I have had the honour to represent ratepayers as a Brockton councillor since January 2020 when I was appointed in a municipal byelection. Brockton is my home, one that I am proud to share in with my wife, Jessica, and our two beautiful children. Having been born and raised on a farm in the Cargill area, I spent many days of my youth learning first-hand the hard work behind our agricultural sector. I recognized that the labours of farming were not a perfect fit for me which led to pursuing post-secondary education and, upon completion, returning back to Brockton to embark on what became over a decade in the public service with the Province of Ontario. Today, my career is dedicated to advocating on behalf of front-line workers as a labour relations professional. I have a strong passion for serving the public and volunteering within our community, most recently joining the executive for the Walkerton Capitals Jr. C. hockey club. In my role as Vice-Chair of the Brockton Police Services Board, I have been passionate to ensure we receive strong, attentive policing services that are responsive and engaged on our streets. Additionally, I am the committee Chair for the Brockton Child Care Committee, and Brockton representative for the Walkerton/Hanover Landfill. My youthful insight and perspective as a young family will be a valued addition to our council as we work to promote and retain residents within our community.
BIGGEST ISSUE
I believe that as a council we need to continue to invest and renew our municipal infrastructure through capital projects to ensure our roadways, bridges, water, sanitary and storm sewers, facilities, and machinery remain viable. These are assets at the core of our service delivery to ratepayers. Brockton council has made ongoing commitments for spending toward these initiatives or reserves of approximately $2.63 million each year. Despite this, our Asset Management Plan for 2021 outlined an annual funding gap of $9.2 million to continue to meet our ongoing renewal and maintenance needs. It is anticipated that over the next four years that Brockton will need to dedicate $7-8 million to known bridge and culvert rehabilitation or replacement, excluding other road-related repair or annual maintenance. This is significant and must be a major priority for any council on balancing the available funding streams to the importance of projects for completion within a dedicated budget year. I support ongoing, modest transfers to reserve funding to allow for more stable, managed growth – and to avoid excessive levy increases to meet immediate capital demands. As a municipality, we are not immune from inflationary pressures and labour shortages that have seen a drastic increase in costs, thus we must be attentive to appropriate and meaningful spending that provides the right solution at the right time for our users. We must continue to revisit our municipal procurement policy to best ensure the methods and structure of engagement with contractors is effective to receiving competitive pricing. We need to explore new and creative methods to allow for more cost-effective solutions; for example, timber bridges or larger arched-culverts.
We have enjoyed considerable growth in new residential development. This has accelerated the requirement for services at a quicker pace. We must measure our current levels of supply and identify proposed level of service for water and sewer, and work roundtable with developers and proponents to make infrastructure investments in a timely way that avoid limiting our growth potential. This collaboration helps us minimize any development fees, and ensure associated costs are fair and affordable for all parties. Ongoing and responsible management of our capital assets will ensure that we can support local businesses and commerce throughout our municipality. It further will ensure that our user services are best aligned with the needs of citizens – not only for today – but for future generations to come!
