Riel expects there will be a race in Ashburnham Ward
Coun. Keith Riel filed his nomination papers on Thursday morning to run for a fourth term of council in Ashburnham Ward, and he said he expects a race.
So far only Riel and the other ward incumbent, Coun. Gary Baldwin, have announced they plan to run in Ashburnham.
But the nomination period only recently opened, ahead of the election on Oct. 24, and people have until Aug. 19 to file nomination papers at city hall.
That leaves three months for more candidates to come forward, which Riel is expecting. He’s never been acclaimed.
Riel said if re-elected, he wants to come up with solid plans to ease traffic congestion in East City amid an “explosion” of upcoming new housing development.
He’s thinking of the 707-home Ashborough Village subdivision planned for east of the Liftlock Golf Club, for example, plus at least four major apartment and condo complexes including the East City Condos on the southwest corner of Armour Road and Hunter Street East.
“If we don’t get that (traffic issue) solved — or some remedies for that — we’ll be in serious transportation trouble,” he said on Thursday.
Riel is the city finance chair, the social services chair, the housing co-chair and the chair of the board for Peterborough Housing Corporation, the city’s largest provider of social housing.
He said there’s an “absolute need” for Peterborough to start building as much rent-geared-to-income housing as possible — right away.
Attracting new jobs to Peterborough is also going to be key to the next term of office, in his view.
“I know it’s not going to save all the ills of the city, but when people have a good-paying job, a lot of the issues of the marginalized and low-income disappear,” Riel said.
“Whether you’re running federally, provincially or municipally, jobs should be No. 1.”
Meanwhile, Riel said the city needs to do more to communicate to taxpayers exactly where their money’s going.
People don’t necessarily know that decreased taxes mean cuts to services and job layoffs, he said, and he believes a city-issued document explaining the city budget in clear and concise language would help.
“I think there needs to be a Coles Notes version of where their tax dollars are being spent.”