1) Why are you running?
For fear of sounding like a giant cliché, I am running to give back to a community that has
provided me with a place to live, work and play. I’m not in this to see some dream to
completion, I am here to help the Saugeen Shores as a whole and Southampton Ward
specifically, with each challenge that comes up. I am not a “one trick pony” but I embrace all
subjects facing the town, easy and controversial, for the betterment of the municipality. I was
humbled when acclaimed but that does not change the attitude towards the work ahead.
2) Are there any steps municipalities can take to help ease cost of living concerns?
Yes, there are and Saugeen Shores is in the process of taking those steps. The most
obvious is to control taxes. That one is tough but will be dealt with in budget talks in the
months ahead. Taxes will not go down I’m sure but every effort will be made to maintain
costs or make the increase as small as possible. One must remember, across Canada in
June inflation rates were as high as 8%–now around the 7% mark–and are not expected to
come down quickly in the near future. It affects you with your household budget and it’s no
different in a municipality scenario.
Saugeen Shores is always looking for ways to broaden the tax base. Homes of all kinds
and apartments are being built and new businesses and residents are moving into town. A
broader tax base means more money which will help lessen the load or at least slow down
any hike on the taxes needed by Saugeen Shores to operate the municipality and to provide
the services taxpayers expect.
Elsewhere, Saugeen Shores is helping to create affordable housing as quickly as possible
to allow minimum wage earners the opportunity to work and live in the municipality. Over 700
apartment units are being built and many of those will be affordable. We need to bring back
these important service industry workers and others because without them our smaller shops
cannot maintain the customer service they’ve always had and may end up closing altogether.
3) What are your ideas for economic development in your municipality?
The first in my mind, is to have a full-time Economic Development Officer in Saugeen
Shores and that has happened.
Next in my mind, is to cut as much red tape as possible and make any applications user-
friendly with as quick a turnaround as possible.
Much of the above is now happening but there’s still room for improvement.
We should not wait for business to come to us but go out to drum up business at various
trade shows, particularly surrounding nuclear.
Saugeen Shores is blessed with a plot of land just east of the Lamont Sports Park in south
Port Elgin that is ready for development as part of an Innovation Park which will be a “centre
for energy innovation, and a hub for Canada’s clean energy frontier,” as quoted from the
Saugeen Shores website.
In Southampton, another hub is being talked about. A “Cultural Hub” at the main
intersection of High and Albert (Highway 21) Streets, that will include the Town Hall, the
library, the art school, along with a new and improved live theatre facility.
For me, economic development should create jobs for people from all walks of life. It again
boils down to having the jobs to keep people in the municipality.
4) Do you think the municipality has a role to play in the recruitment and retention of physicians and other healthcare workers?
Absolutely!
In order to attract doctors and nurses, we must give them the most up-to-date facilities in
which to work. Southampton Hospital is such a place to work. The community, through the
Saugeen Memorial Hospital Foundation and many fine groups and individuals, raised some 3-
million-dollars recently to bring a CT scan to Southampton, thus avoiding a trip to Owen
Sound in many cases. That becomes a selling point when talking to prospective doctors and
nurses who are looking for areas to settle or to begin practice after graduation.
Saugeen Shores offers many other amenities as well, including the community itself. Yes,
in some cases it’s a “sell job” that needs to be presented with pride.
As our Vice Deputy Mayor has said many times, “One orphan patient is one too many,”
when it comes to health care.
If we aren’t selling ourselves, you can bet other municipalities are selling themselves and
we need to be in the mix. We have been successful in the past and there’s no reason why
that can’t continue.
5) What are your views on the revitalization of Port Elgin’s waterfront?
What is really being asked is “Are you in favour of the Cedar Crescent Village (CCV)
development or not?”
My answer, based on community input I’ve received anecdotally, is “Yes.”
I believe once this development is constructed it will be a nice amenity in an area that was
run down and was not being maintained and to me, it doesn’t affect the beach at all. The
beach will not lose one towel space with this development. If you are a beach goer and you
don’t like the nearby CCV, you won’t go to it but it doesn’t mean you can’t come to the shore
and enjoy the main beach.
I have been assured all rules and regulations have been followed with this development. I
have asked the proponent, in public, questions that were wanted asked by members of the
public that challenged the development. After all is said and done, I still believe the project
will be an added attraction to the beach.
I will continue to ask the questions and make sure the investors are following all the rules
and regulations.
6) How would you propose the town manage its projected growth over the next 10 to 20
years?
In a word, “Carefully.”
There is no question Saugeen Shores is enjoying a “boom” in building. Residential and
commercial builds continue to dot the skyline of the community.
We must be careful not to allow overbuild and end up with vacant buildings.
We must be careful to maintain our environmental stewardship like tree canopies within
these builds and elsewhere.
Strangely these aren’t issues for the next 10-20 years but issues that face us right now.
If we deal with them now, carefully, then projected growth over the next two decades could
be developed in an orderly fashion although really, no one can predict the future.
Saugeen Shores is made up of urban and agricultural and in the future, it’s imperative that
we maintain the agriculture aspect as well. It’s easy to expand outward but it could come at
the cost of valuable farmland. That must not happen.