process. Um, and realizing that we do have those stop gaps in place. Uh, that's what happens when you have an an agency collection agency. They pull the stops on calling on people and it gets better response. So, if the staff doesn't have the time, then we just we get what we get. You know, hopefully that they'll, you know, pay their pay their taxes. But, I just wondered if it was putting more aggressiveness. Maybe it's not with the staff because they don't have the time, but maybe it's an outside uh agency who has the people to call that would make improve your collections. That's I'm just wondering if I could add to that. Um, so the 2 and 12% is it two and a half or two and a quarter? It's 15% annually um of interest that is charged is automatically added in. It's a computer program in in our software and we get to the end of the month and if there's a balance still the interest is added on. Um so all these things happen automatically. There's no um judgment that can be used by our staff. Um there can be encouragement obviously and notices go out but I think because our all municipalities in in Ontario hold the ultimate big stick. um you know if you don't pay eventually we will put up your property for sale and and when it gets to that point it's my understanding there are quite a few I'll call them hurdles that we have to go through to make sure that they're notified they get so many days notice there's an entire legal process for all of that too the other um comment I just wanted to add is it's a bit of the ying in the yag. I always find that we're allowed to charge interest and the interest rate is 15%. Which is not a small amount. Um and so I I remember years ago um a counselor saying to me, "Well, if we never collect, we still get the 15%, so that's pretty good." Like I said, well, you actually have to collect in order to collect your 15%. Otherwise, it's just a number on paper that's going onto the account. Um but you're right that becomes part of our interest revenue. So for all those who are unable to pay for whatever reason um yes ultimately we always collect. Did you want to add anything to that Mr. Del Monaco? No that's a that's a good point. Yep. Members Scandinavo, go ahead. I just wanted to sum up to ensure I understood this correctly that provided the value of the property doesn't fall below the total taxes outstanding eventually we will collect on the tax rears meaning that the although it's poor in terms of timing of cash flow ultimately generally we have 100% collectibility. Have I understood that correctly? Yes, that's correct. And like like councelor Devoli mentioned with the the interest rate being high, it actually adds to revenue for late payments. I mean, it's not something we want to see, but but we benefit either way. We either benefit because we collect on a timely basis um and then have enough cash to pay the region, the school board and so on or we ultimately even benefit in that we collect the interest that is ultimately owed to us and we don't h share that interest with the school boards and the region and so on that is actually ours to keep. Councelor How have was your hand up? Uh thank you chair. um over you know couple years and I've had uh questions you know when something like this has come up and I've had some great conversations with with uh people in the finance department and you know the member Deir the the the collection agency hammer that would be so far down the line because the last thing that anybody body and I mean anybody in in this municipality or or working in this municipality wants to do is foreclos somebody or or throw them out on the street. So as me scan said um we do have the property we do have that lean and it will happen. So, you know, there's no sense in in in just completely disrupting people's lives. And what you have to you see is there's always a couple properties that are probably responsible for a good chunk of the arars and there' be commercial properties and they usually come running in with a little bit of money or with it all and paid off. That's the game they play. that nobody I would ever hope and I don't I hope we never change that they would use that uh that hammer of a of a you know you're out. So, and the other thing, oh, sorry, it came to mind and now it has lost I've lost it. um is um what I have seen in my experience is that when people are when people have mortgages on their property, it actually becomes something good for us because inevitably I believe as part of the notice process, the mortgage companies are also informed and we stand ahead of the secured mortgages in terms of collection. So, usually once we get into that process and the mortgage companies, if there is a mortgage on the property, once they're notified that property taxes are outstanding and so on, they often are truly motivated to then deal with the property owner themselves and um sometimes it's added on to the amount of the mortgage or whatever, but but they actually are um quite interested in making sure our property taxes are paid. And you'll notice um especially I've seen for um people especially with their first mortgage when they buy a house the first time and they have a first mortgage the banks very often like to have the mortgage payments include payment to them for the property taxes and then they make the remittance to us for the property taxes because they are really really interested in making sure that our property taxes are always paid on a timely basis. Any further questions from any members or thoughts or comments? Well, I certainly uh I'm learning something about, you know, of the hammer that the town has versus of a regular business. So, in the end, you're going to collect it either way. Uh so, I guess there's no need to really be aggressive because it's going to come your way eventually. So, thanks for the education. Thank you. If there are no further questions, then um we will now vote on the resolution and I will read it to you. So it's resolved that report finance 26-08 on the 2025 taxer status update dated March 26, 2026 be received as information. Before we vote, I just remembered one thing I wanted to say um as we're talking about the why we are getting these reports and the importance of them. Um and and I've always said that um it's interesting to follow banking information that's out there and um banks often when they think the economy is on on uh shaky ground of course they will increase their loan loss provisions um for those potential mortgages that they might not collect or that they might not collect the full amount. Um but what I find even more interesting in the news is when the reports come from our credit rating agencies like um Equifax or TransUnion and they talk about the amount of debt outstanding and how much of that is mortgages and and how much of that are credit cards and lines of credit and so on and we are through the the last couple reports from those agencies are seeing an uptick again. So the percentage of people falling behind is going up and that is almost slightly mirrored in our statistics as well then that we're starting to see at I mean traditionally I think people will stop paying their credit cards off in total and and um look at other ways of debt but eventually they will revert to um and unfortunately not be able to pay their their property taxes too. So it is um I I always look at this report and say that it gives us an indication of the financial health of our residents and their ability to pay the property taxes and it's really good. It's not that we mean to interfere in the process because there is a regulatory process as to how we collect and what we can do and can't do. But it's really good information for us to be able to assess the financial health of our residents and their ability to pay our bills basically. Sorry to to add such a long comment to that. So the resolution is on the floor. It has been moved and seconded. If I could have a show of hands in favor of the resolution. And the clerk is saying everyone has voted. So, thank you. That motion is passed. We will now move on to our very last report this evening. Finance. Sorry, there's Oh, there is another one. My my apologies that um the next item on the agenda is finance report 26-09 which is the 2025 statement of remuneration and expenses um for council and and uh committee of adjustment members. And so we will um ask for a mover and seconder to put it on the floor for discussion. Member Scandinavo and councelor How have put up their hands to move and second. Thank you. So then we'll ask Mr. Del Monaco to explain the report. Thank you. This is a report that's provided annually to committee and council. It's a requirement of the municipal act that it be reported on each year. It outlines the remuneration and expenses paid to counselors and committee members. Remuneration includes salaries and honorariums including benefit contributions to CPPR and health benefits. Expenses include costs to attend conferences, seminars, and training sessions, mileage, office supplies, or other expenses incurred by council and committee members and the performance of their duties. The current council expense policy has been included for reference as appendix A and appendix B contains the detailed summary by counselor and committee appointee. Thank you. Any questions especially from the counselors I guess um I'm sure you're looking at your particular lines on the report. Um member how councelor how go ahead. Thank you through you chair. Probably I'll be a broken record but uh we still need to or this council needs to come to grips with uh some kind of policy in respect to conferences. Um, I think that, uh, it adds up fairly quickly. Uh, and from what I can see, most municipalities have some type of of of upsides and limits on it. Not um, that education is not important, but um, the it needs to be addressed. It's somewhere along the line got to be addressed. questions or comments? Yes, councelor Vardy, go ahead. Okay, with all due respect, conferences are really important uh avenues to do two things um to understand new things that are happening and also it's also our opportunity to get facetime with ministers. So, um I know I know councelor How is not in favor of them. uh and you know I I agree not to be excessive but um I do think they are an important part of the education of counselors and also counselors carrying out their uh their duties like being able to get facetime with ministers is very very important and uh you know it helps us to move some of the issues that are kind of stuck when we can be you know in front of the minister minister and saying this is the problem you we, you know, we need to get it resolved or this has been sitting in your office for 8 months. We really need to have it moved. So, that's uh my thoughts. Any other committee members have any questions or comments? Perhaps we could just um I'm going to say briefly go through each column and not to explain the numbers so much, but just to explain what goes into those calculations. Um and on the first column it's total salary and benefits and I'm sure some people would be looking at that saying thinking wow that's quite a swing even amongst counselors. Um again remembering that unfortunately some counselors have been penalized u through the integrity commissioner um process but by and large this column is the base pay of a counselor if I understand it correctly. the employer portion of the Canada pension for those who counselors who qualify to have Canada pension um contributions and includes the employer portion of the OMR's contribution. Is there anything else Mr. Del Monaco that would be in that first column? Yeah, it would also include benefits related to the um health tax, provincial health tax. Oh yes. So the 1.95% of the employer health levy would be in there. Okay. Yep. And then the second column of training conferences and meeting expenses is you know by and large you know if a counselor goes to a conference that would include their conference fee, their hotel room mileage, food um the things that are allowed under the policy. And then the other column I realize there's a little footnote at the bottom. Um, so for those who choose to ask to be reimbursed for their cell phone, it's listed below there. Um, what other sorts of I know it says community activities and office supplies with. So if a counselor went to I don't know, I'll say the mayor's breakfast to pick an example and there's a fee for the ticket. Um but the town covers us. So would it be that sort of thing that would also be in this column? Okay. Um and we have policies on quite a few different things for counselors. So for example, we even have like um something that just came out recently like the clothing allowance where we can order, you know, one t-shirt, golf shirt, etc., etc., whatever it is. Um and the town pays for it. So, sort of, you know, marketing materials, I'll call them. Um, would that be included in this column as well then, things like that? Okay. Thank you. Just to help clarify for anyone, any of the counselors wondering where did all these numbers come from? If there are no other questions about this report, then the resolution on the floor is resolved that um finance report 26-09 about the 2025 statement of remuneration and expenses which is dated March 26, 26 be received for information. All those in favor by show of hands please. And that is carried. Thank you. Now we are moving on to our very last report of the evening which is finance report 26-10. The 2025 finance year in review. And if I could have a mover and seconder to put it on the floor. Member Scandinavo has put his hand up and councelor How has seconded. Um and councelor Vardy had her hand up. We we have quite a few to choose from there. Um so um Mr. Jel Monaco, an awesome report. I I think um I was blown away by how much our department was able to do in the last year, but I'll let you walk us through it. Thank you. Yeah, this report's here for information purposes. It provides an overview of uh some key finance department accomplishments from last year. Um, our accomplishments are guided by council's priorities and this committee's terms of reference and our ongoing commitment to focusing on affordability and financial sustainability for the town, its residents, and its businesses. And this report provides a high level summary of the many accomplishments from the past year. Uh, the accomplishments are in no particular order, but they have been organized uh, starting with some noteworthy items. uh continuing on with policies that were reviewed or developed in the year followed by regulatory reporting that was brought to this committee as well as non-regulatory reports uh call them value added reports and then um we outline the budget amendments that were brought to this committee and end the report with some of the day-to-day activities and accomplishments of the finance department. Thank you. Any questions or comments from the committee members? Councelor How? If I can. Uh, chair and, uh, director. Um, you nailed it. You covered to me. You covered everything and succinctly, you know, not, uh, a whole lot of verbiage, but, uh, all understandable. And, uh, it's a good thing you guys were all working really, really hard over here because I was along for the ride. But thank you. But thank you. Any other hands up? All right. Question. Absolutely. Go ahead, member de Mayor. Go ahead. So I wonder how this compares to Niagara region and and what their reports are. Is there a way to compare that? You know, maybe they got some reports that they do, we don't do or vice versa. Probably that's the case. um or maybe other uh municipalities. Just it's a great report, great list of reports and just wondering if we could compare it to others to see if we if there's any additional things to be done on that um or can get access to that. I mean, I'm not sure you can. That's my question. Yeah, thank you for the question. Yeah, through the chair. Um uh we are planning on bringing forward a um key performance indicator report in a couple months to the committee and hopefully we can have some comparators with ourselves and others in the region on on some of our um some of these indicators and where we stand. So they do have those reports and obviously they have some form of reports to compare but we don't know or do we know? Sorry, could you please repeat the question? Yeah, I was just saying that's that's great. And the question is if uh this district just gives you providing what our information is and we're comparing it to what they may have so we'll know that they have that report or don't have the report. I I think I'll jump in. So every municipality has audited financial statements and they are on their websites. Um, every municipality completes a financial information return that must be submitted to the Ministry of Municipal um, affairs and housing. I may have got the name wrong. They they kind of change the order of the name sometimes, so pardon me. Um, uh, we call that the FIR for short. It stands for financial information return. And that is always submitted to the ministry and is on their website and available to any and everyone to actually see going back years. And then um every municipality has to submit certain key performance indicators, you know, key statistics and so on that also go to the ministry which goes on that same website in that same location. Um so there is a fair bit of um publicly available information. Um it just takes time to go to the website, pull it down um aggregated and so on. Um, so, um, does that help answer sort of, you know, where some of the sources can be for for some of the information and some of the information? Correct. It's like a raw data source. Um, so I guess I could check that out. Um, just but you know, the reports that are run here. I'm just wondering if they're run in other municipalities or the region in comparison. That's all. Sorry. You're thinking like the report that we that we're talking about this evening with um with our accomplishments for what the finance department did in the last year. Are you is that your question? Wondering if there are comparable reports that other municipalities h that's a good question. I don't know. Yeah, that is a good question through the jury. I I don't know either. Um I think it would depend municipality by municipality. Um, so it probably varies. So the question is, do you share with other municipalities? It depends on the report. I mean, I don't think I'll be sharing this report, but the other that report from uh last month regarding the long-term financial planning. We will be sharing that with the other municipalities and seeing if we can um improve upon that. That's a great start. drag that one. Thanks. Thank you, member to member Scandinavo. Great report, great progress is made. I know there's been a lot of asks of this committee and you've always uh you've always delivered um um what we've asked and we've had like a lot of great conversation, a lot of great findings. Um congratulations to you and the team. This has been uh it's been a pleasure to be along for the ride. So, good work. Thank you. I'll pass that on to the team. Any other further questions or comments from any committee members? Then we will call for the vote. So it's resolved that report finance 26-10 the finance 2025 year and review report dated March 26 26 be received for information. By show of hands, all those in favor please. Thank you. Um because you all put your hand up, I don't usually even need to ask if there are any in disagreement, but I would if if all the hands didn't go up. But thank you. That motion is carried. Uh this evening, we have no correspondence. Under other business, um any committee members have anything they wish to raise? Then um I believe our clerk uh Noah has something he wishes to share with our committee at this time. I should shouldn't I? Uh so as was made uh clear in a memo a few months ago to all of our standing and advisory committees uh the finance committee included will be providing a brief end ofterm report for council uh which will note the committee's accomplishments and future opportunities uh from this term and looking into the future term. The report will be compiled by myself using points provided by all of you as members of the committee. uh the work getting these points on accomplishments in uh future opportunities will be done during committee meetings. There will not be any working groups or subcommittees uh permitted to work on this. Uh we'll dedicate time on the April 23rd and May 28th meeting agendas to brainstorm accomplishments and future opportunities. The report will be finalized ahead of the last meeting on June 25th to allow time for committee review. Uh and then our committee chair, councelor Dvoi, will present the report during the chair's report portion of the council meeting on July 13th. And other members are invited to attend in person or online at that meeting as well. Any questions by committee members about that process? We certainly will be looking forward to everyone's feedback um into that report. So that um will be on the agenda for the next two committee meetings and then the in the so that will cover April and May again and then in June we'll receive the draft report of that to discuss and hopefully approve um at this point. Um then just a heads up that the next meeting of the finance committee meeting is April 23rd. There's a question. I see a hand up. So go ahead councelor Vardy. I I just wanted to to say um uh basically this has been a really productive committee. um you know our me our members provide great great comments, great ideas for reports and our staff are doing a fantastic job of pulling these things together and I think collectively I think you know we we've been very dynamic and you know I'll leave myself out but the rest of you are accountants and speak a certain language. Um, but I I think I think the town has really benefited from this collaboration on this committee. Thank you, Councelor Vardy. We're going to tape those comments and add them to the next meeting and the next meeting so they get into the report. I'm just teasing you. Um, any other committee members we wish to speak before we conclude the meeting this evening? Not seeing any hands. Then just a reminder, the next meeting again is Thursday, April 23rd at 6 PM. And thank you everyone. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you.

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