Laurie Mortimer

There isn’t one simple reason our water and wastewater bills are where they are, and there isn’t one simple solution to lowering them.

New Tecumseth has significant infrastructure costs, including aging water and wastewater systems and the cost of securing enough water capacity for our growing community.

I also think it’s important to recognize that the current Council has successfully advocated for outside funding. Earlier this year, the Province committed up to $12.5 million toward rehabilitation of the Alliston Wastewater Treatment Plant, which helps reduce the amount that ultimately has to be funded locally.

We need to keep doing that. We also need to ensure growth pays its appropriate share through development charges, continually review operating and capital costs, and look for every opportunity to reduce pressure on existing ratepayers.

I don’t think it would be responsible for me to promise that I can simply lower everyone’s water bill. What I can promise is that I will question increases, understand what’s driving them, support every reasonable opportunity for outside funding, and make affordability part of every decision.

Yes, I support better transit connections between Tottenham, Beeton and Alliston.

LINX is a County service, so my first step would be advocating at the County level for better connections and making sure New Tecumseth gets its fair share as the system expands.

I also don’t think the answer is simply putting more buses on the road. Ridership should be reviewed regularly and service increased as demand and our population grow.

Where I think New Tecumseth could do more is looking at an affordable on-demand service that gets residents from areas without service to existing LINX stops. That could be a smaller vehicle or short booked ride rather than creating another full transit system at the Town’s expense.

Connect the three communities, build the service as demand grows, and don’t have taxpayers paying twice for something the County already provides.

Yes. We need to do more, and I think we need to be much more proactive.

I share these concerns personally. My grandchildren have encountered discarded needles in our parks. My mother has told me she doesn’t feel as safe downtown anymore. We shouldn’t be finding drug paraphernalia in public places or seeing people injecting drugs on our sidewalks. Residents should not be expected to simply accept that as normal.

I believe in compassion and helping people. Homelessness is not always addiction, and people struggling with homelessness, addiction or mental health need real help. But compassion does not mean ignoring public safety.

I also want to start asking tougher questions. How many people are actually homeless in New Tecumseth? How many are being housed? How many are repeatedly using emergency services? How many complaints are we receiving about needles, theft and property damage? How quickly are discarded needles being removed? What programs are we funding, what are they costing, and most importantly, are they working?

We already have the Town, County, OPP and numerous agencies involved. The Nottawasaga OPP Detachment Board also gives our municipalities a forum to raise local policing priorities and review information from the Detachment Commander.  I want those organizations sharing meaningful local statistics, setting measurable goals and reporting the results back to the public.

And when something isn’t working, we need to be willing to change it rather than continuing with the same approach.

People who need help deserve a path off the street. Residents deserve safe parks, safe streets and a downtown they feel comfortable using. I don’t want to measure success by how many programs we have. I want to measure it by whether the situation in our community is actually getting better.

• Create a very simple needle-response standard. One phone number or reporting method, location logged, rapid pickup, and monthly public reporting of where discarded needles are being found. If particular parks or downtown locations repeatedly show up, deploy cleanup/outreach resources there instead of waiting for residents to keep reporting the same problem.

• Connect people with serious addictions directly to treatment. Simcoe now has a HART Hub system combining addiction treatment, mental-health care, primary care, housing and case management, and an additional 13-bed supportive-housing program is planned.  A practical question for New Tecumseth is: How many of our residents are actually getting into it, and how quickly? A service in Barrie isn’t much of a solution if somebody living on an Alliston sidewalk never gets through the door.

• Separate the populations instead of treating “the homeless” as one problem. Someone who lost an apartment because rent became unaffordable needs a very different intervention from someone with severe addiction or complex mental-health needs. Simcoe’s rapid-rehousing program is specifically designed for lower-risk, situational homelessness, while HART is aimed at people with more complex addiction/mental-health needs.

I will say no to large AI data centres in New Tecumseth.

This isn’t about being against AI or technology. It’s about whether this particular type of development makes sense here, and I don’t believe it does.

We already have serious infrastructure challenges ahead of us. The Town itself says our current water planning does not provide the capacity needed for growth to 2051 and that additional capacity will require significant infrastructure investment. We are currently working on additional groundwater supply, water storage and booster pumping capacity just to support the growth already coming.

I don’t support adding a large AI data centre, with potentially significant electricity and water demands, to that equation. And I don’t believe the relatively small number of permanent jobs typically associated with these facilities justifies dedicating valuable employment land and infrastructure capacity to them.

Our water, power, land and infrastructure are valuable resources. My priority is using them to support our residents, our existing businesses and employment growth that actually brings meaningful jobs to New Tecumseth.

So my answer is clear: if a large AI data centre is proposed in New Tecumseth, I will not support it.

This is an issue I am still learning about, so I don’t want to pretend I have all the answers or promise a program before I understand exactly what is already being done and who is responsible for what.

What I can tell you is where I stand.

First, I don’t believe homelessness and drug addiction are the same issue. People can find themselves homeless for many reasons: the cost of housing, loss of income, family circumstances, mental health, disability or simply having nowhere affordable to go. Addiction is part of the picture for some people, but certainly not everyone.

For someone who is homeless, I want us focused on getting them into appropriate, permanent housing and helping them regain stability.

Where addiction is involved, I believe we need a much clearer path to treatment and recovery. I understand the public-health reasoning behind providing clean drug-use equipment, but I struggle with a system that can provide someone with the equipment to continue using drugs when we still can’t provide them with a clear and timely path into treatment when they’re ready for it.

I also don’t believe allowing homelessness, open drug use and the problems that can come with it to become entrenched in our downtown is compassionate to anyone. It isn’t fair to the person struggling, and it isn’t fair to residents, businesses and employees who deserve to feel safe in their community.

As a Town councillor, I wouldn’t control most of these services. My role would be advocacy. I would be asking the County, Province, health services and the agencies involved some very direct questions.

Where are the treatment beds? Where is our supportive and transitional housing? What happened to the rapid-rehousing program announced for Alliston? How many people are we actually moving from homelessness into permanent housing? And if what we’re doing isn’t getting people off the street, what needs to change?

I have compassion for people who are struggling. But I also believe we can expect better results.

Helping someone shouldn’t mean accepting that living on the street is the best future we can offer them. And caring about those individuals and caring about the safety of our downtown can absolutely happen at the same time.

Great question! And I have to admit, when I saw “Alliston Community Centre,” my first thought was ACC… and apparently Toronto already had dibs on that one. 😂

But there actually is some history behind the NTRC name.

When the New Tecumseth Recreation Centre opened in 2007, Alliston Memorial Arena was still being used as an ice arena. Its ice-making equipment was removed when the new twin-pad NTRC opened.

Alliston Memorial kept its name, and importantly, it really is a Memorial. It was built after WWII and dedicated to those who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. That name and history deserve to be preserved.

From what I’ve been able to find, naming the new facility the New Tecumseth Recreation Centre was intentional. Although it is physically located in Alliston, the idea was to create a facility that represented Alliston, Beeton, Tottenham and our rural community. It was meant to belong to all of New Tecumseth.

Personally, I think there was some good thinking behind that. We don’t have to give up the individual identities and history of Alliston, Beeton or Tottenham to also have something that carries the name we all share.

And besides… NTRC has probably grown on us by now. 😉

I have been involved with a number of community organizations over the years, including the Alliston Curling Club, South Simcoe United Community Living Association, South Simcoe and the Alliston & District Chamber of Commerce. My current community memberships include PROBUS and the Royal Canadian Legion.

I do not currently have a financial or pecuniary interest in any of these organizations. If elected, should a matter come before Council where I have a direct or indirect pecuniary interest, I would declare that interest and follow the requirements of Ontario’s Municipal Conflict of Interest Act.

If I could only choose one, I would choose an indoor pool. I believe it would serve a broader range of residents, from children and families to seniors, recreation, therapy and competitive use.

But I don’t think that’s how we should be planning for a growing community. We have three important recreation projects to consider: the Beeton arena, an indoor pool and the field house.

I would have moved all three forward to the next steps so we could better understand the costs, funding opportunities and options before making final decisions.

We need to plan ahead for the whole community, while still being realistic about what taxpayers can afford and when.

This question doesn't really give the whole picture. Because it's important to also note a pool comes at even higher tax rate increase. But this does circle back, how do we find additional funding if we only move one of 3 projects forward and that's where previous council made an error in my opinion.

For me, environmental sustainability is about practical choices that make sense for our community and our taxpayers.

Over the next four years, I’d like to see more trees planted, our mature trees and green spaces protected, and new neighbourhoods designed with better walking and cycling connections.

I’d also like the Town to continue looking for ways to reduce energy use and waste in our buildings, vehicles and day-to-day operations. I’m a big believer in supporting local, recycling, reusing and refurbishing whenever we can.

We can keep moving toward our environmental goals without making life more expensive for residents. I think there are many common-sense changes that are good for both the environment and the taxpayer.

No.