Belleville refuses to provide approved budget spreadsheets

On May 28, 2026, copies of the spreadsheets containing the approved operating budget details were requested from the Clerk’s Office.

CSV/spreadsheet copies of all the approved budget tables included in the Operating Budget Detail document that is published annually as part of the Operating Budget (see attached) for the years 2022 to 2026, inclusive.

The Operating Budget Detail document is a PDF that contains a line-by-line breakdown of all the City’s revenues and expenses for the year. It is reported in PDF format during annual Operating Budget approval meetings, and is saved from a spreadsheet maintained by the Finance Department.

Each line item is identified by an Account Code from the Chart of Accounts, for example:

• 1-8-9000485-052 – How much Transit Administration (9000485) can spend on consulting fees
• 1-8-1000300-0530 – How much Council (1000300) can spend on legal expenses
• 1-8-4200700-0141 – How much QSWC (4200700) can spend in interest on long-term debt

It also includes the actual amounts spent in previous years.

This data could be used to analyze how the City has opted to spend property taxes and answer questions including:

• How much was spending above or below the budgeted amounts?
• What accounts or departments have increased the most?
• Have increases been at, above or below inflation?
• What areas could be assessed to find savings?

City takes over 2 weeks to reject the request

The Clerk’s Office forwarded the inquiry to the Director of Finance/Treasurer the next day (May 29) and advised to follow up in 2 weeks if a response hadn’t bee received. A follow up was sent June 16 and the Clerk’s Office advised that the inquiry should be sent to the Director and Manager directly and the inquiry was forwarded to them.

After reviewing the request, the Finance Department offered the PDF versions of the Operating Budget documents for the years 2022 through 2026, but did not provide the spreadsheet versions.

The City was asked what the reasoning was behind the refusal to provide the spreadsheets and advised that they were necessary to access the City’s approved budget data without having to copy and paste individual values manually from the PDFs. The response was:

The budget information has been provided in the same format in which it is publicly presented and maintained as the City’s official budget document.

Belleville says its committed to routine disclosure

Belleville’s Routine Disclosure and Active Dissemination Policy states that the City is committed to the routine and proactive release of records and information that does not contain personal or confidential information:

The City of Belleville is committed to the routine and proactive release of records and information that does not contain personal or confidential information. This approach reduces the need for formal Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and improves public access to information.

This policy applies to public records in the custody of the City of Belleville and does not apply to information or records which may be subject to an exemption under the MFIPPA or any other law, policy or agreement.

Historical budget spreadsheets approved by Council should not contain personal or confidential information.

A Freedom of Information request has been submitted to produce copies of the spreadsheets.