Seven neighbourhood councillors replace centralized authority in Owen Sound
andrii-zvorygin · general · May 31, 2026
Summary
Andrii Zvorygin's campaign proposes a restructuring of Owen Sound's governance by electing seven neighbourhood-focused councillors to replace current centralized authority. The proposal draws on his stated experience at the county, federal campaign treasurer work, correspondence with multiple levels of government, and familiarity with local municipal officials. This initiative integrates village leaders who communicate directly with police via radio, aiming to prioritize local de-escalation over fear-driven control mechanisms. The strategy seeks to dismantle wasteful reliance on outside consultants and redirect fiscal resources toward housing, community land trusts, starter farm homes, and resilient local food processing networks. By preventing community wealth from being siphoned off to distant markets like Toronto, the plan aims to keep economic activity within the community. A concurrent transparency initiative simplifies complex city council data so residents can understand meetings and agendas well enough to advocate for localized policies. Ultimately, this approach replaces top-down governance with a compassionate, fiscally just system where small-scale decision-making addresses systemic issues. The result is a model that seeks fair representation for every neighbourhood while keeping leadership responsibilities circulating locally.
Most Newsworthy Items
- The installation of seven neighbourhood-focused councillors represents a direct challenge to the traditional centralized municipal council structure in Owen Sound.
- Zvorygin points to county-level experience, federal campaign treasurer work, and years of communication with public officials as practical preparation for the mayoral role.
- The campaign aims to redirect fiscal resources away from outside consultants toward housing, community land trusts, starter farm homes, and resilient local food processing networks.
- Integrating village leaders into direct police communication channels would prioritize local knowledge and compassion before situations escalate into fear-driven control.
- The housing proposal connects municipal land acquisition, upgraded amenity buildings, and small farm plots so young families and new farmers can start with lower-cost shelter and productive land.
- The strategy explicitly targets the prevention of community wealth from being siphoned off to distant markets like Toronto through localized economic restructuring.
- A transparency initiative simplifies complex city council transcripts and agendas to give citizens the knowledge needed to advocate for keeping economic activity local.
- The proposed system replaces top-down governance with small-scale, localized decision-making intended to address systemic issues and ensure fair neighbourhood representation.
Key Topics
- 00:00:01 Building a Neighborhood System for Owen Sound
- 00:04:52 Police Transparency and Community Connection
- 00:07:07 Forgiveness and Systemic Community Solutions
- 00:08:58 Upgrading Motels to Farm Starter Homes
- 00:10:58 Local Food Processing and Distribution Networks
- 00:12:54 Transcribing City Council Meetings for Transparency
Full Transcript
00:00:01 speaker_unknown: Hello there, everyone.
00:00:02 speaker_unknown: James here.
00:00:03 speaker_unknown: I'm here with Andrei Svoronin, and he's going to be a candidate for mayor, one of them anyway.
00:00:11 speaker_unknown: Did I get the interview?
00:00:12 SPEAKER_1095: And I got one question to open this up for you.
00:00:19 SPEAKER_1095: The one thing is, I know that you're just getting into this, and you haven't really done anything prior for government and politics, and you're just getting into it now.
00:00:33 SPEAKER_1095: Oh, that's a misconception.
00:00:35 SPEAKER_1095: I've actually been at the county for four years already, and I've been emailing all levels of government and talking to the MPs and MPPs for many years.
00:00:48 SPEAKER_1095: While I've been here, I've also been on the federal campaign as a treasurer, and so I'm quite familiar with the political scene.
00:01:00 SPEAKER_1095: You know, I've sailed with Ian Body.
00:01:03 SPEAKER_1095: You know, I know the mayors and the deputy mayors all around the county.
00:01:07 SPEAKER_1095: I've interviewed them.
00:01:09 SPEAKER_1095: So, you know, we know each other.
00:01:13 SPEAKER_1095: I have actually more experience with dealing with county matters than any of the other candidates, to my knowledge.
00:01:23 SPEAKER_1096: Okay, then saying that wouldn't it be easier to maybe step into being a councillor first, then stepping right into mayorship?
00:01:34 SPEAKER_1096: So right now, it is an important opportunity for helping the people of Owen Sound, and we still have a few months left before the nominations close.
00:01:48 SPEAKER_1096: And during that time, my hope is to go door to door and rally support for having a neighborhood system and getting people to run for council, people who are in favor of transparency, participation,
00:02:04 SPEAKER_1096: and compassion, who also want to see fair representation, to know what's going on at council, to be able to participate in helping their communities and have faster response times for the needs of their communities.
00:02:22 SPEAKER_1096: So the idea is not simply to have, at least during this period until August twenty-first, when the nominations are open, we want to get at least seven councillors on board,
00:02:38 SPEAKER_1096: one representing each of the seven areas of Ouest-Sud: Northwest, Northeast, West, Central, East, Southwest, and Southeast.
00:02:57 SPEAKER_1096: And that way, we will be able to hear those people.
00:03:01 SPEAKER_1096: But then, after we get elected, there's going to be some people who ran for council or who ran for mayor or deputy mayor who didn't get in,
00:03:14 SPEAKER_1098: but they still have valid experience and people that they've talked to and connections.
00:03:26 SPEAKER_1098: And we want to open that opportunity to have what are called village leaders and village communities, and so with those, yeah, with those,
00:03:39 SPEAKER_1098: we will about three hundred people is how much a traditional village is in say India or anywhere else around the world, and with that kind of community,
00:03:47 SPEAKER_1098: you will actually know who it is that representing you, and they will know you, and they will know your needs, and then once a month or once a quarter, whatever is deemed comfortable for everybody,
00:03:59 SPEAKER_1098: they can meet with that neighborhood councillor, and you know deal with any issues that are related to their block.
00:04:12 SPEAKER_1098: Like right now, for example, we had the Fourth Avenue West, and there's some plans for construction there, and there has been some input from the community, but the councillors at the table,
00:04:24 SPEAKER_1098: none of them actually live in that area.
00:04:26 SPEAKER_1098: All of them live south of 10th Street, and so they're kind of, you know, they're doing their best,
00:04:32 SPEAKER_1098: but they're kind of speculating about what is best for this neighborhood because they don't actually have people there.
00:04:40 SPEAKER_1098: And so we would actually have people that are from there, who live there, making these decisions and helping to make Owensville a better place for everybody.
00:04:51 SPEAKER_1098: Right.
00:04:52 SPEAKER_1098: Another topic I wanted to bring up.
00:04:54 SPEAKER_1096: I read some of your stuff, your newsletter, whatever, having it, and I seen one part that stuck out for me was transparency.
00:05:07 SPEAKER_1096: The city has losing transparency, especially at the police station where they have no body cams, and there's no auto video or auto recording inside.
00:05:19 SPEAKER_1098: So that that's kind of stepping on our charter rights, Section Two B. What do you feel about those bad issues?
00:05:29 SPEAKER_1098: Yeah, I am certainly quite in favor of transparency, and I would be in favor of body cams or having, you know, videos inside available to keep people accountable.
00:05:44 SPEAKER_1098: But I also want to help the police feel more like a part of our community, so I don't want them to feel like they're other.
00:05:55 SPEAKER_1098: And to that respect, my hope is that, say, village leaders or the neighborhood councillors would be able to radio in and talk to the police officers, because right now you have to call 911,
00:06:03 SPEAKER_1098: and then it goes to dispatch, and then it might go to someone.
00:06:10 SPEAKER_1098: So the idea here is that if an issue arises in your community, you know, and if it's not an emergency, then yeah, which is a lot of them, which is a lot of them.
00:06:19 SPEAKER_1098: A lot of the calls that they have to address, they can go to their village leader, and maybe he can sort it out or she.
00:06:30 SPEAKER_1098: They, and if not, then you know if this is something, then they could radio.
00:06:36 SPEAKER_1098: They would have a radio to actually access, you know, their police in the area, and then we could get that involvement, and then the village leader could be there, so that gives that connection,
00:06:47 SPEAKER_1098: because the police isn't everywhere all at once and doesn't know everybody.
00:06:52 SPEAKER_1098: But the village leader would have a high chance of knowing at least someone that's involved in that situation to help calm the situation down and make sure we have that most peaceful and respectful resolution
00:07:06 SPEAKER_1098: that we can.
00:07:07 SPEAKER_1098: Nice.
00:07:07 SPEAKER_1098: Anything else more to add?
00:07:10 SPEAKER_1098: Or well, also there would be the compassion element.
00:07:16 SPEAKER_1098: Yes.
00:07:16 SPEAKER_1098: Right.
00:07:17 SPEAKER_1098: So the compassion element is about forgiveness, love, and kindness, and so an unexpected issue arises, or someone makes a mistake.
00:07:23 SPEAKER_1098: You know, instead of going fear and control right away, it's like, oh, you did something wrong, and then you know, going hard on them.
00:07:31 SPEAKER_1098: It's okay.
00:07:32 SPEAKER_1098: You know what?
00:07:33 SPEAKER_1098: It happened.
00:07:33 SPEAKER_1098: Okay, we forgive you.
00:07:34 SPEAKER_1098: Okay, we love you.
00:07:36 SPEAKER_1098: What can we do to prevent this happening in the future?
00:07:38 SPEAKER_1098: You know, we can analyze: is this a systemic issue?
00:07:43 SPEAKER_1098: You know, is there something that we need to do differently as a community?
00:07:55 SPEAKER_1098: Is there some way we need to organize differently in order to help, say, for instance, get people off the streets and doing something productive, right?
00:08:10 SPEAKER_1098: And so, to that end, as mayor, I'll be able to move motions at the county council because I've already emailed them extensively, and many of the low-hanging fruit per se, they have already executed upon.
00:08:21 SPEAKER_1098: So, for example, when I first started attending the council, I noticed that many months there were these items that would cost tens of thousands of dollars,
00:08:26 SPEAKER_1098: which were just outside consultants coming in and then giving a several-page report.
00:08:30 SPEAKER_1098: That was taxpayer dollars going to people outside of County for something that had little or no value.
00:08:38 SPEAKER_1098: And you know, I emailed you know when it would come up, and several of the councilors pursued this.
00:08:43 SPEAKER_1098: Councillors pursued this, and the there was an employment change.
00:08:52 SPEAKER_1098: The person who was responsible for organizing these kinds of expensive meetings that didn't help anybody stepped down, and someone else replaced them.
00:08:56 SPEAKER_1098: And so they no longer have that money drain at the county level.
00:08:58 SPEAKER_1098: That's just one example, but there are many others.
00:09:08 SPEAKER_1098: Like I have also explored about the housing, and we have one of the best housing programs in Ontario now.
00:09:18 SPEAKER_1098: In terms of considering the limited resources that we have, and so one of the ways that we can actually improve upon this even more, because the current housing plan,
00:09:30 SPEAKER_1098: the ten-year housing plan that I reviewed a few days ago, it only has room for maybe a couple hundred, but we need room for thousands of new farmers.
00:09:36 SPEAKER_1098: And what we can do within the existing regulation is say, so for instance.
00:09:44 SPEAKER_1098: Since we can have community land trusts, and we already have, say, the Grey County or municipality like buying a plot of land, like they bought a motel.
00:09:52 SPEAKER_1098: So instead, they could buy, say, a large farm area, and where you have that current farmhouse, it can be upgraded to an amenity building.
00:09:59 SPEAKER_1098: That will maintain the value of the homes in the surrounding area because the amenity building is expensive.
00:10:08 SPEAKER_1098: You know, it would have the showers and the laundry and a kitchen and gas.
00:10:18 SPEAKER_1098: Kitchen and gathering area, but then residents, people, say young families, could go and they could get you know five to ten acres, or two to four hectares,
00:10:31 SPEAKER_1098: and they could start with something as simple as a yurt, which costs only fifteen to twenty thousand dollars to get started, and then you know there would be the land value there,
00:10:31 SPEAKER_1098: and that way they could get started at farming, and they could upgrade it as they go.
00:10:35 SPEAKER_1098: You know, they don't have to stay in here; it can be upgraded to a cabin or a house.
00:10:41 SPEAKER_1098: You know, when they have the means.
00:10:45 SPEAKER_1098: But this allows our young people to have a purpose, have somewhere to go, and start their own families.
00:10:53 SPEAKER_1098: Their, you know, grow their own food, their firewood, and their businesses.
00:10:58 SPEAKER_1098: And another aspect of this, why now, is some people may have heard of the Hormuz crisis, and that has to do with the oil.
00:11:03 SPEAKER_1098: But this is actually a much longer-term thing.
00:11:08 SPEAKER_1098: And since about the 1980s, we have been extracting more oil than we've been discovering.
00:11:11 SPEAKER_1098: And unfortunately, our food systems right now are based upon growing food based on fossil fuels.
00:11:21 SPEAKER_1098: So for every calorie of food that you see on the grocery store shelves, about three to ten calories of fossil fuels were burned in order to make that possible.
00:11:31 SPEAKER_1098: And because the fuel prices are going up, that's why food prices are going up.
00:11:41 SPEAKER_1098: And in order for us, and we already have like twenty-eight thousand food insecure people in Gray County.
00:11:45 SPEAKER_1098: And in order to get those numbers to go down, we need to have low-input farming methods.
00:11:52 SPEAKER_1098: And that's how this also dovetails with that housing strategy that I was talking about, where the farming.
00:11:59 SPEAKER_1098: With the farming because it's low input farming, and that makes it possible for us to produce food locally.
00:12:05 SPEAKER_1098: And I also want to help make it possible to process food and store food locally.
00:12:14 SPEAKER_1098: Because right now, most people that grow food locally actually send it out of county, either to Toronto or to the states, and so it's not even benefiting the people that are here locally.
00:12:21 SPEAKER_1098: And so by having that local food processing and distribution network, we'll be able to feed our people here and bring down the food prices.
00:12:29 SPEAKER_1098: Yes, right on.
00:12:33 SPEAKER_1095: So that's number one interview.
00:12:37 SPEAKER_1095: I already have one other one on there, but that this gentleman here did that one for me, and I just posted it for him.
00:12:42 SPEAKER_1095: So I'm gonna have another interview coming up soon, and stay tuned for that.
00:12:48 SPEAKER_1095: And tell me what you think of this candidate.
00:12:52 SPEAKER_1095: Andrei's Morgan.
00:12:54 SPEAKER_1098: Andrei's Morgan, and I guess I also have a website helpos.ca, and as part of my transparency initiative, so what I do is actually transcribe all of the meetings at City Council,
00:13:11 SPEAKER_1098: and then I summarize the various sections of them, so you don't have to read the whole transcript, which is hours long, and then I make an article based on the most newsworthy items,
00:13:22 SPEAKER_1098: and I post it up on helpoest.ca, and I also do the same thing for the agendas because the agendas are hundreds of pages long, and who has time to read through all of that?
00:13:31 SPEAKER_1098: And so I make summaries of all of those, and then I post that as an article as well.
00:13:37 SPEAKER_1098: And so you can read both the agendas and the summaries, and everything is also open source and available to everybody.
00:13:46 SPEAKER_1098: Absolutely.
00:13:47 SPEAKER_1098: Yeah.
00:13:47 SPEAKER_1098: Yeah. exactly, and that's also where you can find my website healthos.ca and then slash Andre.
00:13:55 SPEAKER_1098: That's A-N-D-R-I-I. Thank you.
00:13:58 SPEAKER_1098: Okay, you're welcome.
00:14:00 SPEAKER_1098: Right on.
00:14:00 SPEAKER_1095: Okay, I will be back soon.
00:14:05 SPEAKER_1095: All right, everyone, on my side.