Mayor Leonard Foster says the municipality’s warrant is lower than last year’s
On Monday, Dec. 8, the Lakeland Ridges council approved a $2,707 million budget for 2026.
Mayor Leonard Foster says this budget will allow uncompleted projects from 2025 to continue in 2026 and will support the council’s long-term plans to grow the municipality and meet future needs.
Planning began in August to determine their 2026 requirements. Input came from council members, the four fire departments, and the public.
“Every budget is hard as you want to meet the needs of your residents with minimal impact,” said Foster.
“It will always be a challenge as we really have no control over what can and will be tossed at you. That is why council must be prudent with all decisions at all times, and be as transparent as possible.”
The final budget decisions were made after the municipality’s Finance Committee and staff worked together on various scenarios.
“In the end, we were able to present a budget with the least impact to our residents,” said Foster.
Concern about the 2026 budget began in May with the announcement of the Property Tax Assessment freeze. This year’s warrant was 4.21 per cent higher than last year’s, a significant drop compared to the 2025 10.27 per cent increase from 2024.
With four volunteer fire departments required to meet current insurance and safety regulations, Foster says fitting them in the budget was crucial, as they must continually update their gear.
“Our fire departments worked alongside DNR (Department of Natural Resources) in fighting the ‘Slash’ fire in August; this raised awareness to climate change challenges and made us rethink again our strategy regarding fire protection needs,” said Foster.
As a smaller municipality, most expenses are pre-established, with the council having limited discretion.
Foster says they continue to see increases in General Government Services and Protective Services, such as fire and police; however, they had a slight decrease in Environmental Health.
“We continue to evaluate long-term necessities in hopes our residents won’t need to experience any major cutback,” said Foster.
