MINDEMOYA—Each of Central Manitoulin’s 12 contenders running in the upcoming election thanked the members of the audience as they rose to speak about their platforms at the all candidates’ meeting held October 6. The Mindemoya community hall was full, perhaps forecasting a larger number of voter turnout.
The 12 people who put their names forth for council include Wes Cline, Pat MacDonald, Petra Wall and Derek Stephens for Ward 1, Gloria Haner, Adam McDonald, Dale Scott and Alex Baran for Ward 2 and John Finley, Keith Legge, Linda Farquhar and Ted Taylor for Ward 3.
Moderator Adam Smith gave each of the speakers a three-minute time limit to explain why they should be in office so as to leave plenty of time for questions and answers.
Mary Gordon was the first person off the mark and her question was directed at the two mayoral candidates, former reeve Richard Stephens and incumbent mayor Gerry Strong. “What is one thing,” Ms. Gordon asked, “that you are going to do to engage the young people in the community?”
Mayor Strong answered by saying that he has tried several times to have youth involved and mentioned the skate park as one accomplishment that had been done in the past. He went on to say “we should have youth involved. The economic advisory committee, we could have some youth on that committee.”
Richard Stephens responded by saying, “we have tried to engage young people. Unfortunately, the demographics are skewed on the upper level. Youth on the committee, as Mayor Strong said, we would certainly consider.”
Martin Garniss then rose for questions and directed his query to Councillor Adam McDonald. “Of all the people here,” he said, “you are the only one to talk about taxes. Can the mill rate go down?”
“We understand assessment,” Mr. McDonald replied, “It has steadily gone up. Some things are fixed. DSB (Manitoulin-Sudbury District Services Board) is fixed, but discretionary things can be changed. We were told that it would cost 1/4 million dollars to replace the windows in the old school building. Where can we come up with that money? If we do everything else the same, we would have to raise the mill rate to pay for those windows. We prioritize, debate and so on, but if we are going to do more projects, we are going to have to raise the mill rate.”
Nathalie Harvey, co-owner of the Auberge Inn International Hostel in Providence Bay, wanted the Ward 2 candidates to answer the question, “What will you do to help start new businesses to populate Providence Bay?”
Mr. Baran was the first to respond and said that it is, initially, difficult to get young people to anywhere that is remote. “We would have to make sure that they can make some money and we would have to give some leeway, some flexibility to get them off the ground with perhaps licence incentives and tax incentives. We can connect them with Trillium, the Heritage Fund and so on and we can do some mentoring.”
Ms. Haner talked about the community improvement plan that people could tap into, but remarked that it is hard to make a living on seasonal work and Providence Bay is looking seasonal while Mr. McDonald said that he would welcome with open arms any business. “It takes someone with a vision and a dream,” Mr. McDonald said and added, “We are there to help them.”
Mr. Scott thought it was very important for municipal staff to be available to help young people interested in starting a business on the Island to find grants and that there are grants available, but sometimes they are hard to find.
Mike Tilson was next with a question, asking if everyone was in favour of the current ward system. Mayor Strong answered that he can entertain the idea of modifying the ward system, but that it is not part of his platform while Richard Stephens said, “we almost have the reason to decide if it is put on the ballot.”
Some of the candidates, including Ms. Farquhar, Mr. McDonald and Mr. Baran, were a definite yes in answer to the question while Ms. Wall was open to change. Mr. Cline, Ms. MacDonald and Ms. Haner said that they would not like to see the change made while Keith Legge and Mr. Finley would want the decision made by the ratepayers. Ms. Haner pointed out, however, that the question could not be put on the ballot because there were not enough voters to warrant it. Mr. Taylor said that anyone from one ward can run in another and in his estimation, there are very few people who want a change. He also pointed out that council has become a lot closer together in their dealings.
Perry Anglin was the next person with a question, asking, “both Richard and Adam have noticed that the tax rate has doubled. Is the assessment run fairly?” he asked Keith Legge, who spent all his working life in employment in assessment for the Ministry of Finance.
Mr. Legge noted that when he worked, it was in an assessment office in Little Current. “We found buildings that were not assessed,” he responded, “and that is still going on today. Assessment is not the municipality’s fault, it is MPAC’s (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation) fault.”
Arlene Finley got a few laughs when she got up and asked her husband, a Ward 3 candidate, to explain how they got their assessment reduced. “We got them to come out and assess our home fairly,” Mr. Finley responded. “There are three people in MPAC in Sudbury and they have all the way west to Webbwood and down to Espanola and all of Manitoulin. It is a very complicated organization.”
Bill Rumble posed perhaps the toughest question of the evening when he asked all the candidates if they would be willing to close down one of the arenas and a few of the community halls. Mr. Taylor answered first and suggested that perhaps some of the buildings could at least be shut down in the winter as they cost a lot to maintain. Mr. Finley agreed with this as did Mr. Scott who said, “People put blood, sweat and tears into these buildings.”
Mr. McDonald, running on a plan to curb spending, was in favour of selling and liquidating properties that are costing too much. Derek Stephens also was in favour of cutting back on expenses for buildings and noted that council spent $400,000 on the community hall with $200,000 going to the kitchen that is only used a couple of times a year.
Ms. Farquhar was the only candidate to suggest shutting down one of the arenas, but Ms. MacDonald was quick to say, “I am not in favour of closing an arena. Our staff is doing a cost benefit on our facilities. The parts that make up our community are our halls and arenas. I am in favour of making better use of our buildings and of raising rents.”
Several of the people running for office suggested asking the people what they want concerning this issue including Richard Stephens, Mr. Strong, Ms. Wall, Ms. Haner and Mr. Legge.
Regan Roy asked the final question of the evening and directed it to Mr. Baran, asking, “How can we encourage young people to stay on the Island or to come back to the Island?”
“Take away their iPads,” Mr. Baran jokingly said to applause, but went on to say that there comes a time in the lives of young people when they realize that they have to do something about tomorrow and that is when we have to be there to help them at every level. Maybe the Chamber of Commerce could teach kids how to start a business, he suggested, “wouldn’t it be great if the seed we planted here brought them back?”
