How fairly is Brant County’s tax money split across five wards?

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Which ward of Brant County gets the most? Staff say it’s hard to quantify.

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Of the 20-plus smaller communities that make up the municipality, Paris, the most urban, is often seen as the favourite. It falls within two of the county’s five wards which, although smallest geographically, make up the largest ward populations.

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“Why does Paris get most tax dollars?” wrote one respondent to a 2026 budget survey.

“Paris is not the only part of Brant County … I am tired of paying taxes for Paris,” another wrote.

The list of 12 “major” — meaning priced over $10 million — capital projects in the county’s long-term financial plan shows why some people might feel this way.

More than half the listed projects directly involve Paris, according to a report councillors saw at a meeting earlier this month.

This includes:

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• a wastewater treatment plant and additional water source for Paris
• the reconstruction of Grand River Street
• work on the southwest Paris development area
• a Brant Sports Complex expansion
• a new main library branch.

Coun. John Bell would like to see a ward-by-ward breakdown of tax revenues, as well as capital and operational expenditures.

The sentiment of ward inequity is one that “festers” and led Coun. John Bell to request a ward-by-ward breakdown of tax revenues, as well as capital and operational expenditures.

“Too often we end up in a split of votes between rural and urban councillors based on this sense that there isn’t equity in the spending of our tax dollars,” Bell told his fellow councillors at the meeting.

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But in addition to the time such a report would take, classifying costs like facilities, service infrastructure and road works would be challenging, county staff said.

For instance, Rest Acres Road is scheduled for improvements. It’s located in Ward 3 of the county, but as a main transportation route for traffic from other wards, could be seen to benefit multiple areas, said Heather Boyd, the county’s general manager of corporate services, in an interview with The Hamilton Spectator.

Facilities like community centres pose a similar conundrum. Are they seen as a countywide benefit, do they count strictly toward the ward they’re located in, “or do we need to do an in-depth analysis of what ward the users are from?” Boyd said.

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For capital investments like a new snowplow, there is a similar question of whether to attribute it to the ward where it parks, or to the wards where it actually operates.

“Finally, this would have to be evaluated over a number of years, because, for logistical reasons, often a number of projects are planned in the same geographic area in a particular year to minimize disruption. In any given year, this could sway the investment towards one ward or another,” Boyd said.

Bell’s request did not get enough support to pass, but he still thinks ward equity is something council will need to “get our heads around.”

“I think it’ll be an important issue when it comes into the next election cycle. It’s going to be something that people will ask us,” he added.

Celeste Percy-Beauregard is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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