ELECTION 2006
     

 The November 2006 Municipal Election Will Be All About Electing People With Strong Leadership Skills

Finally we will have someone from Valley East sitting on Council who has proven leadership skills. Kirwan has been a Teacher for all his life and he was President of his Teachers' Union for nine years. He has shown many times in the past that he is not all talk. When Kirwan says he is going to do something, he does it. Robert Kirwan has my vote and I know he has the votes of all of my friends and neighbours.
Submitted by Jim from Hanmer
Robert Kirwan has my vote of confidence. I have known him for a long time and one thing I can say is that he is not afraid of stepping forward and taking responsibility. He loves challenges and has the ability to find ways of achieving his goals and objectives. I feel good knowing that he is going to represent me on City Council. Now at least there may be some direction to what they do at City Hall. Good Luck, Robert. We're all behind you.
Submitted by Jennifer from Val Therese

   

The November 2006 Municipal Election Will Be All About Electing People With Strong Leadership Skills

  
When it comes to casting your vote in the November 2006 Municipal Election, your choice will pretty much depend on one thing and one thing only. 

Who do you feel among the candidates running for office possesses the strongest leadership skills and therefore, who do you feel is best equipped to do the job of representing you at City Hall?

For example, anyone can make promises, but not everyone is capable of delivering on those promises. Sometimes it requires a great deal of strategic thinking and positioning in order to accomplish specific goals.

Let's take, for example, the issue of the Barrydowne Extension.

A large number of residents of Ward 6 - Hanmer & Val Therese, as well as the residents of Val Caron, Blezard Valley, McCrea Heights and Capreol also feel that a Barrydowne Extension highway would be beneficial to the northern communities in the City of Greater Sudbury. It is easy for a Councillor to stand behind this movement and demand that the rest of Council approve such a major highway construction project. 

However, a strong leader will look at the end goal and then work backwards to see what has to be put in place in order to ensure the Barrydowne Extension becomes a reality.

When you work from the 'End Goal' backwards, you see that in order to be driving on a beautiful new four-lane highway linking Valley East to New Sudbury, the following will have to exist:

bulletWe will need to increase our population by about 5000 people in order to justify the construction of a new highway to accommodate the additional traffic load on our existing Hwy. 69N route. 
 
In other words, it doesn't matter how many signatures you get on a petition, nor does it matter how passionate a plea you make for the construction of the highway, the existing traffic on Hwy 69 North heading into Sudbury is not high enough to warrant the spending of money on a new highway at the other end of the community. There are times of the day when the traffic is heavy, but that traffic load must be consistent all day long in order to convince the federal and provincial governments to help fund the Barrydowne Extension.

In order to make the Barrydowne Extension highway a reality, the following will have to take place:

bulletWe will need to have several senior apartment buildings and at least one senior residential complex established in Valley East so that seniors will be able to move out of their single family dwellings and open up their houses for purchase by new families who cannot afford to buy homes in the $300,000 range;
 
bulletWe will need to facilitate the construction of approximately 300 - 400 new houses EACH year for the next five years This is a lot of construction, but if we assume an occupancy of 3 people per new home, this is only 900 to 1200 people per year. This means that we must ensure that there are permits for approximately 1500 to 2000 new houses pre-approved through the planning department;
 
bulletWe will require many additional licensed day-care spaces for the young families who will be anticipated to purchase these new homes. Without adequate day-care spaces young families will not even consider locating in this part of the region. The licensed day-care spaces are needed in order for young families to receive subsidies to help pay for this "necessity of life" for the 21st Century family;
 
bulletWe will need to increase the water & sewer infrastructure in Ward 6 in order to meet the new standards for home construction. Right now, the infrastructure is restricting new development in some of the older areas of the community of Hanmer. There is abundant space for development, but the cost is prohibitive at this point until we can increase the size of the "pipes in the ground";
 
bulletWe will need to promote the Valley East Industrial Park in order to bring new industry and jobs into the Valley East area. People like to live close to where they work. The Valley East Industrial Park has a lot of space available. As a council we should be encouraging development in this Park because of its central proximity to all other sectors of the City of Greater Sudbury;
 
bulletWe will need to promote the industrial development of the East side of the City of Greater Sudbury in order to create more jobs in that part of the City so that people will be able to use the Barrydowne Extension to get to work. This will create a further demand for housing in the Valley and will place added pressure upon Council to approve the construction of the new highway;
 
bulletWe will need to convince the rest of City Council that the Barrydowne Extension will eliminate the need for a Maley Drive extension by virtually removing all traffic from Valley East from Lasalle Blvd. If the Maley Drive Extension goes ahead as planned, it will take over $32 million to complete. That will place a huge drain on the road construction budget. The construction of the Barrydowne Extension may accomplish the same goal at a fraction of the cost. 
 
bulletWe will need to enhance our neighbourhood playgrounds and major recreational facilities in order to attract new residents to Valley East. This is an absolute no-brainer.

So, as you can clearly see, getting the Barrydowne Extension is not as easy as simply trying to convince City Council to designate this project as a top priority among road construction plans for the region. It will require a whole new philosophy on the part of councillors with respect to where residential development should be promoted, and thus requires a belief that Valley East is the best place for this development.

In order to accomplish this big goal, all of the others must be done first. That will take leadership and strategic planning.

When you cast your ballot on November 13, 2006, you will have to select the person who you feel has the necessary skills to make all of the above happen in order to accomplish your major objectives.

This applies to all major decisions that impact upon the residents of Ward 6 - Hanmer & Val Therese. It is all a matter of leadership. That is the question this time around.

POOR LEADERSHIP LEADS TO POOR DECISIONS

Unfortunately, we can site too many examples of how the 'Poor Leadership' qualities of the City Council in general has lead to some pretty bad decisions during the past few years. Just recently for example:
  
bulletCouncil has had a great deal of difficulty deciding on how to pay for the rock tunnel project in the South End of the City. They have reversed several decisions and it appears as if the rest of the ratepayers will be paying for this project for the next 40 years;
 
bulletCouncil approved a construction project of $6 million for the Kingsway from Falconbridge Road to the By-Pass. Funding from the Provincial and Federal Government was obtained in the amount of $4 million for that project (based upon the fact that all three levels of government were to split the cost equally). Between the time of the approval and the time Council was to approve the final expenditure, the cost had risen to $8.4 million. In addition, staff decided to add enhancements to the project effectively raising the total cost to $13 million. Instead of sending staff back to the drawing board to find a way of completing the project on budget, Councillors approved the increased expenditure, thus accepting responsibility for $9 million of the cost of a project that was originally pegged at $6 million. To add insult to injury, only $1.1 million was budgeted for 2006, so the remainder will be paid for in the 2007 and 2008 budgets, meaning that if Robert Kirwan is elected, almost $8 million has already been spent out of the road budget for the next two years.
 
bulletCouncil had to appoint a Community Solutions Team to survey the residents of the outlying area in order to find out why they are so dissatisfied with the current municipal government structure. With seven members of the current council living in those outlying areas, this was a blatant admission of poor leadership.
 
bulletThe list is endless. This is why I say that the "Leadership" issue is the most important one for the 2006 elections.

 
 

 

ROBERT KIRWAN
CANDIDATE FOR CITY COUNCILLOR - WARD 5 - CITY OF GREATER SUDBURY
Phone: (705) 969-7215


rkirwan@infocomcanada.com