Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens says there's nothing to hide in the 2026 draft budget.
"I'm all about openness and transparency," says Dilkens. "I've said at the beginning with respect to budget that there are no sacred cows."
He told AM800's Mornings with Mike and Meg, he's asked administration to go back and look at the budget to see if any items can be moved from in-camera to the public session.
Dilkens is responding after Engage Windsor, a local organization announced on Monday that it's requested the Ontario Ombudsman review the city's decision to withhold 54 budget items from the public, totalling over $9.5 million in cuts.
The mayor says when bringing a zero per cent increase, there are no sacred cows, and he's completely fine with items being discussed in public based on the laws in place.
"When we're bringing in a zero budget for the residents of the city of Windsor, there are no sacred cows, and so the administration decides when they bring every report forward to city council; they decide what should be in-camera or the public based on the law that is in place," says Dilkens.
He says in-camera items deal with employment matters, labour relations, security of the property of the corporation, and legal items.
"If there's anything that we can make public of the things you brought forward in-camera, let's do it, there's nothing to hide here, let's go ahead and do that," he says. "So I'm sure they're going to undertake the review and decide if there's anything else they can move from the in camera agenda to the public agenda as it relates to different budget items."
Dilkens says the budget document and the process have been the same for about 18 years.
"At the end of the day, we want to have a robust discussion on what the impacts are going to be to the city," says Dilkens. "I think the residents will see that the impacts are very, very small when it comes to delivering the zero budget this year because we've been very surgical and very deliberate about what we're doing in terms of expense cutting and revenue generation to try and bring a zero budget for 2026 to the residents of the city of Windsor."
The budget was tabled on December 29 by the mayor and includes a proposed zero per cent tax rate increase.
According to the budget document, there are dozens of line items that do not contain any details surrounding the proposed cuts; they are only listed as labour relations items that will be discussed in-camera, as they involve staffing or personnel issues.
The dozens of items to be discussed in-camera include an over $2.6 million cut in the operating budget to an item listed as Housing and Children's Services.
A public meeting for delegations to discuss the proposed budget is set for Monday, January 12, while the items scheduled for an in-camera meeting will be discussed behind closed doors on January 26.
— with files from AM800's Rusty Thomson