The October 2022 municipal election is underway, with the official list of candidates being published on Aug. 22.
In Kincardine, there are three candidates running for deputy mayor:
Andrea Clarke
Andrea Clarke has lived in Kincardine for the last few years with her husband and three children. She runs the Law Offices of Andrea Clarke in Port Elgin and Kincardine.
Clarke says she is running in this election because she is a strong believer in public service and the importance of being active in the community. Prior to joining the local council, she spent a number of years as a councillor in the UK and felt equally as strong as she does now about the importance of inclusion and representation, whether that be ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age or religion.
If elected, Clarke plans to focus on a number of issues locally, such as the lack of affordable housing and record unemployment rates.
“We have to look at how to create or adapt housing locally,” she states. “There are a number of larger issues surrounding developments including ensuring that there is sufficient and adequate infrastructure to support and sustain large developments. It is worth looking in tandem at alternatives such as the creation of duplexes, tiny homes, potentially the parking of RVs in town or closer to town.”
Clarke hopes to work with the federal and provincial governments to tackle the record high unemployment rates through job retention schemes or wage subsidy programs. She also hopes to join the government in bringing the high cost of living and the high cost of raising a family back down with strong anti-trust legislation to prevent pricing exploitation, capping of energy prices and progressive tax reforms. Clarke believes the municipality supporting private in-home childcare providers is one way to address the current need and lack of supply, and further encourage individuals to obtain their early childhood educator certification.
“As a mother of three young children, the issues concerning childcare for working parents along with the costs of childcare is something familiar and I understand and acknowledge the challenges faced by families,” she explains.
Clarke is on the physician recruitment and retention committee.
“I believe that there is a need in putting sufficient resources behind the recruitment of physicians along with nurses and nurse practitioners, which assist in relieving some of the burden currently being experienced,” she explained. “There will need to be a continued long-term plan, not only in the recruitment of healthcare professionals but also in the retention, to ensure that in years to come, we do not find ourselves facing the same shortages.”
Clarke also believes there has been an increased need for mental health and addiction issues and hopes to increase federal funding to ensure our community is adequately sourced to support the needs of their community, both with the adequately trained staff and necessary resources.
Finally, Clarke wants to take a unified approach to ensure that nursing home providers are properly regulated and that there are a sufficient number of government run nursing homes operating in municipalities to offer choice, care and affordability.
Gerry Glover
Also running for deputy mayor is the current mayor, Gerry Glover.
Glover is also a Bruce County councillor and resides locally with his two children and wife. He has completed the Executive Municipal Leadership program and Ivey School of Business and is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario. He is currently enrolled in the Administrator Leadership program and has completed Board Governance Training and Executive Management certificate programs. He was elected as Ward 1 councillor in 2018 and mayor in 2021.
“I have the demonstrated competence and leadership experience to effectively lead the municipality, am able to professionally engage with constituents and stakeholders, and will contribute knowledge exchange while providing continuity to Council,” he said.
“The role of mayor is understood to be more neutral – an enabler to achieve common ground, to encourage consensus building and collaborative decision-making,” he explained. “I seek the portfolio of deputy mayor to effectively contribute a voice representing the entire municipality, to continue building on the work leading to the advancement of the corporation, and to provide knowledge exchange.”
Glover seeks to improve the council onboarding and orientation by providing training sessions that provide an overview of what council is able or unable to do. He plans to increase community engagement by ensuring all platforms and mediums are exhausted to ensure they are maintaining transparent communication and creating remedial awareness. Glover also aims to improve staff relations. When he joined council, he was appointed to the staff-council negotiating committee, where they undertook a first-ever organizational review and advanced a third-party market rate strategy. This resulted in staff and Council committing to wage parity and benefits equity, in that all staff are recognized in an equitable and consistent manner.
Glover hopes to prioritize affordable housing by advancing the Community Improvement Plan (CIP).
“To support diversified entry into the housing market, we need to support the advancement of an attainable housing strategy, which will assist to provide opportunities for home ownership, and will increase rental unit vacancies,” said Glover.
Glover is excited to continue to work on the Waterfront Master Plan and the Lifeguard Program (Open Water), which he believes will help lessen the tragedies that occur on our lake.
Glover is focused as well on traffic safety, advocating for traffic calming and safety enhancement measures along Highway 21 at the intersections of Kincardine Ave., Russell St., Sutton Park and Bruce Road 20. He also hopes to resolve the issue of speeding through the community of Tiverton and reduce the speed limit through Kincardine proper from Kincardine Ave. to the Kincardine-Tiverton Township Public School.
“I continue to hear from those within and external to the community that there is poor planning and co-ordination to community events and that, while we market our municipality as a tourism destination, there is really nothing locally that distinguishes us as a destination of choice,” concluded Glover. “It has been offered that while we have amazing events throughout the year, when multiple events of competing interest are co-planned to occur over the same weekend, with other weekends having nothing planned, that perhaps a better coordinated response would position us as a destination of choice. I have also heard multiple times that tourism doesn’t exist locally aside from cottagers or those merely passing by and that we need to create the ambiance and attractions to market us as a destination, otherwise we will become irrelevant in this space.”
Uli Hack
Uli Hack is running for deputy mayor in Kincardine.
Born in Germany to a farming family that converted to organic/biodynamic farming in 1967, Hack graduated high school as the top student in the natural science subjects of math, physics, chemistry and biology. For five months he worked in a long-term care home before he moved with his family to Kincardine, where he chose to follow in his father’s footsteps with organic/biodynamic farming in partnership with his brother Martin. In 1994 he married his wife, Martha, and together they have three grown children. Hack has volunteered with the organic/biodynamic movement serving 30 years on the board, many of those as Chair.
“Kincardine was always a great diverse community that was great in caring for each other and I hope that it will continue to be that in future,” he said. “With the pandemic, a bit of a split happened, fuelled by fear and our Prime Minister, which made it okay to withdraw services from those who did not vaccinate. Elderly people often need these services, and there are ways to provide them without putting others at risk.”
“A lot of the local issues have become more serious due to the pandemic and its mandates,”
Hack continued. “Therefore, it makes more sense to rather work with recommendations than with mandates, unless there is clear, undisputable science to back up the mandates.”
Hack is also planning to work with the police force and the OSPCA to give vets more control in the decision-making process of animal removal. This issue sparked his interest after a raid of a farm in which the police and the OSPCA sent away a vet and took away some animals, charging the family to allow some to stay, despite the vet’s opinion favouring the animals to stay.
Hack believes it is important for the farming community to be represented on council as they are used to coming up with creative solutions.
“Like everyone else, the municipality faces the higher cost of energy, which also affects the cost of parts and replacement of equipment,” he commented. “The dying Ash trees will be a big expense to deal with, and the downtown project will also be a big one.”
Hack wants to continue to attract doctors to the area and work on child care regulations.
“Child care got a lot more regulations a number of years ago, limiting the number of children per caregiver,” explained Hack. “So a lot of caregivers quit, which helped drive up the cost.”
Finally, Hack would like to work with the building department to better serve those living in the community.
“A few years ago, the Kincardine building department only scored a two whereas Port Elgin had scored an eight out of ten,” he recalled. “The building department should be reminded that their job is to apply the building code in such a way that it best serves the local needs. Also, local needs should be considered before mandating to tear down older existing houses, in order to keep more affordable houses available.”
“I want to continue to find creative solutions, so all people can feel safe and all people can be served in this wonderful community,” Hack concluded.
In Huron-Kinloss, two candidates are running for deputy mayor.
Perry Elliott
Perry Elliott is a farmer, born and raised in Huron Township. He has five children and 13 grandchildren.
Elliott is running for deputy mayor in the municipal election this fall. He wants to ensure that council has the final say on issues brought to them by the people who vote for them to represent them, rather than township employees.
He also plans to fight for snow removal for the tax-paying residents of Inverlyn Lake, and ensure that municipal vehicles – owned and fueled by the municipality – are only used for work purposes and not for personal use.
“There are a lot of issues on both the provincial and federal level that need to be addressed, but I feel I can work with and for the people at the municipal level of government,” he concluded.
James Hanna
James Hanna has lived in the Huron-Kinloss community most of his life, growing up on his family farm on Statter’s Lake Rd., formerly Kinloss Township. He went to Western University, where he studied engineering and has practiced in steel production and the energy sectors for over 40 years. He has a wife and one daughter, and has served as a councillor since 1999.
“I want to continue to support our community by ensuring our township remains debt free, and continue to provide the services we all rely upon, in a financially sustainable manner,” he said. “I have always maintained that council should conduct themselves in a manner to set up the next council for success, because any other behaviour is simply pushing the burden to a future council.”
Hanna feels the issues the municipality is currently facing include a lack of waste management capacity and aging infrastructure – particularly bridges.
“We need to continue to petition the provincial government for changes to the current legislation to divert combustible and degradable material from the landfill,” he proposed. “We also need to continue to pursue aggressive maintenance strategies to restore existing bridges to maximize service life, as the cost of replacement is high.”
Hanna will continue to petition the provincial government for changes to the Landlord Tenant Act, which would allow landlords the ability to invest in available housing and make it available to the public. Along with council, he is also a large supporter of “Women in Carpentry” and wants to continue to support similar initiatives which bring more capacity to the labour market.
Along with council, Hanna supports doctor-recruitment in Grey-Bruce, who have been successful in bringing four doctors to the area; two of which have set up local offices in the Lucknow Medical Centre. He also wants to continue to support recreation, particularly for youth and seniors, in an attempt to abate mental health effects and reduce the likelihood of engaging in substance abuse leading to addiction.
“Our Council needs to continue to manage budgets effectively, to ensure we are getting maximum value for every dollar we spend,” he explained. “There is only one taxpayer, regardless if the program is federal, provincial, county or township. We need to work co-operatively to ensure that necessary programs are funded adequately, and that maximum value is attained.”
In addition to budget management, as deputy mayor, Hanna will continue to provide activity programs (eg. Summer Camp) for families to engage in recreation and skills development at a low cost.
“Huron-Kinloss Council was originally framed as an ‘at large’ council with no wards, for which we should all be grateful. An ‘at large’ council results in decisions being made based on the benefit to the entire township, rather than favouring one ward or another,” Hanna explained. “We have seen neighbouring townships squabble over issues that often originate as a perceived benefit to a particular ward. Huron-Kinloss Council has worked co-operatively and has demonstrated the ‘one for all’ approach results
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