How Little Canada is run
Who runs Little Canada, what it costs, and where your money goes
The city manager, council pay, the budget, your property tax bill and who provides each service, from Little Canada's own public documents. Every number links to its source and says which year it describes. Checked Oct 10, 2026.
Who runs Little Canada
Little Canada is a statutory city run under Optional Plan A. The mayor and four council members make policy and adopt the budget. The council hires a city administrator, who carries out council policy and runs day-to-day operations.
What they are paid
- $300 a month for use of his own vehicle
- Same health, dental, life and disability insurance as other employees
- Credited with 18 years of service for paid time off, plus 80 hours of banked PTO at hire
- Six months' salary and six months of insurance if terminated without cause
Little Canada city staff
24 full-time-equivalent positions, including General fund 15, Water, sewer and other utility funds 8, Special revenue funds 0. FY2026. City of Little Canada · Dec 3, 2025
The administrator's contract cites a step and grade salary plan, and a classification and compensation study is under way for 2027. We found no published pay plan or employee pay list. We name pay only for elected officials and the city manager.
Is Little Canada in the red?
Cities must pass a balanced budget, so "profit" and "deficit" mean something different here. The useful questions: does the city's everyday money (the general fund) cover its everyday costs, how much does it keep in savings compared with its own target, and how big are its pension and debt bills.
Savings against the city's own target
Unassigned general fund balance: $4.1M (2025-12-31). The city's own target: The city keeps unrestricted general fund balance between 42.5% and 65% of the next year's budgeted operating spending. For 2025 the 42.5% floor was $2,569,730. Any balance above the policy goes to the General Capital Improvement Fund. City of Little Canada · May 18, 2026
Why we skip the "budgeted deficit": many cities plan to dip into savings, then spend less than planned. The audited result tells you what really happened.
Where the money comes from and goes
The general fund only: the city's everyday money for FY2026.
Comes from
- Property taxes$4.8M · 80%
- Intergovernmental (state aid and grants)$424,782 · 7%
- Permits$319,695 · 5%
- Charges for services$118,928 · 2%
- Miscellaneous (incl. sheriff's credit)$115,374 · 2%
- Licenses$98,500 · 2%
- Transfers in$84,000 · 1%
- Other (fines, interest)$65,000 · 1%
Goes to (FY2026)
- Police (Ramsey County Sheriff contract)$2.4M · 40%
- Parks and recreation$733,781 · 12%
- Fire department$656,868 · 11%
- Administration$555,981 · 9%
- Building inspections$372,027 · 6%
- Streets$352,058 · 6%
- Planning$244,235 · 4%
- Other (mayor and council, attorney, elections, lighting, other)$685,335 · 11%
Your property tax bill: who gets it
Minnesota property taxes are mostly set as a rate on a property's tax capacity. Part of the city is in the White Bear Lake school district, which has a different rate. This split leaves out voter-approved school levies charged on market value.
24¢
of each property-tax dollar goes to the city of Little Canada
- City of Little Canada24.829 · 24%
- School District 623 (Roseville)25.03 · 24%
- Ramsey County45.455 · 43%
- Special districts (Metropolitan Council, Regional Rail, Metro Watershed)10.009 · 10%
- Total (percent of tax capacity)105.323
2024 tax capacity rates for property in Little Canada (Ramsey County, ISD 623). City of Little Canada · May 18, 2026
See what a Little Canada home costs each year, line by line →Who provides your services
Not everything in Little Canada is run by the city. Who provides a service decides whose budget pays for it and whose election decides it.
- PoliceThe countyRamsey County Sheriff's OfficeContracted. Little Canada is one of six jurisdictions in the arrangement.City of Little Canada · May 18, 2026
- FireContractorLittle Canada Fire DepartmentAn independent corporation that serves only Little Canada.City of Little Canada · May 18, 2026
- WaterThe cityCity water utilityThe city has no wells. It buys water from St. Paul Regional Water Service.City of Little Canada · May 18, 2026
- SewerThe cityCity sewer utilityTreatment is by Metropolitan Council Environmental Services.City of Little Canada · May 18, 2026
- Trash and recyclingContractorRepublic Services (trash and yard waste) and Waste Management (recycling)Organized collection contracts that began in 2025.City of Little Canada · Dec 3, 2025
- ElectionsThe countyRamsey CountyCity of Little Canada · Dec 3, 2025
- Information technologyContractorMetro-INETCity of Little Canada · Dec 3, 2025
Compared with similar cities
The cities in this state closest in population that we cover. Read it for scale, not as a ranking: cities provide different services.
| Per city | FairmontMN | HermantownMN | Little CanadaMN | CambridgeMN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residents | 10,099 | 10,110 | 10,567 | 11,090 |
| Top administrator's base pay | $151,778 | Not confirmed | $169,333 | Not confirmed |
| Council member pay | Not confirmed | $8,100 | $6,250 | Not confirmed |
| General fund per resident | $1,446 | $976 | $572 | $869 |
| Debt per resident | $5,944 | $4,992 | $180 | $2,529 |
| Unfunded pension per resident | $367 | $240 | $61 | $244 |
| City staff per 1,000 residents | 9.1 | — | 2.3 | — |
Figures as shown in each city's section, divided by its population. Years differ by state, and pension figures are measured differently in each state (each city page says how). Little Canada pays another agency for police or fire, so its own staff count is lower.
What Little Canada publishes
What a resident can find online today. A "no" is something you can ask the council to publish.
- Yes: Adopted budget posted onlineThe City Budget page posts adopted budgets from 2018 through 2026. City of Little Canada · Oct 10, 2026
- Partly: Meeting videos and minutes online City of Little Canada · Oct 10, 2026
- Yes: Council pay stated in a public documentMay 8, 2024 minutes record Ordinance 897 setting pay at $7,500 a year for the mayor and $6,250 for council members. City of Little Canada · May 8, 2024
- No: Employee pay publishedThe administrator's contract cites a grade and step salary plan, but we found no published pay plan or employee pay list. City of Little Canada · May 28, 2025
Questions to ask your council
- Police through the Ramsey County Sheriff is $2,446,139 of the $6,046,424 2026 general fund budget. How is the contract cost set each year?
- Unassigned general fund reserves were $4,130,685 at the end of 2025, against a policy floor of $2,569,730. How much above the floor will go to capital projects?
- Bonded debt was $1.9 million at the end of 2025. How would new bonds for the community building change the debt load?
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