Brant County Election Survey Questions

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Annexation:

1) On November 9, the Ontario Municipal Board will rule on whether it can rule on requests by Brantford to annex land in the ‘greenbelt’ (standstill/no build zone) that was created by provincial legislation in 1980. Brantford is interested in annexing land in the ‘greenbelt’ at Hwy 403 and Garden Ave. The original intent of this ‘greenbelt’ or standstill/ no build zone was to protect the land for “permanent agriculture and related rural issues”.

As an elected official of our County, would you protect this land for ‘permanent agricultural and related rural uses’?

Yes, absolutely. The legislation was passed by the government and should be given the backing of the law until or unless it is repealed. If we casually disregard provincial legislation because it was made a few years ago and is not longer convenient, what will fall next? It’s bad enough when courts try to redefine the law, it would be even worse were a provincial body to act with similar disregard for legislation passed by due process.

Amalgamation:

As an elected official of our County, would you support the amalgamation of Brant County with the city of Brantford?

No. I’ve heard a great number of the residents in my Ward speak against it in very passionate terms, citing what happened to the residents of Flamboro when it was amalgamated into Hamilton. Their taxes went up as they were tapped to pay for improvements in Hamilton from which that they would never see the benefit. They’ve been hampered by regulations that make sense in an urban centre, but have no identifiable justification that makes sense in a rural environment. I have been informed of no reason why it would be seen as a good thing from the point of view of county ratepayers and as their representative, I’d be against it.

3a) The “Green Hub” is being promoted by the Chamber of Commerce and some politicians, but no one is really clear about what it means. As an elected official of our County, would you ensure more transparency and democratic input on the “Green Hub”?

Yes- it’s crucial that the residents and ratepayers of the County of Brant and the City of Brantford be securely ‘in the loop’ about whatever is planned for this much touted “green Hub”. I fail to understand how, before is it defined and the technology is specified, anyone can claim to support it. At this point, it looks like the option ‘behind door number two’. Elected representatives should, from their greater accessibility to information from industry, make all of the options known to the electorate. The voters are not children- they need and deserve to be full partners in this decision-making process that will affect all of us for decades to come.

b) I support moving Brant from a ‘waste disposal’ mentality to a ‘Zero Waste’ mentality. What is being treated as waste, in many instances, is actually still good material that can be reprocessed and made into marketable products. Reusing and recycling are not platitudes, but are the basis of a strong industry in Nova Scotia and in many places around the world.

Renewable energy production from solar, wind, and bio-mass sources can be genuinely called ‘green’. In Guelph, Hamilton, Mississauga, and Sarnia, solar energy production is creating community jobs and making a solid contribution to serving the energy needs of the residents of Ontario. Why not here?

4. The present Brant County Council voted to remove ‘waste to energy’ and gasification proposals from the Official Plan because of concerns from residents about toxic emissions, the destruction of valuable resources, and costs to municipalities. As an elected official of out County, would you work to ensure that our municipal waste is not gasified (incinerated) in Brant County or in any other community? (e.g. Six nations)

I was one of a number of residents who brought information forward in the concerted effort that helped Council decide to remove ‘energy from waste’ as a viable means of dealing with municipal waste in Brant. Burning municipal waste is incineration. It produces deadly gases, contributing to global warming and serious health problems. It produces toxic ash that has to be disposed of in a special ‘toxic’ landfill site, so it isn’t a solution to landfill. Once the toxins are air-borne, everyone is in danger and I would oppose it.

5 Some Brantford businesses are accepting and processing toxic waste from other communities (computer waste, used tires, and radioactive waste). As an elected official of our County, would you work to ensure that our County does not encourage or allow industries that would import toxic waste from other communities to be processed or disposed of in Brant County?

Recycling and re-processing of products is an important industry that I hope Brant will embrace. As a case in point, Xerox has been reusing and recycling their printer parts with great results: Equipment remanufacture and the reuse and recycling of parts prevent millions of pounds of waste from entering landfills each year – in Alberta, 106 million pounds (48,000 metric tons) in 2008 alone. Recycled tire products manufactured in Alberta include "loose crumb" for playgrounds, pour-in-place playground surfacing and moulded rubber products including patio "pavers", tiles, and roofing tiles. Nearly $7 million was reinvested in Alberta communities through Asphalt Rubber projects over the last 7 years.

I am opposed to dumping toxic waste or burning trash in Brant, but I support creating new industry based on recycling.

6. Our landfill is quickly filling up. Markham won awards for diverting 73% of its municipal garbage from the landfill. As an elected official, would you work on efforts to match or beat Markham’s 73% diversion rate?

Yes, absolutely. There is a pilot programme underway to see if people will embrace the ‘green box’ for gathering organic compost from households. I applaud the committee for getting this started, but I’d like to see it intensified. Some people I know don’t recycle as they used to because the blue boxes are picked up only on alternate weeks or the material is not completely taken so that some is left on the ground, making a mess. Recyclable materials left behind are often then thrown into a garbage bag. If the County were to get serious about recycling, I am sure that we could do even better than a 73% diversion rate. The presence of local industries that wanted and used the materials in local reprocessing could offset the cost of collection and give the ratepayers relief in that way as well.

Agriculture and local food:

7 Pennsylvania and British Columbia use different methods to ensure that local farmers can compete with the developers to buy farmland (e.g. conservation easements, land trusts, and purchase of development rights). As an elected official of Brant County, would you support similar programmes to help Brant County farmland to be owned and farmed by farmers?

I am in favour of farmers working their land and, having grown up on a farm that was sold to a neighbour when my father had no one who wanted to continue the business, I understand some of the issues for retiring farmers. I would work to support local farmers in programmes to help them be competitive. Just what those programmes would be, I can’t say with out learning more about them. I do think that we need to provide real alternatives to our farmers who want to retire and think that land speculators are their only way to fund a decent retirement. In this area, eco-tourism, wetland and animal habitat preservation sites, and innovative green energy production models are all on the table as far as I’m concerned.

8 Municipalities close to home (like Markham) and across North America are implementing local and sustainable food procurement policies to support farmers and the local economy. As an elected official of our County, would you support a local and sustainable food procurement policy?

Yes, of course. I’d like to see what initiatives other communities are using and investigate their ‘best practices’ to see what would be most suitable here. It would also mean bringing the issues to the community to seek their input and encourage their support. The idea of working and buying where you live is being seen all the more as the best way to go to reduce our carbon footprint and help rebuild integrated communities.

9 Large amounts of land have been purchased in Brant County by developers and foreign investors. As an elected official of our County, are you concerned that this will give them undue influence in decision-making, especially when it comes to development?

Some people in foreign countries are being told they can double, treble or multiply their money all within a few years. It is often marketed as an ideal alternative to low-interest savings and high-risk shares, using the selling point, "They're not making land any more". The "land bankers", are often unregulated firms that buy land without planning permission to sell to investors in small slices. Purchasers are led to expect the field will get the go-ahead for housing development, seeing it explode in value.

But the winners are the promoters rather than the investors or the communities where the land parcels are being sold. If a land banker buys land for under $10,000 an acre and then cuts it up into smaller plots, he can sell these plots to investors for $8,000 to $16,000 each and earn around $80,000 to $160,000 an acre. If your piece is in the middle, getting to it to use it van be a problem.

As far as I’m concerned, this is not a responsible way to plan a community. It’s a way for someone to ‘make a quick buck’ at the community’s expense.

There are a number of countries addressing this problem currently. I would like to study the results that they’re getting and bring this to the community to see what would be suitable here.

10 Prince Edward County banned the spread of its municipal Biosolids (liquid and dewatered sewage sludge) on farmland. As an elected official of our County, would you support a similar ban for Brant County?

Yes. I understand that there may be a conflict between County and Provincial jurisdiction in this matter, in which case, I would approach the Province to secure local control for making such decisions concerning our own farmland.

11 There are 2700 signatures on a petition asking the Province to extend the Greenbelt into Brant County to protect farmland, natural areas, and the Paris-Galt Moraine. As an elected official of our County, would you support extending the provincial Greenbelt into Brant County?

Yes. I would suggest that we extend it over the Grand River. This is an extremely important and sensitive wetland and water protection/ filtration area that impacts the abundance and quality of drinking water for everyone down the river.

Heritage:

12 The Heritage Act and our Official Plan are very specific about the steps that should be taken to protect our architectural and natural heritage. As an elected official of our County, are you committed to keeping our old schools and halls publicly owned and operated?

Our architectural and cultural heritage is very important and needs to be safeguarded. Something that I would add to the Heritage Act would be the teeth to act when its stated objectives and procedures are contravened or violated. There need to be consequences when an area’s heritage is blatantly disregarded.

Yes. I don’t think that it’s necessary for the County to be caretakers of our heritage buildings; in fact, I think that the maintenance and operation of these buildings should be kept local. Before the townships were amalgamated into the County, may were maintained by trustee boards of local citizens who were stakeholders in the community. I’m in favour of supporting the efforts of local community groups whom I believe would do the best job of maintaining these structures, especially with such programmes as the Trillium Grant, to make them readily accessible to the community.

Campaign Contributions

13 a) Has your campaign office accepted any donations from the development interests which own or control land in Brant County?

No- my contributions have come from individual friends and family members who support my candidacy. My office is in my house.

b) Cities such as Toronto have introduced a ban on donations from corporations and unions for election campaigns. As an elected official of our County, would you support this in Brant County?

No. I understand that the Elections Act, as the primary legislation controlling the election process, is already rather specific about how contributions are to be identified and accounted for, setting a limit on the amounts that can be given. The problem that has been noted with Toronto’s decision is the fact that while a candidate may not directly take contributions from corporations or unions, his contribution list may still be filled with individuals who are directly working or associated with corporations and unions. The process of having to track down the institutional affiliations of individuals on the donor list (or of having to hire someone to do it) may just make the process less transparent so that it’s harder to determine which corporations and unions are participating in elections. Making a ban does not necessarily keep something from happening- it may just make it harder to uncover it.

Air and Water Quality

14 Airport residents documented a pattern of toxic emissions from brick factories in other communities. As an elected official of our County, will you ensure more stringent oversight to prevent, not just monitor, toxic emissions into the air and water from the proposed brick factory near the airport?

Yes. One company should not be hampered by another company’s bad record, but my position is that a brick company that wants to locate here, knowing the foreseeable hazards, must demonstrate that they have the technology and equipment in place to prevent any emissions from going into the air, ground, and water. Then they must provide on-going test results to show that they are successfully keeping toxins out of the environment.

Private-Public Partnerships (P3s)

15 The Council of Canadians takes a strong stance against P3s because of the debt that municipalities eventually get left with and the quality of construction. As an elected official of our County, would you work to ensure that the Council does not turn to P3s to provide sewer and water infrastructure for proposed development projects in the County (e.g. Cainsville, East Brant)?

Yes. I believe that we have talented and dedicated people working for our County who are able to do the necessary work and I see no reason to hire people from out of the area to work on our projects. The public part of such a partnership are subject to public oversight that the private component really isn’t while the ‘private’ part would more likely be motivated by a personal profit motive that might not be in the County’s best interest.

Democratic Process:

16 a) As an elected official of our County, would you work to ensure that residents are consulted and kept informed about issues that Council deals with?

Yes, of course. How else can I know how to represent the wishes of my constituents? I also consider it my responsibility to encourage the participation of the residents in my ward and seek out their input.

b) Would you support delegations to Council if an issue is not resolved?

Yes. If we’re having trouble resolving an issue, then we need more consultation, not less.

c) Would you work to reduce the number of in-camera meetings?

Yes. In many communities, the use of in-camera meetings is clearly outlined in a charter or by-law. It can too easily become a vehicle for keeping information that directly impacts the public away from them. Anything having to do with the spending or allocation of ratepayer money should have to be presented in a public meeting.

Sustainable Transportation:

17 The proposed highway (commonly known as the 424) from Brantford to Cambridge would cut through prime farmland in the Paris-Galt Moraine. The SMART Coalition has a legal challenge to the highway, arguing that a highway in this area is not included in the provincially binding Growth plan.

As an elected official of our County, will you work to develop a more sustainable way of moving people and goods rather than building a highway?

Yes. I think that a highway such as this is already obsolete. There has been a great deal of awareness in the past few years that with the trucking system in ‘high gear’, the food items on your dinner table traveled an average of 1500 miles before reaching your dinner plate.  That means many dollars in fuel were spent to support large business in other parts of the country.  ‘Eat local’.  ‘Buy Local’.  ‘Support local farmers’, ‘Support local economies’, ‘Buy in season’ are more than mere slogans. Continuously building more super highways shows, in my opinion, an unrealistic confidence that the next twenty years will be like the last thirty. I believe that families in the very near future will focus more on living close to where they work, supporting local industry and farmers, and building supportive communities. I certainly do not support losing any more of our food producing area to asphalt and concrete. Besides, I think that our area in Brant should be seen as a destination, not some place to race through on the way to someplace else.