Wards 2, 3 and 4 candidate debate in Delhi

Chris Abbott

Editor

Delhi & District Chamber of Commerce hosted a two-hour Candidate Night for Norfolk County Ward 2, Ward 3, and Ward 4, at the Delhi District German Home on Tuesday, Sept. 29.

For more information on the Delhi & District Chamber, see their new website at delhichamber.ca.

Candidates were seated on stage in alphabetical order.

Chris Gill, Ward 3

Drew Hemsley, Ward 4

Jeni Lambert, Ward 4

Doug Moyaert, Ward 3

Chris Van Paassen, Ward 4

Linda Vandendriessche, Ward 2

Hetty Verlinden, Ward 3

Debbie Wilbur, Ward 2

“Tonight is all about municipal government,” said Chamber president Mark Spence. “Many areas of our lives in Canada are served by our federal government and our provincial government. But tonight is all about municipal government – Norfolk County. The county is responsible for five main areas – housing; zoning and land use; property taxes and fiscal responsibility; infrastructure, maintenance and growth; transit and transportation; and public safety and community services. So we’re going to focus on those areas. The Chamber has prepared four questions.”

Questions from the audience were also accepted.

Each candidate was allotted two minutes for an opening statement, followed by the questions and two-minute answers, and two-minute closing statements.

In this article, we’ll focus on the first question of the evening (answers abbreviated for space).

“We’re going to need $100 million every year to maintain our infrastructure, roads, bridges, parks, municipal facilities, emergency vehicles, water supply and waste-water treatment. Some of this cost could be funded by provincial/federal grants. If we have more residential, commercial and industrial development, that should increase total property tax revenues and ease the burden on current property owners. The question is: Do you support more residential, commercial and industrial land development? Why or why not?

CHRIS GILL (Ward 3) – My early answer is yes, but with a very strong caveat. I support residential, commercial and industrial growth. It is needed, but it must be responsible, balanced, and it cannot take away our farmlands. Responsible growth means more housing, more business, more modern industry for jobs that we need, which means we bring economic activity that we need. I think that development charges can help pay for the infrastructure that will help to support that.

We need to aggressively pursue provincial and federal infrastructure and we need to greatly improve those relationships. We need that funding to help us grow responsibly. My position is very simple – I encourage growth where it benefits and strengthens our community. I don’t support growth just to get bigger.

We need more jobs here. This area’s largest employer is a grocery store – we need to take action.

DREW HEMSLEY (Ward 4) – I would say I was much lined with Chris (Gill). A healthy community is a balanced mix of residential, commercial, agricultural and industrial land. Each one is dependent on the other, creating interdependent ecosystems. Commercial, agricultural and industry need workers and customers. Residents need good paying jobs, and services and goods to spend their money on. And houses they can afford.

Reducing the tax burden can only happen two ways. Less cost or more contributors to the tax base. More development is not necessarily the answer. Smart development is. We need to ensure all development is going to contribute to Norfolk’s ecosystem and is supportive of all the other sectors. We need to have a clear vision of where we need to go. And this is the important part – we must implement it. We are running out of time. Standing still does not work when the world is still spinning. We are falling behind and it is time for Norfolk to move forward.

JENI LAMBERT (Ward 4) – Of course, we need to have more industry coming here. When it comes to residential building, I am absolutely on the same page. We need responsible government. We have plenty of land that is already within our urban boundaries, that we need to be looking to first to make sure that we have affordable housing, and that we can get into on a realistic budget. I understand we can’t force anyone, what to do with their land, but we can certainly (approach) those land owners to see what we can do to facilitate having more housing within the urban boundaries.

When it comes to the commercial and industrial investment, we absolutely have land that is appropriate for that, that we need to be tapping into. But we can’t go reckless into building anything and everything. We do not have the doctors or the school spaces to (build) thousands of houses. We need to get all of our other ducks in a row first – we need to attract some new industry.

DOUG MOYAERT (Ward 3) – Right now, residential development in Delhi – there are six residential sites… so in my opinion Delhi does not need more residential development.

I will oppose any massive developments, companies such as Empire Homes, when they drop in 100 houses at a time, bringing all their labor from the city, contractors, dozens of out-of-town workers, no local contractors – and they take the profits with them. So I will do everything I can to keep all our local development and local jobs.

I will support both more commercial and industrial development, if it is properly planned and has added value to our agricultural community. I support controlled growth.

As far as population density, we don’t want any more urban sprawl. I believe our water systems right now are over-taxed already.

CHRIS VAN PAASSEN (Ward 4) – The commercial and industrial development and expansion is absolutely necessary, especially when it’s linked to food processing, value added agriculture. As of last week, the federal government announced $3 billion in funding to help Canadian food producers to self-sufficiency, and we should be front of the line trying to get some of that money. Move some things down here. Let’s put up a division of the food terminal. Instead of hundred trucks a day running from here to Toronto, let’s have the hundred buyers come here and show up right here in Norfolk County.

For way too many years, I’ve always heard that tourism was going to be our saviour, and it’s a very important part of the whole economic outlook… but I’ve always thought you only get to go on holidays when you have a job to go on holidays from. So if we do our job, create the jobs down here, the rest of the pieces of the puzzle will all fall back into place. 

LINDA VANDENDRIESSCHE (Ward 2) – Yes, we require $100 million for the next decade. Right now, Norfolk County receives $83 million from the Province, but we are spending an additional $30 million on provincially mandated services. This means our costs already outpace our available funding. Before we can begin to address the long list of infrastructure needs, and this is not suitable or pretending otherwise, it doesn’t help us.

A Hwy 3 corridor is not just possible, it’s practical. We have real opportunities – agribusiness, sorting, processing, vegetable freezing, and other forms of manufacturing. We see factories just steps from Norfolk’s boundary near Tillsonburg. The investments, the tax base. It’s all sitting right there beside us and we are ready to have a designated area on Hwy 3. We need to do it like when we were Norfolk Township. We had an industrial park. We pushed for growth then and we need to push for growth now.

I am a strong believer in commercial and industrial expansion because it is vital for our survival. Housing follows when jobs lead the way.

HETTY VERLINDEN (Ward 3) – Norfolk faces a major challenge and we $100 million for the next decade just to maintain what we have. Roads, bridges, water system, parks, and emergency services. That’s a huge burden on our current taxpayers. One way to ease that burden is by growing our tax base through carefully planned development. I support more industrial and commercial development, especially food processing and other light industrial uses because they generate significantly more property tax revenue per acre than residential growth and costs much less to service. These businesses create year-round jobs, strengthen our agricultural economy, and help us qualify for more federal and provincial grants. When we grow employment, we grow our physical capacity.

But growth has to be smart. We should focus development on land that already has water, waste-water and road infrastructure. That avoids expensive expansions and protects our prime farmland. Compact, serviced industrial parks, especially for food processing, give us the best return on investment.

Residential growth can still play a role, but only when it is higher density and located within existing serviced areas. Low density sprawl costs more to maintain. So yes, I support development, but the right kind of development in the right places.

DEBBIE WILBUR (Ward 2) – I support residential, commercial and industrial development, but growth has to make financial sense for Norfolk County. We need a broader tax base to help support the infrastructure we all depend on – roads, emergency services, water, the waste-water system and municipal facilities. But simply adding development does not automatically solve all our financial challenges. Growth also creates new infrastructural servicing costs and council needs to understand those long-term costs before approving development.

I want to see commercial and industrial development that creates jobs, attracts investment and strengthens our assessment base.

We also need a range of housing options so our young people, families and seniors have opportunities to remain in Norfolk. At the same time, Ward 2 contains some of our most valuable agricultural land. Growth should be directed to the right places. The quality and the productivity should be part of those decisions. Once productive farmland is developed, we cannot simply get it back.

My approach would be: where should we grow, what would it cost to service, what revenue will it generate and what will the long-term impact be on the taxpayer.