Stratford passes budget with 3.19 per cent tax increase

In one quick Thursday meeting, Stratford council approved the city’s 2026 budget after just one six-hour sitting of the finance and labour relations committee.

Council adopted the budget – Stratford’s first under the recently extended “strong mayor powers” – that comes with a 3.19 per cent property tax increase.

This will add $172 to the tax bill based on an average home assessed at $317,000.

This tax hike is slightly more than what the draft budget contained at the beginning of the meeting. But the original 3.09 increase received a slight bump with the addition of a couple of expansion items, including the purchase of a mini-excavator and the reinstallation of the Devon Street playground ahead of schedule. These two items added an extra $96,500 to the overall budget, leading to that 0.