FAQs

A transparent process for the City to apply to all user fees across the corporation, that balances the needs for municipal services with the costs associated with offering them.

The user fee framework is still in development and will not impact the 2026 budget or user fees for next year. Based on current timelines, the outcome of this work may impact the user fees that staff will recommend for 2027 and beyond.

In general, user fees are an important aspect of the annual City budget and represent a significant source of revenue for the municipality. Revenues are important to offset costs incurred by the City and can be used to fund expansion or addition of new programs and services.

User fees in recreation and transit have a direct impact on all Hamilton residents, including those that are most vulnerable in our communities, and generate the largest portion of user fee revenue for the City. This project focuses on recreation and transit user fees as a starting point, but the final outcome is designed to be scalable and can be replicated to all user fees across all divisions.