Oxford county levy increase at 8.7 per cent

Jeff Helsdon, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

After the first budget session of Oxford County Council, the draft budget increase is sitting at 8.7 per cent.

Councillors were initially presented a budget with an increase of 12.6 per cent on Nov. 20. A motion passed to remove an exemption for development charges on industrial buildings was expected to raise more than $3 million, which brought the increase down to 8.7 per cent.

Warden Marcus Ryan explained that a 12.6 per cent increase is not a great start as this works out to 13.6 per cent for municipalities outside of Woodstock. He has been on county council 11 years and said the decrease from the development charge motion made a big difference.

“In all those budgets, I’ve seen a change of 4.3 per cent in a single step,” he said. “We’ll keep looking and other councillors will too.”

County council also passed a motion pushing back on the province against the rate of growth coming down from the upper tier. The motion spoke to the sustainability of ongoing, rapid growth and the impacts on homelessness, school spaces, primary medical care, and the pressure on green space and agricultural land.

Mayor Deb Gilvesy, who seconded the motion on development charges, said growth is responsible for a lot of the increases.

Providing an example, Ryan pointed to the $400,000 in the budget to hire four paramedics. He said calls are up because people don’t have a doctor, have a long wait to see their doctor or have mental health issues. The alternative to not hiring the paramedics is increased response times.

“That’s backdoor downloading from the province,” he said.

There is also increasing the budget to support green initiatives, rising court security costs, and rural library programs.

“We can’t continue to accept the growth at the rate the province is asking us to because we are seeing the impact on residents,” Marcus said.

He pointed to the ‘new deals’ that were given to Toronto and Ottawa, and said something was needed in Oxford as well.

While Ryan said an increase in the area of six per cent is responsible, Gilvesy agreed she would like to see the increase trimmed from the current 8.7. She suggested delaying the green initiatives, looking at discretionary items and looking for efficiencies.

“There’s a few things from my standpoint I would need to enquire about before giving it the go-ahead,” she said.

The challenge, the Tillsonburg mayor explained, is having the infrastructure to support growth.

“It’s trying to find the right balance where we’re not overburdening taxpayers of today to pay for the infrastructure of tomorrow,” Gilvesy said.