Region of Queens councillors passed their capital budget last week. (Rick Conrad)

The Region of Queens got a head start on a big part of its budget last week by approving its five-year, $54.3-million capital plan.

It includes more than $27 million in projects for this fiscal year alone.

Councillors wanted to approve their capital budget earlier this year so that municipal staff could work on issuing tenders before the spring.

“The purpose of bringing the capital investment plan to council at this point is so that we’ve got as much runway as possible before the fiscal year starts on April 1st,” said CAO Willa Thorpe, “so that staff have the opportunity to go to tender on projects with the runway of between January and April.”

The extension of water and sewer to the Mount Pleasant area of Liverpool accounts for almost $10 million of the 2026/27 spending.

Another $1.4 million is being set aside to upgrade and extend two kilometres of the main water transmission line from the South Queens Water Treatment Facility to Union

Street in Liverpool, and to upgrade the water main from Roy Turner Road to Mersey Avenue.

Some councillors want staff to fast track the replacement of existing water infrastructure before adding new areas.

So they voted to hire a consultant to analyze the costs and timeline of the main water line project.

Adam Grant, the region’s director of infrastructure, said it would probably take from six to nine months to get a report back.

District 6 Coun. Stewart Jenkins had many questions for staff about the capital plan.

He wanted to know why projects take so long to get done. 

“Would it not be better to stop anything new and just get these projects done so we can have a fixed cost on it? … Why are we adding more projects on when we can’t get ones finished?”

Grant said staff try to strike a balance between ongoing projects and new ones added to the list.

“There are a lot of projects on there. I think each year … we try to trim them off and council would like to add some… . So we try to balance it out what we can complete. What’s pertinent, and what’s unnecessary, trying to prioritize in that fashion.”

Mayor Scott Christian said it’s council, not staff, that adds work to the list. He said Thorpe, Grant and Finance Director Joanne Veinotte have told him they’re trying to improve the process.

“There is a concerted effort to be more realistic, what we’re budgeting for the projects that we actually expect to be done, and improvements with respect to the way that we’re making decisions about what we’re doing in-house, and what we’re shopping out and subcontracting out. So it would be my expectation that moving forward, we are going to improve that in terms of achieving the work in the year that we’re funding it.”

Some of the projects that have been held over, like the wall at the Old Burial Ground or the new Gorham Street planter between Home Hardware and Celeste’s Hair Salon on Main Street, caught Jenkins’s attention.

“How do we justify a planter at in excess of $97,000 for plants?” he asked Grant.

Grant said it’s actually a vital retaining structure in the walkway from Main Street to the waterfront.

“So it’s a couple hundred metres long. 
It’s brick, it’s 12 feet to 16 feet high in spots, it does have plants into it. But it’s a lot more than just a planter with some shrubbery. It’s being improved, I guess, for accessibility, as well as retention purposes, to protect the pedestrians.”

Jenkins also had some work of his own to add to the list. Councillors approved his motion to add $200,000 to the capital budget this year to work on dry hydrants around Queens County.

They are vital for many of the region’s fire departments to be able to access water sources.

Jenkins said that before his concerns were addressed, he was ready to vote against the budget. But he said he would vote for it even though he still had some reservations.

Councillors voted unanimously to pass the region’s 2026-31 capital investment plan.

Next up will be the region’s operating budget. Councillors are set to begin debating that on Feb. 24. Residents can have their say by filling out a survey on the region’s website.

Some of the 2026/27 spending highlights in the Region of Queens capital investment plan:

• Accessible washrooms, universal playpark at Queens Place: $425,810 (federal gas tax funding)
• Gorham Street planter rehabilitation: $97,630 (municipal reserves)
• Thomas H. Raddall Library renovations: $111,490 (federal gas tax)
• Old Burial Ground wall rehabilitation: $173,440 (municipal reserves)
• Queens Place LED light refit: $78,000 (municipal reserves)
• Queens Place roof remediation: $70,000 (municipal reserves)
• Sidewalk Millard to Harley Umphrey Section 1: $519,192 (municipal surplus)
• Astor Theatre improvements Year 1: $1,090,499 (municipal surplus)

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Deputy Mayor Maddie Charlton chaired the Dec. 19 special council meeting on the capital budget. (Region of Queens YouTube)

Region of Queens councillors had some tough questions for senior staff on Friday afternoon as they pored over their five-year, $57-million capital budget.

Elected officials were concerned about the timeline for water and sewer improvements in Liverpool as part of the $26-million Mount Pleasant extension.

They also wanted to know more about projects like the South Queens Outdoor Pool and planned upgrades at the Astor Theatre. And there were concerns about the municipality’s long-term debt.

District 3 Coun. Courtney Wentzell returned to an issue he’s brought up before about extending water and wastewater services to the Mount Pleasant area to connect two planned housing developments to the system. That project is supported with $10.7 million in provincial funding.

“With the loss of treatable water and with us … hiking the water rates, and then going ahead and starting a project to send transmissible water up Mount Pleasant Street before you fix the issue down here on (the west side of) town, … it does not make sense to me, and it never will. 28/29 before you fix the problem? No.”

The region’s current plan calls for $9.7 million in work to begin this coming year to run new water mains to the Mount Pleasant area and upgrade existing infrastructure en route. Work on other, older parts of the system is now scheduled to begin in 2028/29. The end date to finish the overall project has been pushed to 2032/2033, from the original finish date of 2028/29.

But with South Queens Water Utility reporting more than 60 per cent of its treated water lost through leaks in the system, Wentzell says he wants to see older pipes, like the lines and laterals from Roy Turner Road to Union Street, fixed first.

“Isn’t this all one big project now?” Wentzell asked.

“
Isn’t this all just one project or is the Mount Pleasant exchange separate getting up to Dauphinee Farms than the rest of Liverpool? I’m lost. I’m trying to expedite and get the old infrastructure fixed before we start driving pressureless water up a hill.”

Adam Grant, the region’s director of infrastructure, said the contracts are already awarded for the work to Mount Pleasant. And he said fixing one line won’t solve all their water woes.

“I wouldn’t expect to see 60 per cent of it be in that one segment of line. As we know, it’s spread throughout the town. 
So if we accomplish 10 per cent, we should be satisfied. I don’t want to set false expectations that replacing that transmission main, it’s gonna save all of our beans that are falling out of our basket.”

Councillors asked staff to return in January with options to expedite upgrades to older water and sewer lines in Liverpool.

District 6 Coun. Stewart Jenkins questioned Grant and Finance Director Joanne Veinotte about cost overruns at the $8-million South Queens Outdoor Pool.

Veinotte said that in trying to keep the project on budget, some details were missed like the $150,000 wraparound concrete bleachers.

“How can you miss $150,000 of cement bleachers?” Jenkins said. “I don’t understand it.”

Grant said many different departments rushed to finalize the pool design for tender. And some things were overlooked.

CAO Willa Thorpe, who was not with the municipality when council approved the pool plan, said that won’t happen again. 

“When we, as an organization, make hasty decisions on major projects, these are how items like this get missed,” she told councillors.

“So if we were to explore a project of this magnitude again in future, staff will take a different approach.”

Jenkins also wondered why the region is planning to spend about $5 million on heating, cooling and accessibility upgrades at the municipally owned Town Hall Arts and Cultural Centre, home of the Astor Theatre.

“I can’t believe we’re going to spend $5.4 million, when we have poverty, and we have leaking pipes, and we have everything else to spend money on, but we’re going to spend $5.4 million, for something that is not used by very many people in Queens County, and many of them have never been inside. So I think we should be considering that in our budget deliberations.”

Other councillors said the municipality has put off necessary upgrades at the Astor for a while. They said the facility is used well now and it could be used more with a modern HVAC system. It’s currently limited in what it can offer in warmer months because there’s no air conditioning.

Councillors also asked staff for a list of how the $10.2-million accumulated surplus will be spent. If they approve the current capital plan, that surplus is projected to drop to $1.7 million by 2031. 

And if they approve the proposed five-year capital plan, they’d also be voting to rack up the region’s long-term debt to $26 million by 2032.

Deputy Mayor Maddie Charlton, who chaired the meeting because Mayor Scott Christian was away, said council is heading in the right direction.

And she said residents can participate in the budget process by filling out a survey on the region’s website here: https://www.regionofqueens.com/budget-engagement.

“And so you can say what’s working well, what’s not working well,” Charlton told QCCR. “Recognizing we have financial implications. we can’t do everything, but I think if we hear from people and there’s overarching themes or gaps and things that we’re missing, then it really positions council to make decisions about those items moving forward.”

Councillors will be back on Jan. 13 to vote on the capital budget.

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Region of Queens Municipality administration building. (Rick Conrad photo)

Region of Queens councillors will discuss the municipality’s five-year, $50-million capital budget on Friday afternoon.

The region is getting an earlier start on its budget talks this year. The plan is to approve the capital spending estimates by January so that tenders can be issued earlier in the year to get work started more quickly.

While some projects are under budget, like renovations for the library space at the Liverpool Business Development Centre and the upgrades at Beach Meadows Beach, others are running over.

For example, staff are reporting funding shortfalls with the $8-million South Queens Outdoor Pool. Overall cost overruns are estimated at about $150,000, with just over $4 million in costs to date.

The expansion of water and wastewater services to the Mount Pleasant area is running a little behind schedule and over original budget estimates.

The project, which was initially projected to cost about $22 million, is now expected to cost $26 million.

Councillors will discuss the capital budget in a special council meeting on Friday at 3 p.m. at council chambers on White Point Road.

Region of Queens Mayor Scott Christian. (Rick Conrad)

NOTE: This story has been updated from the original version. The region has changed the date of their first meeting to discuss the draft capital budget to Dec. 19.

The Region of Queens is kickstarting its budget talks.

The last couple of years, the region began its budget deliberations in April and passed its operating and capital budgets in May. That’s after the fiscal year begins.

For the upcoming 2026-27 fiscal year, though, the region plans to start the process much earlier.

In April, Mayor Scott Christian told QCCR the delays in starting budget talks were due to staffing shortages. And that the next round of budget talks would begin much earlier.

“In an ideal world, I’d like to see the capital budget approved in December and have a draft of the operating budget available for public input in January,” he said.

And that’s what the region is planning, or close to it. A special council meeting has been called for Dec. 19 at 3 p.m. to review the draft capital budget, which contains big infrastructure projects like water and wastewater improvements, as well as other work on municipally owned facilities.

Christian said in April that regional council wants to be able to take a more thoughtful approach.

“We want to make it as engaging, transparent as possible for members. And we also want it to be a thoughtful, deliberate, intentional, patient approach.”

In a note on their website, the region said that passing the capital budget in the spring makes it difficult for tenders to be issued and awarded in a timely fashion. Approving it earlier means that projects can start sooner.

In May, councillors approved a five-year, $46.2-million capital investment plan, along with their $31-million operating budget.

Councillors are expected to approve the region’s 2026-27 capital plan at council’s first meeting of 2026 on Jan. 13.

The 2026-27 operating budget is scheduled to be introduced at the regular council meeting on Feb. 24. Councillors will debate it for a month, with an anticipated approval at the end of March.

The draft capital budget documents will likely be posted on the region’s website on Dec. 10.

The special council meeting about the draft capital budget will be held in council chambers on Fri., Dec. 19 at 3 p.m. It will also be livestreamed on the region’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. 

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The Region of Queens approved its 2024/25 budgets on Monday. (Rick Conrad)

Region of Queens council approved a balanced budget on Monday with no tax rate increases and almost $30 million in spending.

At a special meeting, councillors also approved a $21.5-million capital budget, which includes the start of big projects like the water and sewer extension to the Mount Pleasant area and the new outdoor community pool at Queens Place Emera Centre.

Spending is up about $4 million from last year, to $29,848,303. The region’s water utility reported a $442,122 deficit.

Mayor Darlene Norman said in an interview that it was important to councillors not to increase the tax rate.

“We live in a great county and the budget reflects the fact that we are moving ahead,” she said.

“Many things in the budget remain the same. We’ve increased funding for fire departments for their truck purchases. The cost of those trucks is astronomical and we know how as volunteers how hard they work.

“It’s a good budget, it recognizes some requests from all parts of our county.”

Council committed an extra $126,772 in 2024/25 to help the county’s five fire departments with the rising costs of replacing fire trucks.

It also raised the household income threshold for the low-income tax exemption by $5,000. Property owners with a total income of $35,000 or less can qualify for up to $400 off their tax bill. The tiered structure gives the highest break for the lowest income.

“We understand that people financially struggle,” Norman said, “which is why … we increased the amount of money that people can make in order to claim a reduction on their taxes, … which is very generous, I believe, for a municipality of our size.”

The region reported a $644,000 surplus from last year, largely from rising property assessments, higher deed transfer tax revenue and unintended savings from unfilled staff positions. 

The region’s capital plan is packed.

CAO Cody Joudry said in an interview that it addresses a lot of concerns around the municipality.

“In terms of capital budget, it’s expansion of water, wastewater, there’s a lot of safety improvements and upgrades and a lot of investment in infrastructure and community assets, so I think that’s pretty significant.”

A little more than $7.8 million of the $21.5-million capital budget for 24/25 is provincial funding. Almost $2.5 million is from federal sources. About $3.8 million is from long-term borrowing, while $3.53 million is from a combination of municipal reserves and municipal surplus.

In addition to the new pool and the water and sewer extension, some other capital projects include:

• more work at Beach Meadows Beach to expand the parking lot, install sheltered picnic areas and improve environmental protections;
• much-needed repairs and upgrades at the Old Burial Ground in Liverpool;
• continued work on the Liverpool Business Development Centre to install a new heating, ventilation and cooling system;
• renovations to make the business development centre, otherwise known as the call centre space, ready for the temporary home of the Thomas H. Raddall Library;
• the early design work to install accessible washrooms at the inclusive play park and splash pad near Queens Place.

“There are things on there that are very important,” Norman said. “Of course, they will not all get done (this year), but by putting them on here, it shows that these are priorities and start them, do the best that you can do with them.”

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