It was the case of a budget that almost wasn’t.

After an overview of a proposed 11 percent tax hike from County Director of Finance and IT Aaryn McNichol and Interim CAO Adam Goheen Monday night, Wellington Councillor Corey Engelsdorfer put forward a motion to refer the entire budget package back to staff for further refinement and cost savings.

The motion called for staff to return with a “revised draft budget reflecting a cost of inflation increase only, while identifying any corresponding impacts on staffing and service levels.”

The motion failed. Mayor Ferguson and Councillors Grosso, Roberts, Maynard, Hirsch, Branderhorst, St-Jean, and MacNaughton were opposed. Councillors Engelsdorfer, Prinzen, Nieman, Braney, Harrison, and Pennell voted in favour.

The councillor said it wasn’t a slight against the herculean task County staff had completed and what CAO Goheen called the most collaborative and exhaustive budget process in his eight years with the municipality. Rather it was a reflection of the precarious nature the community finds itself in. An 11 per cent increase is a hike Prince Edward County can’t absorb and the data bears this out.

According to the 2025 Vital Signs report, the median after-tax household income in PEC is just over $75,000— well below the provincial median of $85,000.

“That gap matters. It means many households here earn less than what is considered a living wage, and therefore may already be struggling to cover basic necessities like housing, transportation, childcare, and food,” the Councilor said. “With every double digit tax increase, we push a new group of residents closer to that edge of unaffordability.” The Councillor also took issue with comparative stats in the 2025 Budget Book that indicate neighbours in Quinte West and Brighton are spending more of their household income on municipal taxes than residents in Prince Edward County. “This shouldn’t be a race to the bottom in terms of affordability.”

It was clear some fellow councillors were caught off guard by the motion.

Councillor Janice Maynard said staff had worked tirelessly since the summer to develop a proposal, now it was up to council to do theirs by going line-by-line to reduce the tax levy to a number that they could agree upon.

Opposed

Councillor Phil St-Jean was more animated in his response to the motion, noting staff had arrived at a number that was “their best option” and the process now falls to Council to determine wants and needs for the community.

“It’s our job now,” Mr. St-Jean said. “It’s not up to staff to tell us what our community wants.”

He added a more fulsome public consultation process through the Budget Book and Monday night’s overview has better informed the public of the financial situation the municipality finds itself in. Decades of neglecting infrastructure maintenance and reconstruction needs are coming home to roost as the provincially-mandated Asset Management Plan places the County on the clock to improve its 1,100 km road network.

It was the Councillor’s position the general public has digested the County’s financial situation. That’s based on the lack of electronic dialogue and phone calls since the draft budget was presented to the community.

“Where is the public? 10 emails from Wellington-on-the-Lake and three from the rest of the County,” he said, crediting the fantastic job municipal staff have done with disseminating budget information in clear language.

“The situation we are in has taken 30 years to get here, we now have to dig out of that 30 year hole. And I’m afraid it starts in 2026.”