What’s next for Chatham-Kent council: homelessness, growth and the budget

Michael Bondy won the race for Chatham-Kent mayor on Oct. 26, and in a few weeks he’ll sit down with a new council. The results are unofficial until the Municipal Clerk certifies them. Here’s how the mayor’s race played out.

The 2026–2030 term starts November 15, 2026. Council will be smaller this time, with 14 councillors instead of 17.

Three issues will be waiting from day one: homelessness, the cost of keeping up with growth, and the municipal budget. Here’s where each one stands, and what Bondy has said so far.

Key facts

• New term begins: November 15, 2026
• Homelessness: a record average of 228 people a month in 2025
• Infrastructure gap: $2.6 billion
• 2026 tax increase: 4.63%, about $172 for the average home
• Council size: 14 councillors, down from 17

Homelessness

More people in Chatham-Kent are without a home than ever before on record. In 2025, an average of 228 people each month were experiencing homelessness, and 127 of them were living on the street, according to a staff report that went to council in April.

The By-Name List peaked at 259 people last year, the highest it has ever been. Staff expect the number to reach about 300 by 2028.

Some help is already running. At Pathways on Park in south Chatham, 50 transitional cabins are open, with staff on site 24 hours a day. The federal government put more than $3.7 million toward them.

In June, council adopted a 25-year Strategic Housing Action Plan. Over its first 10 years, it aims for 400 affordable units, 50 supportive units and a 30% cut to the affordable housing waitlist.

That waitlist has about 1,400 households on it, and people waiting for rent-geared-to-income housing can be waiting more than seven years. Homelessness in Chatham-Kent is up 171% since 2019.

Bondy and Coun. Rhonda Jubenville both argued the plan should be left for the next council to decide, and Bondy proposed deferring it to November. The plan passed. Its first years of work now fall to the new council.

Infrastructure and growth

Chatham-Kent is growing faster than the province. A long-term financial plan presented to council put the population at about 113,000 after 1.23% growth in 2025, compared with 0.70% for Ontario, The Chatham Voice reported. Bondy, then a councillor, questioned the Statistics Canada estimate behind those numbers, calling it a guess rather than a real count.

The same report looked at the cost of keeping up the municipality’s aging assets. Chief financial officer Gord Quinton told council Chatham-Kent faces a $2.6-billion infrastructure gap. The report also mentioned the $14-million upgrade of the Third Street Bridge in Chatham.

Housing is part of the growth picture too. A housing needs assessment found Chatham-Kent needs 6,085 more housing units, including 1,835 affordable units.

At the 2026 AMO conference, the municipality took two infrastructure requests to the province, according to the Municipality of Chatham-Kent:

• Talbot Trail. About one kilometre of the road has been closed since 2019 because of shoreline erosion. The municipality asked for $4 million toward the $8-million cost of realigning it.
• Stormwater. It asked for provincial stormwater funding, pointing out that growth in Tilbury and Ridgetown depends on infrastructure upgrades.

Taxes and the budget

Council approved a 4.63% tax increase for 2026. For an average home, assessed at $176,194, that works out to about $172 more for the year.

It could have been higher. Staff had forecast an 8.77% increase before finding about $9.5 million in efficiencies.

This year’s increase is part of the 2024–2027 multi-year budget. So the new council’s first budget job is the 2027 update. After that, it writes the next multi-year budget.

Of the three issues, the budget is the one Bondy talked about on election night. He told The Chatham Voice his two immediate priorities are restructuring within the municipality and changing how the budget is handled.

“In the last 16 years of my terms, the budget has been very confusing to the public and frankly, confusing to council,” Bondy told The Chatham Voice. “The budget is what counts and we’re going to do that differently.”

He said cuts will come where inefficiencies are found. He also plans to review administration and departments to reduce overhead, starting once he’s sworn in, CKXS reported.

What happens next

First, the Municipal Clerk certifies the results. Then the mayor-elect and councillors make their declarations of office, and the 2026–2030 term begins on November 15, 2026.

See every race, ward by ward, on CKNow’s election results page, or read how turnout compared with past elections.