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Link to Chamber of Commerce Debate: https://youtu.be/Vni_iYGnLzY
Our community is growing and changing. As we face these changes, I believe it is absolutely critical that members of Council both understand and care about our community to ensure that we protect what makes it so special to each of us.
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Below are a few of what I consider the most pressing needs and issues that I would be focusing on as the Mayor of our Township:
Low Taxes / Affordable Government
TAX LEVY INCREASES BELOW 3%
By far, the most common request I hear from residents is the need to keep taxes low. Recovering from the pandemic is just beginning, and inflation is hitting our residents on fixed incomes or savings especially hard. Add to the fact that new residents have moved into homes with some of the highest assessed values we've ever seen in our Township. It is not going to be easy, but having been a part of our Township's budget committee, despite our own lost revenues during Covid, we've kept the average tax increases over the past 4 years the lowest they've been in over a decade (2.37%).
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I have also been working hard to improve the financial situation at the County of Peterborough. I was appointed the Chair of the Finance Committee to lead a team of staff and councilors to improve the County Budget and approach to financial reporting in general. This is hard work, but to me it is absolutely critical that our financial reporting and decision making is accessible and understandable to our residents.
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There are a lot of financial challenges ahead, the costs to provide municipal services from road works to garbage collection are facing huge increases and it is going to take a tremendously creative and strategic effort to keep the tax increases as low as possible, both at the County and in our Township.
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Health Services Strategy
The pandemic has certain highlighted for all of us the importance of our health. But our residents are having a harder and harder time accessing health services they need. In talking with stakeholders it is clear that Doctor recruitment is one of the most common and competitive issues facing almost all municipalities in the Province and across the Country, so we need to explore other options.
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What should we do? My first order of business will be to create a Committee of Council involving key stakeholders from our community to turn over every rock and explore every opportunity to bring more health services to our community. Doctor recruitment, nurse practitioner or walk-in clinics, we need to dig in and create an aggressive strategy to get our residents access to care.
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Peterborough City and County is one of the largest areas without a Community Health Centre, what is holding us back? Why hasn't been pursued? We need a plan, and we need to take action, not just as a municipality, but with our partners at the County and City of Peterborough.
ESTABLISH HEALTH CARE COMMITEE
AND STRATEGY
Responsible Development
Our Township is facing more development pressure than the City of Peterborough and the entire County. While I understand why so many people would love the chance to live here, it is critical that future developments include a housing supply that meet the needs of people in our community, not just people wanting to move here. I will not be in support of expediting the planning process for residential developments that do not address the urgent housing needs of our region, and will also ensure the new Official Plan protects our prime agricultural lands.
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We need a greater diversity of housing options, and while the Province is trying to address the problems facing long term care, we need more lower cost housing and accessible housing inventory that can meet the needs of members of our community who want to stay here.
MORE DIVERSE HOUSING THAT MEETS COMMUNITY NEEDS
Regional Economic Strategy
Our Township is already taking a leadership role in the region. With our Council's strategic effort to establish an employment area at Syer Line, we need to keep this moving forward and get shovels in the ground for the hundreds of jobs it will create, but also for the commercial tax revenue.
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This is just an example of the creative leadership and focus I can bring to the region. I want to continue our efforts to advocate for a Regional Economic Development Strategy that isn't limited by borders or old school mentalities about moving borders that have been holding back our entire region for decades. Technological advancements and the enormous costs of traditional infrastructure has made annexation obsolete.
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We need to work with our partners to address the lack of serviced employment lands and understand the unique opportunities of our region (agricultural, natural resource, tourism etc). There are hundreds of examples of successful cross-border service arrangements between other municipalities and with the newly released Airport Master Plan from the City, there is no reason why Peterborough taxpayers should have to pay for infrastructure to the airport without bringing employment lands servicing along the way. Having worked closely with Rhonda Keenan (President of PKED) and representing the County on the Peterborough and Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce, I know that there are people who want to help with a more regional approach to economic development. I want to bring people together, leaving the disappointments of the past behind us and focus on bringing actual progress and prosperity to our region.
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REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY NOT ANNEXATION
Improve Road Safety
People are not driving safely on our roads. The speeds that people are travelling in our residential areas are unacceptable. We have a great relationship with our police service and officers but they simply can't be everywhere across community.
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Our Township has invested in Speed Monitors and needs your help to bring areas of concern to our attention. Deploying these machines can remind drivers how inappropriate their speed is, and also gives us a recorded list of detected speeds so we can use data to inform altering permitted speeds. Have an area that needs attention? Send me an email or contact public works directly 705-932-9323 to get your area on the list for deploying this machine. I also have asked staff to investigate the purchase of temporary speed bumps that can be deployed to protect residential areas, there is more we can do, protecting our residents is very important to me.
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You can also help our police by reporting dangerous drivers. Below is the link to report dangerous driving online, but you can also report this behaviour by calling:
705-876-1122 ext 225
Peterborough Police Online Reporting:
https://www.peterboroughpolice.com/en/report/online-reporting.aspx
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