Contentious budget meeting in Cambridge

Councillors in Cambridge said they were blindsided ahead of a meeting to discuss the 2026 Strong Mayor budget. CTV’s Krista Simpson explains.

Cambridge’s second meeting for councillors to propose and vote on amendments to the 2026 budget got off to a rocky start, similar to the first meeting.

Monday evening’s meeting was paused early on, after two councillors raised concerns that new documents had been provided to them when they arrived.

“I’d like to have some time to review them before we begin the discussion,” councillor Corey Kimpson said.

Councillor Mike Devine did not mince words about what he thought.

“What’s been done here is wrong. It should not happen, and it should never happen again. Every councillor has the right to read this stuff at their leisure.”

Devine went on to say, “I’m disgusted, to be honest with you.”

Councillors were given a thirty minute recess to go over the material.

City Manager Rob Axiak said what councillors had been given was a written version of what had already been relayed verbally.

“We as staff just added our comments that we had already provided to the members of council at the first meeting on to that document. There was nothing new. This was just the added commentary that we believed that they were looking for to remain consistent.”

The first budget meeting on Nov. 17 also got off to a rocky start, when some councillors were told their amendments were being pulled from the agenda and they couldn’t publicly ask questions of staff. Both decisions were later overturned.

Councillor Corey Kimpson said all the pivots throughout this process have been a challenge.

“For something such as a budget meeting, which is quite possibly one of the most important meetings that a city council has for the residents of the community that we represent, to have a process that is not formalized, that has multiple changes, that has all of these pivots - it makes it difficult to follow along and to be able to concentrate specifically on the task at hand, which is to making sure that we bring forward a budget that meets the needs of the community while being fiscally responsible,” Kimpson told CTV Tuesday.

Axiak said there’s already a plan to collect councillor feedback to improve the next budget process.

“Definitely if there’s ways to clean up this process to make it easier for them, because they do have a hard job in terms of making these decisions, most definitely. And that’s what we’re going to be doing, some feedback with them to help improve the system for the following year.”

On Monday evening, councillors voted on 13 amendments. Only one impacts the tax levy: a decision to take $2.4 million out of the rate stabilization reserve, reducing this year’s increase to taxpayers to 2.44 per cent.

The mayor now has 10 days to veto any of the amendments.

Mayor Jan Liggett noted at the end of Monday’s meeting that if she decides to use her veto powers, notice will be provided publicly and to council in writing.

The next budget meeting will then happen on Dec. 15.

A two-thirds majority of council can overturn any of the mayor’s vetoes at that time.

Zac Spicer, an associate professor at the School of Public Policy and Administration at York University, said municipalities are still navigating a relatively new budget process under the strong mayor powers. Cambridge was awarded them in 2023, making this the second strong mayor budget for the city.

“We’ve seen the budget process get a little more heated in a number of different communities across Ontario. The strong mayor powers are still very new. And so there is a bit of a feeling out process,” Spicer said.

Spicer also pointed out this is also the last budget before the 2026 municipal elections, and those budgets tend to be more contentious as well.

Spicer said strong mayor powers make the mayor the agenda setter, with councillors now taking on a more reactive role.

“With this legislative change, the mayor is ultimately responsible for what is in the budget, and the mayor is going to have to go out and knock on doors and explain the budget,” Spicer explained. “And there’s a lot of people who are going to say, ‘Well, you know, if my taxes went up or this didn’t get funded, why was that?’ And so, before the mayor could say, ‘Well, you know, I tried my best, but the rest of council, they had different priorities.’ Now voters can turn around and say, ‘Well, it’s on you. What’s going on?’ So that’s a sizable change.

“So it’s understandable that a lot of mayors would want to have more control over that process I think, because they’re ultimately going to be responsible for it,” Spicer said.