Owen Sound: A Four-Year City Business Plan

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Infrastructure and Resilience

Chapter 13Local Knowledge and Emergency Resilience

5,980 words · Mike Seiler · Owen Sound, Ontario

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A community becomes more resilient when its people know where they are.

They know the roads.

They know the trails.

They know where the river rises.

They know which routes are steep.

They know where an accessible washroom can be found.

They know where a bridge crosses the ravine.

They know how to get home if a familiar road is closed.

They know where to find help when telephone service, power or internet access is interrupted.

They know their neighbours.

They know their community.

This kind of knowledge is difficult to measure on a municipal balance sheet, but it has real public value.

Local knowledge is a superpower in times of crisis.

The goal of this section is to make that knowledge easier to acquire, preserve and share.

Owen Sound already maintains an Emergency Management Program and Emergency Response Plan. The City's plan uses the Incident Management System and establishes responsibilities for a coordinated municipal response when ordinary operations are no longer sufficient.

Ontario law also requires every municipality to develop and implement an emergency management program. The program includes an emergency plan, training and exercises, and public education concerning risks and emergency preparedness.

We are therefore not starting from nothing.

The City already has professional emergency management.

The opportunity is to build a stronger layer of community preparedness beneath it.

Professional emergency management answers:

How does the City respond?

Local knowledge answers:

How prepared is the community when something happens?

We need both.

13.1Prepared People Make a More Resilient City

Government cannot place an emergency responder beside every resident.

It cannot guarantee that:

Preparedness therefore begins with people.

A resilient resident should increasingly understand:

Preparedness should not create fear.

It should create competence.

The objective is not to persuade residents that disaster is around every corner.

It is to make ordinary preparedness part of ordinary community life.

13.2The Local Knowledge Map

Create an Owen Sound Local Knowledge Map.

This should build upon the City's existing public geographic information rather than beginning from scratch.

Owen Sound launched a public GIS application in 2025 that already provides residents with map layers including trails, parks, City-owned trees, heritage information, transit stops and routes, waste collection information, planning information and conservation-regulated lands. The City reported that its internal GIS contains more than 200 spatial-information layers.

That gives us a substantial foundation.

The Local Knowledge Map would organize selected public information around one practical question:

What would help a resident understand and navigate Owen Sound?

13.3Public Local Knowledge Layers

Possible public layers should include:

Streets and Transportation

Trails

Owen Sound currently promotes a trail network that includes paved and natural-surface routes, harbour connections, Harrison Park trails, portions of the Bruce Trail and Tom Thomson Trail, and connections toward Georgian Bluffs and Grey Sauble Conservation lands.

Parks and Recreation

Accessibility

Public Facilities

Safety and Preparedness

Appropriate public information concerning:

Community

Heritage

A person exploring the City recreationally should be able to learn the same geography that may become useful in an emergency.

That is the connection.

13.4Public Information and Protected Information

Not every piece of emergency information should be placed on a public map.

This is an important boundary.

There should be two different information environments.

Public Community Map

Designed for residents, visitors, families and community organizations.

It contains information that is useful and safe to publish.

Protected Municipal Resilience Map

Available only to appropriate municipal and emergency personnel.

It may include sensitive operational information concerning:

The principle is:

Share what makes residents stronger. Protect what could make essential systems weaker.

Transparency and security are not opposites.

Good government knows the difference.

13.5No Map of Vulnerable People

One principle should be absolute.

We should not create a public map showing vulnerable residents.

Do not publicly identify:

That kind of information can create serious privacy and safety risks.

Where emergency programs legitimately require confidential information about people needing additional assistance, it must be collected and protected under appropriate legal authority and privacy safeguards.

Map Resources, Not Vulnerability

Instead of mapping:

"A vulnerable person lives here."

map:

"An accessible public resource is available here."

That keeps the system focused on community capability.

13.6Trail Knowledge

Trail knowledge should become one of the easiest ways for residents to learn their City.

Owen Sound already has a diverse network of trails ranging from asphalt to packed-earth surfaces and routes through waterfront, park and natural environments.

Every trail should eventually have a consistent public information profile.

Trail Information

Name

Distance

Surface

Approximate Time

Difficulty

Elevation or Grade

Accessible Sections

Benches and Rest Areas

Washrooms

Parking

Transit Connection

Water Access

Seasonal Conditions

Trail Connections

Emergency Location Information

Trailheads

Important trailheads should provide:

This information should remain useful to someone without a telephone.

13.7Accessibility Knowledge

Accessibility information should become much more specific than a simple wheelchair symbol.

Two people using mobility devices can have very different requirements.

A trail or route may be manageable for one person and unsuitable for another.

The better approach is to provide objective information.

Ontario's accessibility standards for public spaces require specified information for recreational trails created or significantly redeveloped, including information concerning trail length, surface, width, slopes and amenities.

We can use the same philosophy more broadly.

Describe the Route

Instead of simply:

Accessible

provide:

Then allow the individual to make an informed decision.

People With Lived Experience Lead the Review

Residents with disabilities should be directly involved in identifying and reviewing accessibility information.

Students can help gather information.

Municipal staff can validate it.

Qualified professionals remain responsible where technical assessment is required.

The person who actually navigates the route should have a strong voice in explaining whether the information is useful.

13.8Safe Routes for Children

Local mapping can also help children and families understand their neighbourhood.

Create a Safe Routes layer around:

Information could include:

Student Route Audits

Working with schools and appropriate partners, students could help identify:

Their observations should be treated as community information.

Professional staff remain responsible for determining whether an engineering, traffic or safety intervention is required.

Teach the Route

There is also value in encouraging children and families to know:

Geographic literacy is a practical life skill.

13.9Emergency Location Numbers

Trails and large public spaces can be difficult places from which to describe an emergency.

A caller may know they are:

"somewhere behind Harrison Park"

without knowing their precise location.

Important trail systems and major public spaces should use consistent location markers where appropriate.

A Location Marker Could Provide

Location Code

Example:

OS-TRAIL-023

Emergency Instruction

Call 911 in an emergency and provide the location code.

Map Reference

The marker corresponds to a known municipal location.

The marker system should be designed with emergency responders before implementation.

The objective is not another branding exercise.

It is to help someone describe where help is required.

13.10Printed Maps

Digital maps are useful.

Paper remains resilient.

Every major public mapping program should therefore have a printable form.

Printed maps could be available at:

Printed Maps Could Include

Printed maps should have a publication date.

A resident should know whether the information is current.

13.11Offline Maps

Residents should also be able to retain key public maps on a telephone or computer without requiring continuous internet access.

Where practical, public mapping should support:

The principle is straightforward:

Essential local knowledge should not disappear when the connection does.

This is also an important standard for future municipal information systems.

13.12Know Your Neighbourhood

Emergency resilience is not only geographic.

It is social.

A person who knows three neighbours may be more resilient than a person who knows every street but nobody living on it.

Create a voluntary Know Your Neighbourhood initiative.

This should not become a City database of private neighbour relationships.

It is a public-education program encouraging residents to know:

The City Provides the Framework

Possible materials:

Residents maintain their own information.

The City does not need a copy of every neighbourhood's private contact list.

13.13The Household Readiness Standard

Prepared households reduce pressure on emergency systems during the first stages of a disruption.

The City should work with official emergency-management partners to provide practical guidance concerning:

Ontario's municipal emergency-management requirements include public education concerning emergency risks and preparedness, making this an appropriate part of municipal emergency planning.

The City's role should be education and coordination.

It should not be intrusion into private households.

13.14Family Emergency Plans

Families should be encouraged to answer basic questions before an emergency.

If We Cannot Reach One Another

Where do we meet?

If School or Work Is Closed

Who is responsible for children or dependants?

If Mobile Service Is Interrupted

What information have we written down?

If We Must Leave Home

Where would we go?

If We Have Pets

What is the plan?

If Someone Uses Medication or Medical Equipment

What preparation is required?

If a Road Is Closed

What alternate route exists?

Again, the City provides the information.

Families create their own plan.

The plan belongs to them.

13.15Local Knowledge Week

Establish an annual Owen Sound Local Knowledge Week.

This should be one of the most practical civic events of the year.

Its purpose would be to encourage residents to physically explore and understand their own community.

Possible Activities

Trail Days

Guided introductions to local trail systems.

Know Your River

Walks along the Sydenham and Pottawatomi Rivers and waterfront.

Know Your Water

Public education about drinking water, stormwater and wastewater systems.

Know Your City

Walking tours explaining:

Accessibility Walks

Residents with lived experience lead community and student groups through routes to explain physical barriers.

Emergency Preparedness Day

Fire, police, paramedics and emergency-management partners provide practical demonstrations.

Map Day

Residents learn how to use:

Heritage Walks

Learn the stories behind streets, buildings, waterways and neighbourhoods.

Youth Navigation Challenge

A supervised community activity teaching students how to navigate using landmarks and maps rather than relying exclusively on turn-by-turn directions.

Local Knowledge Week should make preparedness enjoyable.

It is community education disguised as exploration.

13.16Four-Season Local Knowledge

Preparedness must reflect Owen Sound's seasons.

Spring

Focus on:

Summer

Focus on:

Autumn

Focus on:

Winter

Focus on:

A resident familiar with Owen Sound in July may encounter a very different community in February.

Our information should reflect that.

13.17Student Mapping Corps

The existing plan proposes paid student mapping and leadership work so that local knowledge and community leadership are deliberately transferred to the next generation.

The Local Knowledge program provides an ideal first assignment.

Students could help document:

Students Gather

Staff Validate

Public Uses

That distinction matters.

A student observation might say:

"This curb appears difficult to cross with a mobility device."

Qualified municipal staff or the appropriate accessibility review determines the official response.

Students become additional eyes in the community.

They do not become municipal inspectors.

13.18Accessibility Scouts

A dedicated stream of the Student Mapping Corps should focus on accessibility.

Call them Accessibility Scouts.

They should work with:

Possible Observations

Students should learn that accessibility is not a theoretical standard.

It is the difference between someone being able to use their community or being prevented from doing so.

13.19Senior Knowledge Keepers

Local knowledge does not begin with a database.

Some residents have lived in Owen Sound for decades.

They may remember:

Create voluntary opportunities for seniors and long-time residents to share local knowledge.

Possible Forms

This information should be clearly distinguished from current professional asset records.

A recollection can contain valuable context without becoming an engineering record.

13.20Indigenous Knowledge and Relationship

Local knowledge must include the fact that Owen Sound's human history did not begin with the incorporation of the municipality.

Where Saugeen Ojibway Nation wishes to participate, local-history, land, water and environmental education should include Indigenous knowledge and perspective developed with, not merely about, Indigenous partners.

The existing City business-plan framework already proposes establishing a stronger formal relationship with Saugeen Ojibway Nation.

That relationship should guide how Indigenous knowledge is:

Not all cultural or traditional knowledge is public information.

The community sharing the knowledge should have a meaningful voice in how it is used.

13.21Emergency Volunteers

Residents naturally want to help during emergencies.

That willingness is valuable.

Uncoordinated help can also create danger.

The City should therefore identify appropriate ways for residents to prepare before an emergency.

Potential Community Roles

Depending upon formal training and emergency plans:

Residents should not self-deploy into:

The Rule

Help where you are trained. Stay clear where you are not.

13.22Community Emergency Skills Directory

The City could explore an opt-in directory of organizations and qualified community resources that may be useful during a significant emergency.

This should focus primarily on capabilities, not personal vulnerability.

Possible voluntary registrations could include:

Participation would not guarantee that the resource is always available.

It would give emergency planners additional information about community capacity.

Privacy and Verification

The directory should:

13.23Businesses as Resilience Partners

Local businesses may possess resources that become extremely important during an emergency.

Examples may include:

Before an emergency, the City should understand the types of local capacity available.

That does not mean commandeering private property during normal circumstances.

It means building relationships and appropriate agreements before they are urgently required.

Pre-Event Agreements

Where appropriate, establish arrangements covering:

The worst time to determine who can supply a generator is after the lights go out.

13.24Faith and Community Organizations

Churches, service clubs, charities and community organizations often have:

These institutions can be valuable resilience partners.

Participation should be voluntary and coordinated through appropriate emergency planning.

Potential roles may include:

No resident seeking publicly coordinated emergency assistance should be required to participate in religious activity.

At the same time, faith organizations should be able to contribute as faith organizations under the same fair public standards applied to other community partners.

13.25The YMCA and Recreation Facilities

Large recreation facilities may have an important role in community resilience because they:

Any official emergency role must be established through the City's Emergency Management Program rather than assumed in a campaign document.

The broader planning question should nevertheless be asked:

Which public and partner facilities could support the community during a significant disruption, and what would be required to make that possible?

Emergency planners should answer it.

13.26Emergency Communications

During a significant emergency, residents need one reliable answer to:

Where do I get official information?

The City should clearly identify official communication channels before an emergency occurs.

Possible channels include:

The City's Emergency Response Plan already recognizes public information and coordinated communication as part of municipal emergency response.

One Message, Many Routes

Do not assume everyone:

Important information may need several forms.

13.27Rumours and False Information

Emergencies create uncertainty.

Uncertainty creates rumours.

The best response is not censorship of ordinary discussion.

It is fast, reliable official information.

Emergency Information Page

During a major event, establish one source showing:

What happened

What residents should do

What residents should not do

Road or facility closures

Where help is available

When the information was last updated

When the next update is expected

If information is uncertain, say so.

We do not yet know.

is more trustworthy than filling the space with speculation.

13.28Communications Failure

Emergency planning should assume that some communications may fail.

The City should maintain plans for situations where:

Low-Technology Backup

Possible tools include:

The exact emergency communications system belongs within professional emergency planning.

The principle for this business plan is:

Every essential digital process needs a reasonable continuity plan.

13.29Public Charging and Power Resilience

As communities rely increasingly on mobile devices, electrical interruption can become an information problem.

During prolonged disruptions, the City should have an emergency plan identifying appropriate public or partner facilities that may provide:

These locations should not be permanently promised without verifying:

Where a facility is formally designated and activated, communicate it clearly.

13.30Emergency Water Knowledge

Residents should understand the difference between:

During normal conditions, this is education.

During an emergency, only official instructions should guide whether municipal water is safe to drink or whether measures such as boil-water advisories apply.

The community preparedness program should teach residents:

Do not improvise public-health instructions. Follow the official notice.

Local knowledge should improve judgment.

It should not create false confidence.

13.31Know the River

The rivers and waterfront should become part of Owen Sound's civic education.

Residents should be encouraged to understand:

This connects resilience, recreation and identity.

A person who regularly walks the river is more likely to notice when something changes.

A community that knows its water is better prepared to protect it.

13.32Know the Hills

Owen Sound's geography matters.

Routes that appear close on a map may differ considerably in:

Local maps should increasingly help residents understand terrain.

This is particularly useful for:

Our mapping should describe the community as it actually feels to travel through it.

13.33Know the Weather

Emergency preparedness should connect residents to authoritative weather and emergency information.

The City does not need to become its own weather service.

It should help residents understand which official services provide:

Municipal communications should amplify authoritative information rather than compete with it.

13.34Flood and Drainage Awareness

Where the City's professional planning identifies areas with known drainage or flooding concerns, appropriate public information should help residents understand:

This should connect with the Stormwater Management Master Plan and Infrastructure Index rather than creating a separate disconnected program.

13.35Winter Resilience

Winter deserves a specific local-resilience plan.

Residents should understand:

The community programs proposed elsewhere in this business plan, including snow support for seniors and neighbourhood winter activities, should also build stronger neighbourhood relationships before an emergency occurs.

A neighbour met through a winter program may become the person who checks on you during a storm.

Community building is resilience.

13.36Neighbourhood Snow Brigades

The proposed snow brigades should operate as organized community support, not as an informal substitute for City winter-maintenance responsibilities.

Possible volunteer assistance may include:

Volunteer programs require:

The purpose is neighbour helping neighbour.

13.37Community Preparedness Stations

Selected community facilities could offer small preparedness stations containing:

Potential locations could include:

The information should remain current.

Outdated emergency information can be worse than no information.

Each printed item should show its date or version.

13.38Local Knowledge Passport

Create an optional Owen Sound Local Knowledge Passport for families, students and residents.

Participants could complete activities such as:

This can be:

No location tracking is necessary.

Completion can operate on trust or simple voluntary check-ins.

The objective is learning, not surveillance.

13.39Youth Challenge

Each year, students could be invited to answer:

How well do you know Owen Sound?

Possible challenges:

This is civic education through practical experience.

13.40Local Skills Workshops

Community preparedness also depends upon practical skills.

Through qualified partners, Local Knowledge Week and year-round programming could offer introductions to:

Where certification is required, instruction should be delivered by appropriately qualified organizations.

The City can convene.

It does not need to become the instructor for everything.

13.41Amateur Radio and Backup Communications

The City should explore whether established amateur-radio organizations or qualified local operators can contribute to formal emergency communications planning.

Any role should be:

The principle is redundancy.

If ordinary systems fail, another lawful and tested communication path may have value.

13.42Exercises

Emergency plans should be practised.

Ontario's municipal emergency-management framework requires training and exercises as part of municipal emergency-management programs.

Where appropriate, some exercises could include community partners.

Examples might test:

The public does not need to participate in every professional emergency exercise.

Selected public preparedness exercises could help residents understand how the system works.

13.43Tabletop Neighbourhood Exercises

The City could provide a simple neighbourhood exercise.

Example scenario:

A winter storm interrupts power and closes several roads for twelve hours.

Ask participants:

No acting.

No elaborate simulation.

Just neighbours around a table thinking through the problem before it happens.

13.44Recovery Matters Too

Emergency planning is often associated with the first response.

Recovery may last much longer.

Residents and businesses may need:

The City's current Emergency Response Plan recognizes the need for coordinated response and recovery functions.

Recovery Information

After a major event, the City should create one public recovery page or information point explaining:

People who have just experienced an emergency should not need to navigate five levels of bureaucracy without help.

13.45Business Continuity

The City itself must remain capable of operating during disruption.

Each critical municipal service should maintain appropriate continuity planning.

Questions include:

This connects emergency resilience directly to the Infrastructure Index and later digital-independence sections.

A municipal service is not resilient merely because its server has a backup.

People, facilities, suppliers, communications and processes all matter.

13.46Community Continuity

The same principle can be introduced to local organizations and small businesses.

Through voluntary workshops, help them consider:

A town in which local businesses recover quickly is more resilient economically.

13.47Local Food and Supplies

Emergency resilience does not mean the municipality should stock every product residents may need.

It does mean understanding the community's supply systems.

Emergency planners should understand, at an appropriate level:

Where a significant emergency disrupts supply, pre-existing relationships can support faster coordination.

Detailed emergency logistics belong inside professional planning.

Public education should focus on reasonable household preparedness.

13.48Residents Who Need Additional Support

A community should plan for residents who may face additional barriers during an emergency.

This can include people experiencing:

The solution should not be to publicly catalogue these residents.

It should be to design emergency services that can accommodate them.

That includes:

Accessibility should be part of the emergency plan before the emergency begins.

13.49Accessibility and Emergency Routes

The Local Knowledge Map should identify useful objective information about routes.

For an emergency or ordinary travel, someone may need to know:

Ontario's public-space accessibility requirements already recognize the importance of objective recreational-trail information such as length, surface, width, slopes and amenities.

The City should apply the same practical mindset to public route information wherever reliable data can be developed.

13.50Animal Preparedness

Pets and animals are part of many households.

Emergency information should remind residents to consider:

Municipal emergency planning should identify appropriate partners where animal support becomes necessary.

This is a small planning question before an emergency.

It can become a major one afterwards.

13.51Visitors

Owen Sound also has visitors who may know very little about the community.

Public emergency and wayfinding information should therefore be understandable to someone unfamiliar with:

Tourism information and resilience information can support one another.

A well-marked community is easier both to visit and to navigate during disruption.

13.52Every Trail Teaches the City

The outdoor recreation program proposed later in this plan should have a secondary purpose.

Every time we encourage someone to:

we are teaching them the geography of Owen Sound.

That knowledge may later become useful in circumstances we cannot predict.

This is one reason I see recreation as more than entertainment.

It develops:

A resident who knows Owen Sound is more connected to Owen Sound.

13.53The Annual Local Knowledge Audit

Once each year, review the public local-knowledge system.

Ask

This prevents the map from becoming another project launched once and slowly forgotten.

13.54Public Reporting

The annual scorecard should include local-resilience measures.

Preparedness

Mapping

Youth

Community

Accessibility

Printed Information

Emergency Program

Report general compliance and preparedness measures without publishing protected operational information.

13.55The First-Year Build

Year One should focus on existing information and community participation rather than creating an expensive new system.

Step 1: Meet the Emergency Management Team

Ensure every proposal in this section supports rather than interferes with the City's formal Emergency Management Program.

Step 2: Inventory Existing Maps

Begin with Owen Sound's existing GIS, trail maps, transit information, accessibility information and public facility records.

The City's existing GIS already provides a strong public mapping foundation.

Step 3: Create the Public Knowledge Standard

Determine what belongs:

Step 4: Begin Trail Profiles

Standardize:

Step 5: Begin Accessible Route Mapping

Work with residents with disabilities and the Accessibility Advisory Committee.

Step 6: Develop Printed Maps

Create an initial offline public version.

Step 7: Launch Student Mapping

Start with low-risk public information.

Step 8: Develop Emergency Location Markers

Work with emergency responders to determine whether and where markers would improve response.

Step 9: Hold the First Local Knowledge Week

Use existing facilities and community partners.

Step 10: Publish What We Learned

Identify:

13.56Year Two

Expand:

Begin measuring whether residents actually use the information.

13.57Year Three

Connect the Local Knowledge system more deeply with:

Evaluate gaps revealed by actual incidents, storms or exercises during the first two years.

13.58Year Four

By Year Four, residents should have access to a mature local-knowledge system that provides:

The measure of success should not simply be the amount of information published.

The better question is:

Do more people know their community?

13.59What the City Should Never Promise

Resilience planning also requires humility.

The City should never promise:

Instead, we should build layers.

If one system fails, another may remain.

If one route closes, people know another.

If one person needs help, they know a neighbour.

If digital information disappears, a paper map remains.

If the situation exceeds local capacity, established regional, provincial and federal systems can be called upon.

Resilience comes from layers, not promises of perfection.

The Local Knowledge Commitment

Owen Sound should be a community people know.

Not only the route from home to work.

The whole community.

Know the river.

Know the harbour.

Know the trails.

Know the hills.

Know the roads.

Know the parks.

Know the public buildings.

Know an alternate route.

Know where official information comes from.

Know how to read the map.

Know what to do when the map is unavailable.

Know your neighbour.

Know when you can help.

Know when trained responders need space to do their work.

And make sure our children learn these things too.

Professional emergency planning will remain in the hands of the people trained and legally responsible for it.

Our task as a community is to become better prepared beneath that professional system.

Map the community.

Walk the community.

Learn the community.

Teach the community.

Prepare the household.

Know the neighbour.

Practise before the emergency.

Protect information that should remain protected.

Keep important knowledge available offline.

A resilient city is not one that believes nothing bad will happen.

It is one whose people know enough about one another and the place they live to respond calmly when something does.

Local knowledge is public infrastructure carried in the minds of the people who live here.

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