Council Approves 2024 Budget 

After a lengthy debate, Woodstock City Council approved the 2024 Revenue Fund (or Operating) Budget, setting in place funding needed to continue delivering valued programs and services to our growing city.

The City tax levy for the 2024 Revenue fund Budget is $75,695,160 which is a 9.25 per cent increase over 2023. This results in a residential property tax rate increase of 7.42 per cent, meaning the average home in Woodstock will see an increase of $207.16 for the City portion of their property taxes. 

“This was the most challenging budget process I’ve been through in my time on Council,” said Mayor Jerry Acchione. “We see the financial stresses people are facing and that weighs heavily on all members of council as we consider the requests before us.”

The approved budget also includes funding for several new initiatives, including:

1. Increasing transit and para-transit hours by two hours on Saturday to offer transit service from 6 a.m. – 10 p.m. from Monday to Saturday. Council also supported adding service on Easter Monday starting in 2025. 
2. Waiving fees for the Southside Park wading pool for the 2024 season allowing families to visit the spray pad and wading pool for free again this summer. 
3. An additional 17 full time staff and converting three part time staff to full time and one casual to part time and one seasonal Parks staff. These staff additions were needed to support the growth in Woodstock and respond to the needs of the community. 
4. New physician recruitment initiatives including academic support programs to improve efforts to bring new family doctors to the community.
5. Boosting reserve funds for bridge reconstruction, road reconstruction and street lighting to minimize the impact on future tax years.

A full list of approved budget motions can be found in the appendix. 

The 2024 Capital Budget and 2025-2028 Capital Forecast Plan was adopted at the Dec. 14, 2023 Council meeting. During those discussions, Council removed the Downtown Streetscape Master Plan implementation from the capital budget pending further information on the operating budget impact. Tonight, they directed staff to proceed with Option 4 – which scales back implementation to the section from Riddell to Wellington for completion in 2024. They further directed staff to develop a plan for the redevelopment of Museum Square to include the demolition of 478/484 Dundas St. and expanded City Hall. Staff will revise the 2024 capital budget to include $2,700,000 for project INF00138 from debt and $60,000 to update the Museum Square plan from the Capital Reserve Fund.  

Council got their first look at the revenue budget at their Feb. 15 meeting and staff provided additional details about the departmental budget needs during two dedicated budget sessions the following week. Details of the Police, Library and Art Gallery Boards were shared at the March 7 Council meeting. These meetings were open to the public and recordings can be found on the City’s You Tube channel.

In addition to property taxes, funding for the programs and services offered by the City comes from several sources including funding from other levels of government, user fees for services like transit, recreational programming and facility rentals.

The detailed budget and background information can be found at www.cityofwoodstock.ca/budget

Other Council Decisions

There were a few additional items on Thursday’s agenda including a reconsideration of the July 13, 2023 decision to proceed with a new outdoor pool at Cowan Fields. Council overturned their original decision, removing the construction of the new outdoor pool from future capital budgets for a savings of approximately $5M less costs already incurred.

Attachments

List of Approved Budget Motions 2024