With the municipal election coming up in October, and a new awareness of how fragile our community is, I am scared.

I sat through a long Owen Sound Council meeting tonight. A detailed motion was brought forward by John Tamming to ban Short Term Rentals in Residential neighbourhoods because of the havoc they are causing. Note that "STR's" refers to houses that are owned by people from other cities, who do not live in these houses but just siphon off money and remove the homes from the housing market.

John Tamming's motion was detailed and convincing, looking to the future implications of the decisions we make NOW.

Richard Thomas* voted against because he "believes in balance"... whatever that means. I forget whatever else he said because he talked about something totally unrelated to the issue to illustrate his love of 'balance'. I glazed over.

And Mayor Boddy* said... are you sitting down?... there's no point in banning them because we couldn't enforce it anyway.
Excuse me???

So like most things political, it has been sent off for a study, to be revisited in 2023. More months of this. Multiplication of the problem.
One stat cited by Scott Grieg was Steamboat Springs ,Colorado in which fully 30% of the housing has become STR's.

It could happen here. As other cities ban these monsters, the investors will look for the cities where they can get away with it.
* Note that Ian Boddy and Richard Thomas are our two choices for the next mayor. I guess I'll leave that one blank.

Louise Jarvis
in love with Owen Sound