Adam Prudhomme
Editor
From an update on the proposed asphalt plant to favourite food, no questions were off the table as Greater Napanee’s mayor, deputy mayor and Limestone school trustee visited area classrooms as part of Local Government Week.
Mayor Terry Richardson, deputy mayor Brian Calver and Limestone District School Board trustee Tiffany Lloyd were guests in Brian Heaton’s Grade 10 Civics class on Wednesday. The purpose of their visit was to give students a run down of what their role is in municipal government and within the school board before opening it up for some Q&A from the students.
While the role of mayor and deputy mayor are fairly well known, most students might not know much about a trustee, which is also an elected position, voted in every four years.
“The Ontario government makes a lot of the decisions as far as funding, as far as curriculum, they also provide expectations for you and your teacher and the schools,” Lloyd said, explaining her role as trustee. “The school board’s role is to ensure that expectations are being met at the school level, but also to advocate for our individual schools. Our minister of education is in Toronto. They don’t know what your specific needs in Napanee are and the make up of this school and what makes it unique. That’s where we get to come in and we also help create policies and priorities and plans for all of the Limestone schools.”
Lloyd went on to say they are in the process of updating their priorities for the next four years and wanted feedback from the students to help shape those policies.
Calver went over what he does as deputy mayor.
“My position as deputy mayor, if Terry is absent or away sick or on vacation, then I fill in,” said Calver. “When you’re filling in you have the full power of the mayor. Other than that I’m just another councillor. We do share a lot of things back and forth, information and so on and so forth. As a deputy mayor you’re basically a councillor except you’re looking after all of the community and it also puts you on the county council seat which is very important.”
Once introductions were out of the way, it was an opportunity for students to ask about some of the issues that matter most to them. Given that they’re not yet of age to drive, public transportation was of high importance. With only one taxi service in town, Richardson said attracting competition and establishing a transit system that will connect with Deseronto, and ideally neighbouring cities down the road, is a priority.
“Unfortunately when you have a little but of a monopoly, you can set the prices what you want,” Richardson said when asked if there was anything the town can do about current taxi fares. “That’s why we’re very eager to get the transit system up and running.”
Another student inquired about the Gibbard District condo project and whether or not it would provide affordable housing.
Richardson noted though those condo units will be geared towards higher income, it is encouraging that the majority of people who have bought units are local.
“Maybe it’s somebody that’s getting a little bit older that’s living in a house, they don’t want to cut grass, they don’t want to shovel driveways and want a little bit easier living, what that does is open up another house in our community,” said Richardson. “Even though on the surface those condos aren’t affordable for a lot of us, we’re hoping that the domino effect will happen and it will create more affordable housing.”
The ongoing saga of the proposed Tomlinson asphalt plant was also of interest.
“It’s in the hands of the Ontario Land Tribunal,” said Richardson. “What’s happened now is all the evidence is in. Tomlinson has had their opportunity to do a closing argument, the town will respond to that and of course Tomlinson has the last say as the applicant to respond to what the town’s lawyers say. We’re hoping maybe in November we’ll have an answer.”
Some of the questions were more light-hearted, such as what they like to do with their spare time, what their favourite food is and what their least favourite was-all were unanimous in naming liver as their least favourite.
Along with visiting the high school, the mayor, deputy mayor and trustee also paid a visit to a Grade 5 class at Southview Public School.
Local Government Week runs Oct. 15-21 and is aimed at raising public awareness about the importance of local government and how to get involved.