Treasurer/Clerk-Treasurer Letter

October 20, 2023

Dear Treasurer/Clerk-Treasurer:

In the October 20 letter to Heads of Council, the Minister of Finance announced the 2024 Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) municipal allocations. This letter provides additional information regarding your municipality’s 2024 OMPF allocation.

2024 OMPF

For 2024, the government is maintaining the overall structure of the $500 million OMPF, while ensuring that the program continues to be responsive to municipal circumstances. This means the core grant components of the program and Transitional Assistance will provide support as outlined below:

• The Assessment Equalization Grant component will provide $149 million to support municipalities with limited property assessment.
• The Rural Communities Grant component will provide $155 million in recognition of the challenges of rural municipalities, including rural farming communities.
• The Northern Communities Grant component will provide $90 million in recognition of the challenges of northern municipalities.
• The Northern and Rural Fiscal Circumstances Grant component will provide $94 million to support northern and rural municipalities with the more challenging fiscal circumstances.
• Consistent with prior years, Transitional Assistance will ensure that municipalities in northern Ontario receive at least 90 per cent of their 2023 OMPF allocation, and municipalities in southern Ontario receive at least 85 per cent. Municipalities in all regions of the province with the most challenging fiscal circumstances will continue to have their funding enhanced up to 100 per cent of the prior year’s allocation.

Additional 2024 OMPF information is available in the following supporting materials.

2024 OMPF — Supporting material

To assist municipalities in understanding the OMPF and their individual 2024 allocations, the Ministry of Finance provides detailed and customized supporting documentation:

1. 2024 OMPF Allocation Notice and Inserts
2. 2024 OMPF Technical Guide
3. Municipal Workbooks

A. 2024 OMPF Allocation Notice and Inserts

The OMPF Allocation Notice and Inserts outline individual municipal OMPF allocations by grant component, and also provide a summary of 2024 key data inputs. A municipality’s 2024 allocation is noted on line A.

B. 2024 OMPF Technical Guide

The 2024 OMPF Technical Guide provides information with respect to individual grant thresholds, parameters and data sources.

C. 2024 Municipal Workbooks

The 2024 OMPF Workbook and the 2024 Northern and Rural Municipal Fiscal Circumstances Index (MFCI) Workbook (if applicable) provide detailed calculations of the 2024 OMPF grant components, the determination of the Northern and Rural MFCI, and outline all underlying data elements.

These workbooks will be provided electronically to municipal treasurers and clerk-treasurers in the coming weeks.

The 2024 OMPF Technical Guide, as well as municipal allocations, are also available electronically on the Ministry’s website.

2024 Payment schedule

The 2024 Cash Flow Notice identifies your municipality’s quarterly payment schedule. Payments will be processed at the end of January, April, July, and October 2024. As outlined in the following section, OMPF payments are subject to holdback for municipalities that do not comply with applicable reporting requirements.

2024 Reporting obligations

As you know, OMPF payments are subject to compliance with the program’s reporting obligations.

Specifically, municipalities are required to submit Financial Information Returns (FIR) to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) and tax-rate bylaws through the Online Property Tax Analysis (OPTA) system or to MMAH as outlined in the following schedule:

2024 OMPF Reporting Obligations

2023 FIRs	By May 31, 2024
2024 tax-rates	By August 31, 2024

Payments for municipalities that do not meet their 2024 reporting obligations will be subject to holdback, beginning with the 2024 fourth quarterly payment, until these documents have been filed.

If you require additional information regarding the OMPF, you may e-mail your inquiries and contact information to: info.ompf@ontario.ca.

In closing, we would like to thank you for your ongoing partnership. We look forward to continuing to work with you on the OMPF.

Sincerely,

Original signed by

Ian Freeman
Assistant Deputy Minister
Provincial-Local Finance Division

c.

Caspar Hall
Assistant Deputy Minister
Local Government Policy Division
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing

Hannah Evans
Assistant Deputy Minister
Municipal Services Division
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing