[response from Peter Cooper]
1. General
a) What is the main reason (or reasons) for your wanting to run for
Council or District Councilor?
I believe that I have a lot to offer for a number of reasons. As
District Councilor, I think I can represent the interests of all
constituents in our township at the District Level. I will apply my
leadership and operational experience to make sure that the
Township of Georgian Bay sees fair and reasonable ROI (Return on
Investment) on the significant amount of funding the township
provides to that upper tier of government. As a life-long seasonal
resident on coastal Georgian Bay, I believe my depth of
understanding and appreciation for this very special area will allow
me to represent constituents’ interests from Honey Harbour in the
south to Twelve Mile Bay in the north, at the Township of Georgian
Bay Council meetings. I will continue to work very hard to find a
way to ensure that Honey Harbour gets a fair shake at Council, and
that we find a long-term solution for sustainable economic growth
and life style enhancements for vitally important community.
b)
How do you propose to represent all of the constituencies in the
Township given their sometimes different priorities in particular
land based communities and that of water based
communities?
It is my view that we need to remember that whether it is a landbased or water- based issue, or whether it affects permanent or
seasonal residents, everyone deserves fair-minded and balanced
consideration. It won’t always be easy or even possible to find a
perfect balance, but I will try my utmost to be as fair as possible to all
constituents’ concerns and priorities. We need to remember that we
have a very symbiotic relationship between the various communities of
interest and this inter-dependence gives us a very good reason to be
supportive of each other.
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c)
What have you done (will you do) to assure all residents of the
Township that you will strive to ensure an equitable portioning of
available funds and services to all areas of the Township
despite being a resident or associated with a particular area
in the Township?
While I have answered some of this question already, I believe that I
have a record for being fair in my dealings with the people I have
ultimately been charged with looking after. In my business career and
volunteer work, where I have had the responsibility to look after the
concerns of many hundreds of staff, volunteers or supporters, I think I
have managed to show that I look out for the greater good of the
entire group of stakeholders. This approach and experience should
allow me to make those same kind of reasonable, fair-minded and
‘10,000 foot’ decisions which, in turn, will benefit all the constituents in
this township.
2. Administration
a)
How would you safeguard against possible abuse of public trust
by members of Council or staff?
We need to ensure that there is full transparency at the new Council.
This means far less time, or overuse by Council, of in camera/closed
sessions. In other words, the use of closed sessions should be limited
and only exercised to protect personal privacy issues or if the
Township is required to keep matters confidential due to litigation. It is
my hope that the Council of 2015 can set a new direction which
reduces the amount of litigation we have been experiencing in the last
few years. The reduction in the use of legal services, (the costs of
which are presently out of control), can be achieved, I believe, by
following more accepted and standard municipal operational practices.
I also believe that we can achieve a more collaborative approach with
respect to dispute resolution, and that can be achieved by moving
confrontations into the dispute resolution realm of solutions versus the
over-use of an integrity commissioner.
b) What plans do you have for keeping taxes under control?
As noted above, legal expenses are out of control, and it is my belief
that this issue can be remedied by better operational practices and
direction. The new Council has to take the time to look at all
costs/expenses and try to figure out better and more efficient ways to
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operate. Are there services being performed which are duplicated at
the District level? Maybe we need to figure out how the District could
become a better service provider to the township to ensure that all
duplication is eliminated or drastically reduced. Shared services with
neighbouring municipalities should be explored. We should benchmark
the ‘best in class’ municipalities. Who are the most efficient ones, the
top performers, and how do they do it? Many opportunities to reduce
costs were identified in an independent process analysis and report
conducted by KPMG. The recommendations can and should be used as
a guide for future Councils.
c) The annual budget is of interest to taxpayers. How would you
ensure more public understanding of and input to the
budget?
Make sure that a comprehensive and consultative process is made
available to the public. Share knowledge, make the budget process
simple and clear and don’t hide behind traditional complex processes.
Use that age-old business adage, K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid).
Engage and promote the use of civilian subject matter experts who are
willing to volunteer their time on an ‘as needed’ basis in areas such as
finance, law, planning, earth sciences, operations, entrepreneurship
and organizational development.
d)
What will the impact of the revised OPP funding model have on
the Township budget and what do you plan to do about it?
The new OPP funding model is deeply concerning for a number of
reasons. One is that 50% of our township is water-based / wateraccess only and marine OPP services will continue to be covered by the
FEDs without any financial downloading. And yet, as I understand, the
proposal is to assess on an unfair per capita basis, regardless if the
service is supplied and paid for elsewhere. Therefore we should start
by figuring out how to get that point across. We also need to find out
what the other “rural” municipalities are planning to do about this. We
may be able to work with them to apply some pressure, and to
consider opting out.
3. Planning
a)
Community plans that reflect the specific characteristics of each
community are important to many taxpayers. How would you
protect the integrity of existing and future community plans?
Community plans are very important to many constituents across a
broad spectrum of this township. I believe it is the job of Council to
respect the overall wishes of the majority of our constituents
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pertaining to planning. Having said that, and as a longer- term goal, I
would like to see a much more homogenous approach to our townshipwide plan. I believe there is an opportunity to consolidate many of
these plans in such a way that the planning implementation process
would ultimately be much more easily managed and, because of this,
we would see far less misinterpretation or misunderstanding.
b)
As a potential member of the Committee of Adjustment, please
describe your ideas on the rights of the individual property
owner, and the rights of the community as a whole to protect
their community ‘for the greater good’. How will you handle a
situation where the two sets of rights are diametrically opposed?
It strikes me that the role of the C of A is to examine each variance
presented based upon the 4 test of planning. Top of the list are
considerations like “can it comply?” and if so then why should it not be
required to comply? Is this request by the applicant a true “need” or
just a “want”? Is this a hardship case? Is making a minor adjustment
to building set-back, for example, actually not the better solution
because it allows the building to nestle into the land/background?
Having said that, when the rights of the community, which are
sometimes hundreds of residents, are superseded by an individual’s
‘want’, I have a serious problem understanding why that should ever
happen.
The C of A needs to consider a change to its selection/recruitment
practices for the committee membership. Why not find volunteer
members for the committees who have some level of experience in
planning and also a high degree of objectivity (no vested interested in
the decisions made at C of A).
c)
Many permanent residents in this township are looking for
economic development, ways to bring additional year-round
residents and businesses into the area. Growth and development
are seen as positive and beneficial. In contrast, many seasonal
residents view themselves as stewards of a very unique natural
area and believe that overdevelopment has the potential to
destroy it. How do you see balancing the planning needs of the
permanent communities with those of seasonal/recreation
communities?
I believe that I will have answered most of this question elsewhere in
this questionnaire, but I believe a good balance must be struck
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between the needs of all parties. Growth for growth’s sake without
consideration of the environment in this particular township is illadvised. We already know from a survey conducted at the District of
Muskoka and Mpac, that coastal G.B. waterfront properties in our
township have increased in value by 17%, while at the same time only
around 4 to 5% in most of the other municipalities in the District. Why
is that? I believe it is because of the outstanding semi-wilderness
experience and the amount of undeveloped public and private lands.
We also need to set realistic expectations as to what sort of services
will likely be found or not found in our township. Will we grow enough
in the next 25 years to justify a hospital or comprehensive retail
operations? I think that may be wishful thinking, so why not get on
with enhancing what we have and creating realistic expectations
around services and infrastructure?
d) Boat access only properties are dependent on marinas. What
would you do to ensure ongoing marina access for these
taxpayers?
We presently have zoning bylaws in place to ensure that these
marinas will be there in the future to service the water access
communities. These marinas are, in fact, dependent on the water
access residents for sustainable business growth over the longterm and, equally, seasonal residents need to be assured that those
very important marina services are retained. So what would I do? I
would make sure that marinas are able to grow and flourish so they
will want to continue to service the water-based communities.
I suggest T of GB needs to be open-minded about the need for
marinas to create additional revenue that complements their
existing business. That could mean maintaining zoning that allows
them to provide other services such as restaurants, retail stores
and other non-residential shoreline based business opportunities.
e)
What is your position on the assumption of private roads? If roads are
assumed by the Township in the future, how would you pay for them?
Private road assumption is an issue which could be quite controversial in the
future. I agree with the decision of the current council to freeze any further
road assumptions until there has been a public process because it could
impact the taxes of all ratepayers. It is my understanding that most private
roads are assumed only if the benefitting parties absorb the cost of
upgrading the road to current municipal standards.
We also need to be mindful that there are long term costs associated with
additional roads coming on board through private assumption. So the
question for me is that even if they are brought up to standard, we must deal
with the annual maintenance costs. As a Councillor, I would need to be
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convinced that there is some benefit to the township as a whole to assume
maintenance costs in perpetuity. If, for example, the majority of cottages on
a road have been converted to year-round residences and if the goals and
objectives of the municipality are to grow its permanent population, then that
might make a compelling reason to assume that particular road once it is
brought up to standard by the benefiting parties.
e) In your opinion, how do you feel the current planning
department is managing their responsibilities in applying
township by-laws?
I have to say that I have been very concerned about this issue over
the last number of years. To my way of thinking, planning is a key
issue for the future stability of this township. And of course we need to
ensure that planning can create an environment for positive economic
growth, but I say not at the expense of the very delicate and special
environment which we are so fortunate to enjoy in this township. We
need to remember that the Georgian Bay coastal area has been
designated as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. With that in mind,
we should remember that planning and the attendant Official Plans
and Zoning Bylaws need to be more properly directed and
administered. Planning should not be about finding ways to allow
applicants to get around the plans, but rather to work with the
planning guidelines which are in place. If we can move in that
direction, I believe we can reduce a large number of OMB appeals and
legal costs which this township has been incurring. And by doing this
we would also create a much more stable, predictable and nonconfrontational planning environment.
4. Of the list of nominated candidates which do you believe you can best
work with, beginning with the mayor and councilors in the 4 wards.
While this is a tough question, I do know most of the team I would like
to work with. Unfortunately I do not know all of the candidates who
have registered, especially those who signed on at the last minute. As
for whom I would like to work with and know best, keeping the above
mentioned limitations in mind;
Louise Rivett, Mayor
Roy Lovold, Ward 1
Pat Edwards, Ward 2
Stephen Jarvis, Ward 4
That is a team which I consider will be not just good to work with, but
this group will bring to Council some excellent experience which will
drive this township forward in a very positive direction.
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There are others who are running in Ward 3 who I would like to get to
know better in order to gain an understanding of what their positions
might be on a variety of issues.
5. Honey Harbour over the last number of decades has seen economic
prosperity as well as of late a decline in local economic activity. In
your opinion what is needed to kick start Honey Harbour? From my
perspective, Honey Harbour needs to have a very bold and aggressive
plan to ensure long-term sustainable economic growth. Quick fix, small
band aid plans just won’t provide the sustainable growth we need. And
we already have a very specific recent example of what I am speaking
about here at this township. The “build it and they will come” sort of
projects clearly aren’t working. With that in mind, I am presently
consulting with several organizations and provincial government
agencies to see if a more comprehensive plan can gain some traction.
I have seen some very positive results so far and will continue down
that road. But what I have found out so far is; we need to engage
many NFP organizations, educational institutions, all levels of
government, many corporations, SME’s, and entrepreneurs. If we do
that, we have a much higher likelihood for a successful long term
solution for Honey Harbour.
We need to “go big or go home”.
6. How much time do you think this position requires per week and
month, and how much time are you willing to devote in and out of the
office?
I think we all need to remember that this cannot in any way be
construed as a “job”. And while there is a modest level of
compensation for serving the community, we would be wiser to
consider this more like a volunteer position and a way to give back to
our community. How much time will be needed? My guess is probably
a minimum of 20 to 30 hours per week. My volunteer work in the past
has been equally demanding of my time and I expect that this role will
be no different.
If elected, I will be delighted to serve my community as best I can,
and will commit as much time as necessary to get the job done. I have
no doubt that I will enjoy the challenge.
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