Owen-sound Council-meeting Meeting Transcript — October 7, 2026

Hook: Justin Bianco Proposes Police Reallocation And Safety Measures For Owen Sound

Owen-sound · Council-meeting · October 7, 2026

Summary

Whole Stream Summary Justin Bianco introduces himself as a candidate for Owen Sound town city council who is running to address unaddressed issues such as homelessness and addiction. He describes specific problems like finding syringes on his lawn and feeling unsafe downtown, noting that business owners are losing stores because residents do not feel safe enjoying the area. To improve safety, he proposes increasing police presence through foot patrols while also suggesting the addition of CCTV cameras, improved lighting in problem areas, and cost-saving neighbourhood watch programmes. Regarding resource allocation, the candidate suggests relocating existing police units to areas requiring more attention rather than simply increasing their numbers, while noting that civilian response teams could assist where physical police presence is not necessary. He further discusses his commitment to conducting research on these topics and providing honest answers based on findings, even if those results differ from public expectations.

Top Newsworthy Developments

Public Safety and Downtown Solutions: Justin Bianco states he is running for council to address unaddressed issues like homelessness and addiction in Owen Sound. He proposes increasing police presence, adding CCTV cameras, improving lighting, and exploring cost-saving neighbourhood watch programmes to make downtown safe.

Key Topics & Sections

Meeting Details

Jurisdiction: Owen-sound
Body: Council-meeting
Date: October 7, 2026
Transcript Status: Machine transcription, lightly cleaned
Official Source: View official meeting page
Agenda Page: View agenda page
Original Video: View original meeting video
Meeting Portal: View eScribe meeting page

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Transcript Notice

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors in wording, speaker identification, punctuation, or timestamps.

It is an unofficial convenience copy provided for reading and searchability.

For the official record, refer to the original source materials published by the relevant authority, including the official video, agenda, minutes, and meeting records.

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Full Transcript

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Public Safety and Downtown Solutions

Justin Bianco states he is running for council to address unaddressed issues like homelessness and addiction in Owen Sound. He proposes increasing police presence, adding CCTV cameras, improving lighting, and exploring cost-saving neighbourhood watch programmes to make downtown safe.

00:00:00 Justin Bianco: Go ahead.

00:00:00 Justin Bianco: Introduce yourself.

00:00:02 Justin Bianco: Hi, my name is Justin Bianco, and I'm running for Owen Sound town city council.

00:00:05 Justin Bianco: Yep.

00:00:07 Justin Bianco: Sorry.

00:00:08 Justin Bianco: Why are you running?

00:00:08 Justin Bianco: I'm running because over the last couple years, I've been noticing a lot of issues around town that need to be addressed, and it hasn't been getting addressed.

00:00:19 Justin Bianco: There.

00:00:20 Justin Bianco: Sorry.

00:00:21 Justin Bianco: Yeah, I've been noticing a lot of issues around town that haven't been getting addressed, and I've been seeing some issues that need to be addressed.

00:00:28 Justin Bianco: What are the top issues for you?

00:00:30 Justin Bianco: Homelessness, addiction, big issue.

00:00:33 Justin Bianco: I've been going out to my front lawn.

00:00:36 Justin Bianco: I've been finding syringes on my front grass.

00:00:40 Justin Bianco: My car's been broken into.

00:00:41 Justin Bianco: I found crack pipes behind my car.

00:00:43 Justin Bianco: People have been...

00:00:44 Justin Bianco: This one guy in particular has been trying to lure up my six-year-old daughter.

00:00:48 Justin Bianco: Oh my gosh!

00:00:49 Justin Bianco: Yeah.

00:00:49 Justin Bianco: So I think that was the breaking point for me, where I realized, okay, I've got to do something about this issue.

00:00:56 Justin Bianco: And you know, going around door to door talking to residents, one thing I've been repeatedly hearing is people don't feel safe going downtown anymore, and that's got to change.

00:01:07 Justin Bianco: We have a lot of great shops.

00:01:09 Justin Bianco: Business owners are losing their stores because they're losing business.

00:01:14 Justin Bianco: We've got the Rocky Theatre.

00:01:15 Justin Bianco: We've got restaurants.

00:01:17 Justin Bianco: We need to start embracing it, and we need to make downtown, all of Montebello, especially downtown, safe for the residents to enjoy what we have to offer.

00:01:29 Justin Bianco: What are your ideas for the solution?

00:01:31 Justin Bianco: Well, we need to increase police presence downtown.

00:01:36 Justin Bianco: I live downtown.

00:01:38 SPEAKER_008: I haven't seen an odd police car drive past my house, but we need to relocate where police are.

00:01:45 SPEAKER_008: Put more on foot patrol.

00:01:48 SPEAKER_008: Get them back into the community.

00:01:49 SPEAKER_008: Let people know that there's a presence there.

00:01:53 SPEAKER_008: Increase CCTV, more of CCTV than what we already have.

00:01:58 SPEAKER_008: Increased lighting in problem areas that aren't properly lit.

00:02:02 SPEAKER_008: How would you feel about neighbourhood watches or local representatives organising some of those things so that we could save on costs because police are expensive,

00:02:13 SPEAKER_008: and residents could network their cameras and patrol and things like that, and then they would call the police if there's a crime in progress because that's what the police are supposed to be for.

00:02:23 SPEAKER_008: Yeah.

00:02:23 SPEAKER_008: No, absolutely.

00:02:25 SPEAKER_008: I'm all for the discussion on that.

00:02:27 SPEAKER_008: Okay, great.

00:02:27 SPEAKER_008: You know, I'm all for the discussion on that.

Police Relocation and Civilian Response

The candidate suggests relocating police to areas needing more attention rather than increasing their numbers. One speaker notes that civilian response teams could help where police do not need to be present. The candidate promises to conduct research and provide honest answers, even if they are not what people might like.

00:02:30 SPEAKER_008: And yes, please.

00:02:30 SPEAKER_008: Are... um, I'm not saying increase the police, relocate the police, find out if they're in areas that they don't need to be in, and move them to an area that needs more attention.

00:02:41 SPEAKER_011: I know that's what the police have been saying, basically on 2000 crisis response, that they don't need to be on, and that's why civilian response would help.

00:02:51 SPEAKER_011: A similar response would help.

00:02:52 SPEAKER_011: Yeah.

00:02:53 SPEAKER_011: But any closing comments?

00:02:55 SPEAKER_011: No. You know, I'm making myself accessible to everyone.

00:03:01 SPEAKER_011: My Facebook page, Justin Bianco for council.

00:03:07 SPEAKER_011: My emails on there, phone numbers on there.

00:03:09 SPEAKER_011: I'm very fast at responding to people.

00:03:11 SPEAKER_011: I will get back to people if I don't have an answer for you.

00:03:14 SPEAKER_011: I will do the work.

00:03:15 SPEAKER_011: I will do the research, and I will get back to you.

00:03:18 SPEAKER_011: It might not be an answer that you might like.

00:03:19 SPEAKER_008: You know, like... might like you know, but at least you'll get an answer and it'll be an honest one.

00:03:24 SPEAKER_008: Thank you.

Unofficial machine-generated transcript for convenience. Please verify against official source materials for the authoritative record.