Township of Blandford-Blenheim Council authorized its director of finance to prepare a fees and charges by-law during the most recent Council meeting on Wednesday, October 7, 2026.
Each year, the Township reviews the fees it charges residents, businesses and other users for municipal services, permits and other activities. These rates could include everything from Freedom of Information Requests to arena rentals, marriage licenses, park permits, zoning by-law amendment applications and more.
Director of Finance Denise Krug explained that she was bringing the proposed fees and charges report to ensure everything was in place for 2027 ahead of the upcoming municipal election.
“This year, we are moving forward a little earlier because of the elections,” said Krug. “We thought it made more sense for this Council to look at this rather than trying to ram it through in December to get them in place for the beginning of the year.”
She went on to say that staff have reviewed all the existing fees and charges, taking into account the costs associated with staff time, administration, materials, equipment and other resources required to deliver municipal services. Fees charged by neighbouring municipalities were also taken into consideration.
“There’s no new fees,” said Krug. “But there are some increases, and some of those are because of a change in contractor, and some are inflationary increases and whatnot.”
It should be noted that while the fees and charges have been broken down by each of the municipality’s departments, building permit fees and development charges are not being adjusted through the review as those are subject to separate annual indexing requirements.
Councillor Tina Young asked if it was possible for staff to look at reducing facility rental costs for community and service groups.
“My question is just if it’s possible to still have a conversation about how we can maybe support some of those groups that do some really important work in our community,” she asked.
CAO Josh Brick said that while not included in the fees and charges review at this time, staff have discussed the idea with Young and the topic remains on their radar.
“Staff had the opportunity to meet with Councillor Young and discuss that,” he said. “I think one of the things that we acknowledged at that point is that, there was some foundational work that would need to take place in terms of setting that service level, and seeking some Council approval on what a program like that could look like. It unfortunately didn’t make it onto this fees and charges iteration. But, I think it is something that’s certainly on our radar, and I think the Council can expect to see something more formal in the first months of the new term.”
Mayor Mark Peterson then asked if Young’s idea could be brought forward during budget deliberations and Brick said that it wouldn’t be exactly necessary.
“Based on those preliminary discussions, one of the angles that we had considered approaching it from was through our grants policy and just that general process having in-kind considerations for facility use,” said Brick. “As far as reserving funds to put towards a program like that, I’m not sure that that would necessarily be something we have to consider at budget time; it would more so be the opportunity cost of facilitating that type of program, than setting money aside for it itself. But staff will brainstorm additional ideas for Council consideration.”
Council then voted to receive Krug’s report, and authorized her to prepare a fees and charges by-law for the Wednesday, November 4, 2026, Council meeting.
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.
