BIOGRAPHY
Hello, my name is Jamie Pynn and I have called North Perth my home for the past 16 years. My wife and I moved here to raise our children in a small, rural town away from the big cities we came from.
Now that they are moved out and starting to raise their own families, I find myself with more time and have decided to run for our local council.
I grew up in Cambridge and started working at the age of 14 at the local Canadian Tire. At the age of 18 I found myself working for Uniroyal/Goodrich Tire Manufacturer in Kitchener. My father ended up retiring from there.
Eleven years later with the factory closing I followed my true passion, custom woodworking. The small woodworking shop I worked in closed its doors and after five years I found a new direction.
I began my new carpentry and construction career working in Perth Meadows in Listowel. For the next six years I built five houses in Listowel for my family, and for the next five years I did countless contract work and built houses for clients in the Wiarton and Owen Sound area.
Now as my body is getting older I find myself working for local builders doing their painting.
My manufacturing and construction experience would be an asset in our council. I am hoping voters will agree with me.
ISSUES
I believe fiscal responsibility is the most important issue in this upcoming election. How our local government spends tax payers’ money is crucial to the long-term vitality in our community.
We are a hockey town and have a great arena. But that has come at a cost. The old arena used to cost around $400,000 a year in tax burden to maintain.
That cost has skyrocketed since inception of the new arena to $1.2 million a year of tax burden. On paper that does not look good, but I believe there is a solution.
If the small town of Lucknow can attract a music festival, then I believe we can do the same here.
The arena sits vacant too often and needs to be promoted to bring in more revenue. Hiring or subcontracting a promoter will not only pay for itself but help our town pay for our love for hockey.
We have been content paying tax dollars for hockey all these years so I can see the extra revenue brought in through the arena going to an indoor pool. A pool that can be added onto the arena to utilize the land and existing parking.
Make the Steve Kerr arena a true complex like it was always meant to be.
There has been some decisions that have been made in the past couple years regarding how tax payers assets are used.
I have not agreed with these decisions. Let me explain.
Perth Meadows is supposed to be a self-sufficient building and all debt paid for by the residents through their monthly condo fees.
Unfortunately, that has not happened. A couple years back council OK’d the sale of land to pay for some of the debt at Perth Meadows so the condo fees did not get too high.
That did not work. The current max condo fees at Perth Meadows is $710 a month. In Stratford the max condo fees are $395.
That is a massive difference. The residents at Perth Meadows end up being the biggest losers and paying this debt from mismanagement for decades. We as taxpayers gave up an asset, but the residents end up paying much much more.
