Spending and saving priorities

Learn how we budget to deliver programs and services that are important to you while also investing for the future.

Supporting our strategic plan

Waterloo creates a strategic plan every four years to guide the council term. It identifies our top priorities and how we work towards accomplishing our goals. Here are some strategic plan funding highlights:

$1 million to improve winter sidewalk maintenance for better accessibility
$303,000 to develop new and inclusive programs, increase support for youth, and expand our Fee Assistance program to better meet the needs of our diverse community
$158,000 for climate and sustainability funding, working with groups like ClimateActionWR, Waterloo Region Community Energy, SustainableWR and REEP

Maintaining service levels

We want to maintain the services you're used to while making sure taxes stay fair. This involves supporting current service levels, with funding examples like:

$148,500 to help achieve the city's affordable housing goals, including progress on the Affordable Housing Strategy
$206,000 for software maintenance, licenses and subscriptions, covering rising costs
$135,000 to design, install and maintain audio-visual systems at city facilities

Investing in facilities and infrastructure

Ongoing funding supports our facilities and infrastructure growth. For the 2024 to 2026 staff tabled budget, the city is focusing on:

$400,000 for preventative building maintenance, addressing known issues and avoiding costly repairs
$130,000 towards an outdoor water technician and maintenance of our growing pool of splash pads and water features

$1.3 million for our infrastructure reserve fund, closing the annual tax funding gap for tax-based assets

Funding capital projects

Our capital budget provides money for programs, initiatives and infrastructure projects that help build a strong and sustainable community.

For the 2024 to 2026 budget, we will focus on a wide variety of projects with some highlights below:

Indigenous gathering space
facility transformational projects
Bridgeport Road and Margaret Avenue park project
Albert McCormick Community Centre renovations, including the library
uptown rink renewal
installing a trail around the Laurel Creek Conservation Area
digital strategy implementation

Finding savings and efficiencies

The 2024 to 2026 approved budget includes 1.75 million in budget savings, equal to 1.81% in tax savings.

The city also makes ongoing improvements that may not directly save money but help deliver better service and prevent future costs. We are doing this by:

streamlining our development approval process so that housing can be brought to market faster
improving accessibility and customer service by offering an on-demand interpretation service in over 240 languages
buying 6 zero-emissions vehicles to save on fuel and repair costs and decrease greenhouse gas emissions

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