Tues Aug 18: News, Views & Events in Owen Sound and Grey-Bruce
News and updates involving the impasse between school bus operators and boards, Saugeen Ojibway Nation's treaty claim court battle, Grey County paramedics' new 911 dispatch system, and more
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Grey County council spent part of its Aug. 13 meeting on a new planning tool, with councillors ultimately directing staff to pursue a community improvement plan (CIP) aimed at affordable housing.
The direction folds an estimated $50,000 CIP study into the county’s development charges background study, which would make part of the cost recoverable from DC revenue, and adds the project to the 10-year capital budget. Council made no final decision on whether to adopt a plan.
The power is new. Ontario’s Bill 60, the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025, passed third reading on Nov. 24, 2025 and amended section 28 of the Planning Act to let upper-tier municipalities designate community improvement project areas and adopt CIPs. The regulation limiting that power to a prescribed list of counties was revoked.
A CIP carves out an exception to the general prohibition on municipal bonusing: it lets a municipality direct grants, loans, tax assistance and land into a defined area. Lower-tier municipalities in Grey have used the tool for years. Counties, broadly, could not.
What a Grey County CIP would actually fund, and out of which pocket, is not settled. We asked Marilyn Struthers of the Social Finance and Housing Group, hosted by the Institute of Southern Georgian Bay, to help explain what the change opens up:
Letter: How Could a County CIP Help with Affordable Housing Needs?
Bill 60 lets counties adopt Community Improvement Plans. Days after Grey County council backed a study of the new tool, Marilyn Struthers explains how it could be used to support non-market housing.
Read on for weather, obituaries, upcoming events, and local news from across Grey and Bruce counties — including what we know about the potential school bus strike, with information from the school boards and School Bus Ontario. the association representing bus operators.
Miranda Miller
Editor
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