Packed house for Ward 3 mayoral and councillor debates in East Gwillimbury

YorkRegion.com
Oct. 18, 2018
Simon Martin

A packed house came to see the East Gwillimbury mayoral candidates at Mount Albert Community Centre meeting Oct. 10 along with candidates for Ward 3.

In the first portion of the debate, incumbent mayor Virginia Hackson went up against challenger Franco Colavecchia.

Hackson preached staying the course to the standing room only crowd.

“My priorities will be to continue to plan and manage our economic growth, keep taxes low while ensuring the delivery of quality services,” she said.

“I have proven experience. The past eight years I've had the honour of being your mayor and want to ask for your support in the next coming four years.”

Colavecchia said he wants to change things at the municipality. “I would like to be a mayor because I would like to make a lot of changes where service has not been provided,” he said.

“Always they say that to provide service it takes a long time. I like to shorten the time. We're spending your money and I like to spend your money wisely.”

When asked what their top priority is for Ward 3, the mayoral candidates had different responses.

“I'm going to take a really hard look at Ward 3 and see what they need, the kind of services and whatever is the priority and I will react right away,” Colavecchia said.

Hackson was much more specific. “I think what we really need is to continue to work on having employment lands in our area,” she said.

While Mount Albert employs a lot of people, Hackson said it is important for the municipality to cut as much red tape as possible to help businesses thrive.

As for the downtown revitalization of Mount Albert, Hackson pointed to recent progress this summer.

“I think that getting DUCA Credit Union in here was a first start,” she said.

“I think we need to take a look at a number of buildings that are in Mount Albert that are derelict and we have absentee landlords that allow them to be derelict. We need to strengthen our property standards for those buildings.”

Colavecchia pointed out that Hackson has had significant time on council to make changes. “Eight years as a mayor very little changes,” he said. “I can make big changes in four years.”

When pressed on what these changes were, Colavecchia responded by saying he will bring new businesses to the town.

In the Ward 3 councillor debate, each candidate talked about their top priority for the ward.

For Melody Somerville it was development. “There’s a lot of people that want high density and there’s a lot of people that want lower density,” she said.

Councillors have to keep in mind what’s best for the town, she added.

Cathy Morton said her top concern is the traffic. “I am so worried that there are some people or some children that are going to be hurt, some other tragic, tragic accidents that could happen if we do not somehow get our speed limits down,” she said.

Susan Lahey's focus was on services. “My top priority is to improve the community services for seniors and families and youth a like,” she said.

Scott Crone's top priority was community safety. “We have a traffic issue in this town. We love to speed,” he said. “We need more police officers on our streets."