Seaway News reached out to candidates running for Mayor and asked the following questions, here are the responses we received. *As of press time*
QUESTION #1: What is your number one priority if elected Mayor?
Glen Grant, Cornwall
ANSWER: Our residents have continually emphasized in surveys that their number one priority is the waterfront. The acquisition of the waterfront lands and the Harbour lands development are my number one priority. We are close to finalizing the acquisition of the waterfront lands from the Federal Government. After we finalize the acquisition, city council, in consultation with the residents, will develop a plan for all residents to enjoy our beautiful waterfront. Our waterfront attracts many visitors to the city which helps our commercial sector and shows how Cornwall is evolving into a very attractive tourist destination.
Jordan Poapst, Cornwall
ANSWER: If elected Mayor of Cornwall, the number one priority I would focus on is growth of population. More people means more money in the community, which is required for economic development and growth. Since 2011, Cornwall’s population has grown a mere 3.2%, as compared provincially (11.9%) and nationally (11.1%). City council and administration have failed to provide the conditions to attract and retain residents to our city. I believe that the city council needs a leader with experience in sales, marketing, manufacturing (continuous improvement philosophy) and, particularly, influence in order to spearhead the municipality in the correct direction for prosperity, and this is what I bring to the table.
Justin Towndale, Cornwall
ANSWER: The current number one priority for Cornwall is housing. We need a shelter. Homelessness has always been present in our community, but it has been hidden over the years. It is now very visible. I’ve spoken with Grand Chief Abram Benedict about this, and we believe that we can partner on a shelter. I believe that there are other partners that we can bring on board as well, ranging from non profits to other municipalities. Tied into this is the need for social housing. We have two projects on the go, now we need to continue this momentum. We also need to explore the possibility of partnering with developers, similar to what the city did with the project at Pitt and Second. A further extension of housing is property standards. We need to increase enforcement of substandard housing, including illegal apartments.
Bryan McGillis, South Stormont
ANSWER: My number one priority in South Stormont is the reconstruction of the Ingleside Wastewater Treatment Plant to help create more capacity which is critical for growth. This is our biggest capital infrastructure cost to the users of the system. I requested our administration to arrange meetings with the Minister of Infrastructure and we did this regionally along with members of County Council to request provincial and Federal infrastructure funding. This will be needed to move us forward with respect to many development projects that are on the horizon. We want to be able to manage the fast pace of residential and Industrial growth we are seeing in South Stormont. Good long-term planning will keep our small-town feel. I have other top priorities. Regional partners communicating with MTO regarding Hwy 138 Safety improvements. Low water levels in Lake St. Lawrence. Better Broadband connectivity, health care, fiscal responsibility.
David Smith, South Stormont
ANSWER: Water/wastewater treatment plant, Dr. recruitment, and Waterfront development to start with. This is in everyone’s sights but do they have a plan in place other than what has not been working. I plan to take a bit of a different approach but very similar for all three projects. We’re spinning our wheels with the approach we’re taking. We have some very aging fire stations that need some attention now. They can’t properly house our vehicles, poor training areas, sub standard personal decontamination and clean up area after an emergency event. This brings us to poor asset management in the past. It is much better now but we MUST stay diligent with our responsibility to maintain our buildings and infrastructure. Something that was forgotten in the past.
Lyle Warden, South Glengarry
ANSWER: My number one priority is growth. With inflation hitting us hard this year, costs are going up at an alarming rate. In order for us to maintain a tax level that’s affordable, we need growth. Our Glen Walter Water and Waste Water plant is at full capacity. Preliminary quotes have come in around the $45M range to replace and double the plants to allow for development over the next 30 years. At the recent AMO conference in Ottawa this past August. I along with my County Council colleagues had a delegation with Kinga Surma, Minister of Infrastructure with the province of Ontario. During that meeting I raised South Glengarry’s needs with the Minister. I am committed to continue lobbying the two upper levels of government for as much funding as possible. This will keep the costs down for our local residents connected to the system.
Lachlan McDonald, South Glengarry
ANSWER: My number one priority, if elected to Mayor, would be infrastructure. Our roads, bridges, recreation, and other required services should be funded sustainably to provide good service. The community should expect a reasonable level of service for a reasonable level of taxation. I believe in doing what we must do very well and knowing the cost of doing it.
QUESTION #2: How will you handle new development and can it be developed regionally?
Glen Grant, Cornwall
ANSWER: As you are aware, there is a demand for housing, especially affordable housing, in Cornwall and most other cities in Ontario. Currently we work with the SDG counties to solve the housing issues. However, we need the financial assistance of provincial and federal governments to solve the housing problems. In this term of council, we developed the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing that was comprised of city managers, community representatives and city council members. the Task Force developed over 30 short and long term recommendations to help resolve the housing problems.
Jordan Poapst, Cornwall
ANSWER: In my opinion, the housing “crisis” (shortage + rise in rent price) relates to a lack of population growth, which creates a stagnant demand, therefore increasing the price of the current supply. Why would a developer choose Cornwall and/or the SD&G area to develop new housing, when the demonstrated growth of population is well below the provincial/national average? Why would they choose Cornwall when both our median and average income (per resident) is well below the provincial median and average income? Why should any significant number of people choose to relocate to Cornwall under these conditions? Council/administration needs to create the environment for brand new industry development. There is a giant window of opportunity in the burgeoning recreational cannabis industry. We could be attracting large-scale cannabis producers to set up shop here, we could allow for indoor cannabis smoking at cannabis clubs and/or venues (as indoor non-smoking bylaws were based on tobacco smoking restrictions). This is just one idea to bring a level of new industry to our city, which would attract workers, which then invites property developers to take a closer look at our municipality for additional housing.
Justin Towndale, Cornwall
ANSWER: I do believe that we can attempt to tackle the issue of housing regionally, as per my answer above. I would like to have discussions with Akwesasne, South Stormont, South Glengarry and the United Counties of SDG on ways to address this issue. As mentioned above, solutions include a shelter and more social housing. When it comes to new development, currently the city is expanding at a faster pace than has been seen in years, with new subdivisions being built across the city. Ensuring a healthy mix of dwelling types is important to ensure a variety of housing that suits everyone’s needs. As mentioned above I also believe we should engage developers on building social housing projects.
Bryan McGillis, South Stormont
ANSWER: Municipalities must incentivize Developers and encourage them to build affordable Housing to help with the housing crisis which is affecting and impacting our seniors and first-time home buyer. I believe we must work Regionally with our municipal neighbors to get more provincial financial support for municipalities that are seeing a lot of residential growth. We went through the process to implement Development Charges to Developers to lessen the burden for the upfront infrastructure capital costs to the taxpayers. We need sweeping reforms to cut provincial bureaucratic red tape which does not meet the needs of Ontarians today.
David Smith, South Stormont
ANSWER: We also need to stay on track with housing development. Various forms of housing from single residence to senior apartments to subsidized housing. We not only need to attract more people into the area but more importantly, we need to keep our residents right here in South Stormont where they deserve to stay. As a member of C.A.H.C. now Cornwall and area housing I’ve seen the need for housing and I believe that we can make it
so they will build in South Stormont. We had an opportunity to explore this option not long ago and the Mayor was not interested in subsidized housing in this area.
Lyle Warden, South Glengarry
ANSWER: I would love to approach this from a regional perspective. However, this has been very difficult to achieve in the past. We are at a stand still for development in the Glen Walter area, until we get funding to replace and upgrade the W/WW plants. We have requested services from the City of Cornwall multiple times over the years, never being successful. When the city updated their Sewage Plant approximately 10 years ago, they included expanding services to GlenWalter/South Glengarry, and Long Sault/ SouthStormont in the plans when the City applied for the grants. The City received 18.5M from the Feds and 18.5M from the Province. I am hopeful that we will be able to work something out in the new term. I met with Mayor Glen Grant for a discussion on the matter, and I am cautiously optimistic we will be able to achieve something. Through the SDG County levy, SG residents pay towards Cornwall and Area Social Housing, through a joint services agreement. One area where I believe we can help is in Glen Walter. At the moment the township owns property that can be developed once our Water and Waste Water plants are expanded. I will work towards having the zoning amended to have multi units developed, and a portion of that could be for geared to income rentals.
Lachlan McDonald, South Glengarry
ANSWER: This is a very hard question to answer because it means so many things to so many people. I am assuming you mean new housing and subdivisions. I would encourage our building and planning staff to work collaboratively with builders and developers. There are rules that the province mandates, but we can continue to guide people so that the process is not over whelming and to avoid people having costly errors. A focus on serving the public is a must. Any time we, in conjunction with the Counties of SDG (who administer the Official Plan) can make the builder/developer experience simpler, the better.
QUESTION #3: What project can the three mayors of S. Stormont, S. Glengarry and Cornwall agree to work on to create a new waterfront attraction or event that draws tourism and/or economic growth to our region?
Glen Grant, Cornwall
ANSWER: I believe the DevCore development, at the previous Nav Centre, will be the one attraction that will benefit Cornwall and the two counties for tourism, economic growth and housing.
James Leroux, Cornwall
ANSWER: Will work with the new Mayor to locate developers for our water front.
Jordan Poapst, Cornwall
ANSWER: Assuming that South Glengarry doesn’t elect another alleged pedophile (Frank Prevost) as their mayor, I’d be happy to work with them on developing waterfront tourism. I’d actually like to propose an amalgamation with Cornwall’s outlying areas, to create a sort of Greater Cornwall Area, which would assist in the governmental efficiency of creating such an economic landscape. Specifically for the water, we would also need to work with the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne on any such decisions. Together, there could be cannabis tourism on the water, like party cruise boats, just as an idea. We could look into developing a waterfront casino. Perhaps, we could look into developing some sort of family-oriented amusement park. On the other end, we could bring back adult entertainment establishments to our area. Some of these ideas would require municipal bylaw amendments, and I am all for the review of bylaws which impede private business, particularly in the forms of tourism and entertainment.
Justin Towndale, Cornwall
ANSWER: This is a difficult one to answer because I don’t believe there is a single answer to this question. I also believe that we need to bring Akwesasne into any discussions about a new major event or attraction on the waterfront. The one common factor that Cornwall, South Stormont, and South Glengarry have currently is the waterfront trail, which promotes bicycle tourism. Ensuring that there are points of interest or engagement along the way of the recreational path will ensure that bicycle tourism continues. Each respective municipality also has a list of waterfront projects to complete. I believe that if we communicate with each other, and this includes Akwesasne, that we can plan our projects in sync for maximum impact. I would like to explore having Cornwall Transit provide service to Akwesasne, South Stormont, and South Glengarry to allow for better connectivity between all four communities and generate more waterfront traffic for all. I also believe that a water taxi service is something that could be looked at, as it could easily serve Cornwall, Akwesasne, and South Glengarry. South Stormont is upstream of the Moses Saunders Dam, so a bit more coordination would be required, but it is also achievable. Further to this, having bike rental stations, similar to the ones in Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal, at key points along the waterfront trail would provide another option for easy travel between our communities.
Bryan McGillis, South Stormont
ANSWER: We have so much opportunity to all work together to make improvements for our Waterfront collectively, with South Glengarry, City of Cornwall, South Stormont, and South Dundas partnering with the St. Lawrence Parks Commission. I see many recreational activities that would bring many people to our communities as a prosperous economic engine. We could organize the best sport fishing in North America during the summer and winter seasons. We can be very competitive with Prince Edward County and Sand Banks that have overpriced
RB&B’s. Other projects could be waterfront-based events in conjunction with music Festivals. South Stormont Township are in constant communication with the SLPC to secure waterfront property for recreational development. The Recreational waterfront master plan is on the South Stormont website to view.
David Smith, South Stormont
ANSWER: I’m not sure if bordering Townships to Cornwall would benefit us as well as it would the city. I feel that Cornwall would reap the rewards of the tourism dollars. However some mutual projects can take place using the connectivity of the bike path along the waterfronts could happen. Bicycle rally’s, running events or even snow shoeing could bring some economic impact to each community as we all promote together with the help and guidance of SD&G tourism.
Lyle Warden, South Glengarry
ANSWER: With the recent announcement from Devcore, the new owners of Nav Canada property. I would be happy to meet up with them to see if there is anything that SG and SS could do to add to the project. I would also be happy to see if there could be ways that we could all enhance our water front trail, located on the nicest body of water in Canada. (in my opinion) Surely enhancing this trail in a unified approach, would attract visitors to our area,
and help economic development.
Lachlan McDonald, South Glengarry
ANSWER: This is another tough question because the three waterfronts are very different. Most of South Glengarry is privately held; Cornwall and South Stormont have significant publicly owned waterfront. I would have staff search all previous studies and develop a proposal based on those recommendations. Public acceptance of any plan is critical, and I’d prefer this to be community led and supported by the Township’s grants and donation policy. I would support the resurrection of another SD&G Great Waterfront Trails event or a similar event. I imagine that would be agreeable among all three Mayors. We have to keep in mind, the waterfront, by itself, is the draw for tourism and growth.
QUESTION #4: Health Care – what can you and your council propose to help increase health care workers in our area?
Glen Grant, Cornwall
ANSWER: Increasing health care workers in our area is difficult to answer due to the number and levels of health care. City Council has developed two programs, the Medical Recruitment Program and the Medical Scholarship Program, that assists in attracting much needed doctors to Cornwall. Currently we are reviewing these programs to help address our current needs.
James Leroux, Cornwall
ANSWER: Looking forward to work with council to increase our health care workers in our area for a better health service, be it Physicians, more nurses, more social workers. There is a need and where do you start?
Jordan Poapst, Cornwall
ANSWER: I am not well-researched on the subject of the healthcare worker shortage (and whether or not this a localized issue), and would require an in depth review of the situation, to form an approach to a possible solution. I will say that the pandemic seems to have stressed our healthcare system, and workers, and particularly how our government has treated these essential workers. As I’ve mentioned, the root cause for many issues in Cornwall revolve around our lack of population growth. We (as council, working with administration) need to attract people
here (via new industry), which requires an ability to influence workers and businesses to want to come here. When more people start choosing Cornwall, the health workers to care for them will follow. If we encourage the development of more enjoyable things to do in the city, we may attract people who seek this enjoyment when not working (particularly good for people with high-stress jobs).
Justin Towndale, Cornwall
ANSWER: Earlier this term I was approached by a local resident who was a qualified medical doctor looking to return to Cornwall to practice and take advantage of our medial scholarship. This doctor had passed his Canadian and American medical boards, worked in hospitals in Ontario and was currently working in New York. However, because his medical degree was from outside Canada or the US, he was initially declined. I was able to help him get acceptance into the program, which was a big win for the community. But he is not alone. I then tabled a motion
to strike a task force to review the criteria of our medical scholarship program with the intent of looking to expanding it to doctors and specialists trained outside Canada and the US. However, this motion was defeated at Council. The time has long past to review and update our outdated medical recruitment and medical scholarship criteria in order to support more doctors coming to Cornwall.
Bryan McGillis, South Stormont
ANSWER: A doctor recruitment committee was formed with South Stormont and South Dundas. We were able to recruit two doctors, but we are looking at other opportunities such as Nurse Practitioners to expand services to help with the doctor shortage. We have identified the problems. There are still many people that do not have a doctor. Space is not the problem. Our health care system in Canada is broken. The competition is stiff to recruit doctors because they are leaving for the US because for better pay, and less barriers to cross. This is another huge concern we must do regionally for better results.
David Smith, South Stormont
ANSWER: Health care is a bit out of reach for small municipalities as far as increasing the workforce. This is more of a Provincial responsibility. We can however try create and subsidize some volunteer groups to help ease the burden and workload of our health care workers. They are overworked and forced to spend too much time on minor responsibilities that a volunteer can help with like some activities for example. Reading and interacting with seniors is important to their mental health and welfare. Not all health care is physical.
Lyle Warden, South Glengarry
ANSWER: South Glengarry council recently agreed to collaborate with HGMH to pay $25K over a 5 year period to help towards recruiting a new doctor to the area. This is a first for our municipality and I am proud that our Council moved forward on this initiative.
Lachlan McDonald, South Glengarry
ANSWER: Health care is the million-dollar question right now but also fundamentally a provincial responsibility. In speaking to a mother of a nursing student, I understand that the enrollment in nursing has increased in 2022, which is great news. I also understand that the nursing crisis is two-fold: demographic and burnout. Both those things the Township cannot influence. Therefore, the greatest thing we can do is make South Glengarry a place that people want to come home to when they are finished their studies. Additionally, we should collaborate with local hospitals and school boards to educate and encourage our youth on the rewarding career that nursing offers. A career that my mother and both Grandmothers undertook.
