Ottawa's Budget Demystified

How Your Property Taxes Pay for City Services

Average residential property tax bill

URBAN

RURAL

Average Tax Bill
City Wide: $1,787
Police: $533
Transit: $572
Fire: $310
Garbage: $82
Total: $3,283

$314,500

average assessment value

Average Tax Bill
City Wide: $1,787
Police: $533
Transit: $49
Fire: $148
Garbage: $82
Total: $2,598

$314,500

average assessment value
Graphical brace to summary box beneeath
Combined, everyone pays

$1.4 Billion in Property Taxes

(Residential + Commercial)

Total City Revenue

Ottawa has other sources of funding beyond property taxes

Other Revenue:

  • For every $100 in property taxes, it receives another $85 from other sources.
  • Government transfers, including PILT**, account for $46
  • User fees/fines, which includes items like bus fare, facility fees, and library fines, account for $32
  • The remaining $7 comes from such things as municipal funds, reserves, and interest income
**  
PILT = Payment In Lieu of Taxes. Federal and provincial governments are not subject to municipal taxes, but the two governments make payments that approximate the relevant property taxes for services received.

$2.5 Billion in Total Revenue

$185 per $100 of Property Taxes Collected

The city is expecting to spend $2.5 Billion in 2013

Largest Categories:

  • Community and Protective Services (CPS) accounts for just over $1 billion in spending, funding programs like the fire department, paramedics, and child care.
  • Transit accounts for $450 million, primarily funding OC Transpo and Para Transpo.
  • Finance and Economic Development accounts for $405 million, which includes debt costs ($81 million), increasing the capital reserve ($89 million), and general government operations.
  • Policing accounts for $278 million, of which over 80% is personnel

Where your property taxes are being spent

Government payments and user fees are tied to certain programs

Your property taxes pay for everything that's not covered by these

For every $100 paid in property taxes:

  • $32.20 spent on Community and Protective Services ($528 million in total)
  • $22.10 spent on Finance and Economic Development ($362 million in total)
  • $16.30 spent on Policing ($268 million in total)
  • $14.50 spent on Transit ($238 million in total)
  • $8.50 spent on Transport ($140 million in total)
  • The top 5 categories account for over $93 of every $100 in property tax dollars spent

Allocating Revenue to Expenses

Who pays for the various services


Keep going to see the City's Investment Plan

These investments should benefit residents for years or decades to come


Background


Each of these visualizations use the 2013 tax-supported budget data from the City of Ottawa's site. The actual budget document (17MB PDF) was used for additional detail.

Property tax allocations assume government funding and user fees/fines are allocated as described in budget documents, and remaining sources of funds (of which property taxes and PILT account for ~95%) are allocated on a pro rata basis.

Water/sewer charges are excluded, as taxpayers already see those separately on their bill.

Totals may not add due to rounding.


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