1) Why are you running?
As a mother of 3 growing boys and a business owner in this City, I have a vested interest in seeing Owen Sound grow and reach it’s full potential. I want a bustling City with jobs and opportunities for my children to return to. I bring business experience, fiscal responsibility, healthcare background and a common-sense approach to the table. I want to grow the tax base so we can decrease the burden on tax-payers. Decreasing regulation, flexible zoning, partnering with other levels of government to get housing built. We need increased partnership with neighbouring municipalities on shared services, especially a green bin program. Let’s search out the best practices of other municipalities and see what will work for us in Owen Sound. I’m hoping to be part of a council that is ready to make hard decisions and really bring in change.
2) Are there any steps municipalities can take to ease cost of living concerns? If so, what measures would you support?
Unfortunately most of the factors currently driving cost of living concerns are out of the control of municipalities – rising interest rates, high gas prices, out of control inflation, real estate bubble, global supply chain issues etc. Municipalities have limited tools to help short term, but longer term, ensuring that there is abundant affordable housing available, attracting good paying jobs, lowering taxes. These are measures that the municipal council must be focussed on to make life more affordable for our citizens. I would be open to hearing any options for short-term relief.
3) What are your ideas for economic development in your municipality?
Owen Sound has so much potential. Our waterfront is underutilized. We should be a destination point in the summer season with more events, cafes, bars, restaurants, pedestrian walkways, dockage for watercraft.
We are fortunate to have Georgian College in our City. We should aim to help push expansion in the medical field at the College to complement their nursing program and more partnership with Universities. Training medical personnel in our City, in partnership with our regional hospital gives us a better chance that those professionals would stay and work in our community.
We have to push for better infrastructure to link us to major centres. Without four-lane access to move product, it will be difficult to attract manufacturing back to our city. In the meantime, we should focus on industries such as Tech that can operate in remote areas and capitalize on the Covid exodus of people from big cities to smaller communities.
As the regional hub and gateway to other communities on the peninsula we should be partnering on a regional approach to economic development with neighbouring municipalities.
4) Do you think the municipality has a role to in the recruitment and retention of physicians and other healthcare workers?
Physicians and other healthcare workers want to live in vibrant communities, just like everyone else. Available housing supply, daycare spaces, arts, recreation, culture, restaurants and shops
all play a role in attracting people to our City. We have the benefit of having a local college with a great nursing program and a regional hospital that can offer residence opportunities. Promoting and expanding these opportunities,
training medical students in our city, exposing them to our great community is one way to increase the odds that they will stay and work here. I would like to see more done at the provincial level to attract more rural students to medical
school.
5) What steps could municipalities take to help get more housing built that you support?
Municipalities are “creatures of the Province” and are subject to development and planning constraints of upper-tier government. We need to push to have more flexibility and control in our land-use planning and partnership with the federal and provincial governments to approve and pay for affordable housing development.
The province is planning to introduce a new tool to help municipalities – The Community Infrastructure and Housing Accelerator, reducing red tape and streamlining approval processes.
I support all measures that help to get Affordable and Attainable housing built, whether it is tax incentives or flexible zoning. We are fortunate to have 3 projects in various stages of approval – and you can expect me to vote to push these developments through, which will greatly increase the housing supply in the city.
6) Should the city do more to regulate short-term rentals, such as AirBNBs?
Absolutely. I don’t believe that any property in a residential area should be used strictly as a commercial venture, operating as a short-term rental property with no restrictions, no commercial taxes, taking crucial housing supply from the market and causing ruckus to the neighbours. Many municipalities have already regulated short-term rentals and we need to act immediately to get a regulatory framework in place that will stop any home that is not owneroccupied from being used as a full-time STR property in this city.