Let's Build a Better Madoc Township

Note from Ben: I try to be thorough, but there is a lot of information on this page, and some of it took real digging to find and cross-reference. I am not trying to attack our individual Council members or our staff – I believe they are working hard, even when they make mistakes or exercise poor judgement. At the same time, I believe the public record speaks for itself – people just need some help pulling all the pieces together. My goal is transparency, not an agenda where anyone is bad or anyone else is perfect.

So on this page more than anywhere else on this site: if I have missed something or misstated it, I would be genuinely grateful for the correction. Email me at info@buildabettermadoctownship.ca, send a text, or call 613-849-7762, and I will happily make any necessary correction. Every change and correction I make to this page will be listed in the Changes and Corrections log below, so it will always be crystal clear if I got something wrong – and how.

How Municipal Taxes Work: Three Taxes, One Envelope

Before anything else on this page makes sense, you need to know what is actually inside a property tax bill in Madoc Township. It is one bill, but it contains three separate taxes, set by three different governments and collected together by the Township.

The Township portion – about two-thirds of the bill. This is the only part Madoc Township Council votes on. It pays for the services people usually mean when they say “the township”: fire protection, roads, the Township office, by-law enforcement, recreation, and waste sites. Every budget increase this Council passes applies to this portion and no other.

The County portion – a little over a fifth of the bill. Hastings County sets this levy to fund its own responsibilities, including county roads, land ambulance, social services, and long-term care. Madoc Township Council does not vote on the County budget; Madoc Township is represented at County Council by its Mayor.

The Education portion – about a tenth of the bill. The Province of Ontario sets the education rates to fund school boards. No member of township Council has any say over this portion.

The exact figures below come from the Township’s own 2025 Rate Calculation – the schedule underlying By-law 1759-2025, the tax-rates by-law Council passed on May 7, 2025.

For a residential property, the 2025 tax rates were:

Portion2025 rateShare of the bill
Township of Madoc0.01109663about 69%
Hastings County0.00352337about 22%
Education (Province)0.00153000about 9%
Total0.01615000100%

These three rates add up to exactly 0.01615000 – the residential rate Council adopted in section 1 of By-law 1759-2025.

A worked example. The Township’s 2025 Rate Calculation shows total residential and farm assessment of about $208.1 million; the 2021 Census counts 868 occupied private dwellings in the Township. That works out to an average assessed value of roughly $240,000 – far below what homes here sell for today, because Ontario’s property assessments are still based on January 1, 2016 values. Using that $240,000 benchmark, a typical home’s total 2025 tax bill was about $3,876, of which:

  • about $2,663 went to the Township,
  • about $846 went to Hastings County,
  • about $367 went to education.

Update – October 2026. The Township’s interim treasurer has provided a current levy breakdown in response to a candidate request. The total levy now stands at $4,107,950, distributed as follows: Township of Madoc $2,754,472 (about 67%), Hastings County $881,871 (about 21%), and Education $471,607 (about 12%). Measured against the 2025 levy of $2,628,338, the Township’s own increase this year is $126,134 – about 4.80%. Notably, that is the smallest mover of the three portions this year: the shares of the bill carried by the County and by Education have both grown, which is why the Township’s share of the total bill has slipped from about 69% to about 67% even as its levy rose. And it is worth stating plainly: this restraint arrives in an election year, following two consecutive double-digit increases (11.22% in 2024, 12.87% in 2025) – the kind of increases that would not have played well. Residents are entitled to notice the timing.

Why this matters for everything else on this page. When this page discusses the Township’s tax increases – 4.64% in 2023, 11.22% in 2024, 12.87% in 2025, and 4.80% this year – those percentages apply to the Township portion only: the part of your bill this Council actually controls and votes on. Measuring a Council by what it voted for is the fairest test there is; no councillor here can raise or lower the County’s budget by a dollar, and none can touch education rates at all.

Update – October 2026: shares of the bill. For 2022 through 2025, that second point was fair – and the record on this page documents it: the Township’s own levy rose 33.7% over four budgets while the County’s levy and the Province’s education rates grew slowly, and the pressure on Madoc Township property taxpayers came chiefly from Township Hall. The levy breakdown the interim treasurer has now provided shows this year breaking that pattern: the Township’s own increase is $126,134 – about 4.80% – which appears to be the smallest mover of the three portions this year, and the Township’s share of the total levy has slipped to about 67%, with Education now carrying about 12%. This year, the pressure on Madoc Township property taxpayers is coming from all three levels at once.

Every figure in this section is drawn from the Township’s own published documents, listed below.

The Tax Trajectory

Municipal tax levy increases, from Council’s own minutes and budgets:

  • 2022: 2.30% planned / 1.82% as passed – passed at 1.82% only by moving $14,000 from reserves to cover the county levy (Motion #22-155). The motion itself states the cause: “That Council approves the Tax Rate Increase of 1.82% by using $14,000 from reserves to cover the Hastings County Tax Levy” (carried; Council minutes, May 4, 2022). The budget discussion the same evening records why: “Hastings County Levy was more than we expected which increased the rate… Council agreed to take $14,000 out of reserves to have the tax rate be 1.82%.”
  • 2023: 4.64% – “That Council approve the budget at 4.64%” (Motion #23-114, carried; budget meeting minutes, April 5, 2023)
  • 2024: 11.22% – first passed at 8.79%, then changed to 11.22% on July 3, 2024 (Motion #189-24): “That Council rescind motion #119-24 and make a new motion to pass the 2024 budget with a municipal tax levy of 11.22%” (carried; no recorded vote; Council minutes, July 3, 2024)
  • 2025: 12.87% – total levy $2,628,338, up from $2,328,550 (By-law 1759-2025, the Final Tax Levy by-law)
  • 2026: $2,754,472 – an increase of $126,134 (+4.80%) over the 2025 levy, per the levy breakdown provided by the Township’s interim treasurer (October 2026)

That was a 33.7% compounded increase over the first four budgets of this Council’s term – and adding this year’s 4.80% brings the five-budget compounded total to about 40.2%. A resident’s municipal tax bill has gone up by more than a third since 2022.

Sources: Madoc Township Council minutes of May 4, 2022 (regular meeting, item 9.2.12, Motion #22-155; and budget discussion), April 5, 2023 (budget meeting), and July 3, 2024 (Motion #189-24); By-law 1759-2025 (2025 Final Tax Levy); audited financial statements. All quotations are verbatim from the minutes as adopted.; Ministry of Finance, 2026 OMPF Treasurer/Clerk-Treasurer letter, October 31, 2025 (ontario.ca)

The Paperwork Problem

  • The township’s financial statements have been substantially incomplete – audited statements were delivered a minimum of 18 months after year-end, and later years remain outstanding.
  • Provincial funding (roughly $730,000 per year in OMPF and OCIF transfers) has been withheld amid compliance concerns, as reported by Quinte News (September 3, 2026). The Township released a press release on September 10, 2026 which claims that everything is fine. Specifically, regarding the OMPF (Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund): “The OMPF funding is currently on holdback, pending submission of the FIR’s (Financial Information Returns). Upon submission of the FIR’s, the money will be released. It is not frozen.”  One might, of course, question the distinction between a holdback and a freeze in this specific circumstance, given that the press release makes no attempt to explain how the two differ. At the end of the day, nearly three-quarters of a million dollars of planned funding is currently unavailable because under the current Council’s leadership, this Township has not filed a single Financial Information Return due during the current Council’s term. On June 20, 2024, it filed the overdue 2022 fiscal year FIR, with absolutely nothing since. Under the Ministry of Finance’s published payment schedule for 2026, OMPF arrives in quarterly installments – paid at the end of January, April, July, and October – meaning roughly $182,500 of this funding comes into question with each quarterly installment that passes while the filings remain outstanding. The Ministry’s 2026 Treasurer letter states that OMPF payments are subject to holdback for municipalities that do not comply with reporting obligations, and that such holdbacks continue “until these documents have been filed.”

These are not opinions. They are the township’s own filings, its own minutes, and public reporting on its own funding.

Sources: Township of Madoc 2025 Rate Calculation (schedule to By-law 1759-2025); Township audited financial statements; Quinte News, Sept 3, 2026; Township of Madoc press release, Sept 10, 2026 (madoc.ca); Council minutes; Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (Madoc Township occupied private dwellings); MPAC, The Assessment Cycle (mpac.ca).

Who Voted For What? Usually, We Can’t Tell

Every Ontario Council votes in public, and the law requires minutes to record resolutions, decisions and proceedings (Municipal Act, 2001, s.239(7)). But unless a councillor asks for a recorded vote under s.246 – which any member may do, before or immediately after any vote – the minutes simply say “CARRIED.”

That does not make the vote secret, and it is not unlawful. Everyone in the room heard it. But when minutes don’t name who voted how, residents who want to know their councillor’s position can only reconstruct it the hard way: attending in person, or reviewing hours of recordings, interpreting procedure, and inferring from silence. That is a real barrier of time, accessibility and civic knowledge – a burden of accountability shifted from elected officials and the Clerk onto the residents themselves. The Ontario Ombudsman’s Open Meetings Guide says minutes “should be more detailed than just a list of resolutions” and must include “all votes taken,” and recommends audio or video recording of meetings “to ensure the most thorough record possible” – a supplement to, not a substitute for, a record residents can actually read.

The numbers in this term’s minutes (January 2023 to present):

  • 5 recorded votes. In roughly ninety meetings.
  • January 18, 2023 – meeting start time (2-2; Mayor Blackburn broke the tie).
  • February 16, 2024 – Bannockburn Road paving (4-1; Councillor Rowe against).
  • March 6, 2024 – land donation (Councillor Rowe against).
  • November 13, 2024 – Acting Fire Chief appointment (4-1; Councillor Rowe against).
  • June 9, 2026 – a recorded vote on deferring the declaration of a Council seat vacancy that had existed in law since spring 2023 (see “The Vacancy Question” below). Declaring the vacancy was not a choice Council could make or defer; it was an obligation imposed by provincial statute. The recorded vote shows three members voting to postpone compliance with it.
  • 2025: zero recorded votes, across about twenty meetings and roughly three hundred motions.
  • The 2024 budget correction – from 8.79% to 11.22% (Motion #189-24, July 3, 2024) – was not among them. Neither were the Integrity Commissioner’s recommendations (Motion #231-24).

For comparison, the archived minutes of the previous term (2020-2022) show 2 recorded votes. (Those archived minutes do not include 2019.)

This is not an accusation of wrongdoing – ordinary unrecorded votes are how the Act is written, and no one is obliged to explain a vote the minutes don’t record. It is simply what the public record contains: on most decisions of this term, including the largest tax increase, there is no named vote for a resident to find.

My commitment: a recorded vote costs nothing and takes seconds. As Councillor, Ben Robinson will request a recorded vote on every budget motion and every major expenditure, so residents always know exactly where their representatives stood.

Sources: Madoc Township Council minutes (2020-2026, as published at madoc.ca; archived copies held by this campaign); Municipal Act, 2001, ss.239(7), 244, 246 (ontario.ca/laws); Ontario Ombudsman, Open Meetings Guide for Municipalities, “Voting and records.” Counts are of recorded votes appearing in the adopted minutes.

The Vacancy Question – Settled Law

In 2019, a Toronto city councillor missed the deadline to file his personal financial disclosure after an election. He argued it was an honest mistake. The Court of Appeal disagreed – unanimously.

  • Karygiannis v. Toronto (City), 2020 ONCA 411: the Ontario Court of Appeal held that under the Municipal Elections Act, missing the filing deadline means the seat is vacated automatically – no Council vote needed, no discretion, no good-faith exception.
  • The Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear the appeal. And the principle is broader than a missed deadline: a candidate who files a defective disclosure statement is treated the same under the Act as one who does not file at all. The law is settled.

Filing is a personal responsibility of each candidate. Notification doesn’t change it, and neither does a later resignation. That’s not a partisan claim – it’s the plain text of the statute and the highest Ontario court’s reading of it.

Sources: Karygiannis v. Toronto (City), 2020 ONCA 411 (canlii.org); Municipal Elections Act, 1996, s. 88.23 (ontario.ca/laws).

Check It Yourself

If you believe anything on this page is inaccurate, send a message at ben@buildabettermadoctownship.ca clearly stating the nature of the issue and the correction you are requesting. If the facts show that a correction is needed, it will be made, publicly.

Changes and Corrections

This page was published on September 11, 2026. Any corrections or changes made after publication will be listed here, with the date and a description of what changed.

September 25, 2026 – Correction. The provincial funding item above said the Township filed the overdue 2022 fiscal year FIR in July of 2024. The Province’s FIR database records the filing date as June 20, 2024. The correction does not change the item’s point: the filing was more than a year late, and nothing has been filed since.

September 29, 2026 – Correction and addition. The provincial funding item above originally described “Provincial and federal funding.” The funding in question – OMPF and OCIF – is entirely provincial, and the reference to federal funding was wrong; it now reads “Provincial funding.” I have also added the Province’s own payment schedule for the OMPF: quarterly installments, paid at the end of January, April, July, and October, with payments subject to holdback – continuing until overdue filings are submitted – for municipalities that do not meet their reporting obligations. With the annual envelope at roughly $730,000, each quarterly installment puts about $182,500 at stake. The $730,000 annual figure itself is unchanged: it is the combined OMPF and OCIF line in the Township’s 2026 budget, as reported by Quinte News.

October 1, 2026 – Correction and apology. I discovered that my October calendar on the homepage was rendering improperly, with October 1st incorrectly listed as a Wednesday. October 1st was, in fact, a Thursday. My apologies to anyone who had incorrect dates on the community calendar, particularly in the printed editions prior to this date.

October 6, 2026 – Update. The Township’s interim treasurer has provided a levy breakdown in response to a candidate request. The finance section has been updated with the most recent figures: a total levy of $4,107,950, comprising $2,754,472 for the Township of Madoc, $881,871 for Hastings County, and $471,607 for Education. The Township’s own increase this year is $126,134 (+4.80%) over the 2025 levy of $2,628,338 – the smallest of the three portions this year. The figures previously published on this page were the most up-to-date available at the time of writing and remain on the page above, cited to By-law 1759-2025. The analysis of how the tax bill is shared between the three portions has been updated on the same basis.