My Speech

Thank you to staff who have worked and are working so hard on this project.

Thank you to everyone who emailed, mailed, met with me, twittered or phoned me.  And  the delegations and the people at the meetings. Well over 600 emails. If I haven’t gotten back to you yet, be assured I will. Regional councillors answer their own email.  I have never had anywhere near the response I have had on this issue.  Most of the people who have contacted me are for LRT.

also went door to door during the past municipal election. I personally visited thousands of doors, as I always do.  There were people against LRT. A lot were against because they needed transit in their area. Which is why I support increased regular transit and would like to see more in the future. I will deal with cost later. There were also people for LRT.

Most people just had a lot of questions which I was pleased to answer. This I believe is what happened at our public meetings. People came with a lot of questions and our staff answered them.

The public have spoken and we’ve listened. However, listening does not necessarily mean doing what people ask. For some here tonight, I have listened but I have said No.

Light Rail Transit runs quietly on electricity. It doesn’t spew smog into our air. I hope in the future we can run the system on renewable energy.

With less staff and more passengers, it is more economical in the long run.

As the Chair of the Grand River Conservation Authority, I have been travelling from Cambridge to Waterloo in the rush hour.  There is more congestion in Cambridge than there is in KW. Could this be because more people ride transit in KW?  I’m glad we’re ramping up transit in Cambridge but we need to start stage 2, LRT to Cambridge as soon as possible.

No one has talked about jobs and the LRT. The province and the federal government have given us a jaw dropping amount of money. Why? To help Waterloo Region through the recession. Jobs have disappeared in our Region and most of them were to do with the car industry, particularly the automobiles that eat gas. We need to reinvent our economy again and LRT helps with this.

LRT is estimated to create up to 23,000 new permanent jobs in the station areas. Everything from flower shops to tech start-ups. This isn’t even including the jobs created building and running the LRT.

During the election, I stated that I wanted Bus Rapid Transit back on the table. I voted for that and it was done.

The public and myself had the chance of another look. Unfortunately, almost everyone has found it wanting. Those against The LRT, such as Taxpayers for sensible transit  are for abrt which is a souped up Ixpress that will still be caught in traffic.  All the problems people think exist for LRT, like its dedicated lane, are also part of BRT. And experience elsewhere shows that BRT quickly creates its own congestion.

My second request during the election was that staff bring a report on keeping the costs down. The other concern at the door. They have put in some cuts. But I am most pleased with Councillor Wideman’s amendment that reduces the tax increase to  .7%.  I said during the election that I did not want property tax to increase on the capital portion left over after the province and feds had put in their money. These reductions do this.

The City of Waterloo will finally get its due. Light Rail Transit benefits Waterloo the most.  It will develop our industrial area on Northfield and our R and T park. Waterloo is up to its borders and must intensify. LRT helps do this. The trains will transport our young professionals and university students. The Ixpress, number 9 and mainline 7 are jammed with passengers.

Uptown will have huge benefits from light rail. I wish I could show some of the pictures I have from downtowns around the world that have light rail. People cycling and walking beside the train. Even a fountain between one of the tracks. I wish you all could have travelled to Edmonton, Calgary and Portland, even  Switzerland years ago, as I have.

 Cars don’t shop, people shop.  I ride the bus (yes I use my car and transit) and many times I have come from the region, gotten off at Waterloo Square and done some shopping then hopped back on the bus and gone home or onto Conestoga Mall. I can even go up to the Market and the Outlet Mall in the same trip. Think of 450 people getting off the bus at Waterloo Square.

Waterloo Park will be fine. I have seen a picture of a train with grass growing through the track. People will be able to easily cross the tracks and our report talks about the sensitivity to the heritage of the park.

When the LRT phase one is finished, my new grandson will be around six years old. We will get on my number 9 bus, then onto the train and get off at Waterloo Park where we will visit the zoo and the Wonder of Winter Lights. Then we will head home the same way. He and his generation are the future.

I support LRT.

Reporter Jeff Outhitt just wrote to me the following: I’m reviewing your campaign pledge, in which you said you could not support increasing property taxes to support the LRT proposal. I need to know if you intend to break that pledge or vote against the LRT proposal.

Here is my response:

There are many reasons why starting a referendum process so close to the final vote on what system we would use for transit is not a good idea.

I am going to speak about the public process for Rapid Transit so far. This process has been going on since 2003 with many, many meetings and a decision in 2009 that generated a lot of public response. There have been two elections (2006 and 2010) of municipal councillors as this process continued. I’m not counting the 2003 election as the process had just begun.

 People have had a say and are continuing to have a say. I have had over 100 emails (Now up to over 400 emails, this weekend only!) on this topic since January and that’s not including all the mails I had before that time. I have had the most emails ever on any topic. And these are from separate individuals (I counted each person once). 80 percent at least not the “usual suspects” or advocates for one side or the other. My mail has been running 50/50 pro and con. I send all of the emails to staff to put into the count. I also record pro and con of the telephone calls.  This doesn’t even cover the many, many people whose main topic of conversation with me when I meet them is Rapid Transit. Everyone from the owner of the manicure shop to my book club to dogwalkers to people at various events.

There have also been various groups like the realtors and the tech industry running their own surveys of members. The Record Metroline survey should be very influential as no one can say they are biased because they are the Region. A friend of mine also told me that she answered an Angus Reid poll recently (Not the Region, I asked) I wait for that one.

I also listen to the Jeff Allan show, Rogers 20 talk local, CTV and read The Record and The Chronicle. The Region has a clipping service, so I have also read all the regional articles about Rapid Transit. Not to mention blogs, twitter and Facebook.

Finally there are all the public meetings the Region has held, not to mention the on-line comment form. http://rapidtransit.region.waterloo.on.ca/comment.html

Councillors get numbers and summaries of all.

Here is the list of the public meetings the Region has had with the public.It is in pdf format because there were and are so many. By the way, I have personally attended a number of these meetings, right back to 2006. And not all the meetings are even listed. I attended the Leadership Waterloo cafe recently and that’s not on the official list. Neither are the Probus and Rotary meetings staff presented at, to mention a few.

Rapid_Transit_Public_Outreach_Summary_May_2011

If you have not managed to phone me, or send an email , you can still do so. My information is at the side of this blog.

The final public meetings are May 31 and June 1st at council chambers. If you can’t make them, the decision day is June 15th in the evening at council chambers.

Here is what I am hearing from many of the public, most of them before this referendum question came up.  “Get ‘er done. We are tired of it. Make a decision.”

I hear you and I am going to.

Tomorrow I’m participating in a flash mob at the Clock in Victoria Park. It’s encouraging people to vote. Flash mobs are great when they are about such non-controversial things as encouraging voting or singing Handel’s Messiah. But when a constituents’ meeting about a topic like Rapid Transit that attracts passionate people goes viral as it did a week ago, that’s a different story.

With every infrastructure project the region does, whether large or small, whether a stop sign, a bridge, a water treatment plant or Rapid Transit, we have public meetings out in the community. These meetings include staff meeting one on one with constituents. There are boards and sometimes videos with information about the project. Constituents are invited to record their comments and councillors receive all comments. Sometimes these public meetings take the form of brainstorming or workshops when the council is exploring various options. These meetings help people who are not confident public speakers to get their opinions heard.

A person can come as a delegation to council anytime an issue is on the agenda to make comment. We also, with contentious issues like smoking or rapid transit, put aside whole evenings where constituents can come and speak at a microphone as a delegation. At these meetings, staff will first present a report (it helps delegations to have this first as then they can respond to it when they speak if there is new information) then people will speak. Even someone who hasn’t signed up beforehand can speak if they wish. No decisions are made at these public input meetings. Councillors just listen.

Sometimes a project effects a particular neighbourhood with a particular concern. For example, myself and other councillors met with people living near the corner of Westmount and Bearinger when the road was being realigned to discuss a road that would be partially closed and a potential parking lot.

A few weeks ago, the residents of the townhouses along Caroline asked for a meeting with councillors about the proposal that Rapid Transit (whether bus or train) will be going by very close to their homes. It was not a meeting about whether or not to have Light Rail or Bus or just Ixpress, it was about the alignment. Unfortunately, the meeting date went viral, a flash mob if your will, and people for and against various rapid transit proposals were going to come. The meeting was billed by some as an anti-LRT rally.

I did not attend the pro-LRT rally and I will not attend the anti-LRT rally if it is held. The neighbourhood meeting was cancelled and will be rescheduled in May.

Why? Mayor Brenda had a concern for the seniors at the Adult Recreation Centre. Though I was under the impression the meeting was at a room in City Hall. Anyway, those of us who are experienced councillors have been at meetings where the “mob” mentality prevailed and I, for one, was concerned this would happen at this meeting. I’m not hearing my constituents when the mob takes over.

What does it mean when a mob mentality takes over?

It means that the neighbours with a specific problem would likely be drowned out by the anti and pro sides of the overall issue.

More to the point, when a meeting becomes huge like this, there are not the controls on it that there would be if it was held formally in a council chamber. So what,you say. So, dangerous and unproductive, I say.

If a meeting is not run with distinct rules that have been created over the years to stop riots, you can end up with . . . a riot. A generally peaceful region, we forget how fast things can change in a charged atmosphere.

I’m sure no one was going to the meeting to start a fight but there is a lot of anger and passion on both sides of the rapid transit issue. I have been at meetings on other hot issues where people yell out and yell at people trying to speak. I have been drowned out when I tried to speak. Booing, jeering and wild clapping.  Swearing. People can get out of control and we don’t want meetings to end up in fisticuffs. I have been at a meeting where I didn’t leave alone, afraid I would be attacked. Seriously. Fortunately,that was only one meeting of many. But some times I’ve seen a badly run or loose meeting become dominated by one side or the other or end in chaos.

That is why on May 31 and June 1, from 6 pm on, people should come to Regional Council chambers at 150 Frederick St and have their say. You can sign up beforehand and get 10 minutes.

This meeting is run by a chair, probably Jim Wideman, chair of Planning and Works. People in the audience are not allowed to boo, jeer or clap and no waving of signs. No calling out from the audience.This is so people of an opposing view who may be speaking for the first time can have their say without harassment. It also reduces the tense  atmosphere so fights won’t break out. And it enables everyone to hear the speakers.

You can also e-mail me and I will read your mail and pass on your comments to staff so you can be counted in the public record.

In this way, we can all be passionate, but  also conduct ourselves in a way that all can be heard.

I was hopeful we could decrease the budget slightly this year but it was not to be. Sean Strickland did bring forward reducing the supplementary taxes going to reserves by 2.5 million as a permanent move that I supported as it was greater than the 1.5 million I suggested in a note to councillors.  

I should also note that the budget was decreased by 3.7 percent approximately with money that was saved by the uploading of Ontario Works and Disability funds to the province.

Although there were many other small cuts, council eventually felt that a 1.20 percent increase in Regular transit with an emphasis on crowded routes (a topic I heard a lot about going door to door) and a small increase in money to fix homelessness and other programs (around .5 percent) were important.

As I said to council about the homelessness initiatives, we do know that these programs have reduced the number of “frequent flyers”, people who use emergency rooms, ambulance and police resources to an extraordinary amount because they have no other supports or help with physical and mental problems. In this way we save a little on expensive but necessary police and ambulance service.

Ten of the thirty police officers will be hired in December at a cost of 24,000 dollars. Of course this means at least 10 new officers in 2012, but I still hope we can add officers over say three years rather than the two requested.

I asked after the budget vote (I voted for the budget as I always do if I agree with it over all) for the Region to continue looking at our programs to see if some are redundant or can be made more efficient. We have done this in the past with Housing, Courts and inoculation services among others. It was too late at the 11th hour to start chopping programs and would be irresponsible in  my opinion without an in-depth review. Sacred cows would stay and overlooked programs without champions would go!

It seems that whenever we pick up the paper or look on-line, a bus driver is shown texting or committing some other sin. These problems come to us from Toronto. Today I would like to tell you a different story.

Last week I attended the first awards for outstanding Regional employees. One of our bus drivers won for outstanding service. People phone in to the GRT hotline, not to complain but to complement her work. One customer phoned in because during one bus ride, this rider saw the bus driver give directions to two lost university students, fix a skate blade cut on a passenger who had just finished at the Waterloo Square skating rink and urge passengers to leave by the front of the bus when the back door was blocked by snow.

Another employee, one of our chemists, helped translate for a Russian woman unable to make herself understood to social services staff. Not only did he translate for her that day, but he and his wife stayed in contact with the woman and helped her adjust to Canada.

Finally, there were the two paramedics who got a standing ovation from their fellow employees. They entered a dwelling and found a dead woman. One of the paramedics noticed a car seat and a stroller. They searched the apartment and came across a cold, naked three-year old hiding in the back bedroom. He had been on his own for days with his dead mother and the heat and electricity turned off.

They clothed him and fed him and comforted him with one of the EMS stuffed bears. They waited with the boy while his grandmother was contacted. The boy said to them, “Can I live with you? My Mommy’s dead.”  Despite this intense situation, the two paramedics finished up with the boy then returned to finish their shift.

Congratulations to all the Regional staff nominated and winners!

 I will not take away the increase to Regular transit. That is one thing I heard at the doors during the election. People want increases in regular transit. There are also some “new” initiatives like the homeless strategy and daycare subsidies that lost their funding from the senior levels of government that I wouldn’t touch. But there are some new initiatives that I won’t support to get that .55% down.

2.30 % is our starting point for our final budget day on March 23rd. We have never, ever in my memory ended final budget day with the number we started with. Always down a number of percentages.

So here are a number of ideas I have to reduce the budget. And remember, other councillors are also working on ideas, Jim Wideman in particular is very good at this.

Supplementary taxes. Yes using some of these is not the permanent decrease we would like but this year the percentage increase is so low, next year shouldn’t have too much of a bump up. I also want to point out that the region is still growing and some taxes from new building should come on line next year. Here is the policy on supplementary taxes:

The Region’s surplus policy requires the first $600,000 of surplus to be transferred to the subsequent year’s operating budget and the next $500,000 to the Roads Rehabilitation Reserve Fund. The remaining surplus is then transferred to the Tax Stabilization Reserve Fund (TSRF) and the Working Funds Reserve as necessary to the maximum level of $10 million for each.Any remaining surplus is then allocated to the Capital Levy Reserve Fund.

This is very prudent and I would not touch anything going into the reserves except for the Capital Levy Reserve Fund. It is estimated that 3million will be going into the Capital reserves to build up funds for future building projects (a savings account, if you will). These are our rainy day funds, but in case no one has noticed, it’s pouring out there! I want 1.5 million of the 3 million to go to reducing taxes. That is approximately .5%

I have already said when the police came to council that I want to see their request for new officers spread out over 4 years instead of 2 and for the police board to trim. Let’s say .95% for the police.

I also want us to decrease the roads budget by one million. Before you cry about potholes, half of that is from the supplementary taxes and we have increased our roads budget by huge amounts over the last 10 years. Lets put some of that money to transit if you want to look at it that way.

I am also going to ask staff to decrease our budget by any remaining amount that we are over -.1% budget decrease after my ideas and other councillors’ ideas have been taken into account. It won’t be much, each 1 percent decrease in the budget is approximately 3 million dollars and it will be less than 1 percent. We  have a one billion dollar budget, this is a drop in the bucket.

We can do this! We can help people out during this final hard year of the recession!

Been getting a bit of mail on the LRT and Policing issues. Here’s some thoughts on what works and what doesn’t in convincing me.

1. Don’t tell me I am for the trains because I didn’t have a train set when I was a boy. Hello! I am a woman and if I was voting for a rapid transit system because of what I didn’t get for Christmas when I was achild, we would be looking at Barbie Camper Rapid Transit (BCRT)

1a. Don’t say it’s Ken Seiling’s legacy. Ken is the last person to want a statue or legacy, really.

1b. Don’t say I am Ken’s or Carl’s or even, at other times, Doug’s toadie. I think and decide for myself, that is one of the pleasures of municipal politics vs party politics.

1c. Don’t write about the City Fathers, ’cause I then know you are the age of my father should he have lived. And I’m no spring chicken.

2. Don’t say that any of the councillors or myself are on the take.  Do you really think slander gets your point across?

3. Don’t say staff is stupid. Our staff work hard. Sure say you disagree.

4. Don’t say councillors don’t know anything about how the average person lives or pays taxes (Particularly after you have quoted a property tax bill that shows you live in the rich part of town). I always know what my taxes will be because I actually live in a house with average assessment.

5. Don’t say it’s all a done deal. Particularly in the case of LRT. Whatever side you are on, I won’t go into details, but the vote is closer than you would think.

6. Don’t have all your followers send an email that is exactly the same and worse, exactly the same and long. Individualize or it seems like a spam.

7. Don’t send really long and rambling emails at all. 2 paragraphs, polite, short and to the point. Add an url to your blog if you want to go on (and on and on).

Two of the recent comments on this blog show good examples of replies I listen to. The one from Ruth about LRT and the one from Eric about the environment (OK, Eric, you are right about the hydro rates).

They address me by name, so I know they realize I am a real person and not that strange creature called a “politician”. While passionate, they are polite and make their points. Thanks!

For more ideas on how to “Fight City Hall”, go to my e-book, located here

If you say something over and over and it gets quoted over and over, eventually people will believe you, even if it isn’t the truth. For 10 years I have listened to Mayor Doug Craig say that the Region ignores poor Cambridge. Twice in the last few weeks he has claimed that the Region did nothing to help Cambridge get a GO train.

Untrue! The Region commissioned a 100,000 dollar study (That was paid for by Waterloo taxpayers too — more about that later) to show that Cambridge needs GO trains. We have also lobbied for it.

Cambridge is not the poor step-sister of the Region. In fact, as shown by a study done by the Record, my city, Waterloo, gets the least amount of Regional funds.

But lets face it, whining works. Ten years ago when I got on Regional Council, the Region took over transit. When Cambridge owned transit, it sucked. One of my friends in Cambridge had a bus go by her house, but to get the half mile to the city centre, she would have had to travel for an hour because the bus only travelled one way.

Now that bus travels both ways, she can go to the mall and she can take a fast bus to Kitchener and Waterloo when before there was no bus between the cities.

Money has been poured into Cambridge roads, the redevelopment of 150 Main St. into a Social Services building and social housing. Garbage collection now includes large item pick-up. Cambridge has the lion’s share of new industrial lands while poor Waterloo is knocking up against its boundaries.

Cambridge has a Regional Historic Site and  a Regional daycare that has just been expanded. Waterloo has neither. The Police Headquarters is in Cambridge.

Yes KW could have LRT first, but it would cost twice as much to extend it to Cambridge in the first phase. And Cambridge doesn’t have the ridership of KW — see my comments about Cambridge’s previous lack of transit. Guess which city will get the most benefit from Light Rail?  That’s right, Waterloo with its two universities and tech park.

Staff and councillors tip toe around Cambridge. Regional committees I belong to worry that Cambridge is included. They make sure they have meetings in Cambridge. When I was first on the Region, Waterloo citizens often had to go to Kitchener City Hall for public meetings. I got that changed and now there are meetings in Waterloo and /or at regional headquarters. But, Cambridge, they always get public meetings.

Now I don’t begrudge Cambridge a thing. I’m the first to say that Cambridge should get their phase of the LRT as soon as possible after the first phase, should we choose Light Rail.

And I have nothing against people being for Bus Rapid Transit. But don’t be for BRT because Cambridge, for once, isn’t getting what they are whining for.

By the Way, I will continue to ask for a historic site in Waterloo. But really, we don’t have to feel bad about neglect in Waterloo. Some of the costs we don’t get in Waterloo are because we don’t need the social services. If Cambridge is the Quebec of Waterloo Region, Waterloo is the British Columbia. Our Prince Charming turned out to be a tech guy.

One of the main jobs of the Grand River Conservation Authority is flood control. Two major events helped create the GRCA we know today, Hurricane Hazel and the Cambridge flood of 1974. Here’s some great footage from Youtube of the 1974 flood.

1974 Cambridge Flood

Since that time, dikes and dams have been built to stop the flooding. Here’s a picture of the river in Galt in 2008.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/body_soul_spirit/3149659138/

 The GRCA also stopped people from  building on the flood plain and requires permits for anything built in an area that might be flooded in a 100 year flood.  There is also a flood warning and forecasting system.

Today I attended the flood coordinator’s meeting of the people including police, fire, GRCA, and municipal who receive the fanout of a flood warning for areas like New Hamburg, Ayr, and Dunnville. Dunnville ended up with a flood in 2009 due to an ice jam that ran right up the river, for kilometers. the ice breaker Griffin was able to dislodge some of the ice and help reduce the flooding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiC50WHWTaI

It was timely to hear how flood warnings go out, as we are now in the middle of a thaw of the large amount of snow accumulated over the last few weeks combined with rain. The icebreaker, Griffin, is heading to the mouth of Lake Erie to break up an ice jam again. With climate change, we must be ready for 100 year floods that now come every few years.

Here is a video shown at the coordinator’s meeting from the floods in Australia. It was pointed out that we have had sudden large amounts of rain in the watershed and this could happen here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUpkPTcqPY

After the meeting, one of the staff commented to me, “This is why we need permits, even for parking lots.”