“I actually cried”: 1st painter entered a market in the north-term in the financial crisis

Coleen Thompson had been her entire adult life until she took the opportunity to buy a house in the small community of Northern Ontario from Fauquier-Strickland.

“I approach 50, have never had a home and did a lot in recent years to bring me to a position in which it became reality.”

Thompson comes from Guelph, Ontara, but closed a house in Fauquier on July 9th. On the same day, Mayor Madeleine Tremblay announced that the community was in a financial crisis.

According to Tremblay, if the province does not intervene or the municipality does not increase property taxes by around 200 percent, most municipal services would have to be closed by August 1st.

Thompson said she had heard the news for the first time when her mother shared a Facebook contribution by the community that outlined her financial problems.

“I actually cried,” she said.

“I was so overwhelmed with the thought that this would happen and a million things went through me. What is the value of the house we just bought with our taxes?”

Thompson is not the only community member who fears for the future.

CBC recently spoke to a couple who moved to Fauquier-knitland at the end of last year due to the lower housing costs and closer to their grandchildren. At the beginning of 2025, its property tax rose from around $ 2,300 per year to 5,600 US dollars.

On Monday, the municipality stopped a special council meeting to update the residents about their financial situation and the next steps.

Thompson watched it from her house in Guelph via zoom.

“I was really horrified until I felt really emotional. It seemed to me that meeting started with a really negative tone,” she said.

At the beginning of the meeting, Tremblay was against the organization of a question and answer session with the residents, but the council members voted for the exchange.

“It felt very evasive,” said Thompson about the mayor's answers during the meeting.

“People would ask questions and she answered the question with another question.”

Tremblay said that she would meet on Wednesday with representatives of the Ministry of Local Affairs and Apartments in Ontario to discuss the municipality's $ 2.5 million operating deficit in the amount of $ 2.5 million.

Among the participants who took part in Monday, Dan Michaud, who ran against Tremblay against Tremblay eight years ago.

Michaud told CBC News that in his opinion, the community does not attract any companies that would achieve more tax revenue.

He found that nearby communities such as Smooth Rock Falls were more proactive in putting on business, such as a large petrol station aimed at trucker, they transport goods along Highway 11.

Michaud said that Fauquier-Strickland would benefit from small companies such as a campsite to bring in tourism dollars.

He said the community had to present the province with a plan to get out of its deficit.

“We asked her [Tremblay] If she had a plan, “he said.” Your answer was, 'no. I don't know. I'll wait for the minister. '”

Small cities in the north of Ontario have problems

Other small communities say they are with similar challenges.

Johanne Baril is the mayor of the municipality of Val Rita-Harty, which is located about 40 kilometers west of Fauquier-Strickland.

“What happens, there is no isolated incident – it is part of a wider crisis that is exposed to small rural communities throughout Ontario,” she said in an explanation.

Baril said her community would not survive if you change the way in which services are provided.

She said the community is working on a plan that is now in its last phase to “help the course to end the cycle of crisis management, to inform our decision -making, to meet the official requirements, to strengthen politics and to shape a financially sustainable future”.

Baril said her community was in solidarity with Fauquier-Strickland because she navigates in the financial challenges.