The City of Owen Sound works closely with Grey County’s Economic Development, Tourism and Culture department and that relationship has become more vital than ever in recent weeks. I want to share with you some resources that I hope you will take the time to go over and take advantage of, if you have not done so already.

1. Grey County Business Resiliency Map: A map of businesses that remain open in Grey, including those that offer home delivery or pickup, and those that have moved to online platforms. Email [email protected] (link sends e-mail) to create or edit your businesses or service listing. If you have already sent your information to Melissa Crannie, our Tourism Marketing Coordinator – she has submitted this on your behalf. Moving forward, please use the above email link. It is important that if your information changes, you let Grey County know through the same email address.

2. Virtual Content: RTO7, the City’s provincial tourism organization for our area is requesting virtual content. Perhaps you are offering online classes, tours or instruction. All of the information pertaining to the service is here https://mailchi.mp/a44706fb9302/destination-ontario-requests-virtual-content-2715955?e=38bef69f4e . RTO7 has a wide reach, so if this is of interest, I encourage you to take advantage.

3. The County has done a great job of summarizing and providing information pertaining to the Federal and Provincial services that are available. I would encourage each of you to visit https://www.grey.ca/covid-19-resources and ensure you are up to date with the programs available to you as a business, as well as your employees. The document “Plain language summary of all benefits” is extremely helpful.

4. A reminder about the Grey County Business Survey – please take the time to fill this out if you have not already done so: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GreyBusinessSurvey

5. Events: The 2020 DIA Spring Celebration and Fresh First Friday (scheduled for June 5th) have been cancelled. Note that all City events such as the Home and Cottage Expo, Doors Open scheduled to take place prior to July 1st have been cancelled as well. At a future meeting, the DIA Board will discuss either the rescheduling of events or reallocation of budget.

Brent Fisher, Manager of Community Development & Marketing, City of Owen Sound