Council this Week: Highlights from the March 12 County Council agenda - 20250312

03/07/2025

Bag tag fees, road safety measures in SWOX and Zorra, and more

County Council meetings are broadcast live at www.oxfordcounty.ca/livestream. To download the full agenda or view past recordings of council meetings, visit www.oxfordcounty.ca/council.

Bag tag fees

A potential increase in bag tag fees returns for County Council consideration on March 12.

At the February 26 meeting, Council was asked to approve an increase in garbage bag tag fees from $2.00 to $3.00 per tag, effective May 2025, to cover the increasing costs of residential garbage collection and disposal. The motion was defeated, then followed with a notice of motion for the March 12 meeting proposing that the increase to $3.00 per bag take effect on January 1, 2026. This would give residents more time before the price change while still addressing the shortfall in funding.

PW 2025-09 - 2025 Garbage Bag Tag Fees

Post-monitoring for road safety measures

County Council receives findings and recommendations from post-monitoring for several speed reviews next council meeting. Traffic calming measures put into place in Beachville, Delmer, Verschoyle, Embro, Kintore, and Uniondale have led to some improvements in lowering vehicle speeds, but further speed reductions are needed to maintain road safety.

Additional measures taking place this year will include electronic speed feedback signs, additional posted speed signs, and flexible centre line delineators. The report to Council also recommends the future installation of physical features such as road narrowing and horizontal deflection (modifying roadway from a straight line) in Embro to help control speeding, pending the results of a pilot project in Plattsville. Automatic speed enforcement in community safety zones is pending future Council approval for the County-wide network.

Oxford County regularly undertakes speed management, traffic calming, and road safety reviews. Part of this work includes post monitoring after recommendations have been carried out to evaluate how effective traffic calming measures were in reducing vehicle speeds and consider if additional measures are needed.

PW 2025-13: Post Monitoring Speed Reviews – Beachville, Delmer, Verschoyle, Embro, Kintore and Uniondale

Update on national child care subsidy

The Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) program has the potential to increase the number of affordable licensed child care spaces in Oxford County by up to 827 spaces by the end of 2026, increasing access to reduced-cost child care programs for qualifying families. The report to County Council explains that while Oxford will remain below the provincial target rate of 37%, with only 22.6% of children aged 0-4 having the ability to access affordable licensed child care within the allocation that has been provided, the County is working with providers to improve access. The report notes that the reduced rates are only available to providers who enter into a service agreement with Oxford County to participate in the CWELCC system, and that growth is challenged by other factors, such as staffing.

HS 2025-03 - Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) Update and Expansion Plan

Questions or comments?

Council this Week previews the Oxford County Council meeting agenda for residents, community partners and employees. Please send your questions and comments to communications@oxfordcounty.ca