What I'm focused on at City Hall
Throughout this campaign, and particularly through my Diary of a Transparent Candidate series, I've spent time speaking with residents, service providers, business owners, police, community leaders, and municipal stakeholders while digging into how Peterborough's systems actually work.
Those conversations have sharpened my focus around three areas: protecting affordability through responsible government, building a stronger economic foundation for the city, and improving outcomes around homelessness and public safety.
These aren't isolated issues. A stronger economy expands the tax base. A stronger tax base reduces pressure on homeowners. Better-performing social programs can improve outcomes for vulnerable residents while reducing pressure on emergency services and public spaces. Better infrastructure planning helps avoid larger costs in the future.
Affordability & Responsible Government
The number one concern I continue to hear from residents is affordability. Families are dealing with higher mortgage payments, grocery bills, utilities, insurance, and property taxes. City Council can't control all of those pressures, but it does control how municipal dollars are spent and how quickly municipal costs grow.
I don't believe responsible government means promising that taxes can simply be frozen regardless of circumstances. It means treating every dollar collected from residents as money that needs to produce value, carefully examining spending decisions, and keeping future increases as low as reasonably possible.
That also means looking beyond the size of a budget and asking what we're actually getting for it. If a program is receiving more money, we should understand what outcome that investment is expected to produce and whether the evidence shows that it is working.
Infrastructure is part of the same conversation. Roads, bridges, sidewalks, parks, public facilities, water, sewer, and stormwater systems become considerably more expensive when maintenance is deferred. Good asset management isn't flashy, but preventative maintenance and long-term planning can protect taxpayers from much larger bills later.
- • Keep future property tax increases as low as reasonably possible
- • Review spending with a focus on measurable value and outcomes
- • Grow the commercial and industrial tax base
- • Reduce long-term pressure on residential taxpayers
- • Support preventative maintenance and long-term asset planning
- • Pursue partnerships and outside funding where they make financial sense
Economic Growth & Employment Lands
Peterborough cannot build long-term affordability simply by deciding how to divide up the tax burden. We also need to grow the economic base that supports the City.
More private investment, commercial and industrial assessment, and good-paying jobs create opportunities for residents while also broadening the tax base that pays for municipal services and infrastructure.
One of the biggest constraints facing Peterborough is the availability of employment land. The long-running discussion involving Peterborough, Cavan Monaghan, the County, and the Province represents an opportunity to think beyond municipal boundaries and pursue growth that can benefit the entire region.
Many residents of surrounding communities already travel into Peterborough for jobs, shopping, healthcare, recreation, education, and other services. Likewise, Peterborough benefits from the workforce, businesses, land, and opportunities that exist around us. Our economies are interconnected whether our municipal boundaries acknowledge it or not.
I believe the best path forward is collaborative rather than adversarial: work with Cavan Monaghan, the County, the Province, businesses, and landowners to create conditions where investment can happen and both communities can benefit.
Economic development is also about the experience businesses have when they try to invest here. Serviced land, predictable rules, reasonable timelines, and certainty in the approval process are powerful incentives. Peterborough should continue looking for ways to make good investment easier without compromising appropriate planning standards.
- • Move the employment lands discussion forward collaboratively
- • Work constructively with Cavan Monaghan, Peterborough County, and the Province
- • Increase the supply of serviced land available for employment growth
- • Attract private investment and good-paying jobs
- • Grow Peterborough's commercial and industrial assessment
- • Improve certainty and reasonable speed in development approvals
- • Support economic opportunities across sectors rather than relying on a single industry
Safer Streets & Better Outcomes
Homelessness, addiction, mental health, public disorder, and community safety are deeply interconnected issues. They also involve multiple levels of government, healthcare, police, social-service agencies, housing providers, community organizations, businesses, and residents.
There is no single municipal program that can solve all of these problems. But that doesn't mean City Council is powerless. Council can be much clearer about the outcomes it expects from the services it funds and the partnerships it enters into.
Compassion and accountability should not be treated as opposites. Helping someone remain trapped in homelessness or addiction is not the outcome we're looking for. The goal should be movement toward greater stability, appropriate treatment, housing, independence, and a safer community.
That means asking better questions. How many people are entering a service? How many are moving into housing? How many are reconnecting with treatment or supports? How many return repeatedly? Are our interventions improving conditions in surrounding neighbourhoods and public spaces?
We also need to understand the incentives created by the systems we build. Well-intentioned policies can sometimes produce unintended consequences. Measuring those effects allows us to adjust programs rather than assuming that more activity automatically means better results.
Public safety deserves the same evidence-based approach. Through this campaign I've had the opportunity to speak with police leadership, participate in a ride-along, and hear directly from downtown businesses and residents. Data can help identify where problems are occurring, which interventions are working, and where resources can have the greatest impact.
- • Establish meaningful outcome measures for municipally funded homelessness programs
- • Focus on movement toward housing, treatment, stability, and independence
- • Examine the incentives and unintended consequences created by policy
- • Support evidence-based and data-driven policing
- • Protect residents, businesses, neighbourhoods, and public spaces
- • Improve coordination between the City, police, healthcare, service providers, and other levels of government
Understand the system. Measure the outcome.
One of the themes running through my entire campaign is that there are rarely perfect solutions in municipal government. There are trade-offs. Spending more in one area means that money isn't available somewhere else. A regulation intended to solve one problem may create another. A service designed to help people can sometimes create incentives that make the original problem harder to resolve.
My professional background has taught me to start by understanding the system, defining the outcome we're actually trying to produce, and then using data and evidence to determine whether our decisions are moving us toward it.
That doesn't mean every municipal decision can be reduced to a spreadsheet. Community values matter. Lived experience matters. Residents' priorities matter. But good information helps Council understand the consequences of the choices it is making and explain those choices honestly.
Understand the System
Look beyond the immediate symptom and understand how decisions affect the wider city.
Measure Outcomes
Judge programs by whether they are producing the results residents are paying for, not simply by activity or spending.
Understand Incentives
Consider how policies influence the behaviour of residents, businesses, organizations, and government itself.
Be Clear About Trade-offs
Explain what residents gain from a decision, what it costs, and what alternatives Council considered.
Residents should be able to understand what Council is deciding and why. I will work to communicate major issues in plain language, remain accessible to residents, listen carefully to different perspectives, and explain the reasoning behind the decisions I make.
Recreation, Arts & Quality of Life
A successful city is more than its tax rate or its balance sheet. Recreation, arts, culture, parks, sports, festivals, and community organizations help create the quality of life that makes people want to live, work, raise families, and invest in Peterborough.
I've seen firsthand through my involvement with local sport and community organizations how much can be accomplished when residents, volunteers, businesses, non-profits, and government work together.
I want Peterborough to continue investing in the things that make our city a great place to live, but I also believe new facilities and programs need to be evaluated against their full lifecycle costs and the value they provide.
Partnerships can be an important part of that approach. Where community groups, private organizations, other governments, or outside funding can help provide amenities while reducing the burden on local taxpayers, those opportunities deserve serious consideration.
- • Support recreation opportunities for residents of all ages
- • Support arts, culture, festivals, and community organizations
- • Encourage facilities that can serve multiple groups and activities
- • Explore public, private, and community partnerships
- • Consider lifecycle and operating costs before major investments
- • Use recreation and events to support tourism and local economic activity
See the thinking behind the platform.
These positions weren't developed in isolation. Throughout the campaign I've used my Diary of a Transparent Candidate series to share the meetings, research, questions, and experiences that are shaping how I think about Peterborough's challenges.
The series explores housing and homelessness, public safety, economic development, infrastructure, data, incentives, and the trade-offs involved in municipal decision making.