Councillors have been hard at work not only every Monday evening at city council meetings, but some are hitting the public spaces to hear what the residents believe is needed for the community.
Sunday’s Councillor Drop-In Discussions was the second of three sessions planned for the winter where everyone is welcome to attend and discuss the issues they are having in the city.
Ward 2's Coun. Keenan Aylwin came up with the idea during his municipal campaign and says he's thankful that his ward’s library branch helps to put it together.
“Democracy doesn’t just happen once every four years. It is a collaborative process where citizens engage with elected officials and share ideas about how to make our city a better place to live,” Aylwin said.
“During the election, I promised to engage the community and communicate regularly with constituents. With the help of the wonderful staff at the Barrie Public Library, we organized a new program called Councillor Drop-In Discussions, which gives citizens the opportunity to ask questions about municipal politics and discuss ideas to improve our community," he added.
As many as 25 people have come to speak to the first-term councillor, as he has listened to issues anything from homelessness, bike lanes, taxes, plans for intensification corridors, preserving green-space, affordable housing availability and climate change planning.
Aylwin told BarrieToday that while he's enjoying having people care about issues that are happening, he hopes these drop-ins will turn around poor voter turnout in Barrie.
“What is incredibly inspiring to me is to see how much people care about our city and that they are hungry for opportunities to get involved,” said Aylwin. “It is my hope that this simple event can lead to more positive community connections and even more engagement in the future.
"Voter turnout in October’s municipal election was dismal and I believe we are in a democratic crisis and as a result, decision-making suffers," he added. "We must do everything we can to change the way we think about public engagement and continue to have open and honest discussions about the challenges that we face.”
The meeting on Sunday saw Aylwin joined by Barry Ward, who has been representing Ward 4 since 2000 in addition to serving as deputy mayor for the first half of this term, and another first-time councillor, Ward 6's Natalie Harris.
Harris told BarrieToday that in this day and age of social-media responses, it is important to give the people a face and voice to speak to.
“There have been two meetings so far and I have been able to attend one,” said Harris. “Coun. Aylwin came up with the idea and I think it’s brilliant and the right thing to do. Face-to-face community interaction is so important at all levels of government, and if we aren’t doing it at the municipal level, I think we are failing our constituents.
"Social media and email are great ways to disseminate information, but I feel the best conversations are face-to-face," she added. "Being able to feel the passion someone has for a topic is important, and the community deserves a chance to have those passions heard.”
The next drop-in session is Sunday, March 10 from 2-4 p.m. at the Barrie Public Library's downtown branch. The format is very casual and accessible to all.
