Owen Sound Mayor Ian Boddy outlined several of his priorities for the next four years at city council’s inaugural meeting.
Boddy thanked the community for their confidence in him for a renewed mandate and a third term as mayor in an address Monday night at the Harmony Centre.
“I’m ready to continue my role to lead our city and attract ideas, investment and people to our community,” Boddy says.
He vowed to pursue opportunities to make the city and region better, and make informed decisions on how to best spend taxpayers money. The third-term mayor also outlined several goals he hopes council can achieve over the next four years.
On taxation, Boddy says: “We will set goals and take steps to bring net municipal levy per capita into the mid-range relative to other municipalities across the province during the term.”
He also talked about having “serious discussions” with municipal neighbours to share services, a focus Coun. Travis Dodd also spoke about. Dodd mentioned “working with regional partners through a regional lens” to achieve long-term sustainability and affordability, for Owen Sound and Grey County as a whole.
“I’m appreciative to see members of Georgian Bluffs’ staff and council here this evening. Because I think it’s going to be really interesting to see how we can work together to start looking at some of the services being provided,” Dodd says.
Mayor Boddy touched on some economic aspirations for the city. He says “we will set goals and pursue new hospitality, commercial and industrial development, and attract jobs in clean energy, food processing, medical treatment and research.”
He also prioritized developing, following and funding a “fully-functioning business attraction strategy.”
“This is the third inaugural speech I’ve stood here and said that. But we’ve started to attract residential development,” Boddy says. “We need to take serious steps, like all other successful growing municipalities have implemented. We cannot continue to wait and see, and wait for it to happen. We’ve got to take strong strides going forward.”
Coun. Hamley echoed a similar view to Boddy on the need for a strategy to drive economic growth.
“The municipalities to the west of Owen Sound have Bruce Power and have leveraged it to their advantage. Municipalities to the east of us have incredible outdoor recreational opportunities and have leveraged it to their advantage. But, here in Owen Sound we’ve been stuck in second gear for as long as I can recall,” Hamley says. “It’s not to say there hasn’t been successes here in Owen Sound. But, unlike other communities there is no unifying strategy that drives economic growth. There is no value proposition. I believe that we as a council need to identify what that unique proposition is, build a strategy around it and relentlessly pursue that strategy.”
Boddy personally welcomed Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation Chief Veronica Smith, Georgian Bluffs Mayor Sue Carleton, Georgian Bluffs Deputy Mayor Grant Pringle and Grey County CAO Kim Wingrove.
To them he says: “We all share an interest in protecting our environment for generations to come. I look forward to working together with all of you to share ideas, knock down barriers and find ways to work together to share ideas that will benefit all of our residents.”
Boddy also congratulated all of the returning and new council members, and addressed them directly to end his speech.
“We will make the best decisions we can based on all of the information provided to us. There will be times that each of us will have to say ‘no’ to people that we care about, and our friends in the community. Not every decision we make will be popular. Some decisions may not be popular with anyone,” Owen Sound’s mayor explains. “But we will make every decision we believe to be in the best interest of our community as a whole. We will strive to leave our community better today, than when we started.”
(photo supplied by City of Owen Sound)
Justice Julia Morneau presided over the declarations of office ceremony. The mayor, deputy mayor and all members of council each made the same vow to exercise the office “truly, faithfully and impartially “ and to disclose any pecuniary interests under the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act.
All other members of council also made some comments after they made declarations of office Monday night.
New deputy mayor Scott Greig, who served as a councillor from 2014-22, talked about “working to convince council for one-year committee terms” and advocating for a sub-transit committee.
He also advocated for enhanced budget scrutiny by council, and says he intends to work on housing, doctor recruitment, jobs, development and taxes.
Jon Farmer, Suneet Kukreja and Melanie Middlebro’ are the new Owen Sound councillors starting their first terms.
Farmer thanked supporters for electing him and says “there’s a lot of good work for us to do, in order to make Owen Sound have the greatest quality of life for the greatest possible number of people, both immediately and for generations to come.”
Kukreja says she is “truly humbled” to serve on council and says she strongly believes in the power of collaboration and teamwork.
Middlebro’ says she is excited to serve and looks forward to “rigorous debates and bold ideas to solve the issues facing Owen Sound, and to be the visionaries to see Owen Sound grow and develop to be the economic driver of this region.”
Returning councillors Marion Koepke and Carol Merton also spoke, congratulating their colleagues and making some comments on the upcoming term.
Merton: “I look forward to working with the mayor, my fellow councillors, city staff and the members of the public as I continue to serve this city.”
Koepke: “I encourage healthy engagement by the citizens of Owen Sound. You live here. You financially support the initiatives and infrastructure requirements. So you need to get involved. Speak up and let your thoughts be known.”
It was quite a show to start the inaugural meeting. Council members were piped in to the tune of bagpipes played by Bill Millman, a retired Owen Sound fire chief. The procession was led in by a colour party comprised of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 6 Owen Sound members.
Some live music was included as part of the evening. Bayleigh Ruigrok sang and Kyle Davis played guitar. They performed a couple of cover songs during the transition period from the declarations of office ceremony to the regular council meeting agenda.