Departing council members reflect
By Dave Flaherty/The Oshawa Express
In any election, there are some who win and those who don’t.
And with the fast-paced nature of society, eyes are usually set at the future and not the past.
Four incumbents were unsuccessful in their attempts to sit at Oshawa’s council table again, but for the moment, they are still officially city and regional councillors.
Doug Sanders was part of the city’s tightest race as he sought the position of Ward 4 regional and city councillor.
The winner, Rick Kerr, edged out Sanders by a mere 64 votes.
And while he may not have known exactly how tight the count would be, Sanders said he was expecting a close finish.
But as he tells The Oshawa Express, his “biggest disappointment” was the city’s voter turnout, pegged at about 25 per cent.
Asked if he had any thoughts on why there is such voter apathy in Oshawa, Sanders really has no idea.
“It could be because of all the positive things we’ve done,” he suggests. But he guesses there may have been issues with online voting, a problem that plagued other municipalities on election night, including Pickering, Peterborough and The City of Kawartha Lakes.
Sanders was first appointed to council in 2011 after another candidate ultimately declined to take office. He then won re-election in 2014.
Over that time, he says the city’s downtown has seen a dramatic turnaround, something he is quite proud of.
“We had a 30 per cent vacancy rate and we are down to about eight per cent now,” he says.
He said it was a pleasure to be involved in the addition of events like Kars on King, Bikes on Bond, the butter tart festival and international wine festival.
Another highlight for him was finally seeing some progress on the redevelopment of the Genosha Hotel, a project plagued by years of stop-and-start activity, along with “saving” of the Harman Park Arena in 2012.
“We’re happy. They went back and rejuvenated a community area for kids,” he says.
Moving forward, Sanders says the city’s waterfront, Go Transit expansion and downtown developments will be big ticket issues for the next council to deal with.
He believes mayor-elect Dan Carter will do a “good job”, and council needs to continue the fiscal responsibility shown by their predecessors.
“We’ve controlled spending, we’ve paid down debt and we’ve added to the reserve. If we continue on that path, we’ll be in the best financial shape in all of Durham
Region. That is the challenge,” Sanders states.
Sanders feels, as a whole, council had a positive relationship.
“It was a very co-operative council. We all had ideas, and we could share them and get support. Whether we won or lost, we didn’t bear grudges.”
He says he is unsure of what the immediate future holds for him.
“I had a good run. I can hold my head and be proud of some of the things we’ve accomplished,” he says.
John Shields was also unsuccessful in his run for the regional and city position for Ward 3, falling to former councillor Bob Chapman.
Chapman had resigned in April to run as the provincial Conservative candidate in Oshawa.
Shields tells The Oshawa Express he “thoroughly enjoyed my time on council.”
“Representing the people of Oshawa and giving back to my community has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” he reflects. “I will miss representing my friends and neighbours, I will miss aspiring to create change and progress our city forward.”
The departing councillor did not mince words when speaking on the election results.
“I always voted and conducted myself with honesty and integrity. For me it was always about voting with my conscience. I think the results on Monday night were a clear indication that honesty and integrity may not be that important when choosing a candidate.”
Shields believes there was a “dramatic decline in civility” after the death of former mayor and city councillor Nancy Diamond in 2017.
“She was about inclusion and respected the opinions of her colleagues. That sentiment was consistent through council at the time,” he says. “It became apparent after Nancy passed that it was her leadership that invoked that civility. It became more about getting to the magic number of six votes, and who cares about the rest.”
Pushing himself as someone who chose “not to tow the party line and do what I was told”, Shields says it may not have resulted in a “long political career”.
“When it’s all said and done, even with forces working against me behind the scenes, at least I can hold my head up with pride.”
Despite this, Shields says he wishes nothing but the best for the new council.
As vice-chair of the finance committee, Shields says he was encouraged to see the city pay down approximately $26 million in debt principal repayments and internal debt by $10 million, “at the same time, investing $105 million in capital infrastructure projects and replenishing nearly $20 million into reserves,” he says.
He says he “stood up for and fought for” the city’s best interests at the harbourfront.
Other notable events for him were his opposition to what he calls “a shady, backdoor councillor appointment process” after Diamond’s death and removing ice pads at the Children’s Arena.
To him, the new council will need to address affordability, homelessness and the opioid crisis in a different way.
“‘Outside of the box’ thinking is going to be more important now than ever before. Continuing to do the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity,” he says.
He says it is too early to make a call on running again, but he may “look into other ways of giving back.”
After Diamond’s passing, Gail Bates was appointed to council.
While only on the job for a year-and-a-half of the four-year term, she says it was a great experience.
“I really enjoyed those 18 months, and I definitely had some ideas I wanted to bring back, but it’s not to be.”
Bates believes the group of the past four years may be the best the city has had and was probably “one of the more progressive.”
With a number of former council members returning, she is concerned they may have a mentality of what worked in the past will work now.
“They have to be careful not to regress,” Bates says.
Despite coming into the game late, Bates says she was able to integrate herself quickly.
“It wasn’t hard for me at all, I was the only person being orientated. I met all the senior management staff, and I had all their binders which indicated to me what their roles were,” she recalls. “I had started to establish a really good relationship with them.”
The former nurse was “very pleased” with how council handled last year’s budget.
“We kept our tax increase to 1.79 per cent. We felt expenses that were listed as necessary weren’t really necessary, such as replacing the entire fleet of city vehicles,” she says.
A priority for Bates was improving communication between the community and the Oshawa Executive Airport.
“I know some people do dislike the airport. Dan Carter and I worked on setting up a citizen action committee so they could be involved. Those are the kinds of things citizens want to have input on.”
The new council will have their hands full with a number of important decisions in her view.
“The harbour issue is going to be an ongoing issue,” Bates says.
At the last council meeting held on Sept. 24, council voted against an agreement with the Oshawa Port Authority to construct a private driveway.
Those against the agreement were unhappy the city would not be yielded a 120-meter strip of land to act as a buffer for the nearby Second Marsh.
The OPA says the federal government is clear that there is no land available for the city.
Instead, the authority was offering protection of the Second Marsh for 25 years.
Due to the council’s decision, the port authority enacted a 1976 agreement that dictates the city must build a full-service extension of Harbour Road.
Bates, a vocal critic of the OPA, says she couldn’t support only 25 years of protection for the Second Marsh.
“That’s one of the reasons I voted against it,” she says.
Other big issues coming up will be deciding whether the city will welcome cannabis retail stores, a decision to be made by Jan. 22, 2019, and the 2018 operating and capital budgets.
“They’ll have a lot to deal with. It’s going be very difficult,” Bates notes.
At this point, she says it’s too early to consider another run for council, but it’s probably not in the cards.
“I’m retired, I blog, I have grandchildren to play with. So I’ll be a busy lady.”
Nester Pidwerbecki was the longest-serving incumbents who not will be returning, having sat as a councillor for 28 years.
He admits he was disappointed with the results of the election, but not necessarily surprised.
“I had reservations about running in the first place. Everybody is looking for change, they are not sure what they want, but they want change,” he observes.
Over the past few terms, Pidwerbecki said he was part of what he believes was “one of the best councils” in the city’s history.
“The accomplishments for the city and the region have been great,” he says.
The veteran politician says he’s proud the city has transformed itself from an “industrial hub to an educational hub.”
“It’s been a long time coming. Through the cooperation of the city’s universities and colleges we have changed the culture of the city.”
Pidwerbecki says he has been happy to see the rate of development in Oshawa, calling it “phenomenal.”
But also he feels this will be a challenge to keep an eye on for the incoming council.
“We are still going forward with the growth plans, and opening up some of the lands around the 407 to create jobs for the city and region.”
Looking back on his time on council, Pidwerbecki says there are a number of things he is proud of.
He chaired the transition committee that put together the regional transit system.
“That was a big accomplishment. Everybody had their own little empire before that,” he says.
He felt changing the city from a ward system to at-large representation yielded positive results. “That changed the culture of the council, and helped change the culture of the city.”
During the past term, council voted to return to the ward system. “We’ll see how things go with that,” he remarks.
Another accomplishment he remembers fondly is Durham Region earning a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records by collecting the most batteries to be recycled in a 24-hour period.
“I think we set the pace for other communities, now everybody is recycling batteries. It was a big undertaking,” Pidwerbecki states.
“The one that nobody talks about anymore, because it is working well, is being involved with the energy-from-waste centre. I think it’s quite a success story and is keeping garbage from being dumped into the ground.”
With a number of councillors from the past returning, Pidwerbecki is hopeful they will continue the path that the city has been on recently.
“I hope that they will look at the city as it is today. The council and the books are in good shape.”
As for the future, he says his “political days are behind me.”
“I have no intentions of running again. I look forward to reading a book instead of reading a file or staff report,” he says.
Speaking of staff, Pidwerbecki says they deserve a tremendous amount of credit for the work they do and the role they play in the city’s success.