Bonnie Henderson

Reasons to vote for Bonnie.

There are many projects that city council and staff have been working on and I would like to be there to see the development go ahead. One example is the Grand Trunk Hub the Transit Terminal is done now and the roof has been renovated. Just waiting for the provincial funding to get more done there and we are working hard to get this. I look forward to the day that the seniors, university students, the YMCA and other groups will all be together in the same building.

Accessibility is near and dear to my heart. There are many more sidewalks to be put in as we work our way through the Bike & Pedestrian Plan that will eventually ensure there is at least 1 sidewalk on every city street and 2 on Arterial and Collector Roads ensuring our city is more accessible for all. One project I would like to see done is the sidewalk on the west side of St Vincent St from the townhouses to Cambria St, sidewalk on Erie continued from Lorne to Packham Rd and along Lorne from Erie to Downie St. to name a few.

Climate Change is going to be a huge undertaking for our city as goals have been set for 2030 and 2050. The Climate Change Program Manager (Sadaf Ghalib starts Sept 19^th) and I want to help to achieve these goals by working with businesses and individuals.

People in our city along with all other municipalities in Ontario are struggling to help those who have lost their home and need a helping hand. The second phase of affordable homes are being built now that will house 27 more apartments on Britannia St. I’m hopeful our 3^rd attempt at getting more apartments/homes on Erie St will get the funding to go ahead for another 11 residents who are homeless.

When I started on city council one of my goals was to communicate to others and I will continue to do that. I enjoy working with our residents and have an open line of communication. I’m flexible and open to hearing everyone’s perspective on things for our city.

These are just a few of the reasons I would hope that you would vote for me. I’m approachable, dedicated and hardworking and want to be YOUR voice on city council.

1. What will be your unique contribution to council?

Being approachable, dedicated, hardworking and enjoy making our city a safer, healthier place to live, work and play.

2. How will you tackle urban sprawl and protect prime agricultural land?

By encouraging building up instead of out.

3. How will you encourage businesses and individuals to respond to climate change?

To work with the new Manager of Climate Change to show businesses and individuals how they can work with the city to lower our greenhouse gases.

4. What is your idea(s) to attract new industry to Stratford?

Invest Stratford does a good job of bringing new business to Stratford and to continue to work with Southwestern Ontario Marketing Alliance (SOMA) - a regional partnership of seven municipalities with natural economic ties whose mandate is to attract foreign investment to their communities. This how FIO, Aisin, Dyna-Mig and Hayashi to name a few came to Stratford.

5. How will you address wealth inequality, homelessness and poverty in Stratford?

To continue to work on the 10 yr housing and homeless plan and applying for grants to build more places for people to live.

6. How will you engage and inform the public about current issues and legislation?

I use facebook to share events, information, etc. I also use email and phone as they ask questions.

7. Would you support term limits? Why/why not?

The term limits for city councillors is governed by the Provincial legislature as of right now there are no term limits. Myself I worry about term limits as you might lose people that are offering great ideas and working on them. We actually changed the term limits on boards/committees/advisory when we discovered people who took courses etc. weren’t able to run for the next term and their education on that particular committee was very important to our city. There are usually some councillors or even Mayor who decide to not run and bringing in some new councillors every term.

8. What is your plan to better engage youth in Stratford?

We tried to get a youth council going but it didn’t work out due to lack of applicants. It’s important that we work with youth as they are our future leaders in our city. This is something that could be tried again. I have gone into schools and done presentations in some classrooms at the request of teachers and found this important to be able to explain what a councillor is and answer their questions.