Cerantola Responds To Citizens Email

September 6 2010 — Dear Wasaga Beach citizens thanks for your email. I would be happy to let you know about me. I have answered your questions as you posed them.
Hello Gary:
We are some of your neigbours.
We just now see your name as a nominee for coucillor re up coming Wasaga Beach Fall elections.
Because we haven’t heard of you before now: and know nothing about you; can you please share with us the following.
(Would you kindly type your replies between the questions in a different colour. Thankks.)
Why did you decide to run for councillor this year?
Answer: I believe I can really make a difference. I have a team approach and I believe I can work with town management and the Mayor and Council to truly make Wasaga Beach the community where there is noticeable Quality of Life and visitors appreciate our community. I think there is a lot more Council can do to be effective and with my board experience in governance and my corporate experience in strategic and business planning I believe I can identify the enablers to make our Council effective and produce results that will get us towards our vision for Wasaga Beach.
What is your present occupation?
Answer: I am a professor at Georgian College, Meritus University and Phoenix Unversity and I run a small management consulting practice that specializes in facilitating strategic, business and marketing plans.
How long have you lived in Wasaga Beach; and is it year round or just as a part time resident.?
Answer: My wife Eva and I are full time residents of Wasaga Beach and we moved here this spring. We purchased our home in Wasaga Beach two years ago in preparation to move here.
Would you feel free to share with us a little about you and your family and personal interests?
Answer: Eva and I both grew up in Sudbury Ontario, moved to Alberta and have returned. We have 5 children and 5 grand children. We love the outdoors. I am a handy man. I have built a cottage and love to do rennovations.
What experiences can you bring with you that would enable you to handle this position?
Answer: I have extensive board experience in Workers Compensation, Credit Union (even at the provincial level) and non-profit (Association for the Rehabilitation of the Brain injured) I have chaired committees such as Finance, Audit, Community Relations, Executive Compensation and served on a 4 Billion Dollar Investment Fund committee. I was actively involved in board governance practices evaluation and adoption of best practices.
Corporately I have lead and business process re-engineered strategic planning processes from the holding company level down to small strategic business units. I understand telecommunications right from the infrastructure level to the marketing of commercial and industrial customers. I worked at the Bruce Nuclear Power Development for 5 years and understand water treatment processes, design, operation and maintenance. My background in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering along with my enginnering process experience will serve me well in understanding the Wasaga Beach operational issues. I have worked in marketing and strategic planning in the electric power business. I understand distributed generation, energy management and SMART metering and I have reviewed a lot of information in the new Ontario’s Green Energy Act (GEA). I teach sustainability at the University of Phoenix and know what it would take for the Town of Wasaga Beach to truly go green from developing an EMS plan to certifying for ISO 14001
I have a Quality background, have lead change management and organizational effectiveness groups and would bring experience to Council on how we could enhance effectiveness at Coucil as well as in Town Operations. I also have taught Production and Operations Management.
I spearheaded a telecommunications proposal for 5 towns and a county to bring broadband fibre to the home.
I owned and operated two small businesses for 7 years covering security, indoor air quality and water quality for residential and commercial customers. I know what small business people go through to operate and maintain their businesses.
Have you served now, or in the past on any boards or comittee’s……… if so when and what were they and what postions have you held; and their durations?
Answer:
• Credit Union Central Alberta Ltd. 2009 – 2010
o Vice Chair
o Board Director
• First Calgary Savings 1997 – 2010
o Board Director
o Past Secretary of the Board
o Past Chairman of the Audit & Finance Committee
o Member of several board committees
o Past Chairman of the Executive Compensation Committee
o Past Chairman of the Member of the Community Relations Committee
• Association for the Rehabilitation of the Brain Injured 2004 – 2007
o Secretary of the Board
• Alberta Worker’s Compensation Board (WCB) 1998 – 2004
o Board Director
o Chairman of the Audit Committee
o Chairman of the Finance Committee
o Member of the WCB $4B Investment Fund Advisory
What are your goals as a concillor if you should win this election and have a seat on council?
Answer: My goals would be to bring about the following:
Transparency
Accountability
A long term VISION
Citizen Engagement
Good Fiscal Management
Benchmarks for Operations Performance
Best Practices in Municipal Governance
A pragmatic approach to Sustainability
Please share your visions and dreams for Wasaga Beach for with in 2-5 yrs..10 yrs and 15 yrs?
Answer: Wasaga Beach as the Best Place to Live in Canada providing citizens the services, cultural and social venues and means to achieve a Best in Class Quality of Life and offer visitors an unparalleled level of hospitality and service.
Are there any changes that you see need to be made in Wasaga Beach now or in the near future; if so please enlarge upon these.
Answer: Any community needs to improve. I think right now my role would be to ensure the community itself recognizes where it is in the scheme of things (we need to baseline to understand what we have to work with in terms of executing on an effective strategic plan. I will be releasing another web release soon on Capital Asset Management of which the Town of Wasaga Beach is just getting into) and understand where it needs to go in the next 10 years. Please read my press releases and the brochure my wife Eva and I have created and let me know if you need anymore information.
Please feel free to add any other items or bits of information that you feel you would like us to know about you and share. with neighbours.
Answer: I see my role as working with all stakeholders, community, county, province and country to bring about the right change needed by Wasaga Beach citizens not anyone else.
I recognize that I am new to the community and may not even be aware of some of the issues. However, I will guarantee that my efforts over the next 4 years will be towards informing all of the Wasaga Beach citizens clearly what the relevant issues are and how they stack up in terms of what we want to achieve in our shared vision. I believe the citizens of Wasaga Beach have to vote in a complement of councillors just like they would build an investment portfolio. They have to vote in a diverse group, some that are subject matter experts like myself and some that have established connections with the community. You get the best results that way. At the end of the next 4 years I hope to represent both aspects.
Answering the above questions and your prompt reply will really help us get to know you; and also help us to make an informed decsion come election day.