Tolerance for Opposing Views             

For some time now city staff have been presenting municipal comparators that suggest that Owen Sound is doing relatively well when it comes to expenses and taxes. However those municipal comparators are often single tier municipalities or municipalities that have populations several times that of Owen Sound.

In his deputation to council on December 18, 2024 the Mayor stated that "Owen Sound does not have the highest taxes" and went on to say that there are municipalities that have higher "taxes per capita" than Owen Sound. However those municipalities are almost all single tier municipalities that provide a much higher level of services than Owen Sound. For example, the city of Burlington has exactly the same taxes per capita as Owen Sound. However given the greater services that this single tier municipality provides it residents, few would argue Burlington is a fair comparator to Owen Sound.

This practice of downplaying Owen Sound's poor performance when it comes to expenses and taxes has become the norm over the past ten years and there appears to be little tolerance for anyone presenting an opposing view.
A case in point - in mid-November I presented each member of council with exactly that; an opposing view. I provided each member of council with their own printed copy of my Service Review Findings. The response I received, or more precisely the complete absence of a response, supports the above assertion that members of council have no tolerance for an opposing view.

The report was compiled from publicly available information found at Statistics Canada, municipal Audited Financial Statements and municipal Financial Information Returns. This data showed that when Owen Sound is fairly compared to similar municipalities based on population, population-density and the number of occupied dwellings that Owen Sound does have the highest taxes. As well, when compared to all municipalities in Grey and Bruce counties, Owen Sound does have the highest taxes in spite of the Mayor's assertion to the contrary.

I was expecting that at least one member of council would be interested enough to meet to discuss my findings – however nothing but silence – not even one acknowledgement that anyone had even received my report. There was absolutely no interest shown by any member of council to discuss my findings that opposed the accepted view that "Owen Sound compares well to other municipalities".

One month later, having not heard any feedback on my Paper, and after posting my intentions, I updated my report and released this new version to the public on 15 Dec 2024. Since then I received acknowledgement from two of the nine members of council but surprisingly there was no discussion of the particulars of my report and no request to meet for a discussion. I did however meet with one member of council to discuss this year’s budget but curiously my report was never mentioned.

Ironically, I have met with two members of council from another municipality and corresponded with one other. They had all downloaded a copy of my Paper and were interested in my research and its potential application to their municipality from slightly different perspectives. Needless to say this is a sad statement on Owen Sound members of council who have been silent on my report and not at all interested in discussing my findings. As well there was no interest in even debating my findings that Owen Sound is not doing well when compared to valid municipal comparators.

One of the Guiding Principles to Owen Sound's Code of Conduct states that: "Members should be committed to performing their functions with integrity, impartiality and transparency" I submit that anyone who is not to open to considering evidence that is in conflict with their current views, is not being impartial.

FRUSTRATION – I believe this is what most Owen Sound Taxpayers have been feeling for a while.