Platform
My vision for our community starts here.
Communication & Transparency
"Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to effect other people." - Jim Rohn Without good communication it is impossible for our community and its leadership to understand information correctly and quickly. It will be one of my first objectives upon election, to help foster good, clear communication to: Council, staff, and community, and every connection in between. I feel one of the biggest issues plaguing society is misinformation. If we are NOT communicating well we open up the opportunity for misunderstandings, which eventually leads to frustration, anger, and mistrust. If we as leaders of our community expect to gain the trust of those that we represent we need to be 100% transparent about our operations and our goals. Transparency helps ensure accountability, and accountability allows things to be measured. I truly believe - "What gets measured, gets done" - Peter Drucker. Regardless of how much distraction municipal reform may cause, better communication and transparency can be achieved overall, in short order, which is necessary to set us up for success long term. UPDATED: Within the first year, I would like to see our Town website get revamped and become easier to navigate with a section dedicated to help inform and engage community members. And also use social media and other standard media to supplement the website to help reach a broader audience.
Financial Responsibility & Planning
According to a GOOGLE search, fiscal responsibility in government is defined as: the ability to balance between government spending and tax. Municipal reform is going to challenge Mayor, Council, and staff to budget wisely while at the same time providing a level of service that is acceptable and appropriate. The community needs engagement and involvement in deciding what's most important to them so that leadership can work to come to a consensus of what our goals should be and how we can achieve it financially. We will be faced with tough decisions, which will require compromise for everyone, fiscal transparency, and the ability to communicate the good, the bad, and the ugly to our community. We will be required to make initial decisions without having appropriate time for consultation, therefore, we need expertise in financial budgeting and planning at all levels of leadership. UPDATED: The 2023 budget will largely be determined by the province and we will need to work in reverse to manage the budget. Moving forward, we need to get out of the pattern of setting our tax rates first and figuring out what we can do within the money we have. We need to move toward having a better assett management plan and strategic plans for departments in place so we know what we have to fix and when. It allows us to make better decisions on how to manage tax rates, borrowing, and funding opportunities.
Infrastructure Improvements & Planning
"Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago." - Warren Buffett Planning is critical for every department and at every level and it begins with setting goals. A plan will help all stakeholders, both Council and staff, see in advance what the steps will be for achieving the goals we set for ourselves and to make us accountable for seeing them through. It's important that we set achievable goals and ensure that we are being efficient with time and resources. Proper planning should foster motivation and a sense of commitment for completing tasks, reporting milestones, and finishing projects. Planning requires a careful balance so that we can provide a path without stifling creativity and innovation. As well, planning needs to always allow for flexibility as life is constantly throwing curveballs and sometimes priorities change. When plans change or fall behind, it will be important to communicate that well to Council and community. Municipal infrastructure covers a wide range of assets such as: storm water, potable water, and wastewater systems; roads; parks and recreation; police station, fire station, town hall and more. Our infrastructure is necessary and expensive to maintain and replace. Ensuring existing assets are properly maintained and planning for their replacement, for when an asset is scheduled to reach its end of life, is critical so that we can ensure we are budgeting for today's needs and saving for tomorrows needs. UPDATED: Simply put, we need to get a handle on the condition of our infrastructure and put 5-year and 10-year improvement plans in place so we can better understand our maintenance/replacement costs today and in the future.
Economic Development
Strong economic development helps improve communities by creating and maintaining jobs and improving quality of life for all. It’s important for local governments to strive towards developing a vibrant and sustainable community by encouraging businesses to relocate to our area and offering both existing and new businesses incentives to grow and adapt. We hear the word sustainable used all the time, but don’t mistake my use of that word to mean the status quo – it is everything but. To be sustainable long term, we must be willing to adapt and grow with the environment around us and accept that change is not only necessary but inevitable. We need to help encourage and nurture innovation and actively provide a forum for our business community to share their ideas and challenges so we can work with them to ensure our incentives are in line with their needs. We need to be partners at the local level with our business community and non-profit community to help support and develop their ideas and programs and ensure they are of benefit for everyone. Economic development and tourism work hand-in hand. Both visions need to be in line with each other to maximum the impact in our communities. Both economic development and tourism will largely be managed at the regional level moving forward. We will need to learn to adapt to that model and to take advantage of the benefits it can provide.
A Healthy & Safe Community
"We can never get a re-creation of community and heal our society without giving our citizens a sense of belonging." – Patch Adams To have a healthy and safe community, I believe we need more community engagement, the desire to innovate within our community, and collaborative leadership. We need to work together to understand the issues affecting community members and to ensure the changes we are making are what we need today. Given our newly expanded town, this is required more than ever. Community engagement recognizes that for large-scale change to occur, we need many people collectively involved, believing in the changes, and wanting to play a role. If we want good community engagement, people need to be provided good information, opportunities to be consulted about changes, and be given a chance to be involved in the process. Sustainable, lasting change requires more than just the established leaders working on issues. We need to find ways to engage with our youth, seniors, and everyone in between. We need to actively include key stakeholders in our business and non-profit community when making decisions so that the choices we make are sensible and achievable. For our community to continue to grow, innovation is required and the desire to improve the way we do things today. We need to understand that we can’t expect a different result by continuing to invest money in the current way we do things. We need to always want to innovate and come up with new ideas and look for ways to improve how we deliver services and what services we offer. Collaborative leadership is a method of leadership that I believe is required today to push those involved in establishing policy and implementing changes to actively work together and not in silos. It aims to avoid having a few people at the top making the decisions and not providing reasons as to how or why decisions were made. It requires transparency and openness, which is necessary to build trust with our community. Collaborative leaders do their homework, never stop learning, lead by example, and ensure every member of the team understands their collective goals and are accountable for the results. A healthy community is one that is active, growing, inclusive, and working together to provide expanded recreational opportunities and active transportation (walking, biking, skateboarding, etc.) in all areas of our town. A healthy community takes pride in what we have and works together to beautify it and show it off to the many visitors we have that come into our community to work, visit, shop, eat, and play. A healthy community is also actively working together and with other levels of government to help solve problems such as lack of housing, poverty, climate change, food insecurity, healthcare, etc. A safe community requires everyone to get educated on the current challenges people are facing and to find ways to work together to help mitigate issues. We need to engage with people and organizations that have “lived” experience in dealing with issues, such as poverty and drug use that can lead to trafficking and crime. We need their critical insight on what is needed to affect change. I consider our community fortunate to have our own police force to service our area. I am proud of how transparent they are with their strategic plans for our community each year and that they are willing to collaborate with community and Council to set their goals and priorities. We need to support our police force by continuing to fund initiatives they bring to Council that will help them focus on crime, drug trafficking, drug prevention and awareness, and public safety. New Mayor and Council will have the opportunity to explore expanding police jurisdiction to include the full boundaries of our new community. Consultation at all levels is crucial to ensure the right decision is made in the best interest of the larger community. A safe community is also actively reviewing community streets each year to ensure signage, crosswalks, and lights are relevant, appropriate, visible and sufficient.