1) Why are you running?
I’m running for Mayor first and foremost, because it’s time to bring the actual discussion of issues back to the Council table and focus on consensus oriented decision making. Perhaps it was the pandemic, or maybe it was the Zoom meetings but whatever was happening, it became abundantly clear that decisions weren’t really being made in Council chambers.
Questions should be asked and solutions vetted by Council. Far too often a mere query, this past term, was met with suspicion and attack. That’s doing a disservice to the citizens of this municipality and that’s certainly not how politicians should address issues of importance to their constituents. The Mayor is a unique municipal role but her primary responsibility is to facilitate the discussions in amongst the members of Council, while at the same time ensuring respectful civility and decorum surround the tone and tenor of those conversations.
2) Are there any steps municipalities can take to help ease cost of living concerns?
Inflation affects everyone and that includes the Municipality of Kincardine. Nobody likes to see gas inch up ever closer to $2.00 a litre as it did earlier this year. It hurts the municipal budget in the same way that it affects household budgets. Roads need to be plowed and grass needs to be cut…there’s no getting around that. The local, national or even the global economy isn’t a board game that leaders can just move pieces around to create different outcomes. It’s interconnected with things well outside our local control like climate and geo-political unrest. Municipally we can’t do much more than exercise prudence with our tax dollars and work as smart as we can to get every penny of value from every loonie.
3) What are your ideas for economic development in your municipality?
I’m excited for this next term of Council. The last eight years Kincardine has invested in bringing natural gas to our communities as well as upgrading our water & sewer infrastructure. We are “good to go”, as they say, for residential developments in the urban areas of Tiverton and Kincardine. The extension of services behind No Frills positions those lands for commercial growth and the lands at Highways 9 & 21 are now accessible via the Durham Street extension. Now is the time to market ourselves like crazy. We have the capacity in our systems, the expertise within our staff and, I would hope, courage at the Council table to see our plans through to fruition.
4) Do you think the municipality has a role to play in the recruitment and retention of physicians and other healthcare workers?
We do have a role to play. Whether we like it or not schools and hospitals, although not technically our municipal responsibility, are essential to our economic development. Rural Ontario, in order to compete for the limited human resource of physicians and healthcare workers needs to provide incentives and amenities. It’s just the way it is right now. I’m excited that we are now standing at the precipice of the expansion of our hospital. It’s a massive undertaking but one that must be funded in order for us to continue to have access to the health care we need.
5) What would you like to see in Kincardine for growth-related development?
I’m not sure it’s growth related, but I’d love to see a Harvey’s Swiss Chalet! Alas, we don’t sit in judgement on which business comes and which business doesn’t. We build the infrastructure, zone accordingly, we market ourselves and provide a competitive tax rate and perhaps some modest incentives to attract business to our area. It’s interconnected though, as businesses need good roads to get their products to market. Their employees need housing. Children need child care. Older children need quality schools….
Growth, in order to be truly sustainable, needs to be approached holistically NOT piecemeal.
6) What would you like to see included in the Waterfront Master Plan?
I don’t have any real pre-conceived notions of what the Waterfront Master Plan might include. We are at the very beginning of this consultation and I look forward to seeing what the public has to say. Certainly, I’d like to ensure there are some accessibility features included in the plan and the implementation of aspects of the smart beach study, currently being undertaken, intrigues me. In this particular instance, though, it’s most important to hear from the public on how they’d like to see this two kilometre stretch of waterfront evolve over the next ten, fifteen, twenty years.