Owen Sound 2026
Andrii Zvorygin
for Mayor
A City That Works for Residents
Affordable Housing
Affordable homes for ordinary and lower-income households, using existing homes and new low-cost housing and land options.
Vacant homes • Low-cost housing options • ARC pathway
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
Improved Neighbourhood Cohesion
Help neighbours know one another, connect clearly with City Hall, and solve appropriate local problems together.
Local Representatives • Neighbourhood gatherings • Shared Stewardship
These are the results. Transparency, Participation and Compassion are how we get there.
Transparency
Full financial disclosureManagement accountabilityTrack decisions & results
Participation
7 local WardsLocal RepresentativesNeighbourhood gatherings
Compassion
Restore downtownRecovery & belongingAffordable homes & land
Andrii's preparation for Mayor
Government relationships
Andrii has spent years working with Owen Sound and Grey County mayors, deputy mayors, councillors, and staff, while also engaging provincial and federal representatives, ministries, and public bodies on housing, land use, food security, local production, and community resilience.
Budget & City operations
Andrii is already reviewing City spending, debt, staffing, management structure, and service delivery. He runs profitable farm and IT businesses and brings hands-on financial responsibility from serving as Grey Bruce Makerspace Treasurer and previously as a federal campaign treasurer.
Transparency in practice
Andrii built HelpOS 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.
How City Hall would work
A City Residents Can See and Shape
The governing principles become practical when residents can see how decisions are made and help solve appropriate problems close to home.
Transparency
Know where the money goes
Publish what each City service costs and what residents receive for it. Wherever legally possible, show service-level costs, staffing, management, contracts, debt, and measurable results in one clear public record. Track Council decisions from approval through implementation.
Periodic zero-based budget review would start with the result residents need, then ask what work is still necessary, what can be simplified, and what better value looks like. Modern software and improved processes can help identify duplication, obsolete expenses, unnecessary administrative work, and other avoidable costs.
This review has already begun: Andrii is examining City spending, debt, staffing, management structure, and service delivery to simplify work while protecting useful front-line services.
HelpOS.ca is already a working example: it makes Owen Sound agendas, transcripts, meeting results, and local issues easier to follow.
Learn more → helpos.ca/clear
Transparent costs help lower property-tax pressure by exposing obsolete spending and simplifying work.
Learn more → helpos.ca/tax
Participation
Put more problem-solving close to home
Owen Sound would keep city-wide elections. After 2026, Council could assign each of seven Councillors primary responsibility for a Ward of roughly 3,000 residents.
Each Ward could contain about ten Local Areas of roughly 150 households. A Local Area could choose a Local Representative to stay in touch with neighbours, bring concerns to the Ward Councillor, and track the City’s response. An annual voluntary gathering would let neighbours meet, share ideas, and choose their representative.
The scale is small enough for neighbours to know one another and coordinate effectively.
Shared Stewardship could help neighbours organize neighbourhood watches, document recurring problems, plan cleanups and gardening, and hold repair or skill-sharing events. Local Representatives could connect road, drainage, or other concerns with City staff, police, or other services. Qualified staff and contractors would handle work requiring licences, specialized expertise, heavy equipment, or formal safety controls.
Publishing local purchasing, repair, production, and service needs would also help local suppliers meet local needs.
Learn more → helpos.ca/wards
Compassion in practice
Help People Build Stable Lives
Compassion is the governing principle behind practical measures that help residents stay housed, recover from crises, and build stable lives.
A safer, welcoming downtown
Residents, workers, businesses, and visitors deserve usable, welcoming public spaces. Address harmful conduct through appropriate response while connecting people with food, housing, and voluntary recovery pathways toward stability.
HELP NOW → KEEP PEOPLE HOUSED → AFFORDABLE LIVING → VOLUNTARY RECOVERY
Help Now
Many unsheltered residents stay near the edges of Owen Sound and travel downtown for meals and support. A mobile meal pilot with OSHaRE and other willing providers could bring prepared meals and practical support closer to where people stay, easing concentrated downtown pressure while keeping help accessible.
Keep People Housed
Create a City tenant-rights resource explaining lawful rent increases, Landlord and Tenant Board processes, useful evidence, and qualified assistance. A vacant-home tax could help return unused housing to rentals, owner-occupied homes, or homes for sale.
More than 340 families, most reported as working families, use OSHaRE's Family Assistance Meal Program. Family-scale affordable housing must leave room for food and a stable life.
Affordable Living
As Mayor and a member of Grey County Council, Andrii would advocate for a common Affordable Rural Communities (ARC) planning pathway. This builds on several years of advocacy with Grey County for more workable rural planning and productive residential land-use pathways. The proposal covers County approval pathways, secure land tenure, shared infrastructure, and preliminary household costing. ARC would pair modest resident-owned homes with productive land. A current two-adult, three-child family model has an illustrative combined housing cost of about $750 per month, based on the current design and planning assumptions.
Learn more → helpos.ca/arc
Voluntary Recovery
Direct staff to develop one voluntary rural rehabilitation pilot combining professional and peer support, stable accommodation, meaningful work, community, and pathways toward independent living. Participation would remain voluntary.
Service, accountability, and action
Ready to Put the Plan to Work
Other practical commitments
Evening transit
Extend regular bus service to approximately 10 p.m. so residents can get home from work, shopping, appointments, and evening activities. The preliminary estimate for extending all four routes is about $20 per household per year.
Learn more → helpos.ca/bus
Essential infrastructure
Protect wastewater ratepayers by making debt, repair costs, capacity, and results clear. Reduce stormwater and groundwater entering sanitary sewers, trace damaging discharges, stop them at the source, and recover cleanup and repair costs from proven polluters instead of leaving ratepayers with the bill.
Learn more → helpos.ca/water
Local productive capacity
After years advocating for local co-creation and manufacturing capacity, Grey Bruce Makerspace was established with federal support and County-provided space; Andrii now serves as Treasurer. Build on that experience by publishing recurring City purchasing, maintenance, and repair needs so local suppliers can develop competitive capacity where practical.
Learn more → helpos.ca/economy
Long-range planning
Use long-range analysis of energy, resources, infrastructure, food security, and community viability to inform City planning. Andrii already convenes monthly discussions with international scientists and engineers on these issues.
Watch the discussions → helpos.ca/sci
Make a plan to vote
October 16–26, 2026
Online • By phone • In person at Election Centres. Then help a friend vote.
The platform is a living plan, updated as residents bring forward concerns, ideas, and practical improvements.Ideas welcome → andrii@zvorygin.ca