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All Candidates Debate October 30 2006 |
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The Sentinel Review on the All Candidates Debate 30/10/06
DEBATE: Municipal council candidates listen as the speaking order is decided prior to Monday night's debate at Goff Hall. Photo by Elliot Ferguson Woodstock Sentinel Review.
Ordinary people doing extraordinary things Thank You for VOTING BENDER |
I'd like to thank everyone for their participation in this event, and of course I would like to thank our present council for the huge tax assessment I receive this year...way to go......you have broadened our industrial economic horizons, and in the wake of that, bulldozed some of the best agricultural land on the planet, to put up a new car plant. Woodstock is a great place to be: If you're selling your home. If you are looking to buy here, you might as well forget it. The cost of purchasing a home has outstripped the ability to pay for it. People living on a fixed income may not be able to afford to pay their property taxes, as assessments rise. You will need a job at that new car plant just to pay your property taxes. They've kept large industrial tax rates artificially low, while driving up homeowners' assessments, small and medium businesses have also been left out of this municipal goodwill. Our streets are disintegrating, and our services have been neglected: political inaction is the reason. Our local waterways are polluted, there is garbage strewn all over the place; just ask the 40 people, who came out on September 23 with myself and my family, to pickup trash at Pittock. It is a brutal mess, and a testament to a lack of concern from the present council. Although our council recently initiated the use of "traffic calming" signs, the Canada Safety Council says that they are ineffectual, a poor replacement for police with no enforcement component, and recoup no revenue. Traffic enforcement units work, and help to find more serious criminals who may be driving around. Woodstock needs a strong, united, fire protection service. We lack proper equipment and have relied on other municipalities for such. This council has become bellicose, intolerant and silent in their operation. I would argue for unfettered public access to all meetings. Closed door meetings are not acceptable, if you ask what has gone on, council is likely to tell you that under the OMA they are permitted to hold secret meetings. Council has been granted the right to decide everything without the component of your public input, to this effect no one is accountable to the citizens and I will fight to change this. The process of municipal politics should be made accessible to all. I would ask our city to launch, on their website a method by which each household could cast its' vote on all of the issues of the day. It is possible, at a very low cost, to operate an opinion poll online, which would bring us into an entirely new level of grassroots democracy. If I'm elected to City Council I will make myself available to the public, give straight answers to honest questions and work for the good of the community as a whole. I will fight for better services to accommodate the needs of the disadvantaged, the handicapped, seniors and youth, as well as the working class. I will keep Woodstock's money working for Woodstock not Windsor. I will strive to put your ideas and interests before my own. Real solutions for real people Vote Bender. |
