Spending, road safety,recreation all areas of concern for Rockwood community

ROCKWOOD – Guelph/Eramosa council candidates had a second chance to make their case at an event on Sept. 30 at the Rockmosa Community Centre.

The event, the second in as many nights for Guelph/Eramosa candidates, was hosted by the Rockwood Lions club.

Both mayoral candidates were present at the meeting as were 10 of the 11 councillor candidates. Ward 1 candidate Bill Weima was absent. 

Also present was acclaimed Ward 7 county councillor Mathew Bulmer and acclaimed Upper Grand District School Board trustee Jen Edwards. 

The format allowed residents to ask questions of select candidates. 

Costs, spending 

One resident asked how candidates would cut costs, and whether that would include cutting services. 

“In terms of keeping the taxes not going up, one thing that I’m looking at doing, and something that most of the people on council already currently do, is applying for the grants,” said Ward 1 candidate Philip Mullis.

"There’s lots of grants at the multiple levels of government.”

Incumbent mayoral candidate Chris White echoed the importance of grants, emphasizing the small size of the township.

“We’re just trying to maintain the township with limited population, but we know costs are at the top,” said White. “So we’re not trying to do anything frivolous. We’re staying at the core services.”

Mayoral candidate Dan Kennaley agreed grants are beneficial, but cautioned against using grants to build large facilities with ongoing operational costs.

“A lot of times, the grants provide you with new facilities,” said Kennaley. “I think you [also] have to take into account the ongoing operating costs associated with those new facilities. The grants may pay for the new facilities, but then the taxpayer may be stuck with the ongoing operating costs.”

 He added, “A lot of these grants come from the province and from the federal government, but really there’s only one taxpayer, and so you ... [have to] make sure that you can actually afford the grants, and make sure that they’re for things that you really want or need."

Ward 4 candidate Mark Montgomery took a different approach to affordability and spending.

“I don’t believe that councillors should have their salary tied to an annual increase,” said Montgomery. “Maybe a term increase, but I don’t want to see councillor salaries get increased every year. And I think that’s a really easy cost savings up front.”

Staying local

Another question, directed towards the mayoral candidates, asked how they would encourage businesses to come and stay in GE, to avoid residents leaving town to shop in Guelph and other surrounding areas.

White spoke of cleaning up sidewalks, the new medical centre and “building out the infrastructure” to encourage residents to stay in the community.   

“Your doctors would be here; your nurses would be here. You might stay here, then you might go to the hardware,” said White.

“So, then we went through, and we cleaned up the sidewalks. Anything that we controlled as a municipality, we’ve tried to build the infrastructure out to give people a reason to stay.”

Kennaley also spoke of infrastructure and making it easier for commercial development to occur. 

“And part of that … is we need to streamline the site planning process,” he said.

Road safety 

White was asked how he would ensure pedestrian and road safety in Rockwood.

White said traffic safety in Rockwood is “complicated” by different levels of jurisdiction over local roads, citing “constant conflict with the province on Highway 7.”

Noting speeding is the township’s “number one complaint,” White said the municipality is pushing the province for improvements to Highway 7 and is asking the county to reduce speeds and to permit additional traffic-calming measures on county roads.

He also pointed to new crosswalks, traffic lights, a 40 km/h speed limit and speed humps as measures taken to improve safety by the current council.

“The top priority is to protect the children,” said White.

The same resident asked Kennaley how he would “balance local business growth and Main Street (Rockwood) usability with traffic management and municipal infrastructure limits.”

Kennaley said some development could be a good thing for the municipality, but raised concerns about projects that could bring more traffic through Rockwood.

Kennaley also stated residents have “mixed opinions about speed humps” and the township should get more public input before putting them in.

The resident who asked the question replied, “Isn’t that really the job of the council ... Because when we have 100 or 150 people giving their opinion, then it becomes a real chaotic mess, and that’s why we hired you guys to do that for us.”

Recreation 

A big topic of discussion was recreation – more specifically the possible addition of an arena.

A resident at the meeting criticized the township’s repeated decisions not to build an arena, recalling that council declined a $50,000 loan in the 1970s despite the Rockwood Lions Club’s work to establish the park and offer the land to the township for $1.

“We have gone from one grade school to three schools in short order,” the resident said, warning the growing community could soon have youth teams with nowhere to play.

“We drew up a full plan of arena plans a few years ago,” said White. 

“At the time, it was about a $15-million grant that was coming through. We never got the grant, but we did develop the plans, and we had arrangements made with Milton, Acton, Fergus and Guelph for ice time.”

White added the township has set aside land for an arena but would not fund the project through a major tax increase or debenture.

“If an arena can fit and we can afford it, we would do it,” said White. “But we’re not going to jack (up) taxes.”

Kennaley said, “If, after financial analysis occurs, and everybody understands the implications associated with building an arena, if we do a survey, public consultation, and the majority of people want to proceed on the basis of those cost implications, I will do everything in my power to achieve an arena in this community."

He added, “It will require grants. And similarly, I won’t be increasing taxes to pay for it."

Incumbent Ward 4 councillor candidate Mark Bouwmeester said he has seen people talk about wanting an arena on social media, but warned of the costs of building and maintaining an arena. 

He refuted the notion that arenas make money, noting, "These are huge, huge investments."

Strong mayor powers 

Both mayoral candidates voiced their opposition to the use of strong mayor powers.

“I’m absolutely opposed to stronger power, and I always have been,” said White.

He noted the powers may make sense for large councils of 13 or 16 people ,as “they can grind to a halt,” but said they should be a “special one-time kind of power.”

“I am similarly not interested in in those special responsibilities that come from being a strong mayor,” said Kennaley.

He added, "I’m quite confident in being able to enter into collaborative relationships with them (current and prospective councillors) and ensure that council is going to function well.”