The City of Peterborough’s budget for 2026 has officially been adopted by council, as of a December 8th, 2025 council meeting.

This budget presents an all-inclusive tax rate increase of 6.56%, divided between operating costs for the City’s internal departments (accounting for a 2.11% increase), infrastructure and capital needs towards the City’s capital projects (2.16%), sanitary sewer funding (0.53%) and funding for external agencies (1.76%).

These external agencies took up the bulk of discussions during the 2026 budget season, namely the Peterborough Police Services (PPS) operating budget. At the start of the budget process, Mayor Jeff Leal provided a direction under the use of strong mayor powers for the 2026 budget to contain a 10% increase in the PPS budget.

While PPS initially put forth a $41.5 million budget ask (or a 9.8% budget increase), unforeseen savings in benefits payments to PPS staff lowered the total police operating budget to $41.3 million (or a 9.22% increase). This remained, for many councillors, insufficient—on the second day of council’s budget hearings, council voted in favour of a motion from Town Ward Councillor Alex Bierk to send back the police budget for possible reductions.

The Police Services board made quick work of the request, sending back an identical budget ask after a 20-minute closed session. That same budget request was then received by council, despite Riel and Bierk’s attempts at once again returning the police budget.

This was insufficient for Ashburnham Ward Councillor Keith Riel, who made his gripes known on December 8th.

“The police budget is driving the entire tax increase,” he began.

“The reality is that the police budget alone pushes the tax burden over the threshold that many families simply cannot absorb. When one line dictates nearly the entire levy increase, it’s reasonable for council to step back and say ‘Is this sustainable?’” Riel said.

Another point of contention for Riel was Mayor Leal’s use of strong mayor powers directing the budget process.

“The mayor has repeatedly asserted that this is a council budget, but when the mayor is also the prime architect and defender of the [9.22%] police increase despite council's motion to reduce it, it undermines the principles of council as a whole,” he said. “If one person effectively dictates the most expensive component of the entire budget, then it is not a council budget.”

“That is not how municipal democracy is supposed to function.”

Defending his opposition to the budget, Riel expressed worry about the financial future of Peterborough.

“Without a long-term staffing plan, without performance metrics, without a multi-year strategy, approving almost a 10% for policing is simply not defensible,” he said. “My vote is not a vote against safety, it's a vote [for] fiscal responsibility, for transparency, for a balanced budget that reflects all of the community’s needs, not just one.”

This was a concern shared by Town Ward Councillor Alex Bierk.

“We’re dipping into reserves, we’re going into debt for our capital projects, which to me will lead to the next one, two, three terms of council being absolutely handcuffed,” he warned.

Ashburnham Ward Councillor Gary Baldwin inquired with City Treasurer Richard Freymond about next steps in case the 2026 budget were turned down.

“Legislatively, the budget process is the mayor’s budget,” said Freymond. “And I guess the first question would be, ‘Does the mayor wish to proceed?’ He, of course, right from the get-go… has permitted a very collaborative approach… I think we would hear from His Worship about whether or not he wants to continue with that approach… or exercise the authority that he has legislatively.”

Freymond also noted that the budget would become council’s if not approved by February 1st, 2026, and councillors would have to restart the budget process without any strong mayoral direction.

Northcrest Ward Councillor Andrew Beamer came in support of the budget, taking time to congratulate himself and his fellow councillors for the work done during their tenure.

“Between 2011 and 2023, which is well over a decade, the average tax increase in Peterborough was 2.7 [percent],” he noted. “On one hand, council did a very good job of keeping taxes low and fighting for the taxpayer. On the other hand, when you go over a decade with taxes at or below inflation, you're not investing as much in the community as you should.”

“Over the past few years, many of us have heard in the community the feeling that we're falling behind… on roads, we're falling behind on safety. So this council did invest more, and that meant higher taxes,” said Beamer.

One notable success of this council administration, for Beamer, has been the removal of encampments in local parks. The City’s municipal by-law enforcement responded to over 950 “illegal tenting matters” in 2025, which is triple to the estimated number of homeless indviduals reported by the City and United Way Peterborough’s 2024 Point in Time report. 

“Last election, the top two issues I heard by far was crime and safety… and #2, roads,” Beamer said.

“We’ve invested significantly in both… and that includes police and bylaw enforcement… What I heard at the door was ‘Get rid of the tents,’ and we're in a much better place today than we were three years ago.”

Despite his stated support of the budget, Beamer issued a warning to the mayor and his fellow councillors.

“Though we’ve been asked to invest significantly in roads, in infrastructure, and in by-law enforcement and crime, we do have to keep in mind that none of those expenses are sustainable,” said Beamer.

He listed three areas for savings in future budgets: external agencies, homelessness, and service efficiency.

“The police budget is not sustainable; it’s increased 50% over three years… We need to rein in external agencies,” he noted. “Obviously, the police budget is significantly larger than the homelessness budget, but this council has increased the homelessness budget by 70%. [The Trinity Community Centre costs] $2 million annually, that is one of the drivers of our higher tax increases.”

“There's going to be a service effectiveness and efficiency review,” added Beamer. “If we want to get taxes down, we are going to have to look at, some of you will call it efficiencies, I will call it cuts.”

Northcrest Ward Councillor Dave Haacke had his own ideas of where to save money in coming years.

“Next year, what you’re going to have to look at is… eliminating climate action. It should be a provincial and… a federal responsibility. It’s downloaded: Calgary just uploaded it back,” he said.

He noted these cities were looking at cuts to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) programs

“I'm not suggesting we necessarily do that, but that's what other communities are doing,” said Beamer.

“We have to look at helping the people that can help themselves. Manitoba and Saskatchewan have implemented mandatory treatment programs, and it's being uploaded,” he added. “Like it or not, that's what the City's going to have to look at.”

On the topic of the police budget, Otonabee Ward Councillor Kevin Duguay spoke of unforeseen revenue which might come of the construction of a new police station at 1421 Lansdowne Street and expansion of the existing 500 Water station, costed at $91.9 million in the 2026 budget.

“There’s approximately 3 1/2 acres in the front or northern portion of the property [that] remains available for future development,” said Duguay. “Perhaps by the time we consider our next budget, that will become a revenue opportunity.”

Following a presentation from Freymond about the proceedings of the 2026 budget thus far, Councillor Haacke moved to abridge the amendment period of the budget, set to 30 days by default. Haacke’s motion sought to shorten that period such that it would end on that evening, December 8th, such that the budget could be approved then and there.

For Town Ward Councillor Joy Lachica, this motion was an affront to the democratic nature of the budget process.

“This is clearly something that's been orchestrated and not shared with the rest of council,” she said. “We’re being denied 30 days to be able to review and to suggest and propose amendments to the strong mayor’s budget… it is… taking away the democratic ability of councillors around this table.”

Councillor Riel’s comments on the motion followed this sentiment.

“I hope the public takes notice of what's happening on December 8th,” he said. “This is a deep affront to democracy and the people and the citizens of Peterborough that elected us to do a job.”

“The people of the city of Peterborough deserve better from us… This is completely disgraceful,” added Riel.

With some pushback from Councillor Baldwin, who called the accusations of “orchestration” “absolutely, demonstrably false,” the motion went to a vote, which carried 7-4. Opposed were councillors Lachica, Bierk, Crowley and Riel.

A vote on the adoption of the entire budget immediately followed, and the City of Peterborough adopted its 2026 budget with an 8-3 majority. Opposed were councillors Lachica, Bierk and Riel.

Due to the motion passed to shorten the budget’s amendment period, deliberations over the 2026 budget are now complete, with it officially coming into effect January 1st.