Gerry Strong
“The key for Central Manitoulin is to continue growth,” stated incumbent Central Manitoulin Mayor Gerry Strong. “In order to keep our taxes low, we need to keep building our assessment through new residential and commercial assessment.”
Continuing to encourage new development in the municipality is a central part of Mr. Strong’s main goal. “It’s my goal to keep the municipal part of our budget as low as possible,” he said. That goal is an extension of his approach to municipal finances over the past four years. “We have been able to keep the municipal portion of the tax bill below the cost of living in each of the past four years.”
No mean accomplishment considering the escalating costs associated with those parts of the budget over which the council has no direct control such as policing costs, which have climbed considerably more than the rate of inflation. “The cost of policing has gone up $100,000 again last year and there is every indication that those costs will be rising again this year,” he said.
When it comes to attracting new businesses and residential development, Mr. Strong said that Central Manitoulin has done quite well. “There are new businesses in Mindemoya and new residential construction throughout the township,” he said.
Mr. Strong said that, if re-elected, he intends to continue to put strong pressure on the province to stop the practice of downloading costs onto the municipalities. “Provincial policies present one of the biggest challenges to our prosperity as a community,” noted Mr. Strong. “Not only are they continually downloading costs onto the municipalities, at the same time they are imposing policies that limit the development that is key to our future.”
Mr. Strong said that the province “is tying our hands behind our backs” when it comes to placing limits on rural development. “We are not the only ones,” he said. “They don’t get the realities of rural communities.” That convergence of interests between rural communities provides opportunities to build alliances with other communities to increase the pressure on the upper levels of government to bring policies more in line with the needs of rural areas.
High assessments are one of the local concerns that Mr. Strong said needs to be worked on. “One of the biggest concerns for people locally are high assessments,” he said. “I think the municipality has to attempt to get MPAC (the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation) to provide fairness in assessments. It really isn’t fair right now and I believe that is one area where the municipality can do more to help.”
Mr. Strong cites his 25 years of municipal experience and the construction industry as an invaluable asset in dealing with those types of issues. “I understand what the issues are,” he said.
Mr. Strong said that he was proud of the accomplishments of the current council over the last term. “I think we have had a successful term,” he said. “I promised that we would not proceed with the Mindemoya Drain and Yonge Street reconstruction projects unless we were able to secure grants to help cover the costs.” In the end, the municipality was able to secure $1.2 million in funding for the project making it viable to proceed. “That saved the taxpayers $1.2 million,” he said.
