Meet your Ward 1 Otonabee candidates
The Examiner polls candidates on key issues for riding, city
With only 35 days left until the municipal election, The Examiner is introducing a new Monday series to introduce candidates to the voters. Each Monday, we will feature candidates’ answers to two questions: What is the key issue facing your ward? What is the key issue facing the city?
We will be asking all candidates to respond via email, with a limit of 200 words per answer and publishing the answers verbatim.
Today we begin with the candidates for Ward 1 - Otonabee.
Here’s what Otonabee Ward candidates had to say.
Lesley Parnell
What is the key issue now facing your ward?
The key issues people are mentioning at the doors in the Otonabee Ward are typically related to their neighbourhood. They are: speed & volume of traffic through residential neighbourhoods, getting the turning lane finished on Lansdowne St West by Home Hardware (shovels in the ground 2019/2020), reducing traffic on Goodfellow, & improving our north/south transportation link. On the bigger picture, residents want us to keep fixing those roads/sidewalks. Jobs, affordable housing, the twin pads, and new OHL arena are often mentioned. All while keeping taxes down.
What is the key issue now facing the city?
The key bigger issues for the City of Peterborough (but rarely mentioned at the doors) are adding to our employment and residential lands plus completing our Official Plan. This Official Plan is on going, and yes has taken extra time because we have had an unprecedented amount of public consultation with our 4 day planning charrette and Official Plan Working Group with many community state holders. Evidence of our dedicated and accelerated investment in our infrastructure is everywhere, necessary and must continue. We also must address, one way or another, our growing transportation needs for all – vehicles, pedestrians, transit and cyclists while, of course, protecting our designated green spaces and your tax dollars.
Brock Grills
What is the key issue now facing your ward?
The largest issue facing my ward (as people have informed me through canvassing) is the
amount of cut-through traffic we are seeing everywhere in the south-end. People are looking to avoid using the busy Lansdowne St. and are using the south end as the pathway to do so. I believe that unless council acts immediately this traffic is only going to get worse with the opening of the casino. Alongside an increase in vehicular traffic people are also worried that the casino is going to cause a rise in transient traffic as well as a rise in the number of break ins. If elected, I would like to provide proper signage to the people of the south end as there are several area's that should be four way stops alongside radar speed signs to help alleviate the amount of speeding on our backstreets. As for the casino, we need a systematic strategy to address the fallout it's going to cause as related to gambling, addictions and the like.
What is the key issue now facing the city?
Reverse the sale of PDI - I’ve heard many people say that it is too late to reverse that sale of our public utilities and frankly this is not the case. Surprisingly, Premier Ford has put a hold on all Hydro One acquisitions of local utilities. This may give us the time we need as a new and morally responsible council to reverse the sale of PDI. So why is this sale a bad deal for Peterborough? The job guarantee for PDI employees transferring to hydro one is a measly 12-months and the rate freeze only guaranteed for the next 5 years with the following 5 years having rate increases tied to inflation. In my view after the 12-months is up Hydro One could replace these employees with those willing to accept lower salaries. As for the rate freeze, it is my belief that in the eleventh year (when rate hike guarantees end) that Hydro one as a private corporation will be seeking a return on it’s investment and we could see rate increases of up to 5% a year - an amount that will make the cost of hydro even more unaffordable for the average consumer. To those who say PDI won’t be profitable in the next 10 years, why then did council not look to alternative options such as amalgamating with Oshawa - an offer that was put on the table that would have kept our utilities public and helped shoulder costs over the next 10 years. It would seem that the reasons our current council voted in favour of the PDI sale to Hydro One is based on either mis-information or private interest for the members of council, both of which are terrible and undemocratic reasons to push this sale through.
Jason Wallwork
What is the key issue now facing your ward?
The issues in Otonabee Ward aren’t that different from the rest of the city except regarding the Parkway. We have a very mixed residential area that runs the gamut from low-income to highincome housing including student housing and a college and we also host much commercial development along the southside of Lansdowne and some industrial. Housing affordability is the key issue facing our ward. For both rental units and homeownership. As with most of the city, the costs are through the stratosphere and that’s because new housing starts aren’t keeping pace with the need. We all know that Peterborough is going to grow fast with the coming completion of the 407 and we need to be prepared by encouraging more builds, particularly in the rental market. Between July 2016 and June 2017, there were no rental apartment completions anywhere in the city. No wonder we have one of the worst vacancy rates in the province! The City needs to involve itself in the housing market, building low-cost houses and apartments and selling and renting them. With new revenues coming in from the Casino and the sale of PDI, we’ll be in a good position to do this.
What is the key issue now facing the city?
Similar to above, housing affordability is the major issue but I also have to say a lack of decent full-time jobs. I mention them both because these issues are intimately tied together. Half the people in Peterborough work part-time jobs and half of the after-tax incomes are below $30,000 a year. It’s no surprise then that we have a Core Housing Need for a bit more than half the citizens in our city. This means that half our citizens are scraping by on part-time jobs and paying more than 30% of their income on shelter costs. And this isn’t just a recent situation. In 2011, 3/4 of the workers in this city had full-time jobs, and now it’s less than half. As I mentioned above, we need new affordable housing (geared-to-income) and also we need more rent supplements so that those in the greatest need don’t lose the housing they already have. Homelessness pays the greatest price in that it costs almost double to put a person up in a shelter as it would if we just provided an apartment. This is poor financial planning on the part of the city and needs to be remedied.
Kim Zippel
What is the key issue now facing your ward?
The key issue facing Otonabee Ward One is City Hall's lack of respect for the concerns of the hard-working taxpayers who live in Peterborough's south end. Despite our numerous assets and proud history, we have become the overlooked, left-out ward. Over the past year, city council has made major planning decisions, such as the poorly located public works yard and casino development, that will negatively impact the tax burden and quality of life for Otonabee Ward residents.
But the concerns of Otonabee Ward residents were ignored during the planning process for those projects. Otonabee Ward deserves better: better planning, better protection and better representation. We need a councillor who will stand up for the interests of Otonabee Ward's residents and businesses.
What is the key issue now facing the city?
The key issue facing the City of Peterborough is that we are unprepared for the rapid growth that will accompany the extension of Hwy 407. While the city should continue to expand, we need to manage our growth in a way that maintains our services and infrastructure, reduces traffic congestion, protects the environment, and minimizes the financial burden on existing taxpayers.
The concerns that have been raised over the Lily Lake and Ashborough Village subdivisions are examples of the types of problems that can arise through rapid expansion. The City of Peterborough can avoid these pitfalls and grow strong, but only if we grow smart.
Ryan Waudby
What is the key issue now facing your ward?
The biggest issue that is currently facing Otonabee Ward is the lack of employment opportunities. The residents of Otonabee Ward have always been a very hard working people who have helped build our great city. It is important that we focus on new industries for Otonabee Ward. One of the fastest growing industries in Peterborough is aviation. Our airport is the key to paving the way in innovation and career creation. The people of Otonabee Ward want to have the ability to raise a family and watch their grandchildren grow up within our community. We need a strong focus on creating and improving our future of prosperity.
What is the key issue now facing the city?
The key issue that is facing Peterborough is the needle crisis. This is a public health and safety issue that has spiralled out of control. This is something that we need to resolve as soon as possible. I have spoken to a great deal of people in Otonabee ward that have been finding needles laying in or in close proximity to our parks and our schools. We need to make our parks and schools a safe place for our children and grandchildren to learn, play and grow.
Bob Hall
What is the key issue now facing your ward?
There are three issues that are equally important - jobs, housing and roads. The three issues are interconnected, with each one affecting the others.
Our City has to stop spinning its wheels on consultants and studies and get down to the real work to improve our community for its residents. By maintaining infrastructure and delivering services in a way that respects the taxpayer, we can create an environment where businesses want to create jobs and where it's attractive to build new homes across the entire affordability spectrum. The cost of housing is becoming unaffordable for too many individuals and families in our community. Roads are crumbling. Jobs are leaving our community. With the amount of property taxes we pay, our City needs to be doing a better job of taking action on these issues on behalf of the residents of Otonabee Ward.
What is the key issue now facing the city?
As a Police Services Board member, as a teacher and as a volunteer in our community, I share the frustration of residents on the general inaction of our City. Jobs, housing and roads repeatedly come up as priorities when I'm speaking with residents of Otonabee Ward and when I'm speaking with residents from neighbourhoods across our City. There's a feel that the City's not keeping up with the needs of our community. We pay high property taxes and we rightly expect properly maintained infrastructure and well delivered services. Our City Council needs to clearly set the priorities and take action. Our community wants a progressive, proactive approach to economic development.
Note: The remainder of this story is available online at www.peterboroughexaminer.com.
Next week: Ward 2 Monaghan