Guelph, Ont., April 1, 2025 – Today, Mayor Cam Guthrie signed a Mayoral order that directs City staff to make affordability a top priority when preparing an update to the adopted 2026 operating and capital budgets.

“This order reflects my continued efforts to make Guelph more affordable for residents and businesses,” said Mayor Cam Guthrie. “I have listened to the community, and everyone agrees that the City must focus on enhancing value while controlling expenses. Through the 2025 Mayoral direction and budget process, we achieved a 50 per cent reduction in the City portion of the property tax impact. I am confident a substantially lower tax increase can be realized for 2026 as well.”

The Mayoral order sets a goal to prepare a 2026 budget update with one of the lowest property tax increases in Ontario compared to similar cities based on a property tax impact of not more than 2.5 percent for the City Services portion. Evaluation of budget investments will consider and prioritize criteria relating to creation of new housing units, meeting legislated and regulatory requirements, risk of divestment, impact to the public, equity lens, and the Future Guelph Strategic Plan. Furthermore, staff will prepare two additional scenarios at 3.5 per cent and 4.5 per cent for comparison. When the draft budget is released with the accompanying scenarios, Mayor Guthrie will continue engaging with the community throughout the fall budget process.

All Mayoral directions are publicly available at guelph.ca/mayoral-decisions.