The city’s largest municipal race had its all-candidates meeting Wednesday night and, due to a well-organized event, it didn’t take all evening as some expected it would.
The Barrie East End Household Association (BEEHA) held a Ward 1 all-candidates meeting last night at Grace United Church on Grove Street East where all eight council hopefuls spoke to a standing-room-only crowd.
With eight candidates speaking, a debate-style meeting could have lasted throughout the late hours, but BEEHA had arranged four questions that asked the panel to discuss their core competencies, role on council, responsibilities and how they will balance them as well as thoughts on city wide issues.
The meeting was moderated by Jim Lowe, who also pulled audience questions from a hat at the end of the candidates' speaking period, which also helped with keeping the time respectable and having folks out in just two hours.
The candidates include Shaughna Ainsworth, Graham Allary, Ryan Cardwell, Erin Hennigar, Dusko Jankov, Avery Konda, Ann-Marie Kungl and Clare Riepma.
With current Ward 1 councillor not seeking re-election, the district will have a new council representative once all the votes are tallied Oct. 22.
Throughout the evening on Wednesday, all eight candidates agreed that one of the top issues with the ward was the lack of upkeep on the roads in correlation with the high taxes being paid by residents.
On the topic of community involvement with regards to crime and the ward’s cleanliness, the candidates had similar thoughts with how to handle the issues.
Allary spoke to the safety issue and how the community needs to get back to being a community who helps each other and said, “if you don’t know the neighbours within 10 doors of yours on either side of you, you’re missing it.
"These are the people that will help you," he added. "These are the people that will turn on their lights and scare a burglar away or the ones you can turn to and say ‘you know that your kid is doing this and that’ and they’ll apologize.”
Hennigar agreed with the onus being back on the residents stating that her “neighbour walked out to go to work to see my vehicle being broken into and he stopped that gentleman and we were able to get him arrested," she said, adding her immediate neighbourhood’s crime has decreased in the 10 years her family has lived there due to community awareness.
Riepma suggested to the audience that they lock their cars at night “because if everyone in Ward 1 locked their car, these guys and gals would go elsewhere.”
Ainsworth echoed the need for community involvement to fight crime, but stressed the importance of calling the proper authorities as well stating that “whether you think you’re going to get a fast response or not that you do report what you see because there needs to be a record of these crimes when they happen.”
Jankov mentioned that the ward is divided into Grove Street North and Grove Street South, with the latter being “beautiful, older developed where people know each other and where they’ve been living for 20 or 30 years," as opposed to north of Grove where “absentee landlords and the houses are either semi-detached or townhouses and you don’t know anybody there so the responsibility to keep it clean is not there.”
Kungl said that she believes there are ways to fight the cleanliness and safety concerns, noting “property standards are broader than just individuals that are homeowners and landowners and there is great opportunity to look at how we mobilize those individuals tied to safety and cleanliness.”
Cardwell mentioned a social-media group he started that regularly hits different parks in the ward to clean up any garbage laying around.
“We can’t walk by 30 cups from the Circle K and wonder why isn’t someone else doing something about it," he said.
Cardwell wants residents to take the initiative, but also said there are not enough garbage cans in problem areas like cat walks and parkettes.
Konda said he supports a two-pronged system, where both municipal leaders and local communities work in unison to make the area better.
“There are key services we can build on that don’t require the full load to go to municipalities, but also employs people to help improve communities,” he said.
BarrieToday asked what the candidates felt they were doing right now to show they will work for the job of Ward 1 councillor.
Allary mentioned that he loves his office, which he said was in the boundaries of the ward and that he has been out meeting the people.
“It’s really important for me to be out there and if that doesn’t exist in this job then why do it,” he said.
Kungl said she has been out meeting people and “the conversations have been rich and engaging." She believes her priority as the ward representative will be “building a relationship with you that is built on trust and integrity.”
Ainsworth said that she, too, has “been door knocking and meeting constituents at their doors and it’s been a great opportunity to get to know my ward and the issues.”
Konda told the crowd he has been “involved in the community through a lot of volunteering opportunities and working in Start Up Barrie and other organizations that really bring impactful opportunity and impactful change to existing problems,” which has allowed him to keep a pulse on the city of Barrie.
Jankov said that he was enjoying meeting people in the community and was happy with how many still remember him from days as a store owner in the ward.
Jankov called Ward 1 a gem and he doesn't want to see it 'overdeveloped'.
"We don’t need the problems of Toronto because Barrie, and especially the east end, is so beautiful,” he said.
Riepma says he has knocked on every door in the ward and is about one-third of the way to a second go around.
“I intend to talk to everyone who lives in Ward 1 if I possibly can," he said. "My mother used to say that actions speak louder than words, which has been my experience in these last number of years."
Cardwell said he has been very active in door-knocking and using construction background to speak with many at city hall about what exactly is happening with the roads situation, but pointed out that he would be picking up over 20 turkeys this morning from Zehrs and delivering Thanksgiving dinners to 23 families around the area.
“On Nov. 1, we will be starting our fifth annual food drive for the Barrie Food Bank and we’ve raised 4,000 pounds so far to date," he said.
Hennigar says she has been listening and learning about what the people want to see changed and taking it one step further by visiting the city's website and looking over budgets, “because our budget is in place and we’re going to be talking about 2019.
"I want to get to council and hit the ground running,” she added.
The municipal election will be held Oct. 22, with early polling stations opening this Saturday.
For more on Ward 1 and other election coverage, click here for our Municipal Election page.
