Their language has been the same in their speeches (“We have a spending problem”) and their answers to audience questions are similar – and last week Centre Wellington candidate John Ortt admitted he is part of a slate of candidates running for council in the township.
He said the group includes mayoralty candidate Bob Foster, as well as council candidates Eric Van Grootheest in Ward 2, Jason Weeks in Ward 4, and himself in Ward 5.
Ortt said they hope to be able to hold a separate candidates’ meeting so they can answer questions from voters about their plans, without the need for a moderator. We wonder if other candidates would attend and ask questions of them.
Little things
Several candidates have attacked development charges in the Centre Wellington election campaign, stating they kill business. The previous Centre Wellington council bought into that idea and slashed them – placing the burden of uncollected development charges on residential taxpayers. Two years later, having not attracted much business anyway, council brought them back.
We note that Wellington North Township went through the same painful debates on the issue, fearing killing development with development charges. Just recently, that council learned that even with development charges, the number and value of building permits had increased this year. So much for killing development. And residential taxpayers there did not have to make up any revenue shortfall. The truth is, development charges are now a cost of doing business.
Still, it took until the all candidates’ meeting on Sept. 29 in Fergus for someone to offer a different alternative that is at least worth considering. Development charges are paid up front, when the builder gets a building permit. Council candidate Vinnie Green suggested that instead of the full amount, the charges could be phased in.
That is fresh thinking. They could be placed on the tax bill and paid over five years or so. If the business goes under, they could still be collected when the property is sold – as a lien on the property.
Short run
The campaign is essentially over for a number of candidates.
Municipalities that are voting by mail have already started sending out the ballots. Many people will send them back almost immediately. That’s fine, but what happens over the remaining three weeks leading up to election day? Can–didates are unlikely to continue going door to door when 22 out of 30 homeowners tell them they have already voted. This time around, though, in many places, the races are so close it might be worthwhile to find homes where ballots are still posted on the refrigerator.
The shortened campaign is one reason we prefer the old fashioned ballot – and high voter turnout be darned. Clerks in several municipalities claim making it easy to vote increases the voter turnout. To which we say, “So what?”
We’ve seen blind people in their 90s make it to the polls, as have many people in wheelchairs. If people are too lazy or disorganized to get to the polls, how valuable is their vote likely to be anyway? How much thought would they put into selecting candidates?
Councils should give all candidates their right to a full campaign – and we don’t buy the argument they can campaign all year. Nobody pays attention until after the Labour Day weekend – if they pay attention at all.
Easy for some
Ortt challenged all the other candidates to give up one year’s salary as a councillor or mayor to help pay down the township debt at the Fergus candidates’ meeting.
Not surprisingly, no one took up his offer.
It seems to us it is easy to offer to spend other people’s money when one is well off. Ortt is a retired businessman, and if he doesn’t need the money, fine.
But council pay was designed (some time ago, we admit) to cover the expenses of being in office. There are some younger candidates running who have expenses of growing families, and they can ill afford to give up council pay while foregoing income they need to make a living.
Ortt said his wife told him to drop the idea and not mention it. Smart lady.
Roundabout
The Advertiser received a letter asking about the true cost of the Elora roundabout to township taxpayers.
Members of the slate of candidates opposing incumbents are saying Centre Wellington Township wasted taxpayers’ money by building an “expensive roundabout.”
The incumbents have stated, truthfully, there was no township tax dollars spent on that project, and they are correct. The Elora roundabout was part of Wellington County’s Metcalfe Street bridge and road rebuilding project. The township piggybacked with the county to replace some worn out sewer and water lines during that work, but the rest of the project was shared by all county taxpayers, not just those in Centre Wellington.
