County of Brant Council received the 2025 Year in Review report during its regular council meeting on Tuesday, March 24, 2026.
Presented by Halie Gilmore, Manager of Corporate Initiatives, the review provides a snapshot look at what the Corporation of the County of Brant achieved last year.
“A year in review is really helpful for the County to take stock of all the great work that’s happening across the organization,” said Gilmore. “It helps us reflect on annual progress and prepare for a successful year ahead. It helps us recognize staff achievement and contributions. It keeps Council and the community informed, and helps to enhance transparency. It helps drive investment and interest in our community, and also enhances community understanding of the County’s work and the scope of work.”
The 2025 report was organized into five different strategic priorities, including economic and financial resilience, focused growth and infrastructure, healthy, safe and engaged communities, stable and responsive governance, and finally environmental sustainability and climate action.
Using key data statistics and metrics from each of the five sections, Gilmore shared a few of the following highlights from the review.
- Economic and Financial Resilience:
- Experienced high growth in industrial, commercial and institutional construction value.
- Secured $45.8 million in external funding through various grant applications to offset growth and infrastructure costs for residents.
- Completed the Long-Term Financial Plan and the Asset Management Plan Strategy.
- Awarded excellence in business support and economic development for the work in the Downtown Dig.
- Supported 36 special events processed by the Special Event Advisory Team, drawing an estimated 128,000 attendees to the County.
- Focused Growth and Infrastructure:
- Completed the first ever Housing Needs Assessment and Growth Tracking Model to guide sustainable growth for the future.
- Operations Department coordinated the planning, design, procurement and/or delivery of $96 million of capital projects.
- Supported the design and construction of major infrastructure (bridges and culverts, roadways, and more).
- Invested in new community assets and emergency infrastructure to meet growing and evolving community needs.
- Healthy, Safe, and Engaged Communities:
- Over 7,100 people participated in recreation programs, including over 1,000 seniors and 220 Seniors Active Living Drop-in Centre members.
- Invested $200,000 in accessibility upgrades across County facilities.
- Put a strong emphasis on improving pedestrian safety, community connectivity, well-being, and belonging.
- 27,017 Brant Transit rides were taken, achieving the 2025 target and increasing 7.4 per cent over 2024.
- Strengthened emergency response and community health. Fire Services responded to 1,145 incidents, completed 420 inspections and trained 16 new volunteer firefighters. Paramedic Services responded to 33,866 calls, and Enforcement Services responded to 2,414 calls.
- Stable and Responsive Governance:
- Provided customer service, including over 48,800 phone calls supported by Customer Service Team
- Modernized workplaces to support effective service delivery
- Adopted digital tools to enhance operations and foster transparency
- A total of 24 new and emerging leaders completed the Future Ready Leadership Training Program through Mohawk College Enterprise.
- Environmental Sustainability and Climate Action:
- Advanced the implementation of the Climate Action Plan.
- Five grant applications submitted to support climate action and environmental sustainability.
- Secured $80,000 in grant funding to advance climate action initiatives.
- Installed six EV chargers installed at four major community facilities, exceeding CAP targets.
- Planted 7,500 trees through park improvements, street trees, community events, and ecological restoration projects.
Following Gilmore’s presentation, Councillor Steve Howes said the report was phenomenal.
“It’s just so informative and it’s a little bit like a report card, in the sense that it’s covering different subjects and how we are doing,” he said. “…Now you start to see where the tax dollars go, and it’s a story worth telling.”
Councillor John Peirce also shared similar sentiments, saying there were a few things that stood out to him in particular.
“It’s hard to fathom this; that 386,611 people used our trails; that’s over 1,059 a day. That’s fantastic. You could have picked a number out of the air, and I don’t think anybody would have guessed that our trails are used that much. The other thing was the riverfront access; over 95,000 people used our riverfront access’. …If you put it all together, that’s almost a half a million people using our trails and riverfront. …That’s absolutely fantastic.”
Peirce also pointed out the numbers regarding emergency services.
“Fire Services responded to 1,145 incidents; that’s three every single day of the year. People don’t understand that. Paramedics responded to 33,866 calls; that’s 92 calls a day,” he said. “The information here is, I’m sure, shocking for a lot of people, but it is the facts. Look at our own enforcement officers; 2,414 calls, that’s six calls a day for every single day of the year. It goes to show you that there’s a lot of stuff happening in the County.”
Both Mayor David Bailey and Councillor David Miller also took the time to express their gratitude for everyone who works within the Corporation of the County of Brant, saying they were proud of the work happening.
Councillor John Bell added that the report did a good job at providing residents with a big picture of what’s being done in the County, but that he would have liked to see a few more things included in the review.
“I think this report actually is really helpful in terms of saying, just step back and look at the big picture. We are providing a terrific service and we’re doing an awful lot,” he said. “I do think we could have been slightly more humble and said there were a few things we didn’t actually finish, or that we didn’t do as well as we wanted to do. Another piece that I would put in if there was an opportunity to edit it, and that would be to look at how we compare with others.”
The report was later received for information.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
