Grey County Year-End Highlights 2025

Grey County Council is responsible for setting service levels and making strategic decisions that support the wellbeing of Grey County residents, businesses, and visitors.

• Seeking to lead innovation in municipal services, Council struck a Joint Municipal Service Committee to look at shared approaches to challenges and opportunities facing municipalities.
• Council lead efforts to support efficiency across Grey County and its member municipalities including through investigating how shared planning services and realigned road management functions could better align resources.
• Advocated for local healthcare issues, including seeking to improve access to primary healthcare for community members and supporting work to connect underserved communities to healthcare support.
• Grey County delegates attended the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa and the Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference in Toronto, meeting with provincial ministers to discuss community paramedicine funding and small business supports.
• Grey County actively advocated for residents and communities via the Western Ontario Wardens Caucus and Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative.

Community Services provide housing support, homelessness prevention, early learning and child care, and Ontario Works.

• Grey County Housing celebrated the first anniversary of directly operating short-term emergency housing at a former motel site in Owen Sound. The motel is reducing nightly operating costs by over 50% and freeing up funding to expand winter response during peak season.
• Housing maintained 991 units of rent-geared-to-income housing and supported 550 units of non-profit housing.
• Land was purchased in Hanover at 17th Street Crescent for the future construction of a new EarlyON Child and Family Centre.
• Early Learning and Child Care Supported licensed child care centres and home-based child care providers across the county.
• Ontario Works provided stability supports to an average of 1,400 households in 2025, assisting clients with financial and life stability needs.

Corporate Services often fly under the radar, but these departments are hard at work keeping things at the County running smoothly and efficiently.

• Bruce, Dufferin, Grey, and Wellington Counties, in partnership with Saugeen Mobility and Regional Transit, launched a joint Regional Transit Study to explore creating a unified transit network across the four-county region with study results to be presented to county councils in mid-2026.
• Grey County welcomed Randy Scherzer to the role of Chief Administrative Officer and Niall Lobley to the role of Deputy Chief Administrative Officer following the departure of CAO Kim Wingrove in May. 
• The Grey County Connection, a new monthly public newsletter delivering news, updates, and opportunities directly to residents' inboxes, was launched in October. 
• Bruce-Grey GIS Day 2025 welcomed nearly 300 Grade 7 and 8 students from eight schools who created 76 interactive mapping projects using geographic information system technology. 
• Provincial Offences continued to hold regular court operations twice a week in Owen Sound on Mondays and Wednesdays, and in Walkerton on Tuesdays.

Grey County's economic development, tourism, and cultural services support local business owners, help grow the local economy, and tell the stories of our past.

• Grey County was recognized as one of the world's Smart21 communities by the Intelligent Community Forum for the fourth time, highlighting innovative approaches to economic development and digital inclusion.
• Grey County Tourism launched the Gather campaign, celebrating local food and producers and showcasing Grey County's culinary and agricultural strengths.
• Grey Roots Museum & Archives launched its redesigned cornerstone exhibit, the Grey County Gallery, presenting a dynamic and inclusive history of Grey County.
• Grey Roots hosted "Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas" on May 17, running through September 20, attracting high visitation numbers. Opening day festivities featured renowned paleontologist Tim Jeffries.
• Georgian College recognized Grey County with a Community Partner Award recognizing years of collaboration, support and advocacy for the Owen Sound campus.
• The 2025 Regional Job Fair brought together local employers and job seekers across the region.
• The Business Enterprise Centre continued to offer grant programs and free consultations supporting local small businesses and student entrepreneurs.
• The Summer Company program offered students up to $3,000 in funding to operate a summer business and gain entrepreneurial experience.
• Grey County continued to support the Sydenham Campus makerspace and Business Enterprise Centre services for entrepreneurs across the region.

Grey County operates three long-term care homes across the County; Grey Gables in Markdale, Lee Manor in Owen Sound, and Rockwood Terrace in Durham providing high quality care for 316 residents.

• Grey County was recognized by AdvantAge Ontario with the Innovation and Excellence Workplace Quality award for the Long-Term Care Colour It Coach program, with more than 250 clinical placements supported in 2024 and 35 students successfully onboarding as team members.
• The three Long-Term Care homes reached the halfway point of implementing the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario's Clinical Pathways program, which offers a structured approach to care delivery and ensures consistent, high-quality care for residents.
• Work continued on the new Rockwood Terrace redevelopment project. A new home is being constructed which will include 28 additional beds (total of 128)  and features energy-efficient, solar-ready net zero design.

Grey County Paramedic Services provides emergency ambulance service and community paramedicine programs to the residents and visitors of Grey County. In 2025 they responded to over calls for service and served hundreds of community paramedicine patients.

• Grey County completed its new $2.4 million solar-ready net zero paramedic base in Durham in September. This base design will be replicated for future paramedic base builds, including Feversham and Dundalk in 2026, as well as future proposed bases in Ayton area, Thornbury, and Cobble Beach.
• Responding to community needs, the Paramedic Deployment Plan continued to be rolled out with new paramedics and team members joining Grey in 2025 to help respond to rising call volumes. 
• Grey County Paramedics responded to more than 17,000 calls in 2025, marking a 9% year over year increase.   
• Grey County paramedics exceeded response time targets for all call types, demonstrating commitment to maintaining and improving emergency response performance.
• The Community Paramedicine Program received permanent funding with an additional $500,000 in operations support, providing significant stability to vital services. This program provides in home support to more than 600 patients across Grey, reducing hospital and doctor visits. 
• Supportive Outreach Services (SOS) expanded to seven-day-a-week operations with new funding from Health Canada and Ontario Health West. The funding will also allow the team to hire additional harm reduction counsellors, peer support workers with lived experiences, and staff with Indigenous knowledge. The SOS program also acquired a new mobile outreach vehicle that will be ready for service in early 2026. 
• Successfully received federal grant funding to support the Neighbourhood Response Team pilot program that launched in Owen Sound's River District. The pilot is providing social navigation, business support, and connections to essential services.

The Planning Department processes and approves planning applications to support the sustainable growth of our communities.

• Public meetings were held to gather information on updating the forest and wildlife management by-laws, to address legislative and policy changes over the past twenty years.
• County Council met jointly with its member municipal councils to consider centralized planning services, with a report and more information coming in early 2026.
• Council continued work on implementing updates to Grey County's planning processes to adapt to provincial policy changes and support development.
• Work continued on a Regional Housing Strategy that will consider population growth, employment growth, and workforce impacts on local housing.

Transportation Services keeps 887 kilometres of county roads and 192 bridges and structures safe year-round – including during our significant snowstorms.

• Transportation Services maintained roads during one of the toughest winters in recent years with exceptionally high snowfall and significant weather. Grey County took steps towards transferring approximately 50km of roads, primarily in urban areas, between the County and some local municipalities.
• The 2025 road construction season included millions invested in the county road network through construction and resurfacing projects totaling over $13 million.
• Ten culverts were replaced on Grey Road 30, providing better capacity and resilience against weather and increased traffic.
• Major construction projects included:
  • Pulverizing and paving sections of Grey Road 9, Grey Road 12, and Grey Road 14
  • Overlay of sections on Grey Road 25 and Grey Road 119
  • Reconstruction of a section of Grey Road 28 plus traffic signal replacement
• The transportation services fleet purchased its first fully electric and will start active operations in 2026.

Grey County has declared a climate emergency and adopted Going Green in Grey: Climate Change Action Plan 2022-2050.

• Grey County co-hosted the fourth annual Youth Climate Action Conference which welcomed over 125 elementary students and 27 educators from 24 schools across Grey and Bruce Counties.
• Staff launched public engagement for "Resilient Grey," the County's new Climate Change Adaptation Plan, with a survey and public Climate Conversation Workshops. A final strategy is expected in spring 2026.
• ‘Future Ready’ is an innovative joint program, led by Grey across Wellington and Dufferin counties to support developers in building communities that are ready for future climate pressures that reached a major milestone in 2025 as the program started rolling out.
• Grey County secured $100,000 from Natural Resources Canada's Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program to install 20 Level 2 electric vehicle chargers at four County-owned sites, supporting the transition to zero-emission fleet vehicles.
• Funding to farmers was distributed through the Experimental Acres Program, providing resources to test innovative practices aimed at improving soil health and increasing carbon capture.