Oxford County Council approves Woodstock’s request for enhanced downtown garbage collection

Lee Griffi, Editor

There was no shortage of confusion and controversy at the Sept. 9 Oxford County Council meeting where the City of Woodstock asked the county to reinstate twice-weekly garbage collection in the core until the end of the year.

After a lengthy debate, council voted in favour of a motion to bring twice-weekly pickup back to the downtown. Ingersoll Mayor Brian Petrie was the only member of council to vote against it.

Woodstock Mayor Jerry Acchione’s original motion to increase service was questioned by South-West Oxford Mayor David Mayberry, who raised a point of order because Oxford County is currently in what is known as a lame-duck period.

“I am guessing to reinstate from, say, October to December is more than $50,000, it’s not in the budget, and I would suggest…we can’t proceed with this. That is no comment on whether it’s necessary or not, we have to follow the rules of the game.”

Under provincial law, a lame-duck council can be restricted from appointing or removing municipal officers, hiring or dismissing employees, selling property worth more than $50,000, or making expenditures or incurring liabilities over $50,000, subject to certain exceptions.

As part of an amended motion which passed, the county will not be permitted to spend more than $30,000 on the increased service level.

Acchione said since the city moved to a six-day collection system, the downtown has experienced a noticeable increase in illegal dumping and waste accumulation.

“The downtown core’s unique needs, compared to residential neighbourhoods, with commercial and mixed-use properties, generate higher waste volumes and require more frequent collection without the space to store the…buildup of waste.”

He added downtown garbage pickup has been reduced from just over 100 down to 44 per year.

“By comparison, the rest of the city saw a reduction of only eight opportunities…I would ask we reinstate this for the rest of 2026 until we have the waste agreement figured out between the municipalities.”

Downtown Woodstock garbage and green bin collection changes start October 6

Residents and businesses in the downtown corridor will receive twice-weekly pick-up on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Deb Tait, who seconded Acchione’s motion, said the problem is having a detrimental effect on the downtown.

“I fully support this and hope my fellow councillors would understand what’s going on and the problem we are having, and I’d like a recorded vote.”

Oxford County is in charge of garbage collection across Oxford, and the county and City of Woodstock are currently negotiating a new deal for 2027 and beyond.

Warden Marcus Ryan questioned what budget line the $30,000 would come from. CAO Ben Addley said council could direct staff where to find the money, or it would show up as a budget overage on the books.

“Which eventually is offset by any savings in other departments and/or contributions to future reserves,” explained Addley.

Ingersoll Mayor Brian Petrie said he supports a better service level in downtown Woodstock but couldn’t support the motion.

“I think there’s an issue there. I think it probably should have been done when we discussed the original contract, but that’s not the case…We are three months away from (budget planning), and this has a time stamp on it until the end of the year.”

He added he is hopeful Woodstock and Oxford County will be able to negotiate a new contract to provide certainty in the level of service.

Coun. Bernia Martin said the two days of collection is what downtown Woodstock has been used to for many years and she was fully supportive of an interim measure.

“I am a little concerned the entire Oxford County is paying for a solution in one downtown. Until we implement a six-day cycle across all of our communities, we may see a reaction like this in Tillsonburg, we may see Ingersoll, we may see it in Thamesford.”

She added a long-term solution is what she hopes comes out of the contract talks between the two sides.

Only two of Oxford County's eight municipalities are on the six-day garbage collection system: Woodstock and South-West Oxford. The remaining six are scheduled to move to a six-day cycle in May 2027, when the new green-bin organics program begins in those municipalities.

Before the motion passed, Ryan expressed his displeasure at the deliberations before calling for a lunch break.

“Honestly, we all need to do better than this, okay. This is not good enough. This is a service level that our residents depend on every week, and this is a lot of money we are talking about, whether it's $30,000 or whatever. I am embarrassed to think what residents of Oxford County are going to think when they watch this meeting about how unprepared we all are to have this debate.”

He added that there was not enough information available, and that not all council members had received the same information.

“Nobody knows what the cost is. We’re not doing good enough here. I think lunch is here, and I suggest that we take a break, and we all sort of think about the quality of work we’re bringing into this chamber on behalf of the residents who sent us here and get our…in a pile and figure out what we’re doing.”

Ryan said he could not conduct an effective, efficient council meeting with the information provided.

“We had two perfectly justifiable points of order raised already because of the way this has been presented to council.”

Businesses and residents in downtown Woodstock will get garbage and green bin organics collection twice each week starting Oct. 6. The change applies only to the Dundas Street corridor and laneways between Vansittart Avenue and Wilson Street.

Collection will take place every Tuesday and Friday morning, except on statutory holidays when alternate pick-up dates will be added. Details on the new downtown collection zone, Zone 5a, are being hand-delivered to addresses in the core this week and can be downloaded at www.oxfordcounty.ca/wasteline or www.cityofwoodstock.ca/living-in-woodstock/garbage-and-recycling/garbage.

There are no changes to blue box recycling for business, collected once a week on Tuesday, or residential recycling, which is collected every six business days under the regular Zone 5 schedule.

The new collection schedule is an interim change in effect until Dec. 31, until a permanent schedule and budget funding is confirmed by Oxford County and City of Woodstock Councils.