A bit of old and a bit of new business were on the agenda Monday night at the Marden Community Centre during an all-candidates meeting for the Guelph-Eramosa Township council race.
Chris White has served as township mayor for the past three terms and expressed his pride for the work council has done during his leadership.
“As I travel around the township people seem pretty happy with what we are doing,” said White. “There are always issues beyond our control like broadband and natural gas coming in and there is always a concern that we keep taxes low.”
He said good government is always a team effort.
“We’ve had a good council,” said White. “Sometimes councils can become dysfunctional but we have got along very well and I hope to continue that with the next council.”
White’s opponent David Wolk is a two-term councillor for Ward 1 who believes the township would benefit from new leadership
“I entered the mayor’s race because I felt the increasingly complex demands on council needed a more unifying leadership, a greater commitment to knowledge-based decision making and a vast improvement in transparency,” said Wolk.
Council’s ability this year to block a proposal by Xinyi Canada Glass Ltd to build a large glass processing plant on Hwy 124 west of Guelph was seen as a victory by everyone but Wolk said it could have been dealt with quicker and more efficiently.
“The glass plant issue was a water issue and it was my motion that finally forced council to say they don’t comply with the bylaw so it can’t happen,” said Wolk. “We should have did that months earlier.”
All the candidates expressed their commitment to environmental protection, sustainable development, keeping taxes down and seeking new forms of revenue without compromising the township’s rural identity.
“Guelph-Eramosa is increasingly seen as a place where other people take resources, pay the lowest possible price for them and use those resources to enrich other communities,” said Ward 1 candidate Carol Easton. “There is tremendous pressure to dig new quarries on sensitive land close to urban centres turning valuable agricultural land into Swiss cheese in the process.”
Despite her opposition to new gravel pits, Easton would not agree to commit more municipal funds to stop the Hidden Quarry on Hwy 7 outside Rockwood.
“We weren’t pleased but we also weren’t surprised with the two who reiterated the fact that they weren’t prepared to oppose the quarry,” said Doug Tripp president of the Concerned Residents Coalition, a non-profit corporation established to oppose the quarry. “We were pleased that some of the new candidates were prepared to look at evidence and base decisions on facts.”
Wolk was the other candidate Tripp referenced.
“Did you see any keenness in this room for taxpayers to bear an additional $400,000 or $500,000 worth of court costs,” asked Wolk? “If I am mayor there will be no money for the quarry campaign.”
Ward 8 councillor Doug Breen’s seat is uncontested so he was not campaigning but he took the time to share a few words about the role of municipal government.
“This really is the least understood level of government but it is where the rubber meets the road,” said Breen. “It’s where we actually effect how you live, how you are going to be able to retire and how your social services are going to work – hospitals, policing, schools and all these things. Nothing I’ve ever done has given me more pleasure or frustration or more joy or sadness and all those emotions rolled together as being a municipal councillor. Thank you for giving me the opportunity and for the opportunity to do it again.”