Four years ago my main reason for running for council was the condition of our roads. While we made some progress in the last four years there is lots of work still to be done.

Fixing the roads is not a cheap or quick endeavour but over the last four years I have worked with the rest of council to make sure that each year the roads were at least a little better than the year before

Three Disasters in Three Years!

Unfortunately our efforts have had to compete with Mother Nature. 2024, 2025, and 2026 all saw flooding events that did more damage to our roads than we could afford to deal with, while also making improvements. Strong Twp has submitted applications for Municipal Disaster Recovery Assistance. That process is painstaking, involving thousand page submissions detailing the event and the steps taken and costs to fix the damages. Responses are not quick, but we finally received payment for the 2024 submission in July 2026 and the Ontario government has announced that we will receive our 2025 assistance as well (no date yet).

I will continue to work towards:

• a published scheduleand future priorities for road maintenance as well as records showing that the schedule is being met

• improved communications with the community around maintenance issues and concerns

• continuing the resident based Roads Advisory Committee and having it meet more often

• improving our roads to prepare them for the "new normal" of severe weather events

I've been active in various community endeavours and will take an active role in how council interacts with the community as a whole. I'm a believer in sustainable development that allows continued growth - but at the same time respecting our environment.

In the past four years as a councillor I have always voted in favour of the municipality helping our communities fight against phragmites - an invasive plant choking up our shorelines.

As a council we have interacted regulary with the Lake Bernard Property Owners Association and have supported their science based analysis of lake health, including the troubling increase in road salt leaching into the lake and affecting the wildlife there. I encourage all who love the lake and want to see it protected for future generations to get involved (link below).

Under my leadership we will continue to take care of the beautiful natural resources our area is so blessed with, so that they may be enjoyed for many decades to come.

Lake Bernard Property Owners' Association

Amalgamation is obviously on many people's minds and it is a really complicated subject. There are currently many unknowns and for that reason I am not prepared to vote in favour of amalgamation.

But neither am I ready to completely abandon the subject. The three councils elected in 2018 made the decision that we should study the topic. I was not elected to council until 2022 and the topic came up in the all-candidates meeting and that was when I started thinking about it earnestly. The new councils formed a study committee that after a slow start began to investigate the issue. We found out a lot (see this page), but at the end of four years we also learned that there were many things we still don’t know, not the least of which is a complete financial picture including assets, debts, and reserves.

We also don't know what all residents think. To that end I propose the three municipalities hire a polling firm to perform a statistically sound survey of the existing municipalities.

In 2022 I said that I would approach the problem with the voters of Strong in mind. I have always been a fact-based person and for me there just aren’t enough facts to make a good decision.