Tues July 9: City Council Highlights Include New Deals for YMCA & Active Lifestyles Centre

Plus: Public consultation on the City of Owen Sound's 2025 budget is apparently happening now... but where?

👋 Welcome to The Owen Sound Current, your source for what’s happening in and around Owen Sound. Community-contributed content is open to free subscribers, while full subscribers get premium content, curated news, local events, and commenting features in these weekday briefs. Thank you for supporting independent local journalism!

---

Owen Sound LCBO workers rally outside their workplace Monday in protest of Premier Doug Ford's plan to expand alcohol sales outlets. OPSEU is also advocating for wage increases and more full-time positions, saying 70% of members hold part-time and casual roles.

Now this is curious…

City Council received minutes last night from the June 13th meeting of the Corporate Services Committee. In that meeting, the Director of Corporate Services delivered a report, approved by the City Manager, on their 2025 Operating Budget Public Engagement plan.

According to the plan, shown above, public engagement on the 2025 budget is happening right now and has been since June. The online survey was to be open from June 14, 2024, until July 15, 2024.

I can’t find the survey on the OurCity website, and neither could the Chair of the Corporate Services Committee. They’ve asked staff to look into this.

Aside from the survey, there doesn’t appear to be any further opportunity for the public to provide input – or, importantly, feedback once staff start putting their ideas and recommendations forward – on the 2025 budget before it goes to Council.

By September 2024, staff will “close the loop” by sharing their report on public participation in the 2025 budget process.

After issuing a press release, the final step in the public engagement plan is for staff to “reshare the public’s involvement in 2025 budget process and outline final steps to approval through Council.”

This report from staff seems to suggest that any opportunity the public has to provide input on the 2025 budget is almost over.

While we await clarification from the City…

You can reach your elected representatives at council@owensound.ca with questions about the 2025 budget process.

Public Notices

• Traffic Disruptions in 1000 Block of 2nd Ave East from Monday through Thursday (City of Owen Sound)

• Cancelled: The Operations Committee Meeting scheduled for Thursday, July 18, 2024, at 5:30 p.m. has been cancelled. (City of Owen Sound)

• Cancelled: The River District Board of Management meeting scheduled for Wednesday, July 10, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. has been cancelled. (City of Owen Sound)

Read on for highlights and key decisions from last night’s City of Owen Sound Council meeting, a deep dive into the Tenth Avenue Estates public meeting, and news about the opioid crisis from Public Health, Bruce County housing, Grey County’s Experimental Acres program and more.

~ Miranda

P.S. Don’t forget to visit and bookmark OwenSoundCurrent.com. Full subscribers can access local events listings and our entire archive of content on the website.