Mayor Drew Dilkens Directs Hiring Freeze at City Hall

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Today, Mayor Drew Dilkens announced a corporate hiring freeze for all permanent full-time positions at the City of Windsor.

In anticipation of significant budget pressures in preparation of the 2025 City of Windsor budget, Mayor Dilkens, pursuant to Part VI.1 of the Municipal Act, 2001, issued a Mayoral Decision to immediately implement a corporate hiring freeze for all full-time permanent positions at the City.

This will be subject to a review by the Chief Administrative Officer of each position for operational needs.

On September 10, the City of Windsor launched the Mayor’s Budget Consultation Process to provide an additional avenue for Council engagement and resident feedback to support the 2025 City Budget.

This included establishing three finance committees of Councillors, in accordance with S. 284.8 of the Municipal Act, 2001, to examine the possibility for operational and service-level savings in all City departments. 

Beginning the week of September 23, 2024, and sitting at a frequency as recommended by a committee chair, each committee will work alongside appropriate City commissioners and staff to explore options and submit their recommendations to City administration for consideration in the 2025 City Budget. The committees will have all reasonable resources required from City administration to undertake this work.

Quotes:

“Earlier this week, I established three finance committees of Councillors to examine and provide recommendations for operational and service savings in the 2025 City Budget. Today, I’m taking an additional step to honour my campaign commitment to keep budgets in line with inflation by implementing an immediate corporate hiring freeze at the City of Windsor. Together, we can keep Windsor affordable while continuing to make the investments necessary for Building Windsor’s Future.”
- Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens

Additional Information: 

  • In accordance with the Municipal Act, the Mayor is required to table an annual budget for City Council’s consideration on or before February 1st each year.
  • The City’s 2024 Budget, finalized in February, with a 3.91% municipal tax levy increase, included all proposed amendments from City Council, continued to pay down legacy debt, increase reserves and invested in growth, and included a $1.9 billion 10-year capital budget to sustain the city’s future development. 
  • In May 2024, City Council unanimously approved a budget amendment to increase the municipal tax levy by an additional 0.7% to support the Strengthen the Core Downtown Windsor Revitalization Plan. 
  • Council’s fiscally responsible approach to the city budget has saved Windsor taxpayers a cumulative $1.38 billion since 2008. Since 2006, Windsor residents have experienced a total increase in their tax levy of only 12% versus the provincial average of 67%.
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