Woolwich Ward 2 town hall recording: St. Jacobs candidates forum, September 28, 2026

9:56 Putting down roots, and a playground that seemed impossible

I opened by talking about why St. Jacobs is home, and the project that taught me the most about getting something hard done here.

This is the place that I have put down my roots. … This is where I have put my volunteer hours with the Home and School Association for the last five years, where we noticed a problem with the playground being empty of a play structure for the kids to enjoy their outdoor time on. And we got to work. Year after year after year, it seemed improbable, if not impossible. And we actually managed to raise $180,000 towards a new play structure for the kids to enjoy for generations to come.

If there’s one thing that I could say that I bring to the table as a councillor, it is the ability to bring people together behind a big vision, something that matters, something that’s maybe difficult and that’s going to take a lot of time and a lot of effort to make happen.

11:38 The most livable community, and an open line

Most of what we talked about that night comes back to one idea for me, and I said it plainly in my introduction.

What I want to do is make Woolwich the most livable community in Canada. Everything that we’re talking about, from tax dollars to the state of the roads to the transparency of the government to how things get passed, we can talk about all those details as we get to those questions. It all comes down to livability and how much you love being here in Woolwich. I love being here in Woolwich.

I sent out mailers to everyone in the area and it included my cell phone on it. Call me, tell me what’s on your mind. The best way for things to move in the right direction is for us all to have our say at the table.

14:05 Protect the land that is producing

The first moderated question was about farmland and growth. I answered first, with the test I would use for any rezoning.

The land that needs to be protected is the land that is producing. There are plenty of areas where we can build where it is not producing. So it would be a matter of what makes sense for the residents, for us. Someone can come in with lots of money and say this needs to be turned into industrial for all these reasons. That’s what’s happening at Martin Grove right now. That’s good for them. It gives us very little benefit. And so the bar that I would ask council as well as staff to clear is: what’s going to benefit the community, and how can we use land smartly such that agricultural land is not being replaced, paved over, gone forever.

23:09 Hearing about big changes early

On getting residents involved sooner, I talked about reaching people where they already are.

The other is the communication lines between you and your council. Email lists, social media, making sure that every place where people are is being notified that something big is happening. So, for things that affect the residents, we need to hear about it early.

27:16 “Where is that money going?”

When the question turned to taxes and services, I shared something I heard from the fellow who helps me out around the house.

I was talking to the person who helps me out with some things around my house. He said, “I put in $9,000 [in property taxes] for a well that I built myself, for the sewage that I handle myself. I get a tar and chip road that gets plowed into the ditch in the winter. Where is that money going?” And for me, the answer has got to be transparency to where those dollars go. The infrastructure that we have, over one billion dollars in infrastructure, needs upkeep over time. We need to know how to fund that, how to put the right dollar into the right place at the right time.

31:10 Small town feel and gravel roads

Asked what Woolwich could lose in the next ten years, I talked about the small town feel that brought my family here in 2019.

That’s why we’ve been putting down our roots, sending our kids to the local school. And what we want to make sure we don’t lose is that small town feel. That’s what brings people here from all around the GTA. That’s why our streets are flooded on a Saturday. People want that taste of country. They want that breath of fresh air that lets them know: I am not in Mississauga. I am not even in Hamilton. I am in St. Jacobs. I am in Mennonite country. I ride my bike all around the gravel roads, and that is the experience. … We need to maintain that.

32:03 Keeping downtown St. Jacobs at four storeys

In the same answer I raised the six-storey building proposed for our downtown core.

One of the things that I have my eyes on is a six-storey development proposed for the downtown core in St. Jacobs. That’s not okay. I understand how it happened. The bylaws were passed to allow for eight. There is a guideline that says keep it at four. The conversation and the fight that needs to be had is that those kinds of buildings right in the downtown core need to be kept to a level where we all feel like we’re in a special place. … We need to keep this charming rural heritage.

I came back to this later in the evening at 1:08:26, below.

35:59 Character and freedom in our neighbourhoods

On village character and property rights, I said the answer is conversation, and that I don’t want either extreme.

This kind of a forum, the council meetings, are another forum where if things are tricky, things are challenging, we bring it up, we discuss it, we see what is the best way forward. If a bylaw needs to be amended, we put that in place. Really it is about making it livable for us. We do not want a town centre that is dormant, but we also don’t want, where is it, Nantucket, where you can’t make any changes to your house unless they are this certain colour or that certain shape. The character of the places, the creativity of the neighbourhood, the freedom of the neighbourhood is something that I absolutely cherish and we want to maintain.

43:33 A bridge between residents and council

The last moderated question asked what we would have to show for ourselves after four years. Here is what I want you to be able to point to.

My contribution is as a bridge builder between the residents and council. Wading through two hours of council deliberations to hear the thing that matters to you is not okay. So being able to send updates, create explainer videos, be present in your lives as your councillor. I want that relationship to be there. I want that back and forth to be there. What that building of bridges means with council and staff as well is that the service will be better. You may not notice it, but when you put in an application, the response comes back sooner. The things that don’t make sense start to go away. You only talk to one person instead of three. Things like that, to have you feel like you live in a place that works really well.

When I started this journey I was informed from a distance, and I realized how challenging it can be to be really well informed. And so that’s part of what I want to bring to this, so that at the end of four years you feel like this is your government.

48:29 The Mennonite church at Bridge and King

A neighbour asked how we keep our character as things change, and mentioned the Mennonite community. My answer came from walking the proposed Gateway Employment Lands with neighbours earlier this month.

One thing I learned that floored me, from my walkabout at Martin Grove Village, at the lands under consideration for rezoning, was that the church there on Bridge Street, Bridge and King, the Mennonite church with the graveyard, would be tremendously impacted by the proposed development. The road and the traffic patterns would be such that 358 extra trips a day would go down Bridge Street, making it so that they could not access their church. It would kind of be bypassing that area. And what I heard from Tracy and from Ruth was that they would just plan to move. If that were to happen and they didn’t have access to their church, if they didn’t have access to their graveyard, they would just go north. And that broke my heart. How on earth could we let this happen, such that the heritage of our village would be just displaced because, well, we need to make some money on that land transaction? I don’t know how strongly I can say this: that is not okay.

You can read more about that walkabout and the proposal in my note on the Gateway Employment Lands.

1:08:26 Kitty corner to the six-storey site

The last audience question was about the six-storey building planned for downtown St. Jacobs, including parking and construction. My family lives kitty corner to the site, so I added what I know about the height guideline for the core.

We’re basically kitty corner neighbours to the building, so it’s very near and dear to my heart. I was at the BIA meeting as well. … There is a guideline that was funded by the federal government that states, to maintain the heritage and character of the downtown core, to limit the height at four storeys. … Four storeys is the guideline that was ratified at council with feedback from the community.

If you want to weigh in, there are two ways: ask council to hold to that four-storey guideline, and comment on the Official Plan review, which has a public meeting on October 6.

1:14:45 Closing: help your neighbours vote

I closed by thanking everyone for coming out, and by asking for help with the thing that matters most in a local election, which is turnout.

We’re all here to make our community a better place. And conversations like this are how it gets done.

You guys literally came out on a Monday night, but spread the word. Help your neighbours vote. Everyone’s going to get something in the mail. Turnout is the key, so that everyone feels like this is their community, that they have a say in what goes in, what goes on, and what it looks like. So give me a call, send me a text, send me an email, and let’s make this place ultra livable and beautiful.