Headline News

Jenkins leaves office with pride and anticipation

November 10, 2026

By Scott Taylor, Editor and Reporter

After 10 years as mayor and a previous five more before that as a councillor, Paul Jenkins has just a few days left until the next council is sworn in. At 70 years of age, he said it was time for a change, but not a retirement stressing he still has plenty of energy and curiosity for whatever the next chapter will be.

“The new council gets sworn on Nov. 24 and our last meeting to tie everything up will be Nov. 20,” he said. “I think that all municipalities, not just Bancroft, can define themselves by pre-Covid and post-Covid. I think Covid had such a tremendous impact and I don’t think people really grasp that. Of course, there were lockdowns and effects to the operations of towns. Then we had the runaway housing values, especially in the cottage areas because of remote work and that type of thing, so there was a lot of pressure on housing.”

Among things that can be filed as good news, Jenkins pointed to the revitalization of the downtown core and getting the town’s finances in order.

“And we had a lot of big capital projects; as I mentioned the downtown revitalization and we got our finances in really good shape . . . and we had a lot of big capital projects. We were able to put in a fitness facility at our arena and we just completed a very large project through a public-private partnership. A library, a community hub, and four-storeys of apartments referred to as North Hastings Inspiration Place.”

Jenkins listed more projects that have been completed or started under difficult financial times.

“Overall, I think we’ve weathered the storm and we’re just plotting moving ahead.”

He described setting property taxes as “a big balancing act.” Council and residents want to keep taxes as low as possible, but they also want to make Bancroft and area an attractive place when families are considering moving.

“We’ve been pretty successful doing that balancing act and keeping costs low while contributing to services and doing projects at the same time.”

Working with upper-tier governments, whether provincially or federally, can be tricky to navigate. He named the police service as an example, a line item on the budget that is ballooning every year.

“Oh yes, we just had our second successive 11 per cent increase in policing costs. That one item is about 2.5 percentage points increase on the tax rate.”

As for the future, Jenkins said to watch out for amalgamation, something that has been happening throughout Ontario. On a personal note, he said he has a lot to look forward to, but he’ll take the time to take in the lay of the land. He’s in no hurry, stating his wife has had to share him with the municipality, so he’s looking forward to focussing on her over the next little while.

“We’ll see, but I’m still very busy for the time being.”