Mayor Jeff, dad, husband, @jedi_mayor on Instagram, or that drummer in Sonic Coalition – whatever you call him, you can’t call him lazy. On a day when Mayor Jeff Lehman was not to be in his office, there he was organizing and straightening up before a couple of meetings. The year 2017 was a big year for the city with many projects on the go, the concern of housing prices, council meetings and events to support and we got to sit down and find out what he thought of 2017 and what he hopes for 2018.
Some people may not know but you are actually a Barrie guy through and through. What’s your personal history with the city?
“I basically grew up here from when I was three years old and have lived here always except for about ten years in the middle there when I went away for school in a couple different cities and then went oversees to London, New York City and a few other spots but all in all its been Barrie. I went to Allandale Heights Public School and lived in the suburbs in the late seventies and early eighties when Barrie was a very small Central Ontario town but was already then starting to grow quickly; even then I was watching my own neighbourhood change and I guess I was interested in seeing Barrie grow and grow well. It sounds goofy but even back then I was so fascinated in seeing something new being built or some new business, project and even roads coming together was so cool to me. I guess I was into city-building video games at a really early age and now they’re so cool to play for this generation.”
In the age of online debate and communication, you seem to have fun but also have good dialogue from time to time. How do you use social media in today’s day and age?
“When I first became Mayor, I would engage often with people who in some cases just want to argue. I think one of the most dangerous things about online conversations is because we lack the in-person connection, people will say things that they would never say face to face. Also, in the age of Trump there is just a lot of yelling and a lot of the echo chamber and it is hard to have genuine communication. All that being said, I still think it’s a tremendous tool for people who want to provide genuine communication and receive quick feedback and I personally still use it for that from time to time.”
You are often taking care of municipal projects that some see as maybe boring or tedious, but every now and then you get to be a part of a fun event that helps give back. Today you made a big concert announcement for Friday January 26 2018 at Mavrick’s Music Hall. What is your involvement in The Gord Downie Tribute Concert?
“The concert was an idea I had and I went to Chas (Hay) and Ryan (Andersen) because I know about their ability as concert and event producers and I asked if it wouldn’t it be great to do a Gord Downie Tribute Concert; and we had been chatting about that back around the time he had passed away and our feeling was we could take a little more time and put a bigger effort into the project and now we’ve got a really great line-up. But the credit here goes to Chaz and Ryan as they are putting in all the work to grab artists do two or three songs and people who are all accomplished recording artists, had been or are part of big bands or knew Gord or even all of the above; I’ve been able to go out and get community and financial support for it and its going to be a special day”
This current council has accomplished so much and has been seemingly friendly to each other in doing so; how proud are you of a council that is able to all in all get along for the betterment of the city and its people?
“One of the things I’ve been most blessed by and proud of as Mayor for seven years is the tone and working relationship among two councils now. Its not always about having a positive tone with each other, you can’t and truthfully its not good for democracy as there needs to be healthy debate between us, but what there hasn’t been for many years in Barrie are the petty politics or the personal attacks that has often characterized rancorous councils in other cities or even in our own past. Even with such an array of personalities on council there is still an underlying view of respect for the people in Barrie, which is great because you don’t feel like when you ask a question or come in to give a deputation that a member will try to make you look bad. The whole tone is lighter but professional and there isn’t a single member who doesn’t have a great sense of humour which helps most situations from getting to heated.”
There have been many projects on the go to beautify Barrie that seem to take centre stage in the news, but there are just as many that maybe fly under the radar that are helping people too. When you see folks being critical of projects like Memorial Square’s revitalization, what are your thoughts?
“I think it goes even deeper than the beautifying of the city as its civic pride. A good example is Memorial Square as taxpayers are only paying about $2 million of that $5 million project and the rest of it was basically fundraised by the downtown merchants. It’s unlike all the other projects we do like supporting social housing and homeless, roads, pipes and such which is 100 per cent funded by the city. When we do these optional projects, people need to know that they’re usually only paying for a small piece of it and the rest of it is through the generosity either of other levels of government or fundraising. On that critical balance of protecting people, trying to help those who are sleeping on the streets, keeping roads from falling apart, all of that is always a higher priority than optional projects and always should be. But if you have a city where you’re not doing anything to create new attractions or create a sense of pride and you let things get run down because you’re doing the bare minimum, what good is that? That’s not the kind of city that Barrie has been throughout it’s life, that is not Ontario’s Most Progressive Waterfront Community as the slogans and beliefs our councils through the fifties, sixties and seventies used to build us into a medium-sized city. So I’m firmly of the belief that of a $100 to $150 million capital plan, spending less than 5 per cent of that on a couple of projects that create great public spaces is a very small amount and is the least we can do to honour the tradition of city-building that has got us to this point.”
Barrie is well-known for many organizations that give back to those who need it. How proud are you of the people in your city who seem so endlessly self-less?
“One of the most important things about Barrie and what makes us so unique is that we haven’t lost that sense of community that some cities lost when they grew fast. As large as we’re getting we have that small-town humbleness that so many love and it shows with organizations like Out Of The Cold who are literally saving lives on a day like today where it is freezing out there and also our Blue Brigade at the Royal Victoria Hospital; both groups who have a thousand volunteers each, a number that blows my mind, who are helping those who badly need it. That’s just two that pop in my head right off that bat of about 200 like them in this city who tirelessly give back, that is a monumental sense of pride for anyone in Barrie.”
Most important obviously, what did you get for Christmas? How was your Christmas?
“Okay so I’m the Mayor so I got shirts, ties, socks, all the boring stuff a mayor would get, right? No, I actually got some cool gifts and two in particular as my staff got me the joke book based on the twitter account on fake Canadian statistics. It is hilarious and has stats like 98 per cent of people in New Brunswick wear red plaid; just funny stuff like that. The other gift is one my daughter made over at Creative Café in the south end and its an airplane because she knows I like them; but she picked out each of the stones and it has Daddy Airlines written on the airplane. Gifts like those are absolutely priceless, so yeah Christmas was awesome for us. It was family-oriented and not as much travel this year which was really great as the weather was pretty intense; I think we were outside for about ten minutes on Christmas day with it being so chilly.”
What are your plans for New Year’s Eve and what is your hope for the coming 2018?
“In preparation for the big day I’ve practicing counting backwards from ten all year so as not mess it up. We’ll start off the night having dinner with some friends and then heading over for the downtown count down and live concert. 2017 was such a powerful year for our local economy. I can’t remember a year like this, maybe 2006 right before things went south in the States the following year, but we just watched some industrial plants going up in the south end and then a couple weeks later elsewhere there was another new building and I was thinking this is unbelievable; the job growth we had was just great so I hope for 2018 that it continues. Every one of those buildings, industrial and office, going up in the south end, are job opportunities where people don’t have to commute and by and large it’s full time work that’s being created. I must admit that I also hope to see a big step forward on a project or two this year. As mayor I hope we can get the Market and the W.A. Fisher project across the finish lines; the Fisher is a brand-new idea so we’re just seeing work at it but the Market had been going on for a number of years and we need to figure it out. Lastly is on the affordable housing front and I know we’ve come down a little bit from the big boil there in March and April but rents are still really high here in Barrie, relative to people’s income and especially if you’re on social security. We’ve been making great progress with the units we have been able to support or create through the affordable housing strategy but we need to take even bigger steps to make a significant dent in waiting lists for social housing and those living on the streets. All that and I hope that everyone has a fun and safe New Year’s Eve and day and a wonderful 2018 full of accomplished goals.”
