--- title: "Update on Owen Sound’s $28.4 million external debt" public_url: https://helpos.ca/c/owen-sound-council/8659/update-on-owen-sounds-286-million-external-debt author: Andrii Zvorygin community: Owen Sound Council published: 2026-08-14T20:45:07.797946Z updated: 2026-09-14 source_retrieved: 2026-09-14 America/Toronto --- Update on Owen Sound’s $28.4 million external debt The City Clerk directed me to the 2025 Year End Report, including **Appendix E: Outstanding Debt Balances**: https://pub-owensound.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=52195 As of December 31, 2025, the September 14, 2026 **2025 LTD Payment Schedule** reports: * **Total debt listed:** **$29,225,279.63** * **Less internally sourced debt:** **$812,616.95** * **Total external debt:** **$28,412,662.68** * **Total annual debt payments:** **$3,861,358.86** These figures supersede the earlier figures copied from the Year End Report: $29.43 million gross debt, $28.62 million external debt, and $3.58 million in annual payments. The newer schedule provides a more detailed payment view, while still leaving important loan terms undisclosed. ## What the new schedule reports The schedule identifies the following financing instruments or grouped purposes: | Instrument | Purpose or components | Balance reported | Annual payment | Final payment | | --- | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | | 2011-227 IOEXTERNAL | Police Building | $2,543,119.91 | $476,347 | 2032 | | 2013-XXX Landfill Internal | Solar Panel Installations | $42,187.86 | $14,772 | 2028 | | 2016-XXX Landfill Internal | Solar Panel Installations | Not reported | $6,039 | 2025 | | 2016-XXX GBE Internal | LED Conversion; Frozen Water Services | Not reported | $279,878 | 2025 | | 2016-174 GBE Internal | HP Electrical Upgrade; Waste Water Capital | $162,408.82 | $167,281 | 2026 | | 2016-074 Infrastructure Ontario | WWTP Intake #1 | $7,117,889.35 | $589,904 | 2034 | | 2018-060 Infrastructure Ontario | WWTP Intake #2 | $5,120,692.97 | $398,203 | 2043 | | 2019-xxx GBE INTERNAL | WW 3rd Ave E; Parking Deficit; Cemetery Columbarium; CP Station Upgrades | $608,020.27 | $155,056 | 2028 | | 2020-080 Infrastructure Ontario | City Hall and HP Campground electrical, water and wastewater | $7,365,421.10 | $569,960 | 2040 | | 2022-081 Infrastructure Ontario | 10th Street Bridge tax and water; West Side SPS | $6,265,539.35 | $1,040,926 | 2032 | The instrument-level transcription, including original amounts, component totals, reported fields, and estimate notes, is in [the debt schedule CSV](debt-schedule-2025-12-31-derived.csv). The source PDF is preserved beside it for comparison. A major share appears connected to water and wastewater infrastructure. The clearly identified water/wastewater balances total about **$16.99 million**, including the wastewater treatment plant intakes, sewage pumping station, the water portion of the 10th Street Bridge, City Hall water and wastewater allocations, and the reported wastewater balance for 3rd Avenue East. That raises an important question about how those debt payments are funded. The City’s website says: **“Water and wastewater services are fully funded by user fees - not property taxes. Only those who use the system pay for it.”** If that also applies to the associated debt payments, then much of the $16.99 million would be **rate-supported debt rather than property-tax-supported debt**. The schedule combines these projects into the City’s overall debt schedule, while the funding source for each debt payment remains unclear. That distinction matters. The City can have $28.41 million in external debt while only part of that debt is ultimately being serviced through property taxes. There is also a transparency issue. The City’s Debt Management Policy, AF003, says the Treasurer’s annual report is supposed to include the original loan amount, purpose, a breakdown of principal and interest payments, interest rate, funding source, maturity, and debt balance for each debt instrument. **The published debt schedule is missing the interest rates, the breakdown of principal and interest payments, and the funding source for each debt.** It also leaves some balance or loan-amount cells blank and contains a $225,000 difference between the reported 2016-174 group original amount and the visible component loan amounts. ## What can be derived, and what remains unknown The schedule gives enough information for a screening estimate on eight instruments or grouped instruments with an original amount, annual payment, and reported balance. I used a level-payment model: one annual payment for each year from the year after origination through 2025, solving for the rate that produces the reported December 31, 2025 balance. I then applied that implied rate to the reported balance and treated the remainder of the listed annual payment as the estimated principal component. These are **derived estimates, not reported interest rates or official payment allocations**. Actual loan agreements may use different payment dates, compounding, fees, refinancing, or payment schedules. | Instrument | Implied annual rate | Estimated interest | Estimated principal | | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | | 2011-227 IOEXTERNAL | 3.649% | $92,799.78 | $383,547.22 | | 2013-XXX Landfill Internal | 2.500% | $1,054.85 | $13,717.15 | | 2016-174 GBE Internal | 0.179% | $291.01 | $166,989.99 | | 2016-074 Infrastructure Ontario | 3.070% | $218,531.19 | $371,372.81 | | 2018-060 Infrastructure Ontario | 3.389% | $173,555.89 | $224,647.11 | | 2019-xxx GBE INTERNAL | 1.715% | $10,427.19 | $144,628.81 | | 2020-080 Infrastructure Ontario | 1.957% | $144,142.68 | $425,817.32 | | 2022-081 Infrastructure Ontario | 4.064% | $254,611.21 | $786,314.79 | For the five external instruments, the schedule shows $3,075,340 in visible annual payments. Under this screening model, those payments contain approximately **$883,640.75 of interest** and **$2,191,699.25 of principal**. The PDF’s grand total annual payment is $3,861,358.86, while the visible line items sum to $3,698,366.00, leaving **$162,992.86** that is not explained by the visible rows. The two 2025-final instruments have no reported balance, so their principal and interest components cannot be estimated from this schedule. The reported 2016-174 group amount also requires clarification because its visible component loan amounts total $1,426,942 rather than the reported $1,651,942. The 2018-060 loan-amount cell is blank, although its original amount is shown. The 2022-081 group original amount is not printed, although its visible component loan amounts total $8,445,000. The missing official fields should be supplied from the debt register, loan agreements, Infrastructure Ontario amortization statements, internal-loan records, and the general ledger: 1. Contractual interest rate and payment frequency for every instrument. 2. Official annual principal and interest amounts, including the period covered. 3. Funding source for each debt payment: property taxes, water/wastewater rates, other user fees, reserves, grants, or another source. 4. Complete original loan amount and component allocation where the schedule is blank or inconsistent. 5. Reconciliation of the visible annual-payment rows to the PDF grand total. I have asked the City to clarify: 1. Where the required interest rates and principal/interest breakdowns are reported. 2. Which debt payments are funded through property taxes, water/wastewater user fees, or other revenue sources. 3. Whether the September 14 schedule is intended to replace the earlier Appendix E totals and how its annual-payment grand total is reconciled. Once that information is provided, we should be able to separate **tax-supported debt from rate-supported debt** and get a much clearer picture of the actual debt burden on property taxpayers.