Candidates share Town Ward priorities
Here is what Town Ward candidates had to say about the two questions The Examiner is asking everyone seeking a seat on council: What is the key issue facing your ward, and what is the key issue facing the city?
Candidates emailed their responses, which are published here. Please note that both Jim Russell and Dean Pappas chose to answer both questions with a single response.
Kemi Akapo
1. What is the key issue facing your ward?
There are several issues facing Town Ward, most importantly, the urgent need for housing. Peterborough has a housing crisis and many people are unable to find a suitable and affordable place to live. The city needs all types of housing - apartment buildings, single family homes, complexes with mixed income housing. The city needs to explore other, creative solutions such as tiny homes or repurposing under-used lands for housing. What has been done with The Mount and Knox United are great examples of creative housing solutions and what can be achieved. These housing options need to be truly affordable or rent geared to income. The secondary suite bylaw has been approved and needs to be widely promoted to encourage landlords and other property owners to consider it as a viable option to help alleviate the housing shortage.
We also cannot ignore there is an opioid crisis affecting the city. The effects of it are more visible in the downtown core as most services are situated within the core. We need a strategy now to address the situation and there needs to be an exploration of services such as detox and rehabilitation centres, temporary overdose prevention sites
and further mental health supports.
I love and feel safe in our downtown but recognize there are people who do not. We need to work closely with the DBIA to continue promoting the downtown and to encourage people to come and visit it. We also need to address the concerns about safety.
2. What is the key issue facing the city?
There are several key issues facing the city, many of them intertwined and multifaceted. These issues range from the economy, jobs, infrastructure, housing, development, the environment, and transportation. We need to complete the Official
Plan that will help address these issues and become plan the city will use to move the city forward.
The city is also on the cusp of population growth. With the completion of Highway 407 coming soon and more people moving to Peterborough to retire or to have a better quality of life, the population of the city is increasing. We need to plan for this growth now.
We need a City Council that can work together to address all the issues facing the city, one that restores trust and confidence in the people. I want to be a part of that city council.
Jane Davidson
1. What is the key issue facing your ward?
The key issue facing Town Ward is the visible and invisible faces of poverty, with all the associated aspects: access to food, shelter, transit, community life, and safety.
We have a microcosm of stressed humans from both sides of the equation - homeless and poorly housed people panhandling for extra money, and citizens now afraid to visit the downtown area. This shift from a safe downtown to a stressed downtown has happened quickly and caught many by surprise.
I want to bring seniors into this narrative. Seniors cannot be an afterthought at the council table. Seniors, who at conservative estimates comprise 22 percent of our population, are an important and less visible group of citizens living under poverty stress in Town Ward. Our ward contains many apartment buildings with seniors paying nearly 50 percent of their fixed incomes just to hang on to a place to call home.
They are isolated in winter because they tell me they can't afford bus passes. When they can get out they are regular visitors to the food banks. And asking them to access information online is simply an insult - they can't afford internet, and some rely completely on radio and a few television stations to stay connected to local and national issues.
This is why I want to bring ward meetings to them, to their common rooms and community
centres, and to do it at least six times a year. Seniors want to participate in community life, and we cannot afford to lose the benefit of their wisdom and life experience.
I say 'us" because I am a senior myself. I rent a small apartment and can identify from the ground up the challenges faced by a vibrant but aging population.
2. What is the key issue facing the city?
The key issue facing the City overall is the remarkable absence of a strategic vision statement. We are perfectly situated to do this. We are already moving toward attracting new and clean technology-based companies to the City. Let's reach beyond that and declare ourselves The Energy Capital of Ontario.
We do not have to re-invent the wheel, but and we do have real threats to life-as-usual thanks to dramatic climate changes wrought by dependence on oil. Once we have our vision, we can begin to fill in the blanks with initiatives like a commitment to hydrogen buses for a new transit system following on the heels of Aberdeen Scotland. Hydrogen buses emit water vapour, not illness-causing diesel fumes and particulate!
We can model ourselves after cities in Denmark as we retrofit to energy self-sufficiency. Burlington, Vermont, with a population of 61,000 has actually given us a roadmap to follow because they have achieved 100 percent energy self-sufficiency. Victoria B.C. has a kitchen waste program that includes soiled paper products - the reduction of garage to landfill is estimated to be about one-third.
Each and every one of these initiatives require enterprises to sustain them - and that means jobs.
Coming back to the question - if we declare it and re-marshall our goals, this city will become something truly special and genuinely prosperous and healthy.
Jenny Lanciault
1. What is the key issue facing your ward?
We must start enforcing property standards. You have to dress for the job you want, so if we want a vibrant and prosperous downtown, we have to make sure it is dressed to receive company. Our buildings need to send the message that we have pride of ownership; downtown Peterborough is open for business. Boarded up buildings, covered in graffiti and left vacant for years should not be and are not acceptable….especially when there are so many great property and business owners working hard to create an attractive streetscape and a beautiful downtown.
We must forge ahead with the rebuild of the Brock Mission…..the services that centre provides are invaluable. Tearing the building down without an executable rebuild plan was short-sighted and poor planning.
Like so many other communities, we are in the midst of an opioid epidemic…its time to start having serious conversations
about the trickle-down effect this is having on our community…the impact on emergency services and the medical community, public health and safety, and the merits of a safe injection site. We need to start thinking about what we must do as a community….as a family…. to support our active addicts and the people that support them.
2. What is the key issue facing the city?
We must find a balance between social policies and the business interests of the city. The success of one is wholly dependant on the success of the other. We cannot be so partisan in our views and opinions that we are closed minded to innovative, fresh approaches to getting down to the business of running the city.
To be competitive in business you have to be forward thinking, an educated risk taker and have the best interests of the entire city at heart. Unwillingness to compromise stagnates any potential growth. Collaboration and flexibility are the keys to balance and prosperity.
Everyone deserves safe and affordable housing, support systems when facing challenging times, and a hand up when necessary. Our social policies should not get mired down in a funding debate .... if the business side of our house is running efficiently, then the funding will be there to ensure everyone gets the support they need.
Business is business and council votes should not be personal.
We need to focus on moving forward with agenda items and not dwelling on the past.
Jim Russell
What is the key issue facing our Ward? What is the key issue facing our City? They are one and the same.
Town Ward is the heart of the City. As our Ward thrives, so does our City as a whole. Central cores define the charism of a town or city, and ours needs to be inclusive, friendly to nature, a place to meet and deepen friendships, driving robust commerce.
Among the many issues we will face together in the next four years are the ravages of poverty, homelessness, job creation, preserving our green space, a growing opioid crisis, crumbling infrastructure, lack of transparency in government, an aging population, cost of rent, cost of buying a home, protecting our heritage buildings, support for arts and culture, , moving traffic, addressing the needs of those who walk and bike, revamping our current public transportation plan and recognizing our obligation to make manifest the hopes outlined in the most recent efforts on truth and reconciliation with our first nations people, to name just a few.
Singularly then, the most critical, the linchpin issue? The thoughtful creation of an Official Plan that inspires all citizens and embeds hope for our City’s future.
Not only is the outcome of the
plan essential, but the process by which it will be built matters equally.
People want to be included in how their city will look in the future and any process the city adopts must include deep engagement, and listening to citizens. It must viscerally feel like a co-creation to people. Their plan.
Process matters because it sets a tone about the style of relationship that will exist between City officials and citizens. It speaks to the quality of that relationship for the future. Authentic engagement of citizens matters.
The new Official Plan itself becomes our roadmap (no pun intended) for the investment in, and building of, our community for the future. If we get it right, and tether to it, we begin to address many of the issues I’ve described above. Modern urban design respects green space, intensifies central cores, values street animation, sees city design as a way to congregate and not isolate.
An inspired Official Plan - one with vision, one that puts people first, would fuel aspiration.
Surely the purview of political leaders? Now is the time to build a city that will be a model for others for the next 100 years, with Town Ward as the pulsing, beating heart.
Dean Pappas
With so many historic buildings and emerging neighbourhoods, the opportunities for revitalization across Peterborough are truly exciting. In recent years, Peterborough has completed many key planning exercises, such as The Municipal Cultural Plan, the Central Area Master Plan, The Little Lake Master Plan, the Urban Forestry Plan and the Housing Strategy Plan, just to name a few. The 2011 Transportation Master Plan update needs a complete review. All of these exercises need to be pulled together in a cohesive and holistic way. The completion of the Official Plan review (OP) is a top priority, as it will guide the growth of the city for many years to come. Intensification and smart growth are essential to any OP update. Dean believes that adaptive re-use can and must be a priority for us over the next decade. Establishing Heritage Districts and the Heritage Tax Credit program are just some examples of how Peterborough is already embracing progressive urban planning.
A truly successful city celebrates and supports its neighbourhoods. The way development can both impact and improve our existing areas must be carefully considered and planned for. As Councillor for Town
Ward, Dean is calling for the development of Neighbourhood Plans that will capture the unique identities, needs, and opportunities of different areas. The good people of Peterborough need and deserve a clear vision of how their City will grow, develop and at the same time celebrate and support the vibrancy of it existing culture and identity.