Bruce County’s Warden says 2022 was a great year for the county.
Chris Peabody said it was a particularly busy time for the transportation department.
“The transportation department’s been quite busy with the Paisley Bridge. That department also was involved in rehabilitating the Bruce County Rail Trail. We lost one of our key bridges, a very old trestle bridge, we replaced that after it was vandalized by arson,” said Peabody.
Other highlights include the digitization of historical documents by the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre, and the development of the Stratford to Bruce Peninsula Employment Consortium.
However, pandemic recovery is still ongoing, causing difficulties in many areas. Peabody said overcoming the pandemic was primarily difficult due to labour shortages.
“Some of our projects had high-cost overruns due to the labour shortages, so that made recovery difficult. The pandemic did create labour shortages in the healthcare system as well, so hopefully we’ll move through that in 2023,” he added.
Peabody is confident that 2023 will be another stellar year for Bruce County, with a number of things he’s looking forward to.
“We’re working on a Reconciliation Action Plan, so we’re hoping to build better bridges with Saugeen First Nation,” said Peabody. “Another thing we would like to work on is to address the affordable housing issue. I, as Warden, would like to explore some different models of affordable housing.”
Peabody says he would like to meet with private sector developers or non-profit organizations to deliver affordable housing.
