- by Rob Leonard

I moved from Owen Sound 4 years ago to a city with 10,000 more people and there is a noticeable difference even at a 10k increase. The job opportunities are better but you have to consider the fact that my new city isonly 30 minutes north of Barrie.

When I lived in Owen Sound I was very much in favour of growth but

now I'm living in a city that is going through a growth spurt and see first hand the pros and cons of that growth.

With new houses (neighborhoods) comes more snow removal and with more snow removal the need for more snow plows as an example. Increased traffic on roads that were designed to handle much less traffic now requires those roads to be widened or new roads built. The city population has outgrown the hospital here. Now they need a new and bigger hospital.

With growth comes increased costs to maintain and grow the city infrastructure. Sustainability is not always comgrowth.

A restaurant owner friend once considered expanding into the space next to his and it would have doubled his seating. But after looking at the costs related to the expansion and realistically accessing whether he could fill that space with customers to make it profitable he decided it wasn't worth it and put the extra money into his existing space to make it better and more sustainable.