Fri May 17: TOM Gallery Costs Have Grown +91% Even as Revenue Steadily Declines

Plus: Flixbus routes between Owen Sound and Toronto start May 30; Video posted online of local student's assault at school

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We continue the TTAG’s Legacy series with a third column from Jim Hutton, this one on:

• A lack of any indication the City provided meaningful financial oversight during the period in which the Gallery racked up over a half-a-million-dollar deficit

• The errors in process and judgment that contributed to this happening with public funds, despite checks and balances in place to prevent it

• How the gallery’s operating costs have increased substantially since 2017 despite declining revenue and grant funding

• The near-doubling of taxpayer funding for the TOM inside the ten-year period in which Council unanimously agreed the 2017 deficit would be recouped from City funding of the Art Gallery

We also published an article yesterday about an assault that reportedly took place at a local high school.

I’d like to highlight the following information from Chief Craig Ambrose of the Owen Sound Police Service, which he shared in response to our questions about whether police can investigate an assault that takes place on school property or during the school day:

“The Owen Sound Police can investigate any complaint that they are made aware of regardless of the location provided it occurs within the jurisdiction of the service. Incidents can be reported by witnesses or victims and police will investigate.

Further, a victim cannot consent to an incident of bodily harm and as such an investigation would or should take place regardless of whether an incident may have started as (a) consensual fight.”

If you or someone you know experiences violence in your home, workplace, school, or elsewhere in our community, police can investigate once it is reported to them. Accountability does not end with a school’s administration when laws are broken.

Autistic Student Injured in Assault at OSDSS, Then Suspended from School

Public Notice

Quick heads up that the City of Owen Sound has released its list of what’s open and closed over the upcoming Victoria Day (May 24) weekend.

Full subscribers, there’s a lot more for you below, including…

• Big news out of the Operations Committee meeting last night as Flixbus service between Owen Sound and Toronto is announced – and tickets are already on sale

• A reminder from OPP’s Marine Unit that majority of boater and paddler fatalities last year were not wearing lifejackets

• The latest from Bruce County Council, including their Q1 2024 Financial Statement Review

• An update from the City of Owen Sound on initiatives underway to attract family physicians to the city

• A news report on a Georgian Bluffs councillor who will have her pay suspended and undergo training after an integrity commissioner’s investigation into allegations of harassment by two ratepayers

• Details about a celebration for new Canadians that took place in Owen Sound on Wednesday night

~ Miranda

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