Healthcare workers and affordable housing
Many nurses and other healthcare workers live in Grey-Bruce. Conversations with healthcare workers have highlighted the pressure that housing and everyday costs place on families.
Affordable housing in Owen Sound or close to town can help healthcare workers remain in the region, support their families and build a stable future. The Affordable Rural Communities plan offers one possible lower-cost housing pathway for families, workers, seniors, young adults, growers and other reasonably stable residents. It combines modest resident-owned homes, shared infrastructure and access to productive land through a County-level planning framework.
Stable homes help families stay connected to the community. Over time, that stability can help local children grow up with strong relationships to healthcare, education and public service, including the next generation of healthcare practitioners.
Working with local healthcare partners
The Mayor can bring Owen Sound’s needs to Grey County Council and advocate to the provincial and federal governments. Grey County responsibilities include paramedic services, community services, long-term care and public-health relationships. Hospitals, physicians, nurses, home-care providers, mental-health organizations and community partners carry their own professional responsibilities within Ontario’s health system.
The work should focus on practical coordination: identify recruitment and retention barriers, connect housing and transportation discussions with healthcare workforce needs, support local training and placement relationships, and publish the actions that partners agree to pursue.
Owen Sound can contribute through the conditions it controls: dependable transit, safe and welcoming neighbourhoods, practical housing options, food security, clear local information and a municipal administration that responds to residents and partners. The Mayor should bring those local tools together with Grey County and healthcare partners around measurable local outcomes.
Helping residents reach care sooner
People increasingly use healthcare by phone and online. Residents should have clear information about the options available before they decide where to go. Ontario’s Health811 connects people 24 hours a day with a registered nurse by phone or online chat, provides a symptom-assessment tool and helps residents find local health services.
The City can make these pathways easier to find through community information, Local Representatives, libraries, neighbourhood gatherings and service-navigation partnerships. Residents can begin with basic information about their symptoms, receive qualified nurse guidance and reach the appropriate health service without every question beginning at an emergency department.
Clinical assessment, treatment and emergency decisions belong with qualified healthcare professionals. The municipal role is to improve access to reliable information, connect people with the right service and remove practical barriers such as housing instability, transportation and isolation.
For an immediate danger or medical emergency, residents should call 911. Health811 provides a separate route for health advice and finding services when a person needs guidance and the situation allows time for that conversation.
Bringing care closer to home
Grey County Community Paramedicine already shows how care can move closer to residents. The programme provides in-home assessment, monitoring and treatment, works with primary-care providers and helps reduce avoidable 911 calls and emergency-department visits. Grey County reported more than 4,800 community-paramedic home visits in 2024 and more than 300 potential 911 calls or emergency-department visits avoided through in-home care.
Grey County’s Supportive Outreach Services programme also brings primary care, mental-health support, harm-reduction education, addiction medicine and connections to housing into a mobile setting. The programme serves downtown areas, rural locations and remote encampments.
The Mayor should support coordination among Grey County, local healthcare providers, community organizations and the City’s response system. That includes clear routes between paramedics, civilian crisis responders, housing and outreach workers, and police when a situation requires police authority. The Community Safety & Policing plan sets out that response model.
Emotional and spiritual wellbeing
Health includes emotional and spiritual wellbeing. A strong community gives people opportunities to find belonging, purpose, friendship, quiet, reflection, forgiveness, love and kindness.
The City can support voluntary, inclusive access to wellbeing information and community activities through libraries, parks, neighbourhood gatherings, recreation, peer support, counselling and faith or secular organizations. These resources complement professional healthcare and give residents more ways to care for themselves and one another.
The goal is a peaceful and connected community where people can seek help early, build healthy relationships and contribute to the wellbeing of their neighbours.
Public results
The Mayor should ask participating partners to publish the results they can share lawfully and responsibly. The public record should show:
- healthcare-worker recruitment and retention barriers identified and addressed;
- affordable-housing pathways used by healthcare workers and other residents;
- residents connected to Health811, community paramedicine, outreach, primary care and other appropriate services;
- community-paramedicine home visits and avoidable emergency contacts where Grey County publishes the measure;
- civilian crisis calls resolved, paramedic co-responses and police backup where applicable; and
- resident feedback about access, dignity, connection and service quality.
Reporting should use aggregate information and protect personal health information. The purpose is to help residents see whether coordination is improving access and wellbeing over time.
Sources and related plans
- Ontario Health811 and health-service information
- Grey County Community Paramedicine
- Grey County Supportive Outreach Services mobile clinic
- Grey County Age-Friendly Communities Strategy and Action Plan
- Affordable Rural Communities plan
- Community Safety & Policing plan
- Housing, Homelessness and Voluntary Recovery plan
- County-Level Leadership and Resident Outcomes