Peterborough city staff presented councillors with a draft of the 2024 municipal budget on November 6. The budget proposes hiking property taxes by 9.6 percent next year to continue delivering municipal services.

What's behind the increase? Inflation is one cause. Another is a big budget ask from the Peterborough Police — they're asking for $4.6 million more in 2024 than they received in 2023.

But the budget isn't set in stone. Councillors will debate it over the next month before  giving it final approval. Peterborough Currents has teamed up with Arthur Newspaper to bring you a podcast series covering the municipal budget deliberations. 

In this first episode of the series, we discuss our initial reactions to the draft budget and we also check in with Harry Kitchen, a retired Trent University economics professor with an interest in municipal finance.

Kitchen argues that of all the taxes we pay in Canada, municipal property taxes offer the most bang for your buck. He says it’s the “lowest of all the taxes you pay, and you’re getting the most services for that tax.” 

We hope this podcast helps you understand this year's municipal budget process better. Got any questions? Send them our way and we'll try to answer them on future episodes.

CREDITS: Written and produced by Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay and Brett Throop. Hosted by Sebastian, Brett, and Will Pearson. Music by Jordan Cook.

PLEASE SUPPORT PETERBOROUGH CURRENTS: Peterborough Currents relies on local community members to fund our work. To continue producing journalism in 2024, we need more support. Can you pitch in $15 per month? Here's where you can sign up: https://peterboroughcurrents.ca/support-us/