Five Priorities for Ward 5 and Peterborough

Families should feel safe walking to school, crossing a busy road, using a park, or riding a bicycle through their own neighbourhood.

Residents across Heritage Park, University Heights, Lily Lake, the Chemong corridor, and newer subdivisions have raised real concerns about speeding and road safety. I support using traffic data and resident feedback to identify problem areas, then acting with the right mix of traffic calming, safer crossings near schools and parks, appropriate speed limits, Community Safety Zones, and stronger enforcement where the risk is highest.

A child's route to school should not feel like a calculated risk.

Neighbourhood safety also means responsive bylaw enforcement, clear property standards, well maintained public spaces, and better communication when the City is considering a decision that will affect the people living nearby.

Commitments

• Use traffic data and resident feedback to identify the highest risk areas.

• Support targeted traffic calming, safer crossings, appropriate speed limits, Community Safety Zones, and stronger enforcement.

• Push for clearer property standards, reasonable response timelines, and stronger handling of repeat problem properties.

• Expect timely and direct communication when City decisions may affect a neighbourhood.

Northcrest is growing. Growth can bring more housing, new customers for local businesses, new workers, and new opportunity. However, growth must be planned, not merely approved.

We cannot count rooftops and call it a neighbourhood. Roads, sidewalks, transit, parks, trails, emergency services, and other basic infrastructure must keep pace. Growth without the services to support it is not planning. It is simply postponing the bill.

Peterborough also needs to be ready when employers and investors come calling. That means clear information about available land, servicing, approvals, timelines, housing, and workforce capacity.

Economic development also begins with the businesses already here. We need to support our downtown, commercial corridors, tourism, arts and culture, skilled trades, entrepreneurs, and the small businesses that employ our neighbours and keep money moving through the local economy.

Commitments

• Expect roads, sidewalks, transit, parks, trails, and emergency services to be considered alongside new development.

• Support a public Investment Readiness Report showing where Peterborough is prepared, where it is falling short, and what must happen next.

• Support the businesses, skilled trades, entrepreneurs, arts organizations, tourism operators, and employers already contributing to the local economy.

• Review the full public cost, service demands, timelines, and risks attached to major development decisions.

Public transit is an essential public service, and I believe it should remain publicly operated. As Northcrest grows, residents need reliable connections to work, school, medical appointments, shopping, and the rest of Peterborough.

I support funding transit in line with the City's transportation planning, together with plain public reporting on cancelled trips, on time performance, transfer reliability, and ridership by route and time of day. We should test improvements, measure the results, and expand what works.

Transportation also includes filling gaps in sidewalks, improving pedestrian crossings, connecting trails and cycling routes, maintaining them properly through the winter, and making accessibility part of every road project from the beginning.

Commitments

• Keep Peterborough Transit publicly operated.

• Push for plain public reporting on cancelled trips, on time performance, transfer reliability, and ridership by route and time of day.

• Test service improvements, measure the results, and expand what works.

• Address sidewalk gaps, unsafe crossings, trail and cycling connections, winter maintenance, and accessibility.

I believe two things can be true at the same time.

No one should be left outside in a Peterborough winter. Shelter is a basic human need.

At the same time, no neighbourhood should be asked to absorb added risk without proper planning, clear communication, appropriate staffing, and accountability.

Compassion and safety are not competing values. A responsible city must insist on both.

Harm reduction can keep a person alive, and that matters. However, keeping someone alive must be the beginning of our responsibility, not the end of it. We need a clearer road map connecting people to mental health care, withdrawal management, treatment, recovery supports, stable housing, employment, and community.

Peterborough is not starting from zero. We have Coordinated Access, By Name Data, shelters, outreach workers, the Modular Bridge Housing Community, the HART Hub, and local organizations doing difficult work every day. However, a collection of programs is not automatically a system. It becomes a system when there is a clear path through it, someone is responsible for every handoff, and the public can see whether people are moving toward stability.

Commitments

• Push for a public Housing, Homelessness, and Recovery Scorecard using privacy protected data to show movement from the street to shelter, from shelter to transitional and permanent housing, how long those moves take, whether people remain housed, and where bottlenecks are stopping progress.

• Push for clear operating and neighbourhood safety plans for every City funded shelter and supportive housing site, including appropriate staffing, clear rules, a named contact for nearby residents, response timelines, public updates, and firm consequences for violence, trafficking, and serious criminal behaviour.

• Push to make Coordinated Access a real road map by identifying who is responsible for every step from outreach and shelter to health care, treatment, recovery support, transitional housing, and permanent housing.

• Use City land, planning tools, partnerships, and every available funding program to increase supportive and deeply affordable housing.

A shelter is not a destination. If we build entrances into the system without building exits, we have not created a pathway. We have created a waiting room.

Every dollar in the City budget came from someone who worked for it. That does not mean we stop investing. It means we invest carefully, understand the full cost, set realistic timelines, and report openly on results.

Before supporting a major project, I will want clear answers. What problem are we solving? What will it cost to build and operate? What are the risks? What are the alternatives? How will we know whether it worked?

Residents deserve more than announcements. They deserve follow through, plain language reporting, and the truth when circumstances change.

Commitments

• Ask for the full capital and operating cost of major projects.

• Review risks, alternatives, timelines, and service impacts before making a commitment.

• Expect measurable goals and plain public reporting on results.

• Explain my votes and decisions, including when the answer is difficult or circumstances change.