Annual budgets in most of Canada’s major cities are a mess – excluding key activities, using inconsistent accounting, burying crucial numbers where only experts can find them, and often voted well after the fiscal year has started, according the 2016 edition of the C.D. Howe Institute’s Municipal Fiscal Accountability report. In “Two Sets of Books at City Hall? Grading the Financial Reports of Canada’s Cities,” authors Benjamin Dachis, William B.P. Robson, and Jennifer Y. Tsao grade the financial presentations of major Canadian cities in their most recent budgets and financial reports.
The C.D. Howe Institute has released a grading of larger municipal cities ince the original report in 2016. Although some cities have improved, nothing has changed in Cobourg. If a grading were assigned to Cobourg, we would give it an “F”.
2022
Grading Fiscal Accountability of Canada’s Cities
2021
Grading Your Municipality’s Financial Transparency
2020
Budget Numbers in Canadian Cities: Progress and Hurdles
2019
From A to F: Grading the Fiscal Transparency of Canada’s Cities, 2019
2018
Grading the Financial Reports of Canada’s Municipalities
Fiscal Accountability – How to Improve Your Grades
2017
Fuzzy Finances: Grading the Financial Reports of Canada’s Municipalities
© 2022 Cobourg Taxpayers Association
