Incumbent Ted Walker seeking second term as Tay mayor

Tay Township mayor Ted Walker.

From MidlandToday, May 17, 2022
By Derek Howard

Incumbent Mayor Ted Walker wants to keep what he sees as a good thing going.

The long-time municipal employee is returning for a second run at the office of mayor for Tay Township in the October 24 municipal election.

Walker has a storied history in the municipal sector. He graduated from Midland Secondary School and then Queens University in Kingston under the municipal administration program.

Since the 1970s, his roles in administration for Victoria Harbour and Port McNicoll escalated into becoming the chief administrative officer for the Township of Tay, the towns of Midland and Penetanguishene, and even a temporary period for the Township of Georgian Bay.

“My background is in municipal administration, so I think I know the workings of municipal government in relation to the other levels of government,” said Walker. “So I have that knowledge; the importance of good customer service to our residents, and, especially, fiscal responsibility.

“I hope that those have helped encourage council to participate and give them some guidance on issues of concern that they’ve approached me with.”

In the 2018 municipal election, Walker won the seat of mayor with over two-thirds of the popular vote.

“I was very thrilled at the results of the last election, and somewhat humbled by it. That’s why I’ve worked so hard to implement things that the residents told me they wanted looked into,” Walker stated.

Walker ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility, which he said was achieved this term. However, running for a second term would require that responsibility to be monitored and kept balanced.

“I think it’s more of a continuation than anything else; now that we’ve done it, we can’t let it slip,” he noted, adding that the tax stabilization reserve was crucial for fluctuations in Tay’s tax rate.

“Over the last four years, our blended tax increase average each year has been 0.9 percent. With the pandemic, there were some added expenditures there; some programs and services that we weren’t able to continue with.”

Under Walker’s leadership, the township extended due dates on taxes, waived penalties on taxes and water utility bills, and even extended due dates on dog tags. All of the municipal staff understood the hardships that residents were feeling throughout the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Most of those are back now that we’re able to do those. So we’ve got to be able to continue with that fiscal responsibility, and at the same time not impact our level of service, so that we can provide the level of service that the residents want without substantial tax increases,” Walker affirmed.

Partnering with neighbouring municipalities in the region was key to keeping Tay Township in working order during the past few years, said Walker.

“During the pandemic when we couldn’t get together, we had bi-weekly phone calls that we could discuss areas of common concern and different approaches to the pandemic,” he said, “and (we) tried as much in those approaches to the pandemic to put something in effect that was uniform to reduce confusion from the residents. Because the residents don’t always recognize the municipal boundaries.

“Even the interaction between our staff has been excellent. We all encouraged that, and our staff between the four municipalities (Midland, Penetanguishene, Tay, and Tiny) have really worked together as well – certainly on the pandemic, but even prior to the pandemic working together to help solve mutual problems that we all face,” he added.

For the next four years, Walker would like to continue with an accelerated program aimed at taking on more infrastructure projects annually, and to work on improving customer service for communicating with residents.

“I guess our major project is the upgrade and expansion to the Victoria Harbour wastewater treatment plant. We are basically at our capacity on it, so we want to get that done as quickly as we can so that we can permit more development.”

When asked at the start of this year if he would be returning for another term as mayor, Walker quipped that he would need to consult his ‘JAR committee’, consisting of the three first initials of his grandchildren’s names. Recently, the committee had provided their response.

“It’s funny; two were ‘yes I should’, and one was ‘no I shouldn’t,’ because then I could spend more time with her,” said Walker with genuine laughter. “My family has been very supportive, so that’s a big help because there’s a lot of times you’re away with meetings and everything else.”

Information on the Tay municipal election can be found on the Township of Tay website.

Read the article here