Bruce County Warden Luke Charbonneau, wearing the Warden's Chain of Office, in his official photograph for Bruce County. (image via Bruce County)
Bruce County’s Warden is looking forward to getting projects off the ground in the new year after a productive 2025.
Luke Charbonneau said that the county was able to advance several regional priorities, including continuing a pilot program to help landowners build additional dwelling units (ADUs) on their land, to allow for accessible and affordable housing in the region.
“We had our housing forum, where we brought together all of the local municipalities along with private sector partners, and not-for-profit sector partners to talk about advancing affordable housing solutions,” he said in an interview with Bayshore News. “I have to say that we’ve had many of those, and I have been to may of them, and this year’s was the best one that I have been to. It seems to me that there are real solutions that are actually starting to take shape on the ground in Bruce County. For example, in Saugeen Shores, our new 140-unit affordable housing development along with Habitat For Humanity are just couple examples…I think we’re making real gains on that front.”
The county was also able to start work preparing the county’s eight lower-tier municipalities for advancements with the proposed Bruce C expansion project.
“We need to win that project for our communities and for our county, and in order to do that we need to be able to plan well, and build the infrastructure to make sure we can support it, so we’ve been doing a lot of work on that.”
This past year also brought advancements in reconciliation work with local First Nations communities.
“We had a good year with respect to reconciliation work with the First Nations. We had our second joint council meeting with Saugeen First Nation and Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, where we continue to advance work together with them, and we introduced our land acknowledgement at the County of Bruce after a very thoughtful process.”
With so many positive achievements over the past year, Charbonneau is now looking to 2026, and the work that still needs to be completed ahead of the upcoming municipal election in the fall.
“We need to finish the Bruce County Official Plan. That’s really our highest priority work, we need to have a modernized plan for growth across the county. We’ve been working on the Official Plan for many years, and now it’s time to finish that work, so we’re pushing hard to get that done in the coming few months.”
After being appointed to his second year as Warden for Bruce County, Charbonneau outlined the importance of completing the new Official Plan during his inaugural speech. He also pointed out that the new OP would be a long time coming, as he is now the fifth warden to be at the helm while the background work has been done to produce a plan that is ideal for the county moving forward.
In terms of advocacy for the county, Charbonneau said that he’s also hopeful to put Bruce County centre stage for agri-food innovation.
“Obviously, agriculture is a major industry in Bruce County. Bruce County produces 22 percent of Ontario’s beef. We believe that we shouldn’t only be producing that beef, but processing it as well — and not only beef, but other agricultural commodities, so we’re eagerly working on coming up with opportunities to do that.”
Another item on the wish list for the region is to get a regional transit program in place that is affordable, accessible, and open to everyone throughout Bruce County and beyond.
“We’re starting to work on the regionalization of transit and developing… or maintaining opportunities for transit but also more conventional transit as well, so I think 2026 is going to be a good year on that front where I hope we’re going to develop some plans that can turn into some actual new services for people in all of our county, so that’s really exciting.”
The new year won’t be all work, but will include some fun as well — particularly with the upcoming International Plowing Match & Rural Expo that will be happening in Walkerton between September 22nd and 26th.