Get Involved Guelph Questionnaire 

Food Security

How will you ensure that our most vulnerable citizens have at least one meal at supper time indoors each day?

When council discusses the confirmation budget, I will request reopening past deliberations that led to funding only half of what is necessary to ensure seven evening meals per week. For the next multi-year budget, I will request updated figures to secure required funding for four more years.

Food insecurity is at a record high. What options would you champion so that the municipality addresses this hardship?

Use the Community Benefit Agreement framework to augment the work of the multitude of food security organisations, including equitable access to inspected commercial kitchens, and expand The SEED Healthy Food Prescription program. Fund the Energy Equity Action plan so people spend less on energy to have more for food.

Maximum Temperature Bylaw

Would you support a Guelph bylaw requiring landlords to maintain rental units at no more than 26C during periods of extreme heat, by providing adequate cooling where necessary, without passing the costs of installation, maintenance or operation on to tenants.

YES! Guelph’s minimum temperature bylaw is 21 °C; maximum of 26C is needed to protect the health and lives of seniors, infants, and other vulnerable groups.

Housing and Poverty

What is your plan for encampment residents that respects people’s humanity and need for safety?

The Public Space Use Bylaw is under review, report due Q2 2027. I delegated against the hastily formed bylaw and look forward to discussions when the report is returned to see if it has found a balance. Investigate feasibility of raised tent platforms in designated areas throughout the city.

What actions would you champion to address the housing crisis and improve income security in our community?

1. Continue implementation of the 30 actions in the Housing Affordability Strategy, while exploring ways of accelerating as many as possible, as quickly as possible.

2. Quarterly information report on "use-it-or-lose-it" water and wastewater allocation policy numbers.

3. Explore partnerships with faith organizations to unlock the potential of land for housing.

4. Restore funding for the 10-year Transit Plan and accelerate implementation of the modified grid system; implement transit priority lanes/lights where feasible.

5. Explore expansion of Community Benefit Agreements with mutual aid grassroots organizations. 

6. Advocate for the provincial funding promised to make municipalities whole, when development charges were removed to pay for growth.

What is your understanding of the causes of homelessness and what actions should the municipality take to prevent it?

• It has been over 30 years since upper levels of government stopped building social housing, and nearly 30 years since Guelph had staff with housing expertise. We have over 9,000 approved housing units; only a small percentage are expected to meet the provincial definition of affordable.

• Rent has increased astronomically since COVID. Minimum wage is $17.95/hr; Guelph living wage is $23/hr. Social assistance rates keep people in legislated poverty. 

• Continue advocating to have the housing portion of OW/ODSP "banked" when homeless.

• Guelph needs a tiered rental registry - corporate, full unit, and by-the-room - potentially facilitated through the Guelph-Wellington Tenant Union.
  

Climate Action and Environment

How will you make sure the City stops shifting the responsibility onto residents, fixes its own pollution problems, and puts necessary funding back into local climate action?

The Community Energy Initiative must be updated. Too many external pressures have impacted the plan for it to be effective as written. We must accelerate corporate renewable energy sources and battery storage while we fully electrify the municipal fleet. Develop transit priority lanes/lights to reduce diesel use/increase electric range.

 How will you work to ensure that Guelph's transportation, construction, commercial and industrial sectors meet greenhouse gas emission targets?

• Increase city-owned renewable energy sources; add battery storage capacity

• Fully electrify the municipal fleet; no more hybrids

• Find more ways to keep municipal spending local, reducing shipping

• Complete municipal building retrofits; optimize cataloging of stored reusable materials for actual use.

What measures will you take to ensure that Guelph stays within its water capacity limits and does not end in crisis like the City of Waterloo?

• Continue water conservation efforts and exploring new wellhead sources

• Ban new water-intensive industry, especially AI-related data centres

• Monitor "use-it-or-lose-it" water and wastewater allocation policy enforcement.

As a member of council, how would you show leadership to ensure that the city continues to grow and enhance green spaces that support healthy environments for native plant and animal species, such as pollinators, as well as for city residents?

• Continue to protect the Natural Heritage and linkages

• Continue to expand Community Gardens and Pollinator Garden 

• Pursue bylaw to restrict the sale of invasive plants by garden centres and nurseries
  

What initiatives or additional measures would you propose and fund to protect and increase the canopy to achieve the goal of 40% coverage?

• Zoning bylaw for new ICI developments to include proportion of tree coverage per/ unit area of paved surface

• Ensure new/replacement street trees have sufficient soil volume/watering to be viable long-term

• Increase tree removal fines, and make process transparent, for commercial-residential properties and new development when done without permit
  

Transportation, Transit and Trails

What steps will you take to improve the safety, accessibility, and completeness of Guelph's active transportation infrastructure for all ages and abilities? How will you ensure that the City remains on track to achieve the Transportation Master Plan’s active transportation mode share goal? (Mode share is the proportion of trips by different transportation modes such as walking, cycling, transit, and cars.) 

• Continue planned work on TMP, accelerate where possible

• Monitor new sidewalk/trails/bike lane/bus stop snow clearing routes

• Expand secure bicycle parking infrastructure

• Identify ways business/industry can contribute to employees/patrons using active transportation

• Extend free transit to all elementary school students, up to age 14

• Add another weekday to seniors ride free
  

Will you give staff the mandate and tools necessary to carry out the priorities outlined in the Guelph Trails Master Plan? Comment on the Guelph Trails Master Plan mandate

YES! The Trails department has implemented only one project in the past seven years where the GTMP suggests 2-3 per year. Trails have always ranked high for Guelphites as illustrated in the 2021 Guelph Trail Master Plan, which states, "Our new vision for our trail network recognizes that trails are essential to the everyday life of Guelph residents for recreation, health and mobility".

People come to Guelph because we are known as "green", and our trails are an essential part of this reputation, especially as we grow.

 Recently the Guelph Junction Railway and the city closed century-old trails between Victoria Rd and Stone Rd. The staff responsible for the GJR continually ignore council's direction for a more responsive relationship with the public. Do you support changing the makeup of the GJR board of directors to a community-based board whose membership equally reflect GJR's profit and community-good mandates and excludes members who are not Guelph residents?  Comment on the Guelph Junction Railway board of directors.

YES! Guelph sustains numerous vulnerable road user (pedestrian & cyclists) deaths and injuries every year. It appears little is being done to improve the situation. The GJR right-of-way provides a great opportunity for safe off-road connectivity.

I would love to see John Fisher's dream of the GJR being a people mover explored, and Guelphites are the ones to do it.

What measures will you support to improve local transit service, especially frequency and reliability, and how should those improvements be funded?

• Transit priority lanes/signals

• Accelerate implementation of modified grid system; prioritise frequency over coverage

• Explore Rapid 99/limited road stops/no station stops

• Aggressive educational campaign - bus has right of way when left-turn signal on to re-enter live traffic lane -  FINE $85($120 if it occurs in a Community Safety Zone)

Yorklands Priority

What do you see as the highest priority for the Yorklands (former Ontario Reformatory property)? 

Working with National Urban Park Guelph to ensure the project has the best available information for selection in the program, to honour both Guelph’s history and Indigenous cultural heritage preserved on site.

Service Equity

How will you ensure residents have equitable access to needed services and amenities, like parks, recreation and libraries, in light of the province’s mandated growth target for Guelph of 208,000 people? 

• Continue subsidies for low-income residents

• Implement AAC request for maximum 1.5 km distance between accessible, rubberised-surface playgrounds

• Prioritise crosswalks at parks so people on both sides of roads can access them

• Explore ways to own new library branches instead of renting space
  

Business Development

What is your vision for the growth and development of Guelph’s business and industry? What specific strategies do you have in mind to attain them? 

• Maintain necessary levels of employment lands to attract new industry

• Advocate to the province so approved units will actually get built, so employees can live in the city where they work and use transit to get there
  

Truth and Reconciliation

How can the city implement the action items suggested by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission? 

• Adopt UNDRIP

• Implement Call to Action 57 - Professional Development and Training for Public Servants " We call upon ... municipal governments [to] provide education to public servants on the history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown relations. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism"

• Hire an Urban Indigenous Relations representative, and allow them to work in the ways of their teachings, instead of forcing compliance in rigid corporate, colonial systems
  

Heritage

How would you support the protection of our built and cultural heritage in Guelph? 

• We need to identify NEW properties of heritage value until a new provincial government removes the five-year restriction on current heritage-listed properties that will be delisted on December 31, 2026.

• Encourage owners of the 630 heritage-listed properties to explore voluntary designation

• Fully document the Guelph 200 Celebrations, especially the Stories
  

Youth Engagement

How will you empower the generations poised to inherit this city, as contributors? 

• Work with the Guelph Youth Council, explore a Youth Shadow Council

• Create a Highschool Mock Election Results Monitor and track trends every four years

• Establish regular classroom visits from council members to grade 10 Civics courses, and Mock Council Days each semester

• Mentor someone under 35 to run in 2030
  

Library Independence

What is your position on intellectual freedom in public libraries, and how would you support the Guelph Public Library in maintaining its independence in selecting materials, programming, and resources for the community? 

• I support the intellectual freedom of public libraries

• Keep political influence out of the library board

• Maintain the integrity of the Material Selection Policy

• Support continued high-quality review of all materials submitted for Reconsideration
  

The Arts

How will you support our vibrant arts community, which contributes so much to Guelph’s quality of life and economy? 

• Explore funding options to expand Youth Group Rental Subsidy to Arts Community

• Expand Community Benefit Agreement with Guelph Arts Council

• Determine ways to provide tax relief to arts groups 

• Continue exploring how to transform the Drill Hall into a Community Arts Centre

• Expand River Run sliding scale events
  

Community Relations

How would you improve the relationship between the city and community organizations that volunteer to enhance the city through many different projects? 

• Streamline paperwork for community led projects and improve facility payment options, especially when returnable deposits are charged

• Explore ultra-low cost liability insurance options for events

• Feature community organizations that volunteer to enhance the city on a page on the city website, with monthly spotlight through traditional and social media

Tax Allocation

What changes would you make to current tax allocations to get better value for our tax dollars? 

• Maintain capital allocations, do not  reallocate funds away from applied community allocations during last minute re-budgeting decisions.

• Paramedic pay must be brought to parity with surrounding regions, and equity with other first responders.

• An increase in Transit allocation could reduce Social Services and Road Repair costs by providing greater frequency, allowing people to be less car reliant. Greater freedom of movement through frequency, increases reliability, allowing more people to use transit for more trips, reducing the number of vehicles on the roads, thereby lengthening their lifespan, and it will help reduce emissions, improving health for everyone.
  

Transparency and Accountability

What mechanisms would you support to give city government better accessibility, transparency and accountability? 

• The city has decent mechanisms for engagement, accessibility and transparency, (eg, haveyoursay, community consultation on Ward Boundary Review and Council Composition). The information gathered in these, and from expert delegations need to be listened to, and incorporated in decisions. 

• Accountability is key. I support implementing a Dashboard where decisions of council are easily accessed. I will do my utmost to hold council to account for the decisions made, and will advocate to limit “in-camera” discussions and decision to those strictly necessary for protection of  vulnerable individuals and groups, and when legally required.
  

Ranked Ballots

What is your position on ranked ballots for municipal elections, and what role, if any, should Council play in advocating to the Province on how local elections are run? 

I support the implementation of more fair voting systems such as single-transferable-vote and ranked ballots. I would work with advocates across the province to repeal recent provincial decisions that decrease the autonomy of municipalities and school boards.

Strong Mayor Powers

Do you support strong mayor powers? Explain why or why not. 

I do not support the undemocratic strong mayor powers. Concentration of power in one position is inherently undemocratic.

Elect Respect

Will you sign/have you signed the elect respect pledge? 

Yes

Experience

What experiences, community involvement and civic participation do you bring to the office you wish to be elected to? 

• I have been practicing to be Ward 2’s full-time councillor for four years. I volunteer as much as possible.

• Over thirty years in administrative roles across various industries has provided experience in medical offices, accounting, forecasting, project expediting, manufacturing, international trade regulations, and employee and office management.