Windsor's 2025 budget pitches changes to dog licences, $30K on geese management and higher user fees

City council is considering a change to dog licences, increasing paid parking hours and hiking the fees businesses pay to operate in Windsor, Ont. 

These items are all part of the proposed 2025 budget, which will be dated by council on Jan. 27. 

Prepared by the mayor with the help of senior administration, the budget includes proposals from three separate committees made up of city councillors.

The increase is 2.99 per cent, about $99 for the average homeowner, following decades of tax increases at or below the rate of inflation. 

This budget includes new spending, fee hikes and a warning from staff that council can't keep taxes low without impacting city services. 

Here are some of the recommended items under consideration in this year's budget.

1st hike to business licence fees since 2016

Staff have done a line-by-line review of all user fees and business licences to make sure the city is recovering costs. 

Business owners pay an initial fee and an annual renewal fee to operate in Windsor. 

Those will go up by an average of 30.5 per cent and 25.7 per cent, if the budget is approved, increasing the average initial fee to $379 and the average annual renewal fee to $303, respectively.

As an example, someone opening a retail store will now pay $320 as an initial fee and $238 for annual renewal. 

These fees, which aim to cover inspection and enforcement costs, haven't increased since 2016, according to the city. 

New rodent control fee, rise in paid parking hours

The fees people pay for a long list of city services are rising by varying amounts, and the city will make its previously free rodent control program a paid service. 

Copies of legal documents, environmental inspection fees, building permit service fees and Transit Windsor fares are some of the items going up by three per cent to keep with inflation.

Fees for services such as swimming and day camps are going up between three and six per cent in this proposed budget.

Parking costs will increase by about 25 cents an hour, the first rise since 2022, and there will be a $5 flat fee rate for all city parking lots between 6 p.m. and midnight. 

This budget also proposes eliminating free parking from 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. at parking meters in the city and raising parking fines by three or 11 per cent.

Combined, those parking changes will bring in about a million dollars in revenue each year. 

About two per cent of properties in Windsor annually use the city's free rodent control program. 

Council had previously approved charging people $20 for a rodent control service call, but deferred implementing the fee. This budget activates that fee and increases it to $25 per call. 

Removing geese eggs 

The city will spend $30,000 on a goose management strategy that will see a contractor remove as many goose eggs as possible from seven locations across Windsor.

That includes the entire riverfront, parts of Ganatchio Trail including Sandpoint Beach, Malden Park and Mic Mac Park. 

This comes after Ward 6 Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac said the geese population is getting out of control and becoming a safety hazard. 

She initially pitched a cull, or a selective slaughter, of the birds after a man told her he broke bones trying to avoid a flock of geese on the Ganatchio trail. 

"He swerved to avoid them. He was thrown from his bike and spent four days in the hospital with a broken collar bone and six broken ribs," she said at the time. 

Potential changes to dog licences

Council will consider another change to the dog licensing program that could make the program voluntary for everyone except for owners of dogs that are deemed a risk. 

It's one of three new options council will consider during the budget deliberation meeting. 

City staff members want council to continue with the current mandatory registration in 2025 and waive the fee if the dog is neutered and micro chipped. 

But that approach hasn't encouraged more people to get a licence, which means enforcement officers call up 3,000 people to get them registered. 

Staff suggest a switch to a voluntary program in 2026, alongside an educational campaign that outlines the benefits of a micro chipped and neutered pet.

The city would create a dog at risk registry for ones that have bitten, attacked or are deemed a public nuisance, which would require a licence with an increased cost of $150. 

Staff say it would free up bylaw officers for other priority tasks, estimating officers spend close to 500 hours chasing down non-compliant dog owners. 

That works out to 64 working days, which would be freed up under a voluntary program. 

Council warned low tax hikes lead to service cuts

Mayor Drew Dilkens said that, if approved, this increase would likely be the lowest in Ontario and continue years of increases either at or below the rate of inflation. 

But city staff continued to warn this type of budgeting comes at a cost.

"Increasing service demands resulting from the city's population growth and its vibrant economy has added to the challenge of sustaining the historically low levy increases," city staff wrote in budget documents. 

"It is no longer possible to find sufficient savings within the city-controlled budgets to offset the annual budget increases without a significant impact to existing municipal services."

It's the same warning staff stated last year in what Dilkens called an "almost pain-free" budget.

City council meets Jan. 27 to discuss this year's proposed budget.