I note, back in 2014 , my then opponent and now current mayor campaigned in part on a promise of expanded or regional governance. That initiative seems to have been forgotten or abandoned since that flashy brochure was delivered to Owen Sound residents.
When will Grey County municipal leaders and Grey County council itself recognize the imbalance in services/taxation/infrastructure etc at lower tier member municipalities, and actually commission a third-party consultant to provide a proper and detailed review of what a regional municipality, with local service boards and focused public advisory committees, could do to effectively address the service levels across the region and the erratic tax classes/rates?
Until municipal leaders across all Grey County municipalities agree to get cold, hard, fact-based answers to this very real question, we simply do not know if regional government would better serve the citizens or not.
No one is asking.
No one is advocating to even get any answers.
Why not have Grey County assume management and maintenance of all subsurface infrastructure and all roads?
Why not have Grey County assume management and implementation of all garbage collection and a green bin program? (see Simcoe County)
Why not have regional elections?
No one has the answers to these questions, because...
No one is asking.
Good luck to all the well intentioned citizens who have stood up to be part of the decision making machine locally and across Ontario.
Deb Haswell, Owen Sound