Northumberland County council had budget deliberations scheduled Monday morning, though no discussion took place in public.
As reported last month, more than $2.4 million more in reductions were still needed for County council to meet its target of a five per cent increase to the tax levy in the 2026 budget (https://todaysnorthumberland.ca/2025/08/17/most-cost-savings-needed-for-northumberland-county-to-meet-levy-increase-target-for-2026-budget/)
On Monday, Director of Finance/Treasurer Matthew Nitsch said since last month’s deliberations staff have continued to look at challenges the County is facing along with potential options for reducing the levy impact. He noted there is a proposed budget report that meets the 5% target.
“There are a couple of things we need to discuss,” Nitsch said. “I would like to stress that this plan or this pathway includes everything that we’re going to talk about later on as well as all the potential items that were identified in the last meeting.”
Nitsch said the plan was to go into a closed session first to talk about three items before he went through the report so council could deliberate with all of the information available.
Council went into closed session for nearly three hours and when they returned just after 12 p.m., passed a motion to defer budget discussions to a further council meeting.
The 1 p.m. Public Works Committee meeting was cancelled.
Monday afternoon, Warden Brian Ostrander issued a statement announcing that longtime County employee Jennifer Moore was no longer serving as CAO, effective immediately.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
