Owen Sound Sun Times

Grey-Bruce has lost two more people to COVID-19. The Grey Bruce Health Unit added two deaths to the area’s total Wednesday. Now 27 Grey-Bruce citizens have died due to the pandemic virus There have been 19 deaths in Grey-Bruce, plus one Grey-Bruce citizen who died after acquiring the infection and receiving treatment outside of Grey-Bruce, […]

The weeklong 56th-annual Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week wrapped up Tuesday and managed to broaden its audience while navigating through a surging wave of COVID-19 by going fully virtual for the second year in a row. Farmers’ Week coordinator Lorie Smith said she’s glad the planning committee decided back in September to take the conference fully […]

Home sales in Grey-Bruce ended 2021 by smashing the average monthly price record for a month at more than $830,000. At $830,982, the average price for December was more than $127,000 above the previous monthly average price record of $703,934 that was just set in September. The average price last month was also 48.5 per […]

Efforts to present a petition to South Bruce council calling for a referendum on municipal election day, not after, about a proposed long-term nuclear waste storage project bogged down over privacy issues just before Tuesday’s council meeting. The referendum is supposed to decide whether South Bruce residents are willing to be host to a subterranean […]

Owen Sound’s operations committee is recommending council give the green light to a series of traffic signal timing changes aimed at improving the flow of vehicles along 10th Street in the city’s downtown. The suggested changes are among those proposed by consultants Safe Roads Engineering, retained by city hall to analyze both traffic data — […]

There are now 10 long-term care and retirement homes in Grey-Bruce with COVID-19 outbreaks. An outbreak was declared at Maple Court Villa retirement home in Walkerton on Monday. The other homes in the region with COVID-19 outbreaks includes all three Grey County-run long-term care homes – Lee Manor in Owen Sound, Grey Gables in Markdale, […]

Owen Sound is seeking a consulting firm to undertake a comprehensive service review of the city’s operations later this year. A request for proposals for a “professional, qualified” consultant was posted to the city’s bids and tenders webpage Friday, with a closing date of Jan. 28. The city is planning to set aside $100,000 in […]

A 20-year-old Owen Sound man is facing robbery and firearm-related charges following a confrontation in Georgian Bluffs. The Grey Bruce OPP says officers responded to a report of a person with a weapon at about 1 a.m. on Jan. 5 in the Township of Georgian Bluffs. Const. Nick Wilson said Tuesday the call to police […]

Owen Sound has removed a “hotspot” designation on a neighbourhood that had been experiencing significant crime and bylaw-related problems now that a house that city officials say was considered at the centre of the problem has sold. City manager Tim Simmonds said Owen Sound police and bylaw enforcement spent more than 400 hours dealing with […]

An Owen Sound-based company that is developing large-scale hydrogen production systems has signed a Letter of Intent with a large industrial company. Hydrogen Optimized announced on Monday that it had signed the LOI with the company to supply more than 40 megawatts of its RuggedCell water electrolyser capacity for hydrogen production. “This is a big […]

The Ontario Hockey League’s trade deadline passed by at noon Monday with the Owen Sound Attack laying dormant and satisfied. Attack General Manager Dale DeGray confirmed his team stayed put this year, electing to ride into the homestretch with the athletes already stabled in the Scenic City. The only moves made were those done in […]

There are now nine long-term care and retirement homes in Grey-Bruce reporting COVID-19 outbreaks, three more than there were on Sunday. The additional facilities with outbreaks are Lee Manor in Owen Sound and Grey Gables in Markdale, which are both long-term care homes run by Grey County, and the Mapleview Long-Term Care Home in Owen […]

The Protect Our Waterways – No Nuclear Waste community group will hold a car rally during a scheduled delegation at South Bruce council on Jan. 11 in support of a referendum they want to happen this fall in concert with the municipal election. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization is proposing to build an underground storage […]

Unacceptable but somewhat understandable. That seemed the general consensus Attack leaders had after losing 7-3 to the Barrie Colts in their return to the ice for the first time since Dec. 11. The deck was a little stacked against the Bears. The normally raucous and cramped Bayshore felt cavernous and hollow without any fans to […]

With COVID-19 outbreaks now in six long-term care or retirement homes in Grey-Bruce, more stringent isolation and testing requirements are coming into effect in these facilities, the medical officer of health said. Sunday the Grey Bruce Health Unit reported two more outbreaks in such homes than the day before, as well as 60 new cases […]

A Port Elgin lawyer has been found guilty of professional misconduct. John Douglas King was given 30 days to surrender his licence to practise law or else the Law Society of Ontario would revoke it, the law society announced last week. King pleaded guilty in a Walkerton courtroom and received a conditional discharge in August […]

A new media studies scholarship has been created in memory of long-time local Rogers TV producer Darlene Vanwyck. Vanwyck, 43, died in her Allenford home Jan. 3 after complications associated with a liver problem, her husband Paul Vanwyck said. The Darlene Vanwyck Award in Media Studies will be supported in perpetuity by an endowed fund […]

Saugeen Shores police charged a 56-year-old Port Elgin man because customers were threatened with a baseball bat for not wearing masks at a Port Elgin grocery store, police said. Police were called on Jan. 6 at 8:08 p.m. about a man who allegedly was threatening people and causing damage at the grocery story, a police […]

Eighty-eight new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Grey-Bruce Saturday. There are now 383 active COVID cases, including nine local people in a local hospital and one in hospital outside Grey-Bruce, the Grey Bruce Health Unit reported. Figures were current to midnight Friday. Grey Bruce Health Services’ Owen Sound hospital has a continuing COVID outbreak. […]

Omicron has forced Wiarton Willie’s live, annual morning prediction online only, with the public not present, and cancelled Groundhog Day festivities in South Bruce Peninsula. If Willie doesn’t see his shadow at 8:07 a.m. Feb. 2., legend has it we’ll have an early spring. If he does, here come six more weeks of winter. “The […]

Owen Sound will request prices for five potential transit service options — from maintaining the status quo to moving to a fully on-demand system — when it seeks proposals this winter for a new operator contract. Coun. Travis Dodd said the motion, approved during a special council meeting Friday, is an initial step toward the […]

The Grey Bruce Health Unit confirmed 53 more COVID-19 cases Friday, although with testing restricted to certain groups the data does not deliver an accurate account of regional case spread. The health unit said it will soon modify its daily situation reports because of the shift in testing protocols and case management. Individuals with symptoms […]

The Ontario Hockey League’s overage trade deadline passed at noon Friday, but Dale DeGray and the Owen Sound Attack had completed business two days earlier. The trade deadline for all other OHL players is noon Monday. As it stands, Andrew Perrott is in Windsor and Nicholas Porco will be skating in the Scenic City. An […]

A 53-year-old Owen Sound man was charged with impaired driving and drug offences after an SUV crashed into a parked police cruiser south of Goderich on Dec. 23. Just after 12:30 p.m. the cruiser, parked on the shoulder of Bluewater Veteran’s Highway with emergency lights flashing, behind a vehicle with a flat tire, was struck […]

The Canadian Snowcross Racing Association has rescheduled its Sauble Speedway event to Family Day weekend in February. The Royal Distributing Cup Snowcross races will now take place from Feb. 19 to 21 at the speedway. They were originally scheduled to run from Jan. 7 to 9 at Sauble and would have been the racing association’s […]

West Grey police said a suspect fell into the South Saugeen River while fleeing from officers who responded to a 911 call on Jan. 2. The incident happened in Ayton and involved a reported domestic assault. “The suspect fled on police arrival, but was tracked by keen officers. The suspect was found suffering the onset […]

The future of Owen Sound’s transit service will be put under the microscope Friday. Council is set to hold a special meeting at 1 p.m. that will be live-streamed on the city’s website to discuss potential options for the service. The discussion comes after council learned in early December that the cost to provide the […]

The Grey Bruce Health Unit said Thursday it will soon modify what it reports about COVID-19 each day as a result of shifting testing and case management protocols, driven by the spreading Omicron variant. Thursday’s daily situation report was No. 660 of the pandemic and listed 132 new COVID-19 cases in the region. However, because […]

Two people pleaded guilty and were sentenced in the Superior Court of Justice Tuesday to offences related to a drug bust in Meaford June 4, 2020. Bernie Picard, 60, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a prohibited weapon, brass knuckles, and was fined $500. Robina Grant, 31, of Meaford, pleaded guilty […]

Dairy farmers wrestled with the topic of sustainability and its impact on the industry during Dairy Day at the virtual Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week conference Thursday. “I think we’re well placed. It’s interesting that it’s not necessarily the challenges we think of that will be the tough cookies to deal with,” said Dairy Farmers of […]

The cause of a five-unit apartment fire in Ayton early Wednesday, which left no one seriously injured, is undetermined but not suspicious, West Grey Fire Chief Phil Schwartz said Thursday. Neighbours got all residents out of the building and they’d left by the time firefighters arrived, Schwartz said. The Red Cross and Victim Services were […]

Hospice about living best with time left I am a 76-year-old man with Stage 4 terminal cancer. I am currently in Residential Hospice of Grey Bruce’s Chapman House. When I was brought here, I assumed that everything that could be done had been done, so all I was here for was to die; that was […]

The Owen Sound Attack dealt assistant captain and overage defender Andrew Perrott to the Windsor Spitfires for a haul of draft picks Wednesday. In return, Owen Sound gets a second-round pick in 2022 (OTT), a third-round pick in 2023 (HAM), a third-round pick in 2025, and a sixth-round pick in 2024. Perrott currently sits second […]

Results of aquatic studies now underway for a proposed 500,000-square-foot land-based recirculating salmon farm north of Wiarton will determine the project’s next steps, says the head of the company behind the plan. Gerry Sullivan, president of Georgian Bay Salmon, said the company is working with the senior levels of government to ensure the proposed recirculating […]

Hockey Day in Canada in Owen Sound has been put on ice until 2023 amid new provincial restrictions and a worsening surge of COVID-19-related hospitalizations. Owen Sound officials announced Wednesday afternoon they has decided to postpone the local event until the winter of 2023. The decision was made in conjunction with Hockey Day in Canada […]

The Owen Sound Attack will next hit the ice Sunday inside the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre to take on the Barrie Colts at 2 p.m. That’s the plan for now after the Ontario Hockey League announced two more postponed Attack games and a slew of schedule changes Wednesday afternoon. The OHL also issued a […]

The Grey Bruce Health Unit reported 80 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday. The newest cases in Wednesday’s report – current as of midnight Tuesday – include 13 in Owen Sound, 12 in Saugeen Shores, eight in Kincardine, seven in The Blue Mountains, six in Neyaashiinigmiing, five each in Georgian Bluffs and Southgate, four each in […]

More people bought and ate beef from the grocery store while locked down during the COVID-19 pandemic. “When the numbers go up, people buy more meat,” said Jennie Hodgen, a senior account manager at Merck Animal Health who was a keynote speaker during Beef Day Wednesday for the virtual viewers of Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week. […]

A 27-year-old man is facing charges after a truck was stolen Tuesday afternoon while its owner stopped into a business on Owen Sound’s west side briefly. The owner of the truck had left the vehicle unlocked with the keys inside, according to an Owen Sound Police Service news release. Just before 1 a.m. Wednesday, a […]

New COVID-19 outbreaks have been declared at Owen Sound hospital and at Pinecrest Manor in Lucknow. The Grey Bruce Health Unit declared both outbreaks Monday. The hospital outbreak is on 6-2, the medicine unit, and involves three patients, with two staff who tested positive but not technically considered part of the outbreak. “Unit 6-2 has […]

Grey-Bruce Christmas bird counts have wrapped up for another year. In Grey-Bruce there were about 10 counts again in 2021 ranging from the Kincardine, Hanover and Meaford areas in the south all the way up to Tobermory at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula in the north. The Owen Sound count on Dec. 18 was […]

Local school boards are preparing for a return to remote learning after the Ontario government announced that schools would remain closed for at least the next couple of weeks. Premier Doug Ford announced Monday that the government was delaying the return to in-class learning until at least January 17. The move was made in response […]

Dale DeGray continued to wait for the results of his team’s COVID-19 tests Tuesday. The long-time general manager knew that the results of those tests, and a slew of other factors out of his control, would decide whether his team could take the ice early in the new year. The entire Attack team ensured another […]

The Grey Bruce Health Unit reported another record number of new daily COVID-19 infections Monday, with 188 cases confirmed within the 24-hour period ending at 11:59 p.m. Sunday. New cases were reported from each municipality in Grey-Bruce, with Saugeen Shores logging the most cases at 43. Thirty-six of the new cases were from Owen Sound, […]

As the province plans to return Ontario to a modified Step 2 of its COVID-19 reopening plan starting Wednesday, there are concerns locally about how the new measures will impact businesses, low-income workers and others. The measures, which Ontario Premier Doug Ford says are aimed at blunting a surge in Omicron cases and prevent hospitals […]

Another COVID-19 case has been resolved in a staff member at the Rockwood Terrace long-term care home in Durham. There are now four active cases among residents of the home and three active cases among staff, according to an update provided by Grey County on Monday. Six resident cases and four staff cases are considered […]

The Festival of Northern Lights has gone dark for another year. The last night of the 34th annual festival was on Sunday and board of directors chair Jamie Walpole said it was another successful year for the popular attraction. “It was really busy,” said Walpole. “It was a very, very busy year with lots and […]

In an effort to curb the rapid spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced Monday that the province will be reinstating capacity limits and other measures set out in Step 2 of its reopening plan and delaying by at least two weeks the resumption of in-class learning. Government […]

Another 86 COVID-19 cases were reported in Grey-Bruce on Sunday. There were 15 new cases in Owen Sound and 14 in Saugeen Shores. Arran-Elderslie and South Bruce each added seven cases, while South Bruce Peninsula added six and Kincardin and the Blue Mountains each added five. Other municipalities with new cases included Hanover (4), Meaford […]

The Bluewater District School Board has forwarded a letter to parents with some details about Ontario’s plan to return to in-person learning on Wednesday. In the letter signed by Education Minister Stephen Lecce and Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore, it said health and safety in schools is a top priority and the […]