Soon you will take your places at the first meeting of Council for the term. Given the times in which we live, this term will likely be one of the most challenging terms in many years. The Owen Sound voters elected you, because they believe that each and every one of you are the best suited to take on the many challenges we are facing – sky rocking taxes, our homeless population, our failing transit system.

The Magnitude of the Challenges

We are currently experiencing record high inflation at 6-7% and some economists are predicting that we are headed into a recession. At the same time there is wide recognition that city expenses and the city workforce have grown well beyond what they should be for a municipality of our size. As I pointed out to you over the past several weeks Owen Sound taxes have been growing at over twice the rate of inflation. Between 2011 and 2020 revenue from taxation increased by $8.4 million, or 38%, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by only 18.3% during this same period. See www.OwenSoundTaxes.com

Your challenge now is to mitigate the damage caused by successive tax increases by introducing a plan for successive tax reductions over the next ten years. This can only be achieved by dramatically reducing city expenses. As we all know the largest expense in any business or public institution is the Salary-Wage Envelope. Hence reducing this expense will be unavoidable if you are serious about ‘right-sizing’ expenses.

Staff Reductions - Right-Sizing the Workforce

As challenging as staff reductions can be in a public institution, it will be unavoidable during your term. Hence, the sooner you take on this challenge the better. To begin this process, I suggest you examine the staff growth over the last ten years. An era to focus on is the 5 year period between 2011 and 2016 where Salaries and Benefits ballooned by $3.6 million or 16.3% during a period when inflation grew by only 7.9%, according to the city’s audited financials. The magnitude of this growth in salaries over such a short period is alarming, given that Owen Sound’s population was relatively stagnant during this period.

Then compare the Owen Sound city workforce to that of Strathroy’s along with the services that they each provide their residents, which, by the way, are nearly identical since they both employ their own fire and police employees. In 2020 Owen Sound salaries and benefits expense was $25.9 million while Strathroy’s was only $14.2 million. Strathroy spends $264 and $48 per capita on police and fire respectively while Owen Sound spends $371 and $232 per capita for these same employees. Perhaps a Council field trip to Strathroy to meet with their Council would shed some light on how they can service a larger municipality for $11.7 million less than what Owen Sound spends.
Although, this is a problem that was created by past Councils, during a period of relatively low inflation, taxpayers are looking to you to correct the city’s staff-size in spite of current inflationary pressures. You owe it to those who just voted you into office to personally do this research for yourself and draw your own conclusions on the appropriateness of the current staffing levels relative to the size of our municipality and then take the appropriate action to ‘right-size’ the workforce.

Critical Thinking

When it comes to important financial decisions you will often see the data presented in a way that distorts or disguises the real impact of the decision you’re facing. In these cases you need to apply your own critical thinking and analysis to fully understand the impact of the decision that you are about to make. You may be told that historically Owen Sound’s tax increases have been less than those in our surrounding communities and therefore we can afford to be more aggressive when it comes to raising taxes.

This statement is factually correct. Our annually tax increases, on a percentage basis, have been less than Georgian Bluff’s for example. However this should not be interpreted that Owen Sound’s Council is doing a better job of holding the line on tax increases. In fact, the opposite is true. In 2020, a one-percent increase to Georgian Bluffs $10.1 million tax revenue was $101,230; while, a one-percent increase to Owen Sound’s $30.4 million tax revenue was $304,103. This means that a 1% increase in Owen Sound has the same impact on taxpayers as a 3% tax increase in Georgian Bluffs. Therefore to have the same impact on taxpayers our tax increases need to be one-third of Georgian Bluffs’. This becomes obvious when you compare Taxes per Capita. In 2020 Georgian Bluffs taxes per capita were $912 while ours were $1,407. The point is that if you want to put an end to the excessive growth in expenses that have been driving the high tax increases, you have to apply critical thinking and analysis to everything that comes before you by asking those difficult, probing questions and not accept anything that you are presented at face value. The above numbers can be verified by BMA reports. A complete analysis is available on my website at www.OwenSoundTaxes.com

Expense Growth

For the past 20 years, previous councils allowed city expenses to incrementally grow at a rate well above inflation to a point where they are now disproportionately high, relative to our population. Strathroy has a population of 23,871 compared to Owen Sound’s population of 21,612. I pointed out that in 2020, Owen Sound spent $25.9 million on salaries and benefits while Strathroy spent only $14.2 million, while also providing their own police and fire protection. This discrepancy is reflected in the significant difference in the cost of services for these two municipalities. For example, Owen Sound spent $4.6 million on General Government services in 2020 while the larger municipality spent only $3.2 million. One question you should be asking is; why does it cost Owen Sound $1.4 million more, to provide General Government services? John Tamming once pointed out to me that our city has three City Clerks, when most cities do quite well with only one City Clerk. How pervasive is the type of thinking that got us ‘three City Clerks’? The difference in the cost of providing General Government services, $1.4 million, suggests that it goes well beyond ‘three City Clerks’ in the General Government Services department.

The discrepancy in expenses, between the two municipalities, extends beyond the Government Services department. It actually continues to each and every expense line item in the audited financials. I encourage you to examine the audited financials for both municipalities for yourself. Perhaps you can get access to the audited 2021 statements, since they are not available online. Once you review them, I suggest you apply your own critical thinking and analysis to determine for yourself, whether or not there is ample justification to continue these expenses at the same levels. If you agree with my analysis, that our staffing levels at city hall have grown well beyond what should be to manage a city of our size, then you are in a position to make the changes necessary to ‘right size’ the workforce to at least match that of the larger municipality of Strathroy.

City Growth - Time for a Change in Approach

Over the years past Councils have adopted several different strategies aimed at stimulating growth and reducing taxes through an expanded tax base. A few years ago I had the pleasure of serving on the Mayor’s Growth Committee that adopted the very unrealistic motto of “30 by 30”, meaning an Owen Sound population of 30,000 by 2030. However this was just a 'dream' and the city failed to develop a strategy to achieve this goal. Neither this, nor the many other initiatives attempted over the years have worked. Owen Sound's population today is actually less than it was 20 years ago.

It’s time for this new Council to do things differently. It’s time for Council to focus on getting its ‘books in order’ by aggressively getting expenses under control so taxes can be reduced. If you focus on reducing taxes, to a point that they are competitive with our surrounding municipalities, then growth will happen organically. When commercial and residential tax rates are lowered, the migration to neighbouring municipalities will cease and jobs and population will begin to grow.

You’re Not Alone

Past Councils have relied on community input in the form of standing committees which have been successful in providing a community perspective on routine operations. The other source of input and analysis that councils routinely turn to are costly consultants. One resource that Councils have rarely tapped into is the population of professionals who have chosen Owen Sound as their retirement community. Unlike those who volunteer for Standing Committees, most retired professionals are not available for long term or ongoing commitments. However, this group can be a great “Free” resource that Council can activate for advice, consultation or to address specific problems facing the city. All that is required is for Council to advertise the need and identify the specific credentials, knowledge and experiences required.

Encouraging Greater Public Participation

The formality of the current council meetings are not designed for meaningful interaction with the public. Those that do participate in the public question period are the more vocal members of the community who do not hesitate to share their opinions. However the format is not welcoming to those see the process as intimidating and shy away from sharing their views. There is a wealth of information out there among those that hesitant to share their views in a formal setting. To tap into this resource I suggest that Council consider changing one council meeting per month to a more informal ‘Town Hall’ type gathering to increase community interaction. This meeting should not take place in the council chambers but rather in more neutral environment that encourages discussion and is managed by a neutral moderator to ensure the microphone is not dominated by the loud voices. You don’t need to hear from people like myself who don’t hesitate to ‘tell you what they think’. You need to provide this inviting, informal, safe environment to tap into the many voices out there, that know what they expect from their Council, but are reluctant to share their opinions in the current environment.

Protecting the Unhoused during the Winter

The second, and perhaps the most immediate, challenge you will be facing is our growing homeless population. You heard during the election that some are afraid of being approached by the homeless downtown and merchants have reported their property being frequented by the addicted leaving drug paraphernalia for the merchant to clean up. You heard an appeal from a fellow candidate for establishing temporary washrooms and winter housing for the homeless until they are all housed. You know intuitively that meaningful Riverside growth will not occur until there is a permanent solution to homelessness. The County is the lead agency when solving this problem. However, you heard during the campaign that residents expect their city to also play a direct role in the solution. There were suggestions that the city could augment the County’s efforts, for example, by opening up the enclosed marketplace stalls for nighttime refuge during the windy winter nights and installing portable washroom facilities nearby.

A more permanent winter solution is to use the over-appropriated funds in the Transit budget to purchase the same mobile housing units that Charlottetown purchased this year. Owen Sound could purchase 8 to 10 units with the surplus Transit funds and install them in the Harrison Park or Kelso Beach campgrounds, where there are hookups for power water and sewer. The units could be removed and stored off site during summer months, so they don't interfere with recreational camping. You can review Charlottetown’s solution at this link. Click Here

These are just a couple of the little things that Council can do immediately to help out, that will be greatly appreciated by those currently without housing in our community. This can all be achieved with no new costs to taxpayers, particularly if you reach out to the community for volunteers and donations.

What do you think?