Speech to City Council

May 09, 2011

It gives me great pleasure to return to Barrie City Hall to address City Council.  I have many fond memories during my tenure at City Hall from 2000 to 2005.   Some things have not changed.   I was on council as a 22 year old year and I had seasoned advice and wisdom imparted on me by Councillor Bonnie Ainsworth and Councillor  Barry Ward, who both continue to be a wealth of knowledge for the City. I also recall working closely with Councillor Michael Prowse on wetland issues and Councillor Lynn Strachan on cultural investments.  It is nice to see Councillor Strachan and Councillor Prowse continuing to play a leadership role for the City.

My time on City Council certainly ingrained in me a strong belief that municipalities are the economic growth engines of Canada while at the same time are significantly underutilized and underfunded.

I came here today to express areas I believe we can work on together to better our City. I did not come here to report on Conservative Party national policy because I think we are all well aware of the commitments made by the Prime Minister on the general election campaign. We fully intend to honour every aspect of our policy platform but I am here specifically to discuss areas that Barrie centric that require our collaboration.    Specifically, Lake Simcoe, Barrie’s downtown, local job growth and Base Borden  

1)  Lake Simcoe Clean-Up Fund

We are four years into our five year fund. This Clean-Up Fund is working.
We started in 2008 and have funded 106 local projects since then.

Action Points - I need the City to identify local works still pending.  If we are going to see this fund renewed I need to the City to actively highlight any areas of urban waste run off not yet tended to. 

2)   Investing in Barrie’s Downtown

A) I understand Mayor Lehman and Council have ambitious designs for the downtown. The Federal Government is here to help. We ensured the new Revenue Canada office was limited to downtown sites.  We have invested into the downtown theatre and even into the cost of overruns, we have invested into a downtown firehall and helped with the clean up of Kempenfelt Bay. 

B) I would love to see Laurentian and or Georgian College downtown Barrie in some capacity.  An educational hub in the downtown would be an excellent boost to the downtown.  I intend to work with Mayor Lehman on the possibilities that exist here. Additionally, in terms of the downtown, I must commend Lynn Strachan and Mayor Lehman for their resolute defense of Barrie Central’s survival.  It makes no sense in any way to gut the downtown by removing Central.

C)  Your federal government is also very pleased to be funding the return of Go Train services to downtown Barrie.  The Allandale Waterfront Station will be a key tool for the downtown.  A downtown must be accessible by public transit.  Allandale Waterfront Station is the missing tool we need for our downtown revitalization.  I have petitioned Go Train Ontario for additional trains and hours of services. They have told me that frequency of trains will depend on ridership levels and if we increase ridership levels they are prepared to expand the frequency and hours. This is something we should work on a collective fashion. We need to make the City aware of the benefits of collective transit.

D) On this note, we need a downtown that exudes vibrancy all year long.  The City is doing an excellent job at this with events like tree lightening ceremonies, New Years Eve, Earth Hour, Kempenfest and Promenade Days. I am pleased to announce tonight that we will once again by providing funding for the City of Barrie Canada Day celebrations via Heritage Canada.     Councillor Peter Silveria tells me that the City has no money. So I hope this helps to ensure you don’t have any hesitations about having a passionately patriotic Canada Day celebration. 










3) Supporting and Encouraging Job Creation

Our Government has created a new mechanism to help create jobs in Southern Ontario. We now have a fully operational southern economic development agency which provides business grants and loans to businesses willing to expand, create immediate jobs and diversify a local economy.

http://www.feddevontario.gc.ca  provides a detailed list of services available.  I plan to make current businesses aware of this service. Can SAVE And NTR Doors are two examples of local businesses that we are partnered in to create jobs

http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/ibp/irap.html   Provides IRAP grants to provide job creation grants for industrial research assistance program.    South Medic is a local company that utilized this program to create jobs.

Lets work together to indentify local businesses, that if properly partnered with, could expand and create jobs.  I know Councillor Brassard is keen to work in this area and I believe if we partner with the Chamber of Commerce we could target companies that have it within their capacity to expand.

I hope the federally funded Lake Simcoe Regional Airport Authority will also be an economic driver for area businesses. Thank you to Mayor Lehman for being an active participant in our advocacy for this. 

4)  Base Borden

I am very optimistic that Base Borden can be the predominant training base in the country. I have had numerous discussions with Defence Minister Peter Mackay and you are going to see a major federal infusion into Base Borden.    We are investing 2.2 million to renovate housing units that were built in 1940’s, we are investing 4.5 million into base security, 13.75 million for a new recruitment office,  49.4 million to set up a new military police academy, 57.8 million for additional training buildings and 77.8 million for a new school of electrical and mechanical engineering. These construction projects should reap economic benefits to the region.

The City of Barrie has an historic relationship with Base Borden and I encourage you to keep in close contact with Base Commander Louie Melochne on ways the city of Barrie can work collaboratively with the newly expanded Base Borden.  These projects will be completed over the next 3.5 years - 1,100 new jobs are expected to be created. 

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On a lighter note, I wanted to thank members of council who have been particularly helpful in our efforts to support local charities.

Jennifer Robinson was kind enough to co-organize our annual public skate food drive and our pizza lunch with the Barrie Colts in support of Barrie High Schools World Ambassadors Program.

Councillor Lynn Strachan has helped us host two World Malaria Day fundraisers at the MacLaren Art Gallery.   

I also want to thank Councillors Prowse, Nuttall and Brassard for their active participation in Hockey Night in Barrie for the last 3years. We got nation wide attention with our charity hockey game for RVH.  Last year’s game attracted media coverage from the Globe and Mail, CTV, CBC, and dozens of newspapers across the country. I personally believe this year’s game on August 11th will be even bigger than last year. Starting tonight, we will be releasing names of 3 players every week leading up to the game. The initial responses from some major musicians, Olympians and NHL superstars has been fantastic.

I am pleased to announce today the additions of three brand new hockey night in Barrie participants who will be partaking in their very first hockey night in Barrie game.  

Joining us as a commentator is CTV and TSN’s Rod Black, Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy as a player and musical talent and former star and NHL Hall of Famer, 70 goal scorer Bernie Nichols. As has been the practise in the past, we save the biggest names for last. Prime Minister Harper, Don Cherry and Ron Maclean are only the tip of the iceberg for what this game is capable of. Mark your calendars for August 11th because our committee intends to set a new fundraising record for our Cancer Center. I want to thank Councillor Alex Nuttall, Brassard and Robinson for being members of the 2011 committee.  I also want to officially invite Mayor Lehman to be on the coaching staff. 

A secret weapon our city has from a public service perspective is that we work together. We don’t point fingers and say it is someone else’s job or some other level of government. We get involved and help. I visited council two years ago and said that our greatest strength is that we are rowing our canoe in the same direction. We have incredible team work. Take physician recruitment as an example, I spent three hours with Dr. Murdoch, Dr.  Irvin,  Councillor Shipley and Nuttall on spring doctor recruitment plans and activities. This is neither a federal or municipal responsibility but we are all sinking our teeth into it because it is a need in our community.

And please, as a council, help me identify what issues I can help with. I view my job as Member of Parliament to be a resolute advocate for the City of Barrie in Ottawa.  If the City sets goal, I will doggedly pursue federal departments to see how we can be of assistance. We did that with the firehall. Councillor Brassard and myself were initially told that matching stimulus funds for the firehall would not be considered but we took it all the way to the Minister’s desk. We met him with a City delegation and convinced him our downtown needed the help. We received sign off. Those funds will not be added to property taxes because we didn’t give up. Let’s use that approach for every dream we have for this City.  

I am happy to answer any questions you may have about my local priorities or any questions about our Conservative Governments plans.