1) Why are you running?
I love this community, it`s my home. I want to see Meaford continue to be a great community to live, work, play and volunteer in. Our vast municipality is changing, growing, and evolving.
I believe “Collaboration is the New Leadership”. I want to see increased community engagement and greater involvement from our Advisory Committees. There are critical issues ahead for the next council. We will face many challenges: inflation pressures, determining “right” growth for Meaford including the attraction of affordable, worker based rental units, evaluating environmental reports as the TC Energy approval process continues, attracting businesses to our urban and rural areas, infrastructure funding gaps, and much more. I will utilize the knowledge I’ve gained during the past two terms as I continue to participate in these discussions. I sold my business last summer; I intend to devote my full attention to the work of council. I successfully brought 17 motions before the current council, there is work yet to be done to see these actions thru. I love what I do, my determination and experience will help shape an even more prosperous and vibrant future for Meaford.
2) Are there any steps municipalities can take to help ease cost of living concerns?
I believe our council will need to be scrupulous with the 2023 budget, inflation is hitting municipalities as hard as it is each of us personally. With inflation sitting somewhere around 7% we must also be cognizant of the need to compensate staff appropriately. I believe elected officials will have to carefully consider the levels of services currently offered, we may have to make tough decisions in this regard. We may also have to ease back on capital projects with increased labor costs, high fuel and material prices continuing to rise.
3) What are your ideas for economic development in your municipality?
We are growing, we need additional taxation dollars to go forward. The province insists that we build housing. Meaford must attract a workforce, our businesses are literally all struggling in this regard. Our municipality has some large projects proposed including the TC Energy Pumped Storage Project and a large development at our waterfront. Change is upon us. We must work with these developers to make sure each proposal is as appropriate and right for Meaford as it can be. Our downtown needs revitalization, we have seen several new businesses open during Covid which is exciting, but we still have beautification issues to address. Lasty but most definitely not least we must do more to communicate with our agricultural community and we must find ways of better supporting our number one industry.
4) Do you think a municipality has a role to play in the recruitment and retention of physicians and other healthcare workers?
Technically “NO” BUT we really don`t have a choice with the need for the recruitment of family physicians so great. This is a provincial responsibility but the competition for doctors is nothing short of intense. We hope doctors will choose us because of the wonderful lifestyle this community has to offer. It has been my experience that perspective graduates will ask “what’s in it for me”? Several other places offer financial incentives to convince doctors to come to their municipalities. I don’t feel taxpayer dollars should be used for this purpose. The issue of doctor recruitment is complicated. Volunteers in the past have attempted and been somewhat successful in bringing doctors to Meaford, the challenge is that the new ones simply replace others who wish to retire. We know we will need one new doctor to cover every 500 new households, we also know we have about 3,000 orphan patients in the vicinity covered by our health clinics in Meaford and Thornbury. We also know that new, young doctors don’t generally wish to take on huge rosters, some of our current doctors manage over 2,000 patients. We could hire a recruiter but again that must be funded. We have great hopes that our new Meaford doctor who has teaching credentials will be able to encourage some of his students to consider our municipality for their practices.
5) Should the municipality pursue more shared services with neighbouring municipalities?
We should always consider such opportunities where possible. Meaford asked Grey County to investigate Waste Management Services for example to determine if a county wide service could be to our advantage. Meaford does piggyback on purchases such as gravel with the county to get the best price.
6) What issue do you believe is a top priority for Meaford to tackle during the next term?
In my opinion growth will be our biggest challenge and our largest opportunity this next term. We must build housing; the province insists on it. Meaford needs housing to attract a much-needed workforce. We must work with our developers to try and avoid OLT hearings ( Ontario Land Tribunal ) while working with them to ensure their projects meet the requirements of our Official Plan and most importantly the Community Vision that will be our first priority in 2023.