The Meaford & St. Vincent Community Centre was once again the place to be to meet and hear candidates vying for council seats, as Meaford's 55+ Club held an all candidates meeting on Tuesday afternoon.
More than 50 residents turned out, as did all but three of the candidates with only Ray McHugh, Carol Smith, and Peter Bantock unable to attend the event.
Each candidate was given three minutes to offer an opening statement, and they took that opportunity to inform voters of the essence of their campaign platforms.
With such a large number of candidates, and many of them rookies in the local politics game, it wasn't easy to have all of them engaged in the question and answer period that followed the opening statements.
Much of the concern of the residents in attendance focused on ever increasing property taxes and the level municipal debt which resulted in the event turning into somewhat of a Mayoral slug-fest as current Mayor Francis Richardson and Mayoral hopeful Jim McPherson engaged in verbal battle about everything from the validity of the much touted five-year plan to the actual amount of debt being carried by the municipality - McPherson insists that Meaford is in debt to the tune of $14 million while Richardson claims the number to be closer to $9 million.
McPherson defended his numbers saying that he was citing audited numbers submitted by the municipality to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, and that those numbers indicate that the municipality is carrying $13 million in long term debt with another $1 million to be added by the end of this year as part of the plan to pay off the $3 million in accumulated deficits.
With regard to the five-year plan which was developed by Meaford's CAO Frank Miele and Treasurer David Kennedy, Richardson once again expressed his support of and faith in the plan which is in its second year to move Meaford out of financial difficulty and though it means that property tax increases will be hefty over the five years, it must be done.
Council candidate Barb Clumpus agreed with Richardson.
“I agree that taxes are high, but you either pay now, or you pay more later,” offered Clumpus who added that if taxes had been raised in small amounts over the six years that Meaford had no tax increases the municipality could have avoided the financial difficulties that it has experienced over the last few years.
McPherson on the other hand says that though there was a five-year plan for dealing with the large municipal deficit, that plan was rejected by the Ministry of Municipal affairs, and McPherson portrays the continued referencing of the five-year plan as little more than a catch phrase and part of what he called “they myth making” in municipal politics.
Though the council candidates at times were forgotten as the two Mayoral candidates engaged in one exchange after another, a few did manage to find moments to shine.
Council candidate Mike Poetker clearly appeared comfortable in rising when needed to break the pattern and shift the meeting back to issues that all could discuss. Poetker's role as a calming voice of reason during the meeting might serve him well during the campaign as he gained the appreciation of the audience for his approach.
James McIntosh also a candidate for a council seat brought a unique perspective to the debate about taxes and the five-year plan. McIntosh feels that his experience would help council find creative ways to generate new revenue streams for the municipality and take some of the load off of the residential taxpayer.
“91 percent of the tax base in Meaford is residential. We need business investment,” said McIntosh who also feels that Meaford is missing out on revenue by not enforcing a variety of existing bylaws.
Rural candidate and former Reeve of Sydenham Deborah Young, brought a refreshing level of humility and lack of pretence to the table telling voters that she made her decision to run for a council seat the night before the nomination deadline, and did so because she saw that with just hours to go there was only one incumbent running for council. Young said that though she is supportive of a council filled with new members, she feels that some balance between experienced and inexperienced council members would be helpful.
Young also advised those new to the game that they need to develop a thick skin.
“I heard once that you are doing a really good job as a politician if 50 percent of the people are mad at you. I must have been doing a heck of a good job as Reeve of Sydenham because I had at least 90 percent of the people mad at me,” joked Young.
One of those younger, inexperienced candidates took on the issue of experience in his opening remarks, and seemed to endear himself to the crowd.
“It has been brought to my attention that some people do not believe that the younger candidates have what it takes to make things work,” said Whaley who then talked about his experience on a variety of boards and committees before delivering a closing remark that would be typical of a seasoned veteran.
“If I am elected to council I am being married to 12-13,000 people. Some nights we are going to go to bed mad, and some nights we are going to go to bed happy, but at the end of it all we are going to be able to look back and say we made it, we reached our goals,” offered Whaley to appreciative applause from the audience.
The candidates for council seats will have another opportunity to showcase their platforms and debate issues on Thursday night at 7 pm also at the community centre when the Chamber of Commerce holds it's second of three all candidate events.
