Bradford mayoral candidates debate issues to earn your vote

By Dominik Kurek Bradford West Gwillimbury Topic

The Bradford West Gwillimbury mayoral candidates debated local issues such as job creation, taxes and seniors housing at an all-candidates meeting Monday at the Bradford & District Memorial Community Centre.

The meeting was hosted by the Bradford Board of Trade and the Holland Marsh Growers’ Association.

Your candidates for mayor are Herman Burgos, who has been involved in the community for the past 20 years; current Deputy Mayor Rob Keffer, a local farmer who has served one term on council; and incumbent Doug White, who has served two terms as mayor and one term as a councillor.

The candidates were asked how they would attract jobs to the municipality and if the employment lands at Hwy. 400 would be converted to housing.

White said the employment lands will never be converted to residential, calling it the town’s most valuable asset. He said many people live in Bradford and go elsewhere for work, but those jobs need to be here, both to save people from long commutes and for the tax revenue from those businesses. The business tax revenue will allow the town to improve the lives of local candidates, while lowering the burden on residential property ratepayers, he said.

He said the Walmart plaza pays $1.2 million in property taxes per year. A company on Reagens Industrial Parkway is expanding from 75 to 150 employees and pays $200,000 in property taxes.

“On the 400, we’ll be able to replicate that tens of times over,” he said.

He said the GTA’s population will grow by 3 million people in the next 25 years and an estimated 1 million jobs will be created.

“I want some of those jobs to come here,” White said. “I want our folks to have shorter commutes. I want employment to be local and I want the tax revenue to come here so we have the flexibility to improve your lives.”

Keffer, while agreeing on bringing employment to the Hwy. 400 property, said there is a quicker and more economical way of getting it there.

The current town plan starts with the Line 5-Hwy. 400 interchange, a labourious process that will cost $200 million in infrastructure. He would start by bringing sewers through County Road 88 and start at the County Road 88-Hwy. 400 interchange.

“We have eager landowners at Hwy. 400 and 88, entrepreneurs, and we’ll work with them to bring jobs to our 400 lands. In four years time, we’ll have jobs there,” he said.

Burgos said the municipality will need to attract creative jobs to the community.

He moved to Bradford with his family 22 years ago because he had a bicycle distribution company and the town is so close to Pearson International Airport. Most of the shipping costs are the same as from Toronto and Bradford is close to manufacturing.

Businesses now compete on a global level. For that reason, local job creation doesn’t have to be in the manufacturing industry. Instead, it could be distribution companies, IT companies or other, he said.

“We have a number of IT people in town. They would love to be here,” he said.

All three candidates agreed that affordable seniors housing is a problem locally, as there is not enough available to keep the town’s aging population here when they’re ready to downsize their homes.

Keffer said it’s important the town gets new seniors housing during the next term of council and that it’s a disappointment it hasn’t happened in the last four years. He said the mayor and council will need to work with all different avenues to get these homes built.

He said there are entrepreneurs locally who want to invest in the community and the town needs to reach out to them and make it easy for them to build these types of homes.

Unfortunately, it’s more profitable for developers to build larger, single-family homes, he said.

“It’s up to council to get tougher and if we have to draw a line in the sand and say no more water units until we get some affordable housing, mid-rise condominiums or whatever else the council decides is important to us, we need to draw that line in the sand,”  Keffer said.

Burgos said he’s been looking into this issue and says this is a problem he’s noticed all over the world.

This is a problem in France, he said, but governments work with developers and require them to build senior-able homes.

In Japan and Palm Springs, where he has visited, he saw entire senior-able neighbourhoods.

Locally, an average of 500 homes is built per year.

“We should request that developers would build 10 per cent of them as senior-able housing,” Burgos said.

White says seniors housing was a strategic priority for the current term of council.

The challenge, he said, is that the price point of these types of homes is higher than what the residents who need them are willing to pay.

“When people downsize their homes, they want equity in their home,” he said.

He said the town’s population boom is causing an increase in property values, which raises the costs of homes, such as bungalows.

White said the town will need to be proactive to bring seniors homes to the community. He said the town will need to partner with the development community and build a seniors community and offer it at a lower price point. This could lead to building semi-detached homes, bungalows, townhouses and condos, and a medical facility in a seniors community.

The candidates were asked about finding savings in the town’s spending.

Burgos said the municipality needs to find efficiencies. He said in the last 20 years or so, the town has doubled in population, but has tripled its town employees.

“I don’t believe in cutting services. We have more people, we have to increase the spending on the services,” he said, but said efficiencies need to be found.

Additionally, industry will need to be attracted to Bradford West Gwillimbury.

He added the municipality can’t increase development charges, because the economy is fragile and if it slows down, the town will be in trouble.

White said council has kept taxes low the past four years, averaging property tax increases of 1.2 per cent per year, lower than the rate of inflation. This year’s increase was 0.37 per cent.

This happened while the town built a leisure centre, library, started bus service and started improving the canal on the Holland Marsh and brought new jobs to town.

“We have been fiscally responsible. We have actually increased our spending on roads. We could deliver a zero per cent tax increase this year, but that 0.37 per cent represents the capital levy. We know we have to catch up with our roads,” White said, adding it would be irresponsible to have zero per cent tax increases and push back the date to fix local roads.

If anyone can promise less than a 1.2 per cent increase in taxes, that person should be upfront and admit what services will be cut or what user fees will go up, he said.

Keffer said the town can do better with taxpayer dollars.

The town has averaged an increase in spending of 7.7 per cent per year during the last four years. He said anyone who is elected to council should roll up his or her sleeves and go line by line over the budget book and look for savings.

“Surely, with a 7.7 per cent increase in spending, you can find savings,” he said, adding development charges should be kept up to date and council needs to revisit them more frequently to ensure developers are paying their fair share.

The candidates also debated on issues of heritage homes, municipal debt, support for agriculture and more.