Lee Bott Wainfleet Town Council
Primary Issue

Taxes and Municipal Finances

Property taxation is Lee Bott's central policy focus. Rather than relying on slogans, this page uses the Township of Wainfleet's own published tax-rate schedules and budget information so residents can examine the numbers for themselves.

Property tax bills are not determined by one rate alone. Wainfleet explains that individual annual property taxes are calculated using a property's assessment and the tax rates set by the Township, Niagara Region and the Province, with other applicable components such as waste management and transit shown in the annual tax-rate schedules. Actual bills can therefore vary by property. Source: Township of Wainfleet, Property Taxes

Increase in the combined Residential/Farm rate from 2020 to 2026: approximately 35.28%.

What Happened to a $5,000 Wainfleet Property Tax Bill?

Consider a Wainfleet Residential/Farm property that paid exactly $5,000 in total property taxes in 2020. To isolate the effect of changing published tax rates, this example holds the property's taxable assessment constant.

At Wainfleet's published 2020 combined Residential/Farm rate of 1.425864%, a $5,000 tax bill corresponds to a taxable assessment of approximately $350,665. Applying each year's published combined rate to that same assessment produces the illustration below.

$5,000 in 2020 $6,763.80 in 2026

Fixed-assessment illustration using published combined Residential/Farm tax rates.

Sources: 2020 tax rates (PDF) · 2026 tax rates (PDF)

+$1,763.80

per year

+35.28%

2020 to 2026

Modeled result, not an average homeowner outcome.

Under this fixed-assessment model, the annual tax bill rises from $5,000 in 2020 to approximately $6,763.80 in 2026. That is $1,763.80 more per year, an increase of approximately 35.28%. The 2026 difference is equivalent to about $146.98 per month. From 2021 through 2026, the modeled homeowner would pay approximately $5,734.77 more in cumulative taxes than if the annual bill had remained at $5,000.

Actual individual property-tax bills may differ because assessments, classifications and property-specific circumstances can change.

Modeled annual property tax, 2020–2026

Modeled fixed-assessment illustration, not an average homeowner result. Based on the Township's published combined Residential/Farm tax rates.

Tax illustration: fixed assessment of approximately $350,665, modeled from a $5,000 bill in 2020
Year Official combined residential rate Increase from prior year Modeled property tax Increase vs. 2020
20201.425864%—$5,000.00—
20211.476381%3.54%$5,177.15+$177.15
20221.563575%5.91%$5,482.90+$482.90
20231.648226%5.41%$5,779.74+$779.74
20241.733493%5.17%$6,078.75+$1,078.75
20251.840058%6.15%$6,452.43+$1,452.43
20261.928852%4.83%$6,763.80+$1,763.80

Calculation method: modeled annual tax = $5,000 × (current-year combined Residential/Farm rate ÷ 2020 combined Residential/Farm rate).

Official tax-rate sources for the table

Broader Budget and Spending Context

Wainfleet publishes annual operating and capital budgets and retains independent auditors to report on prior-year financial activity. The Township's public Budget and Financial Reports archive contains final budgets from 2017 through 2026 and financial statements for recent years.

Budget figures show what Council approved or planned. Audited financial statements show historical financial results. They should not be treated as interchangeable accounting measures.

Residents who want to evaluate whether taxes and spending are delivering appropriate value should be able to review the source documents directly. This website should therefore link to the Township's public budget archive rather than asking readers to rely on campaign summaries alone.