1. The Guelph Public Library provides essential services to all residents. How will you support this work over your four years on council?
In any way a Mayor can once urgent needs are addressed. There’s a youth, crime & housing crisis here now. Studies show that people will use a library more often if they aren’t in a mental health crisis or economically distressed – Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
If a Mayor supports a library building before, or in lieu of, supporting the library patrons, both are doomed to fail.
2. As an anchor component of the Baker District, the new Main Branch Library will bring significant social, economic, and reputational benefits to Guelph. How will you help ensure this project continues toward completion?
I can’t answer this right now – I don’t know the cost, the contract, the funding commitments or if it will remain a public asset once built. My platform is to restore local governance autonomy & end “public funding for private projects”. So if it is being built for the right reasons & for the right “beneficiaries”, I would see it to completion.
I believe a Mayor is to remain impartial on issues… that they not impose their own personal opinion or preference when holding office. Elected officials work for you. I believe a Mayor’s duty is to uphold the will of the ‘wards’ and the law. If the people approve of this library project, I will too. But it would be wrong of me, as a public trustee, to ask Guelph to pay for a library that is not to their benefit or that may not belong to them when the dust settles.
I intend to do a full forensic audit of all accounts & agreements if I get elected. There has been 2 decades of ‘Mayor Secret Meetings”, private developer deals & UN Agenda2030 implementation here which need to be sorted out. But this library is definitely on my “To Do” list.
no actual effort to answer the questions. You speak of transparency and honesty but demonstrate little of that.
Dave – it was extremely honest. I could have answered with weasel words like “affordable, responsible, accountable, transparent”, like the other candidates did, but i chose to tell people the truth of the library situation. it is fiscally irresponsible for any one of them to speak about this project – including Cam Guthrie… he knows nothing about it. We have no information – it was determined in CITY secret meetings with private investors & fraudulent financial agreements were made. You want a Mayor that knows how to read. Not reading the small print on the new Cop Shop contract should remind us to be very careful with big building projects in this town.
Giving you an opinion based on ZERO actual facts & without seeing the contract(s) is ignorant, dangerous & dishonest. You don’t want a Mayor that spews empty words just to get your vote… do you? Thank you. Shelagh
Dave, you have no solution posted here.