City of Waterloo council summary - December 8, 2025

**The council summary below provides a snapshot of the major items presented at Monday’s council meeting. The council meeting webcast is available on the City of Waterloo YouTube page. Please refer to the minutes for an official record of the meeting.

City of Waterloo confirms 2026 budget

City of Waterloo Council confirmed the 6.4 per cent property tax increase for 2026, as previously approved in the City’s 2024-2026 three-year budget. The average household will see an increase of about $9 per month, or $107 annually, on their property tax bill.

More information regarding the budget confirmation is available in the City of Waterloo news release from earlier in the evening.

Funding release for pumping station to support west-end development

Council approved the funding release for the Laurel Creek Sanitary Pumping Station ($6,800,000 from the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund (HEWSF) Intake II, $2,900,000 from the Building Faster Fund (BFF) and $1,300,000 from Development Charges). Staff will proceed with tendering the Laurel Creek Sanitary Pumping Station, one of two new sanitary pumping stations to service the ultimate build out of the Beaver Creek Meadows district and the Erbsville North area to the west, which will enable up to an estimated 4,500 new housing units.

Parkview Crematorium services to transition to Southwest Crematoriums Ltd.

Council has approved the offer from Southwest Crematoriums Ltd. to lease and operate the Parkview Crematorium. The crematorium has been an important service for the Waterloo community, but cremation volumes and revenues have been declining. The city’s crematorium financial model has historically been built on strong relationships with local funeral homes; two of those local operators are expected to begin operating their own crematoriums within the next five years. Southwest will purchase the recently restored retort at full market value, and will honour all existing prepaid cremations. Cremations will continue to occur at Parkview. City of Waterloo staff will continue to operate Parkview Cemetery and provide final resting place options, including traditional burial lots, scattering gardens, and niches.

Council receives update on City infrastructure

Council received the 2025 Asset Management Update, providing status updates on the $4.96 billion of City-owned infrastructure, including roads, the pipes under the roads, parks, trails, bridges, buildings and vehicles. The City of Waterloo provides a large number of services and maintains critical infrastructure with limited financial resources. The ongoing monitoring and continuous improvement of asset management helps council and staff prioritize the maintenance, rehabilitation or replacement needed to maintain that infrastructure. The annual report cards offer a snapshot of the current status of the City’s infrastructure assets, including funding needs and funding gap. This information helps the City’s decision-making on funding the right type of repair or replacement at the right time.

The 2025 Asset Management Report Cards are available on the City’s website.

Eighty-eight per cent of City’s 2023-2026 Strategic Plan initiatives are either on track or complete

Staff presented the annual progress report on the City of Waterloo's 2023-2026 Strategic Plan. The report is a balance of qualitative and quantitative factors, including the status of the 2024-2026 Business Plans, Strategic Stories and Community Conversations.

The 2024-2026 Business Plan initiatives are the projects through which the City is delivering on the five Strategic Plan priorities of Reconciliation, Equity, Accessibility, Diversity and Inclusion; Environmental Sustainability and Climate Action; Complete Community; Infrastructure and Transportation Systems; and Innovation and Future Ready. Of the 87 initiatives, 16 are “complete”, and another 62 are underway and on track. Almost half of the initiatives that are “on track” (30 of 62) relate to ongoing operations that are progressing as planned, but because of their ongoing nature can never be deemed “complete”. Seven initiatives are in progress but delayed, and no initiatives are on hold or cancelled.

The report presented updates on the City’s Strategic Stories, six examples illustrating the work begin done to respond to community feedback and advance the City’s Strategic Priorities. The stories include updates on:

• more sidewalk clearing to improve winter mobility for everyone;
• transforming our facilities for net-zero;
• fire prevention, education and response for community safety;
• planning for affordable housing, and
• transitioning from web content to digital service.

Several Community Conversations feedback sessions were held throughout 2024 and 2025 to gather perspectives and feedback on the City’s efforts to advance Strategic Plan priorities. The engagement sessions included both informal neighbourhood drop-in sessions and more structured, strategic priority-focused sessions.  The strategic priority-focused Community Conversations sought feedback from participants with professional or volunteer expertise or lived experience related to one of the five Strategic Plan priorities. The first structured feedback session was held in 2024 and the remaining four in 2025. The report includes presented feedback from the four sessions hosted in 2025.

The entire progress report is available in the council packet (begins on page 99 of the document). The third and final progress report on the 2023-2026 Strategic Plan will be presented in the fall of 2026.

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Media contact:

Cari Van Niekerk
Director, Corporate Communications 
cari.vanniekerk@waterloo.ca