Wilmot mayoral candidates talk balancing economic growth with rural priorities

By Lee Griffi

All four candidates vying for the Wilmot Township mayor’s chair took part in a recent debate hosted by the New Hamburg Board of Trade, discussing several key issues facing the municipality.

Stephanie Goertz, Natasha Salonen, Kris Wilkinson and Clive Woolner shared a stage and provided those in attendance with their thoughts on some of the key issues facing Wilmot today, courtesy of moderator Randy Thompson. Below, the Gazette has published a portion of each candidates response, edited for length and clarity, to one of those questions.

One of the most contentious topics in the township recently has been growth and development, and the candidates shared their perspectives on the challenges and opportunities associated with the municipality growing through additional housing, infrastructure and municipal services.

How would you balance the need for housing and economic growth with infrastructure capacity, agricultural land, community character and the concerns of existing residents?

Goertz: “From what I hear from residents, they move to Wilmot Township for a rural community. …When we have three new large subdivisions coming to Wilmot Township where you take the maximum units each developer wants to build, and you only put three people in (each one) plus a long-term care home on Neville Street, you’re looking at potentially 8,000 people. Wilmot Township grew by only 3,000 (people) in the last 15 years. Eight thousand in eight years? Not making sense. Our official plan says we want to grow by 12,500 in 30 years; those numbers don’t add up. … I’m going to protect farmland. … Farmland, water and rural character are extremely important to me.”

Salonen: “I don’t think it’s growth versus community. Frankly, I don’t think any of us would be here without either ourselves or our ancestors having come due to growth. However, our new official plan does manage how we are going to grow and where we are going to grow. It does protect the country sideline, although that language isn’t explicitly in there. It still protects the actual area, and it plans for commercial lands to help diversify and bring jobs to Wilmot. We are also working with developers to create housing that your kids can afford, or if you want to downsize into, or if you want to purchase a larger home. … We are working with those developers to also get benefits for our community. For example, our trails network is heavily donated by our developers.”    

Wilkinson: “Our official plan and where we are headed, based on what the province has asked us to do, is to grow by 8,000-10,000 people over the next 25 years. I think it’s reasonable, responsible and it’s inevitable. Everybody’s growing, and unfortunately there’s no way to stop that. I think it’s important that we look at those next 25 years and start working with developers in being realistic about what we want to see. That means working with them and negotiating with them, not fighting tooth and nail with them to try and stop growth because I think we’ve seen the story time and time again. We turn down a development, the developer … goes to the Ontario Land Tribunal and it ends up costing us as taxpayers $200,000 and $500,000 every time we go there to fight, and we have a 99 per-cent chance of losing.”

Woolner: “Growth is going to happen. I think one of the biggest things we need to do on the commercial/industrial side is to create an environment where (developers) feel comfortable investing here. Given our current financial situation, with the high tax increases we’ve suffered and the development charges we face, I think we just need to work on getting confidence into it, and that should help us attract businesses. The residential side is pretty much going to be driven by demand. I think we still have to work with them to get something that’s going to be appropriate for the township and the community they’re building in. I would like to see a nice variety of housing and perhaps even some of what I would call affordable housing.”    

Other topics included trust, transparency and public engagement as well as rising costs and the impact of property taxes on household budgets.

The full debate video is available online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qlAB-rLpKk.