Interview with the Warden - December 11th, 2025

Thursday, 11 December 2025 10:21

He says council passed a very responsible budget for 2026.

OXFORD - Oxford County Council has signed off on a Business Plan and Budget for 2026.

County residents will see an increase of about 5.4 percent on the County's portion of their tax bill. Those in Woodstock will see an increase of about 5.3 percent, mostly because they have their own library services.

Warden Marcus Ryan breaks down the numbers in a simple way.

"For a resident in Woodstock it's about $6 a month and for a resident outside of Woodstock it's about $7 a month. So it's a couple of medium Tim Hortons coffees a month."

Looking at the total increase for the year, County residents will pay about $79 extra, while Woodstonians pay about $71 extra.

Using the $71 as an example, Warden Marcus Ryan says $34 of it is for long-term care, paramedics and public health and $12 of it is for housing.

"All of those four together is 65 percent of that tax increase. If you take all of that out, you're down to an increase of about 2 percent which is right in line with inflation."

He says residents need those services at the end of the day. In his own opinion, he believes the province should be covering the health care services and he also noted that Ontario is the only province where housing is at least partially a municipal responsibility.

Looking at some of the big items included in the budget, Oxford County Council approved $400,000 for a homelessness prevention support services fund, in hopes of establishing a new Homelessness Services Centre in the New Year. Council also approved an additional $600,000 for affordable housing.

Warden Ryan says County staff will be posting more information regarding the 2026 Business Plan and Budget on social media in the coming days.

He also took a moment to talk about the exciting news regarding the recycling schedule for Woodstock and South-West Oxford. He's happy to see it align with their pickup days for garbage and organics next year, and he's hoping the same can happen for the remaining municipalities in Oxford once the green bin is introduced in those communities in May 2027.

The province will be in charge of recycling collection, but it's not covering it for small businesses. Warden Ryan says the County will take care of it for them, but they have to sign up on the County's website online here.

"You have to sign up to do it because we can't tell which businesses are 'small' or 'large' and might have their own contractor doing it or not. So if you sign up, the truck will stop and collect your recycling, but if you don't sign up it will drive right by."

Warden Ryan ended his interview wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. He also encouraged everyone to take advantage of snow days and spend time with their families when they can . You can listen to the full interview below: