In this election, seven incumbents chose not to run again. Of the remaining 10, four have only one term of experience, with the possibility of a rookie mayor. Chatham-Kent has over 1,000 employees and a budget of over $300 million; it is a large, complicated municipality. Now more than ever our community needs a councillor who brings proven council leadership, experience, knowledge and common sense.
I am seeking re-election to serve you the people with just those qualifications. My record is that of having fought against wasted spending on things like a railroad and foreign trips. I have spoken up for the people and fought for your right to have a say about how you want city hall to operate when I brought the motion to give you a vote on the size of council. I brought motion after motion in budget that shrank proposed tax increases.
The questions and issues posed by the Voice are good ones, but over the next four years these and many others will come forward to council, and there is no substitute for experience in dealing with these important matters.
I urge you to take your right to vote seriously. Make your decision not on who has the most or the prettiest lawn signs, but rather on who has a proven track record of a fiscally responsible, knowledgeable, common sense approach to solving civic issues.
And if you do, I believe you will cast your vote for Doug Sulman.
- Do you support increasing funding for infrastructure given the fact several culverts and bridges – including the Third Street Bridge – have had emergency issues and closures recently?
No, we increased our infrastructure in the last budget. There will never be enough money to cover all our bridges as we have the most of any municipality in Ontario. Increasing taxes is not the answer, the answer is increasing economic growth and thereby growing our assessment base and hence increasing our financial resources and then carefully managing our spending on roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
- Would you support a tax freeze or rollback if it meant reduced staff and/or services?
I would if necessary but I believe that we can freeze tax increases by better managing our existing resources and not wasting funds on things like purchasing a railroad.
- Would you support shifting some services to the private sector if those services could be done more efficiently that way?
Yes.
- Do you believe we need a municipal ombudsman or ethics commissioner?
No, each councilor needs to be the citizen’s ombudsman; that’s how I’ve acted on Council. CK already has a council code of conduct and an independent Integrity Commissioner who deals with ethical question so an Ethics Commissioner would be redundant and hence an unnecessary expense.
- Do you support investigating a reduction in the number of council members?
Yes. In fact, I brought a motion to do exactly this in 2018 and if re-elected I’ll bring the motion again in 2019. I say let the citizens have their views known.
- Should the municipality try to land an Ontario Cannabis Store as soon as possible?
That option no longer exists as this month the new Provincial government announced that the Ontario Cannabis Store will be an on-line virtual store in 2018 and thereafter private enterprise will run cannabis stores, so the LCBO type cannabis model of the old government is gone.
- Should council be more proactive in terms of working with landowners with contaminated wells?
I have opposed the heavily subsidized wind turbines that hurt the environment and water quality since the day the Province passed the Green Energy Act, but it is the Province and the turbine companies not Chatham-Kent that needs to help those unfortunate well owners.
- Some critics say the municipal building department is an impediment to development in C-K. Do you agree?
It better not be! It is no doubt frustrating for some developers because that department is charged with enforcing the Ontario building code, however all departments must make customer service job #1.
- Do you believe Chatham needs a new twin-pad arena?
Yes. Now that’s the easy part. In early 2019 council will receive a report on the hard part: what size, what location, how to pay for it, what provincial and federal funds are available, what other arena or arenas have to close. For those tough decisions we need experienced, knowledgeable, councilors.
- Should the municipality cut back on its expenditures for overseas economic development efforts?
Yes unless the trips are more strategically targeted. In 2018 I caused staff to bring forth a report comparing the costs and results of these trips. The costs far outweighed the results. I was not very impressed.
- Should municipal councillors ever be forced to go the Freedom of Information route when seeking municipal information?
No. To be more specific: absolutely no! Councils major role is to ask questions and bring matters to light on behalf of the public.
- Should members of the public have more access to municipal information without having to resort to an FOI?
Yes, provided that the questions are focused and in the public interest and not mere “fishing expeditions”. There needs to be a balance between government transparency and the expense to the general taxpayer of paying staff to wade through piles of documents, but in the end, transparency must be our priority.
