EDITOR’S NOTE: As Central Manitoulin candidate for Ward 1 councillor Petra Wall was away during the time of The Expositor’s interviews with those candidates, Ms. Wall’s interview can now be read below.
Petra Wall
Petra Wall is running for Ward 1 in the upcoming Central Manitoulin municipal elections.
Ms. Wall has a keen interest in Island history and over the last 10 years has been helping people tell their stories for the ‘Now and Then’ column in The Expositor.
She resides with her husband Bill and their border collie Skip in Square Bay, where the couple has lived since 1977.
“I have volunteered for many organizations including the economic development committee for Central Manitoulin, as well as the Northeast Town,” explained Ms. Wall. “I was chair of the Cambrian College Advisory Committee, a board member of the North East Community Care Access Centre, chair of the Manitoulin Community Withdrawal Management Services and secretary of the Manitoulin Fine Arts Association. I also did some early work for Taste of Manitoulin and am now a member of the new Arts Council for Manitoulin.”
Her background in health along with her Masters in Health Services Administration Services acted as a foundation to help promote health on Manitoulin through a project to establish a centrally based recreation centre on Manitoulin.
“As part of the economic development team for Central Manitoulin, we began our initiative to increase seniors’ housing here as well and began to look towards establishing more assisted living,” said Ms. Wall. “Others such as Jeremy Gordon and also a team of seniors that found interested contractors to build the Sparrow’s Nest have been working diligently in the housing area and are now beginning to have some good choices for our seniors. I agree with Richard Stephens and Gerry Strong that more needs to be done, especially for assisted living, the median between living along and living in long term care.”
Another issue Ms. Wall hopes to tackle if she is elected is job specific training for students and adults geared to the needs of Central Manitoulin businesses.
“In the past I have served as chair of the advisory committee for Cambrian College and I know they are interested in our training needs,” Ms. Wall continued. “I would like to see current initiatives kicked up a notch to create a more formalized infrastructure to align community jobs with actual needs, including an education and co-op placement component.”
Ms. Wall said she agrees with the mayoral candidates and other candidates for council that the provincial downloading of responsibilities to communities is problematic.
“This is an area I expect council will monitor on an ongoing basis, providing your community feedback to the government as needed.”
She wants to work on attracting more families and new businesses to Central Manitoulin. “More businesses and more citizens mean more resources coming to our areas,” noted Ms. Wall. “This may help to reduce the rate of tax increase as Central Manitoulin has one of the highest rates on the Island, in third position after Assiginack and Gore Bay. This in an area most of us have much interest in and I hope to join our Central Manitoulin team to find out how we can reduce the rate of tax increase and bring Central Manitoulin in line with some of the other regions.”
Ms. Wall also hopes to work with her fellow councillors to push for a more equal system for rural and urban home assessments from MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation).
“If elected, I will welcome suggestions and feedback from the people and put their needs first,” concluded Ms. Wall. “I will bring a strong voice to council and use my varied experience to work with all members of council to make our Ward 1 and our Manitoulin community stronger and better for everyone.”
