Bruce County Warden Janice Jackson is looking back on the accomplishments made in 2021 and is looking ahead to 2022.
Jackson says in 2021 while dealing with the ongoing pandemic, county council were able to allocate over $1.2 million in grants for over 500 local businesses, and over $500,000 in low interest loans.
From a planning perspective, Jackson adds they created a Plan The Bruce initiative, which looks forward on how they are going to plan for the county, with a focus on agriculture, business and affordable housing.
“With affordable housing we completed an apartment called Penetangore Place and we are incredibly proud of it, it is a wonderful apartment building and now that it is complete, we will be looking for other areas in Bruce County to initiate affordable housing projects,” says Jackson.
Jackson also made reference to when the County established a community paramedicine program, which have paramedics on their down time go into homes of chronically ill patients and administer medications to help keep them at home instead at the hospital.
A transportation master plan was also crafted by the County which looks at local trails and roads and the future transportation needs of Bruce County.
Jackson says other than dealing with the Covid pandemic, they have not had any major struggles to deal with this past year.
Looking forward to 2022, Jackson says their focus is on affordable housing and long-term care.
“These are things that are pretty critical to us and that really was a major focus for us in 2021, and that will carry on into 2022 as well,” says Jackson.
Additionally in the new year, the county will be finalizing their official plan and have a new CAO take on the position.
“2022 is really going to be concentrating on our official plan, affordable housing and whatever Covid brings us,” says Jackson.
