Ward 2 candidate Art Stirling

My background includes a degree in journalism and 25 years of private-sector management experience, focused on national marketing and government affairs.

After co-chairing the 2005 United Way campaign, I built and now lead a local children’s charity. A proven problem solver, I have assisted groups in Blenheim, Erieau, Chatham and elsewhere with a range of projects.

I am 52, raised on a family farm near Rondeau, live in Blenheim with my wife Grace, and have five children.

For the past eight years, I have provided strong leadership, effective management and responsive service. If re-elected, I promise to serve with integrity and passion, working to realize the full potential of Chatham-Kent while continuing to advocate for operating responsibly within our financial means.

Would you support a tax freeze or rollback if it meant reduced staff or services?

Yes

In my role as budget chair this past term; I brought forward motions requesting options to get us to a zero percent tax increase. I brought forward motions to cut services and freeze salaries. I brought forward motions asking for a staff reduction target of 25 positions. I also introduced the Service Sustainability Review Process to assist us in finding service efficiencies and cost savings. In 2013, the first full year of SSRP implementation, $400,000 in savings were identified and applied to the 2014 budget. But these actions require a majority of Council to support.

Would you support an OPP costing study?

No

The increasing cost of policing is a provincial problem that requires a provincial solution. Provincially appointed arbitrators need to start taking into account a community’s ability to pay when awarding settlements. Our provincial government needs to stop negotiating large wage increases for the OPP, such as the 8.55% they received in 2014. The CKPS leadership has eliminated nine positions over the past two budgets to help keep costs down. Our local police association agreed to a negotiated 2013-2015 settlement that would see officers receive 2.75%/2.5%/1.25% increases over the three year lifespan of the contract. This is far below the 3.0% annually negotiated or arbitrated elsewhere. In other communities, such as Sarnia, where costing studies have occurred, municipalities have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultants generating the data required for an apples-to-apples comparison between their municipal force and the OPP, only to learn at the end of the process they’ll spend millions more in severances and decommissioning their municipal police force, more than eating up any short-term savings that ‘may’ be available. And, if you make the switch, are unhappy, and want to transition back to a municipal force, the costs of reacquiring a headquarters, a communication centre and a fleet are prohibitive. The only thing ‘free’ about the OPP costing exercise is the presentation to Council.

Would you support examining a volunteer-only fire service if the provincial arbitration system isn’t overhauled?

Yes

We have an incredible volunteer fire service in our rural areas and I would like to see greater integration and co-operation between our professional full-time and volunteer part-time groups. That would require changes to our collective agreement with our professional firefighter association. I can certainly support ‘examining’ a volunteer-only fire service, but under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, Council is required to set an adequate level of service to ensure public safety. I believe with hospitals, nursing homes, and larger office and industrial buildings in our more urban areas, we are required to provide full-time fire service.

Do you believe we should continue our ongoing efforts to attract economic investment from China?

Yes

Given that our total expenditure on Foreign Direct Investment activities over the eight years I’ve been on Council, including all travel, accommodation, translation, and trip preparation costs, totals less than $200,000 (Economic Development data) or an average of $25,000/year, I think this is a worthwhile investment. Business attraction is all about relationship building. It takes time, consistency, patience and sensitivity to build trusting relationships, especially in some Asian and European cultures. Yet, with recent announcements, such as Krinner and Brightenview, we are starting to see returns on that effort and investment. We should not blink now.

Would you support contracting municipal services to the private sector if those services can be delivered more efficiently?

Yes

When I brought forward my motion that resulted in the establishment of the Service Sustainability Review Process, the goal was to look critically at every service the municipality provides. Since many service levels were set at amalgamation, 15 years later I believed we were overdue to ask ourselves whether we needed to continue to provide the service, and if so, at what level and how. Our needs had changed, our economy and tax base had changed, and the need to achieve maximum ‘value for money’ is greater today than ever. Some service levels are legislated and we can’t do much about them. But many more are not. As we saw with the service reviews for horticulture and for childcare operations, it made sense to contract them to outside provider. They joined services such as garbage and recycling collection, planning and EMS that are already outsourced, unlike in many municipalities. I believe there are other services, recreation for example, we could partner with private sector providers on.

Would you support investigating amalgamation of fire/ambulance/police services to reduce costs?

Yes
Again, I can support ‘investigating’ greater alignment between our various emergency services up to the point that we can accomplish it legally and operationally. Emergency dispatch is already integrated with the three branches and is quite effective. Our new fire chief is working to integrate fire and EMS operations and response more thoroughly. There may be opportunities to combine training or public education resources across the services. I believe much of this is already happening organically as cost pressures mount.

Would you support a municipal tree-cutting bylaw if it contained incentives for woodlot owners to retain/increase tree cover?

Yes

I was raised in a very conservation-minded farm family in South Kent and I also know, through more than two decades in agribusiness that the vast majority of farmers in Chatham-Kent are responsible stewards of the natural resources they manage. I supported the Natural Heritage Implementation Strategy because I believe it was a good start. I would like to see additional financial incentives for woodlot preservation and enhancement. I believe society has a role to play to protect natural spaces on privately owned land that benefit us all. I continue to support a municipal “woodlot conservation” bylaw (not a “tree cutting bylaw) that would provide a level of enforceable protection for woodlots and bushes of a certain size, so as to protect the integrity of the established eco-systems within. Laws are enacted to respond to the small few that exhibit disregard or behavior outside of the norm. It is not my intent to punish good environmental stewards.

Do you believe we need a municipal ombudsman or ethics commissioner such as London and Windsor have added?

Yes

While I initially did not believe it necessary, my thinking has evolved on this issue.   Though I still have faith that our municipality is run professionally and ethically by Council and Senior Administration, with many system-wide checks and balances in place, we have seen enough examples of public sector mismanagement in governments of all levels, shapes and sizes that any additional steps that improve transparency, accountability and comfort to our citizens that their tax dollars are being spent wisely and that their municipality is being managed responsibly are prudent.

Would you consider developing a usage benchmark for municipal offices, arena and libraries and closing those that don’t meet the standards?

No

We already have detailed usage statistics for all municipal facilities such as those listed. Collecting that data is not rocket science. Benchmarks would be merely arbitrary bars we set that, when hit in the smaller communities, would be ignored anyways due to community outrage or politics. While there were no guarantees implicit or explicit at amalgamation that communities would continue to enjoy the same facilities in perpetuity, we also need to be sensitive to the fact that we are a very large geographic space with an aging population and that services need to be as accessible as possible. Also, without that careful mindset, we will lose whatever young families and youth we have in our rural areas. Where possible we have trimmed hours of services or changed or combined service delivery methods to respond to those usage statistics and deploy our financial and human resources as efficiently as possible. We will likely need to do more of that over the coming term.

Do you support development of a community-wide multipurpose recreation centre?

Yes

In looking at neighbouring municipalities and hearing from constituents, I would support the initial planning work needed to create a multi-purpose recreation centre. We need to be careful not to over-extend ourselves the way Amherstburg did. And I would not link this decision to an OHL franchise. A go-ahead decision for me would require that the municipality first meet certain tax assessment growth and debt reduction targets set and agreed upon by Council, and that commitments from the federal and provincial governments to each share one-third of the costs are secured.

Do you support an adopt-a-park program in which service or volunteer groups assume some maintenance (grass cutting) of some municipal facilities?

Yes

While it is rather informal, we already have service or volunteer groups who handle not only some maintenance duties but also programming on municipally-owned properties across Chatham-Kent, especially in some of the hamlets and rural areas. These facilities and relationships were ‘grandfathered’ in at amalgamation. In other cases, splash pads are the best example, we have service or volunteer groups stepping forward to build and run what could be seen as municipal services on privately owned properties. In both cases, the municipality needs to do a better job of recognizing those contributions and partnering with these groups with a base level of financial support.

Do you support investigating a reduction in the number of municipal councilors?

Yes

During my first term on Council, we undertook a governance review with outside consultants that recommended we reduce the size of Council significantly. However, in follow-up, a citizen panel consulted with the community and came back with a ward redistribution recommendation that eliminated only one seat. They shared that many citizens in the larger rural wards felt under-represented on Council now and feared that fewer councillors would lessen their voice. Keep in mind that the former municipalities in Chatham-Kent, pre-amalgamation, had a total of 117 elected officials, already a dramatic decrease. I too share this concern about representation but am open to ‘investigating’ the size of Council again. However, there does appear to be an unfounded belief by the proponents of a smaller Council that, with fewer councilors, there will be magical agreement and that decisions will be made more harmoniously and quicker. In a municipality of such size and diversity, I’d challenge those assumptions.

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For the past eight years, I have provided strong leadership, effective management and responsive service. If re-elected, I promise to serve with integrity and passion, working to realize the full potential of Chatham-Kent while continuing to advocate for operating responsibly within our financial means.

I was council’s budget chair and a member of the C-K Police Services Board from 2011 to 2014, and a director on Entegrus and Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority from 2007 to 2010.

I was responsible for the initiation of the Service Sustainability Review Process, which has begun to deliver service efficiencies and cost savings. I have also successfully helped attract both industrial and commercial businesses to Chatham-Kent.

I will continue to invest energies promoting economic development by attracting new companies in agriculture, light manufacturing and tourism, and helping existing companies grow through reducing regulatory burden and cost. I will continue to use my business expertise to deliver balanced oversight to municipal finances, protecting key services, investing aggressively in infrastructure, and working toward the lowest possible tax rate. I will continue to respond promptly to concerns, and advocate for community organizations. We need to meet the need for a modern animal shelter.