Public Engagement

It was a pretty typical morning in the Mayor’s office. I drafted a response to the grade six students at Sacred Heart School, thanking them for their ideas about what young people would like to see in our new Midland Bay Landing property. I also received a call from a gentleman who had heard of my office’s involvement in our area’s healthcare and wanted to be part of our new healthcare steering committee. I made a call to the school board to help another group who are planning a new outdoor skating rink in our Town.

Wherever you turn, the people of Midland are looking for ways to be meaningfully involved in helping our Town. The reality from the municipal side is that we absolutely need that help. Without the expertise and energy of our engaged citizens, the Town of Midland could not go forward.

Through my first term I have taken every opportunity to get people informed and meaningfully engaged. It started right at Town Hall. I invested the first year in trying to get Council to work together and I am pleased to say that your Councillors are now generally listening to each other as they discuss the issues. I also reached out the public with my weekly blog, News from the Town, which keeps hundreds of citizens up to date on what is happening in Midland (see News from the Town).

I worked with staff to change the processes of Town Hall to allow more citizen involvement:

• Adding a public input session to our annual budget process
• Adding “rise and report” so that citizens could hear the results of closed meetings
• Re-designing the Town website and putting more information on it
• Hosting new public meetings on topics of interest: casino, taxi fares, Hanson lands development
• Making public consultation central to planning: Midland Bay Landing Plan, Down Town Master Plan
• Making citizen membership part of most committees: Waterfront Steering Committee, Development Charges Ad-Hoc, Economic Development Corporation of North Simcoe

Where outside stakeholders were essential to progress, I set up new mechanisms to have them fully engaged:

• Downtown Safety – I organized and led the formative meetings that brought many stakeholders together to implement long-term solutions to improve downtown safety
• Healthcare – I worked with our Seniors Council to create public meetings to develop our healthcare objectives for North Simcoe
• Job Creation – I brought together a group of entrepreneurs who meet regularly at the ShopMidland location to discuss opportunities for job growth in the healthcare sector
• Affordable Housing – Under the general guidance of the County, I organized the North Simcoe Housing Working Group.  The group is made up of stakeholders and the public, looking  for solutions to our affordable housing deficit

Each of these initiatives would not be possible without active and meaningful participation by the public.  In the days ahead there will be even greater need for citizens to be involved in moving their Town forward.  The good news is that we have the people who can make it happen.

If I am re-elected, these types of discussions and consultations will continue to be the way we do business at the Town of Midland.