ANDRII ZVORYGIN FOR MAYOR

Andrii Zvorygin for Mayor

Affordable Homes • Lower Property Taxes • Stronger Neighbourhoods

Andrii Zvorygin’s 2026 campaign presented the only fully costed plan reviewed here for lower property taxes, affordable homes, safer neighbourhoods, a stronger downtown, and resident participation at City Hall. Its draft 2027 City budget was more than a quarter million below the 2026 budget while maintaining and improving services. The plan also created a path to a warm resident-owned home and productive land for about $700 a month, practical downtown action, and a direct resident voice at City Hall.

Residing in the heart of Owen Sound for 11 years, Andrii is prepared for the three responsibilities of Mayor: leading Owen Sound Council, working with Grey County Council, and advocating for residents to provincial and federal governments. He attends and participates in Owen Sound and Grey County Council, built HelpOS.ca so residents can follow meetings, documents, decisions, and public discussion, and regularly meets federal and provincial officials. He runs two profitable businesses: LiberIT helps people with computers, and Lyis Forestry is a plant nursery farm supporting food security. He serves as treasurer for local groups, helping manage budgets. He also meets regularly with scientists and engineers to help with education, and stays open to residents’ ideas and new evidence.

He offers a detailed, costed plan for lower taxes, affordable housing, safer neighbourhoods, practical downtown action, reliable transit, local jobs, and open Council communication. The plan connects transparency, participation, and compassion so residents can see decisions, shape their neighbourhoods, and share responsibility for a stronger city.

MayorOfOwenSound.ca
226-256-1632
andrii@zvorygin.ca
Political affiliation: Non-partisan • Political views: Moderate
Canadian with Finnic–North Eurasian roots
33 years in Ontario • 11 years in Owen Sound

Read the 2026 Story Platform Flyer with Landscape Window Sign · View the 2027 budget · Browse all flyer versions

This page is a 2026 mayoral campaign archive.

Questionnaire: Responses to Concerned Owen Sound Taxpayers

Andrii Zvorygin, candidate for Mayor of Owen Sound

Endorsements

Read all endorsements

What This Means for Residents

Affordable Housing

Affordable construction means lower-cost, livable, code-compliant homes designed around local household incomes, with total housing cost at or below 30% of relevant income. Options include returning vacant homes to use, modest urban forms and the costed code-compliant yurt-based ARC example.

Vacant homes • Low-cost housing options • ARC pathway

Four phases: Help Now uses dedicated revenue and partnerships; Keep People Housed uses prevention and revenue; Affordable Living enables household and community investment through planning; and Voluntary Recovery is a partner-funded Phase 4 pilot.

Help Now can include mobile meals for people living at the edges of town, struggling seniors, and people with disabilities who face barriers to travelling to a fixed meal site.

Learn more about Affordable Rural Communities → helpos.ca/arc

Lower Property Taxes

Examine City spending, remove obsolete costs, improve processes, and direct money to services residents value.

Open the books • Remove obsolete costs • Simplify City work

See the tax plan → helpos.ca/tax

Stronger Neighbourhoods

Help neighbours know one another, connect clearly with City Hall, and organize watches, signs, cameras, cleanups, and safer streets together.

Local Representatives • Neighbourhood gatherings • Shared Stewardship

See the neighbourhood plan → helpos.ca/wards

Stronger Downtown

Connect civilian crisis follow-up, practical meal support, public garbage service, shared cleanups, and local economic activity so downtown remains safe, useful, and welcoming.

Crisis response • Clean streets • Local jobs

See the community safety plan · See the waste service plan

Local Economy

Make City purchasing and repair needs visible so local businesses can compete for work, build useful skills, and replace more goods and services currently brought in from elsewhere. Growing local suppliers can support larger employers and wider markets.

Local procurement • Import replacement • Useful work

See the local economy plan

The Plan in Brief

These short answers connect the campaign's main proposals. Each link leads to the detailed work and supporting calculations.

  • Can taxes go down while services improve? The working 2027 operating scenario is more than a quarter million dollars below the 2026 budget, with costed first-year priorities and public review of spending. Read the budget scenario.
  • How can families lower their living costs? Return vacant homes to use, enable genuinely lower-cost construction, and advance Affordable Rural Communities, where a warm resident-owned home and productive land are planned at about $700 a month in the rounded public explanation. Read the housing and homelessness plan. See the ARC calculations.
  • How should Owen Sound respond to homelessness and public-space concerns? Local Representatives and voluntary neighbourhood watches can identify concerns and connect them with the appropriate civic, paramedic, civilian crisis, fire, or police response. Phase 1 includes civilian crisis follow-up and meals near unsheltered people at the edges of town, as well as struggling seniors and people with disabilities who face travel barriers. Read the Community Safety & Policing plan.
  • What about daily services? Stabilize local transit, use funding gates before expanding evening or Sunday service, and publish the cost, risk, and result behind road and wastewater decisions. Read the transportation plan. Read the wastewater plan.
  • How can local businesses and workers grow? Publish recurring City needs, use lawful value-based procurement as an initial market, and extend successful local capacity across Owen Sound and Grey County. Stronger suppliers can support larger employers and wider markets. Read the local economy plan.

The radio answer review and teleprompter provide the full spoken versions.

How the Plan Works

Transparency, Participation and Compassion guide the work from published evidence to practical decisions and measurable results.

Read the full platform

Andrii’s Preparation for Mayor

Government relationships

Andrii has attended and participated in Owen Sound and Grey County Council, spoken with municipal leaders and staff, and met with provincial and federal representatives about local needs. He can connect resident concerns with the right level of government, explain the authority and cost behind a proposal, and advocate for practical next steps.

Read The Most Relevant Experience for Mayor

Budget & City operations

Andrii is already reviewing City spending, debt, staffing, management structure, and service delivery. He runs two profitable businesses, LiberIT, an information-technology business, and Lyis Forestry, a plant-nursery farm, and brings hands-on financial responsibility from serving as Grey Bruce Makerspace Treasurer and previously as a federal campaign treasurer.

Read the budget and City operations work

Transparency in practice

Andrii built HelpOS.ca to make agendas, transcripts, Council results, public documents, and local issues easier for residents to find, follow, and understand.

Long-range technical collaboration

Andrii organizes monthly discussions with international scientists and engineers on energy, resources, transition planning, and long-term community viability.

Watch the discussions.

Read more about Andrii’s experience.

Plans Already Published

The platform includes specific steps, cost models, timelines, implementation requirements and public measures for progress.

City finances and City Hall

Current work reviews approximately $29 million in City debt, spending, staffing, management structure, service delivery, a simpler City Hall organization, zero-based budgeting, and transparency.

The working 2027 budget scenario shows how these reviews connect to a lower operating levy: targeted recurring savings and lower-cost delivery create room for costed Local Representation, cleanliness, crisis-response and food-service lines, while wastewater work uses rates and vacant-home-tax funding remains a separate planning estimate.

2027 Budget & City Operations scenario · Tax plan · City Hall plan · Transparency

Affordable Rural Communities

The ARC work includes detailed low-cost housing modelling, open affordability calculations, productive-land options, and a Grey County planning pathway.

Read the ARC material → helpos.ca/arc

Reliable Transportation

Stabilize current transit within the existing levy, preserve flexible contract options, and prepare City-owned, locally maintained buses. Evening and Sunday service can follow when verified recurring savings, sustainable funding, and expected fares cover the cost.

Read the transportation plan → helpos.ca/bus

A Platform Built With Residents

This is a living platform. It continues to improve as residents raise concerns, share local knowledge, challenge assumptions, and suggest practical solutions.

Resident feedback has already helped refine housing models, wastewater proposals, City Hall reform, campaign materials, and other parts of the platform.

Share a suggestion or local concern

Campaign archive

Story Platform Flyer and the linked policy pages preserve the campaign’s proposals, public record and resident feedback.

Read the endorsements archive · Read the volunteer archive

Latest Campaign Update

Campaign Update: $29M in Debt, $61K Homes, City Hall Reform and a Certified Ballot

Campaign updates closed

The 2026 campaign update list is closed. Residents can continue to review the platform and send factual corrections or public-source updates through the candidate information page.

Media

Lower Taxes. Better Services.

A short explanation of how better service value can support lower property taxes.

Watch Short

How to Pronounce Andrii Zvorygin

A short music video to help people pronounce Andrii Zvorygin’s name.

Watch video

Interview with James O

A campaign interview filmed in the local history section of the Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library.

Watch video

Frequently Asked Questions

Would Councillors be elected by Ward in 2026?

Owen Sound would continue electing seven Councillors at large in 2026. After the election, Council could assign each Councillor primary responsibility for one geographic Ward while all seven continue to represent the whole city.

Read the Wards and Local Representatives plan → helpos.ca/wards

How much could Affordable Rural Community housing cost?

The current two-adult, three-child ordinary-site model is about $670 per month as a preliminary planning estimate. The figure illustrates a matched housing-cost scenario, with actual project costs depending on the property, approvals, financing and household choices.

Read the ARC cost model → helpos.ca/arc

Who can live in an Affordable Rural Community?

ARC is general affordable housing for seniors, young adults, workers, families, growers, and others seeking secure housing with access to land. Voluntary recovery is a separate specialized pathway.

Read the ARC housing plan → helpos.ca/arc · Read the voluntary recovery proposal → helpos.ca/recover

What can the Mayor do, and what belongs to Grey County or the Province?

The Mayor leads Owen Sound at both the City and County level. Owen Sound’s Mayor and Deputy Mayor also sit on Grey County Council, where they vote on County responsibilities such as regional planning, County roads, housing and social services.

At the City level, the Mayor and Council oversee Owen Sound’s budget, organization, services, local planning decisions and other municipal responsibilities. This means proposals involving both City and County action can be advanced through the Mayor’s roles on Owen Sound Council and Grey County Council.

The Mayor also has a role in lobbying and advocating with Grey County, provincial and federal representatives when a proposal depends on decisions, funding or rules outside City authority. The Province sets many of the laws municipalities operate under and funds or delivers services such as health care, so some proposals also require provincial cooperation.

Read The Most Relevant Experience for Mayor.

Campaign Links

Election Information

Read the full platform

The complete platform explains the plans for lower property taxes, affordable housing, local representation, community safety, transportation and accountable City administration.

Read the full platform