Embedded Files
Working for a Stronger Downtown Elmira
Working for a Stronger Downtown Elmira
When I ran in 2022, one of my central commitments was to move Elmira’s downtown revitalization plans toward action. I wanted a downtown that was welcoming, supported local businesses, created places for people to spend time together and reflected the character of Elmira. During this term, I took on a direct leadership role in that work as Chair of the Downtown Elmira BIA. Working with the BIA board, local businesses and Township staff, I have helped strengthen the organization’s capacity for marketing, beautification, business support and downtown events.
Arthur Street reconstruction became one of the most significant pieces of that downtown work. Throughout the planning process, I attended every Arthur Street Reconstruction Project Team meeting. I worked through the evolving design with Regional and Township staff, and raised concerns about parking, traffic, business access, cycling infrastructure, streetscape improvements and the physical constraints of the downtown corridor throughout the process. A motion opposing elements of the proposed design was brought forward, which I seconded. Mayor Sandy Shantz subsequently carried that position to the Region. I supported that effort while also making clear at Council that advocacy on a project of this scale requires sustained involvement throughout the planning process. I had been at the project table from the beginning and had been raising these concerns as the design developed.
As BIA Chair and Ward 1 councillor, I also helped carry downtown businesses’ concerns directly to the Region. The final design for the current phase preserves the existing on-street parking and does not include the proposed on-street cycling lanes through the constrained downtown section. That outcome was shared among residents, businesses, Council and Regional decision-makers. My downtown work has also included supporting beautification, mural and greening initiatives, strengthening the BIA’s ability to promote and support the core, and helping develop events and activities intended to bring people downtown and support businesses through and beyond the disruption of Arthur Street construction.
The larger downtown vision I described in 2022 is not finished. But we have moved beyond simply having a study on the shelf. My role has been to help build the organizational capacity, make targeted investments, work through the major Arthur Street project and keep pushing toward a downtown that works better for businesses, residents and the community as a whole.
Keeping Pressure on the Cleanup of Elmira's Aquifer
Keeping Pressure on the Cleanup of Elmira's Aquifer
Environmental accountability was one of the commitments I made when I first ran for Council. During this term, a significant part of that work has been rebuilding how Woolwich oversees and communicates about the cleanup of Elmira's contaminated aquifer and the Canagagigue Creek watershed.
As Chair of the Technical Remediation Advisory Committee, I led the restructuring of what had become two separate committees back into a single committee. The objective was to create a more effective model that would reduce duplication, improve communication, make better use of limited resources, bring technical expertise and community perspectives into the same conversation, and give residents a clearer forum for understanding and questioning the remediation work. That restructuring required working through governance, membership, roles, technical support, public participation and how information moves between the companies responsible for remediation, government regulators, independent experts, the Township and the community. The result is a more streamlined structure designed to strengthen both technical scrutiny and public accountability.
I've also worked to make the committee more rigorous in how it evaluates remediation progress. I have pressed for clearer evidence of what is actually being removed from the groundwater system, including better contaminant mass-balance information rather than relying primarily on changes in measured concentrations. I have continued to question assumptions, seek independent technical advice and push for clearer explanations of whether remediation efforts are producing meaningful results.
This is a complex environmental file with decades of history, competing technical interpretations and significant consequences for Elmira. My role has been to learn the file, strengthen the structure overseeing that work, improve the flow of information between technical experts and the community, and ensure difficult questions continue to be asked.
Elmira has lived with this contamination for decades. Residents deserve an oversight process capable of understanding the evidence, challenging it when necessary and maintaining pressure for meaningful remediation.
Making Every Dollar Defensible
Making Every Dollar Defensible
Municipal government is operating in a very different cost environment than it was only a few years ago. Construction costs have risen sharply, and the price of fire equipment, heavy equipment and other specialized municipal equipment has more than doubled in some instances. Roads, bridges, water systems and other infrastructure have also become substantially more expensive to build and replace.
Those pressures are real, but they cannot become an excuse for simply passing higher costs on to taxpayers. They make scrutiny more important. When something costs twice as much as it once did, Council needs to be asking harder questions about what is necessary, what can wait, whether there is another way to deliver it and whether we are getting full value from every dollar we spend.
My approach to municipal finances has never been that every new expense is bad or that every cut is good. The real test is whether a decision leaves taxpayers better off over the long term.
I have supported difficult budgets and necessary investments while also challenging individual expenditures, debt, staffing requests and projects where I was not convinced the public value justified the cost.
In my first budget, I pushed to defer the proposed $2.75-million debt-financed Peel Street bridge replacement so Council could get better information and investigate outside funding before assuming the debt. In later budgets, I supported removing a proposed by-law management position and approximately $44,000 in spending, moved a successful reduction to Council's own training budget, and moved to remove a maintenance-paving project when I did not believe it should remain a priority that year.
But fiscal responsibility also means recognizing when not investing can cost taxpayers more. That is particularly true of financial management. Adding capacity in the finance department appears as an expense on a budget line, but inadequate capacity can cost considerably more through missed revenues, incomplete cost recovery, weak financial tracking or fees paid to outside financial institutions for work that can be handled more efficiently internally. I supported strengthening our financial capacity for exactly that reason. In 2025, I moved the creation of a two-year Development Financial Analyst position to improve the Township's ability to track growth, infrastructure costs and development-related revenues. The position had a cost, but its purpose was to improve our control over much larger amounts of public money.
We have seen the consequences when that capacity is not there. Work during this term identified weaknesses in financial tracking and cost recovery, including water and wastewater systems where the Township needed better information about what services were actually costing and whether those costs were being fully recovered. I also supported investigation into wastewater entering the system where it should not, because reducing avoidable costs is every bit as important as debating the tax rate used to pay them.
The same principle applies to the Township's cash and investments. If we are missing investment income or paying banks and outside institutions to manage relatively straightforward investments because we do not have sufficient internal capacity, keeping the finance department artificially lean does not save taxpayers money.
I have also supported paying down internal borrowing and redirecting those annual repayments into infrastructure reserves rather than allowing the money to disappear into general operations. And when I believed our infrastructure reserves were not keeping pace with the liabilities we were creating, I was prepared to argue for putting more money aside rather than presenting a lower bill today and leaving a larger problem for tomorrow.
The questions I keep coming back to are straightforward:
Who benefits? Who pays? What are the alternatives? What does it cost over its full life? What happens if we wait? Is the public receiving fair value?
Sometimes the answer is to spend less. Sometimes it is to defer a project. Sometimes it is to invest more now because failing to do so will cost taxpayers more later.
Fiscal responsibility is not spending the least. It is wasting the least.
Peel Street Bridge | January 2023
During my first budget process on Council, Woolwich was considering fully borrowing the approximately $2.75 million cost of rehabilitating the Peel Street bridge. I questioned whether the project needed to proceed immediately and argued that Council should defer it rather than simply accept another significant debenture.
“I have a concern with the Peel Street bridge... this year I think that we should defer.”
Municipal infrastructure has to be maintained, but timing and financing matter. Residents ultimately pay for borrowing through future budgets. My approach has been to ask whether a project is necessary now, whether outside funding is available, and whether taking on debt today limits our ability to address more pressing priorities tomorrow.
Financial accountability means being willing to say not yet, even when saying yes would be easier.
Breslau Servicing Costs | November 2025
When Council was asked to use Township reserves to absorb servicing costs owed by individual property owners in Breslau, I raised a basic point that can get lost in municipal budgeting: taking money from a reserve does not make a cost disappear.
“It doesn’t just go away. Someone has to pay for that.”
Reserve funds exist because taxpayers have already contributed that money. Using them for one purpose means the money is no longer available for roads, facilities, infrastructure or other priorities. Difficult circumstances deserve serious consideration, but Council also has an obligation to consider fairness to every taxpayer who would ultimately bear the cost.
Responsible government requires us to be honest about who pays. Moving a cost somewhere else in the budget does not eliminate it.
Automated Speed Enforcement | October 2024
When the Region of Waterloo presented plans to significantly expand automated speed cameras, Council was told that revenues beyond program costs would be placed in a regional road-safety reserve. I supported the safety objective, but questioned what would happen to money collected from residents and drivers here in Woolwich.
“How can we ensure that funds extracted in Woolwich come back to Woolwich?”
That principle extends well beyond speed cameras. Woolwich residents contribute substantial money to regional and municipal government. When revenues are generated in our community, I believe we should be asking what value comes back and pressing other levels of government to make sure rural municipalities receive a fair share.
Being an effective councillor means looking beyond whether a program sounds worthwhile and asking where the money goes, who benefits and whether Elmira and Woolwich are getting fair value.
Building a Stronger and More Inclusive Community
Building a Stronger and More Inclusive Community
Community building was at the centre of my first campaign. I believed then, and still do, that a strong municipality is more than roads, budgets and infrastructure. It is also about whether people feel welcome, whether residents can participate in civic life and whether local government is connected to the community it serves. Much of this work doesn't require an increase in taxes, just thoughtful effort.
During this term, I co-chaired Woolwich's Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging working group, helping bring residents, community perspectives and municipal leadership together around how the Township could become more welcoming, inclusive and accessible. That work required listening to experiences that municipal government has not always heard clearly, examining how our own practices affect people and creating a forum where those issues could be discussed directly.
I have also made a point of being present throughout the community. I have participated in Pride events, the Hope Multicultural Festival, community mural unveilings, Moonlight Madness, the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival and many other local events. I have represented the Township with visiting dignitaries, community organizations, volunteers, businesses and residents, and worked to maintain relationships across the many groups that contribute to life in Elmira and Woolwich.
I don't consider simply appearing at an event an accomplishment. The work is in the relationships that come from being there. A councillor who is regularly present hears concerns before they become formal complaints, understands how decisions are affecting different parts of the community and becomes someone residents and organizations know they can approach.
That has been an important part of how I have approached the role. I have tried to make municipal government more accessible, to represent Elmira well when the Township is called upon to do so, and to build connections between Council and the people, businesses, volunteers and organizations doing the everyday work of building our community.
For me, community building means creating room for people to participate, listening to people whose experiences may be different from our own and making sure municipal government remains connected to the community outside Council chambers.
Responsive Constituent Service
Responsive Constituent Service
Some of the most important work of a councillor never appears in a Council agenda or makes a headline. It begins when a resident calls, emails or stops me with a problem and needs someone to help figure out what can actually be done about it. Residents have contacted me about traffic, sidewalks, transit, parking, snow clearing, development, neighbourhood safety, municipal services and countless individual issues. My approach has been consistent: respond, investigate, identify who has the authority to act, bring the concern to the right people and stay with it until there is an answer. That often requires considerably more than forwarding an email.
Municipal issues frequently cross Township and Regional responsibilities, involve several departments or require a resident's concern to be translated into the technical or policy language needed to get it considered. Experience has made me much better at knowing where an issue belongs, who needs to be involved and when a response needs to be challenged or taken further.Not every concern produces the answer someone wants, and a councillor cannot personally solve every problem. But residents should never have to wonder whether their councillor read their message, understood the issue or was willing to pursue it.
For me, responsiveness means more than being available. It means turning a resident's concern into action inside government. That is one of the clearest ways experience has changed how I serve Elmira. I know the people, the departments, the jurisdictions and the processes well enough to move an issue from a conversation with a resident to the place where something can actually be decided.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse