Staff Budget Recommendations

We Truly Value Public Input

This is Your Opportunity to Have Your Voice Heard

We've seen many examples over the past few years of this current council shutting down public input, whether at the microphone during a council meeting or by morphing a Town Hall into a staff 'show and tell'. One example is the 2050 vision project which cost taxpayers $85,000. There were over 1,000 community members who contributed more than 5,000 open‑ended responses to the “Vision 2050” survey. They did so with the expectation that their thoughtful input would be taken seriously—and translated into action (owensoundcurrent.com). These submissions addressed downtown safety, housing, transit, and more. But rather than releasing the full data, the City delayed publication and, when finally released, it cost residents over $500 in FOI fees (owensoundcurrent.com). This erodes trust and devalues citizen engagement.

However, the team at RemakeCouncil.com are providing you with this opportunity to have your voice heard. This is an opportunity for you to articulate what you believe are the most serious issues facing residents. We would also like to hear what you believe are the solutions to these issues and your ideas on the future. We would particularly like to hear from those 1,000 residents who responded to the Vision 2050 survey. You can submit your ideas anomyously if you wish. We believe that every citizen comment and idea matter—not just as an obligation, but as an opportunity for meaningful, lasting change.

When City Hall restricts public input—not just in duration, but through agenda controls and limited transparency—it comes at a real cost: lost insight, deteriorating trust, unaddressed problems, and civic disengagement. Conversely, valuing and utilizing the thoughtful ideas of residents—especially those raising concerns from lived experience—can generate solutions, restore confidence, and ultimately build a stronger, more vibrant Owen Sound.

Consequences of Restricting Participation

As of late 2024, Council imposed new procedural bylaw limits: reducing public forum time to 15 minutes total and only three minutes per speaker; and granting the Mayor and City Manager discretion to withhold items from agendas (owensoundcurrent.com). While seemingly efficient, these rules severely limit residents' ability to speak on emerging or urgent community issues.

The former mayor and civic advocacy group OSHaRE openly opposed amendments seen to further distance Council from vulnerable populations (owensoundcurrent.com). Council members themselves voiced concern that such restrictions curtail avenues for community dialogue, undermining the opportunity to bring forward concerns outside of pre-set topics—even those with serious social impact (560cfos.ca, owensoundcurrent.com).

Impact on Community Trust and Collective Solutions

Local voices, especially from business owners and service providers, consistently identify problems such as safety issues downtown and unmanaged homelessness as barriers to downtown vibrancy (owensoundcurrent.com). These opinions, often drawn into public forums or surveys, reflect deep local knowledge. Yet even when forums are held, attendees say no meaningful decisions follow, and reporting by organizers lacks transparency—they’re skeptical a path forward is ever real (owensoundcurrent.com).

Residents speak with frustration: paying taxes but being told to choose which services to cut, while enduring infrastructure decline and unmet needs like public washrooms or transit options (owensoundcurrent.com).