Facing 300% tax hike, northern Ont. community to dissolve Aug. 1

The village of Fauquier-Strickland in northern Ontario, facing a 300 per cent tax increase and facing a massive debt load, has decided to cease all municipal operations and lay off all employees effective August 1, 2025.

The small community of just over 400 people, northwest of Timmins, has accumulated more than $2.5 million in operating deficits over the past decade and has exhausted all of its financial reserves.

In a letter to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Mayor Madeleine Tremblay warned that the village is on the verge of complete financial collapse, and that if that happens, residents will be left without essential services and a major crisis will arise that will ultimately require costly provincial intervention.

The municipality had tried to reduce the tax increase to 26 per cent by taking out a $2 million loan and making drastic budget cuts, but the bank is demanding financial information that will not be available until 2026. This has created an administrative gridlock that is beyond the council’s control.

“We can’t get the necessary loan because the necessary documentation is not there, and we have to continue providing essential services without the necessary funding, unless we implement an unprecedented and unsustainable tax increase,” Tremblay said.

The village has been asking the provincial government for help since 2021, but the only response it has received has been that no assistance will be available until the 2024 audited financial statements are submitted. The mayor has described the situation as a bureaucratic loophole that has trapped the community in an impossible situation.

Fauquier-Strickland currently has three part-time and five full-time employees and is the largest employer in the area. It has not even been able to apply for summer student grants this year.

In approving the dissolution, the council also set aside the sale of the village’s snowplow for scrap due to the high cost of repairs.

The mayor finally asked the Minister of Municipal Affairs to prevent the collapse of services and a public health and safety crisis in the region by dispatching a special observer and allocating emergency funding.

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