Downtown a priority for Ward 4 councillor

By Dave Flaherty/The Oshawa Express

Ward 4 city councillor Derek Giberson bested nine of other candidates on election night in one of the city’s closet races but his focus is now on the job at hand.

“I’m really looking forward to the next four years, and just helping people,” the rookie council member says.

At the top of his list is addressing the many issues he sees in the downtown core.

Giberson says it’s slowly but surely seeing some revitalization.

“It’s not something that is happening at a high pace, but there are improvements happening.”

Yet, he believes some of the issues happening in Oshawa’s downtown core, such as homelessness and drug abuse, aren’t specific to the city.

“Some of the stigmas surrounding downtown Oshawa, and the stigmas around people that are struggling, we need to stop pretending like it’s only happening to us — it’s not,” he says. “Certainly it requires us to respond to our specific needs for our community. In treating it like a unique situation to us, we are stigmatizing human beings.”

And while these are not Oshawa-specific issues, Giberson is clear the solution needs to be Oshawa-specific.

The amount of people who are commuting from Oshawa to work concerns Giberson, but he takes a different perspective on the topic.

“Usually when this comes up, we talk about transportation and we base the entire conversation about the increase in traffic, expanding highways and getting more train trips out of downtown Toronto,” he says. “With that component so central, we are not talking about the fact we have people living in our city who are getting two, three and four less hours a day within their community just because of the commute.”

“While I don’t want to take away from anyone who wants to do that for a specific job opportunity or career trajectory, we need to start to have a fulsome conversation on the other impacts of just the lifestyle that goes into this.”

To him, there needs to be discussion within council and other levels of government to slant the conversation towards the physical and mental health impacts of commuting.

“This is a regional conversation, not just the City of Oshawa,” he says. “I don’t know if it will make me unpopular by talking about that.”

While on the campaign trail, Giberson says he encountered many residents who wish to work closer to Oshawa but are unable too.

While Oshawa has three strong postsecondary institutions in Durham College, UOIT and Trent University, Giberson believes there needs to be a stronger connection with students who attend these facilities.

“We need to be thinking about what we are doing to create more linkages between the postsecondary students and the community. We want them to be involved in not just the postsecondary life, but the whole community life.”

By creating closer ties, Giberson says there may be a greater chance that once students graduate they’ll want to live, start a family and maybe even a business in Oshawa.

He points out that this is the responsibility of all of those on council, not just those in Ward 2.

The future of Oshawa’s Harbour will be a big ticket item for the 2018-2022 council to address.

For Giberson, the key is that the public’s voice is a driving force behind this future.

“The community needs not just to be consulting. Regulatory bodies know how to consult, but consulting doesn’t always mean listening and doesn’t always equal that what they heard becomes a major factor in what they do or they don’t. That’s where the problem comes in,” he says.

For Giberson, it is clear while he understands industry is part of the harbour’s future, he doesn’t want to see an ethanol plant. What he does want to see is a recreational marina.

“There used to be one down there, and people used to use it and talk about how they enjoyed it. It adds to the vitality of the community and it’s something that many people can use.”

However, a new marina should be in a “less precarious position” so it can be a long-term success, he adds.

Speaking on the tight election race he was part of in October, Giberson believes a previous run in 2014 and his community involvement were keys for his success.

“I was running into people who already knew me, and some of the community work I’ve been doing. You use that to keep your energy level high, and go in with the hope that you are doing well,” he says.

In a municipal election, Giberson says it is challenging for candidates because there’s more of an onus for them to engage with the public, as they do not have a whole political party behind them.

“There are two sides to the coin, there is the challenge of getting out and meeting people. The other side of the coin, that part I really like about municipal politics, is you really can get to know people in your ward. It’s a very face-to-face thing.”

And the return to the ward system is something he is happy with.

“At the end of the day, every democratic process has its plusses and minuses. On the balance, the ward system is better,” he says.

With the at-large system, Giberson says he didn’t know which councillor to get in touch with on some issues.

He also found it was a bit overwhelming as voters had to sift through a list of almost 65 names in 2014 to vote for their city and regional councillors, mayor and regional chair.

“How does anyone make a reasonably educated decision on 65 names?” he asks. “I consider myself political-savvy, and I wasn’t even able to make one. I did the best I could.”

He noted he made a conscious effort to speak with voters who are renters, a demographic he considers “very unengaged.”

“They feel disenfranchised by the political process in general. We are missing their perspective and their voice because they are not as engaged.”

Giberson describes his relationship with his regional counterpart Rick Kerr as very friendly and cordial.

“We know each other. In large part, because when someone is active in the community you run into each other from time-to-time,” he says.

With approximately 30,000 residents in Ward 4, Giberson says he knows that he and Kerr will have their hands full.

“There’s going to be lots to keep us busy,” he says.