Weds Dec 24 – Grey Bruce News & A Holiday Message to Our Readers

A holiday message from the editor of Owen Sound Current, reflecting on 2025, thanking subscribers, and highlighting the importance of independent local journalism in Grey-Bruce.

👋 Welcome to The Owen Sound Current, your source for what’s happening in and around Owen Sound. Thank you to our Sustaining Supporters for funding contributor stories and keeping public notices and letters open to all! Upgrade to a full subscription for original reporting, events, curated stories, and full access to our local archives.

---

Dear Subscriber,

As 2025 draws to a close, we want to take a moment to say something that matters deeply to us:

Thank you.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for subscribing. And thank you for believing in the importance of local journalism.

This is my third December at the helm of Owen Sound Current, and in that time, the need for independent, community-driven reporting has only grown sharper. From a shifting media landscape to the increasing influence of misinformation, it’s not easy for truth to travel as far or as fast as it should.

But every time you open one of our daily briefs, share an article, or recommend us to a neighbour, you’re helping push back against that tide.

It’s your support that allows us to do this work — everything you see on the website and in your inbox, and a lot more behind the scenes. Thanks to our full subscribers, we’re able to stay on long-running local stories like the Sharif Rahman homicide investigation and trial, the BG Wealth Group investigation, and the province’s takeover of the Grey Bruce Health Unit.

We’ve tracked City Council’s Vision 2050 initiative, sifted through budgets, fought for public access to information on multiple fronts, and spotlighted everything from school board governance to community wins. Some of these issues call for the kinds of fact-checking we can do via email and phone; others demand freedom of information requests or even travel to other regions.

That kind of sustained, contextual reporting doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because of you.

You’ve made it possible for us to expand our coverage and curate more stories from Georgian Bluffs, Meaford, and across Grey and Bruce counties, to give readers the most comprehensive look at what’s going on in the region, delivered each weekday morning directly by email.

This year, we also added obituaries to our daily briefs, expanded our events listings, and continued running community polls to hear your views on the issues that matter most.

You make it possible for us to stay ad-free, too.

When we launched Owen Sound Current, we made a commitment to build something different: a local publication that’s not chasing clicks or buried in pop-ups, but instead focused on clarity, relevance, and accountability.

In a time when media is often dismissed, underfunded, or attacked for political gain, your subscription is more than a transaction — it’s a signal that this work matters.

We’re also deeply grateful to our contributing columnists. They’re community members who lend us their time, experience, and insights in exchange for a small honorarium, funded by our Sustaining Supporters. This collaboration helps deepen and diversify the conversations shaping our region.

And a note on social media: you’re always welcome to share our reporting with friends and neighbours. We’re still able to share our reporting on Facebook and Instagram, as small publishers like us are exempt from Meta’s ongoing news ban in Canada.

However, that also means we don’t receive any share of the federal settlement given to larger outlets.

That makes your direct support all the more vital.

If you’re reading this as a free subscriber, you’re already getting a small taste of what we offer, including editorials, contributed columns, and letters to the editor.

But our full subscribers receive so much more: curated local news, obituaries, community event listings, and full access to our archive of more than 2,600 articles. It’s a deeper, more complete picture of what’s happening in Owen Sound and across Grey-Bruce.

If you’ve found value in what we do, we hope you’ll consider upgrading to a full subscription.

Your support makes independent local journalism possible and makes emergency and public notices freely available to those who can’t afford to pay.

As the holidays approach (and with them, a short publishing break), we’ll pause our daily briefs on Thursday and Friday. We’ll be back in your inbox on Monday, December 29 (perhaps sooner, if there’s an emergency notice).

Until then, we wish you and your loved ones a peaceful and joyful holiday season.

Thank you again, on behalf of publisher Maryann Thomas at Ginger Press and myself — for trusting us, for supporting local journalism, and for showing that community connection still matters.

Warmly,
Miranda Miller
Editor, Owen Sound Current

Opinion

I ran into David Moss-Cornett last week at Ginger Press, and he asked if I’d share my thoughts on a piece he’d written. I thought it would be a perfect addition to our Christmas newsletter — and here it is.

If you know Sylvia Moss-Cornett, this will be an extra special read for you. Even if not, I hope it might inspire you to share some warm fuzzies of your own this holiday season. As David wrote in the preface:

“…perhaps one of the most meaningful gifts
you can give someone you love
is not something wrapped,
but something written.”

Public Notices

• What’s Open & Closed in Owen Sound this Holiday Season - City of Owen Sound

• Holiday Office Hours 2025 - Grey County

• Holiday Office Hours 2025 - Bruce County

Keep reading for upcoming events, obituaries, and local news, including:

• charges for a Meaford man who hit a guardrail on Hwy 26

• the City of Owen Sound’s development update for November

• an announcement from City Hall about the budget for 2026

• and a lot more… but not too much. It’s a big day already.

Local News