Questions 17 and 18 of the twenty-three put to the four candidates for mayor of Collingwood on 30 August. Three answered. Every answer below appears in full and unedited, in alphabetical order, with nothing added.

Mayor Yvonne Hamlin did not return a questionnaire. Where a candidate does not respond, that is reported plainly, without adjective. Her answers will be published in full if they arrive at any point before 26 October. She is not mentioned again in this post.

17. Stormwater

The question asked: A dedicated stormwater charge, separate from the tax levy [support / oppose / undecided]. Outline how much of the stormwater programme you would fund, over what period, and from where. If you oppose a separate charge, say what you would fund it from instead.

Jon Hillis

☒ Undecided

Council endorsed the Stormwater Management Master Plan on September 14, so now the question is how we pay for and deliver it. I am undecided on a stormwater fee until residents can see how it would be calculated, who would pay, what it would fund and how it compares with the tax levy. For 2027, I would put the roughly $1.15 million of high-priority work through the capital budget using existing capital sources and reserves, approved grants and eligible growth-related funding, with any levy impact shown clearly. The broader roughly $35.5 million program is a 25-year roadmap, not a cheque we write today. Projects should move in order of flood risk, consequence, asset condition and opportunities to coordinate with road work and development.

Kathy Jeffery

☒ Support

Critical path to be determined through the long term financial strategic plan, but costs must be spread out equitably across the users over life of assets.

Climate adaptation is very attractive to the other orders of Government, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and insurance companies as investors to reduce damage risks through grants and other funding rather than the tax base.

Norm Sandberg

☒ Support

Stormwater infrastructure is essential infrastructure. Flooding, erosion and system failures become considerably more expensive when required work is continually deferred.

I would prioritize projects based on condition, flood risk, impact of climate change, consequence of failure, regulatory requirements and co-ordination with other road and underground infrastructure work. The highest-risk projects should proceed first.

I support a dedicated stormwater charge, but let’s be clear: it is not a new source of money. Whether collected through property taxes or a stormwater charge, it ultimately comes from the taxpayer or ratepayer.

The advantage of a dedicated charge is transparency. The money collected is specifically identified for stormwater rather than competing within general taxation.

Before implementation, Council must determine a fair rate structure, property impacts, administrative costs and appropriate credits for effective on-site stormwater management.

The objective is dedicated, transparent funding—not another source of municipal revenue.

18. Growth and servicing capacity

The question asked: Over the next term I would [accelerate residential growth / maintain the current pace / slow it / pause approvals until infrastructure catches up]. Servicing capacity is best understood as [a hard veto on approvals / a sequencing tool / a cost to be funded]. Outline your platform on growth, and be specific about who pays for the capacity that growth requires.

Jon Hillis

☒ Maintain the current pace · ☒ A sequencing tool

I support the Town’s existing Servicing Capacity Allocation Policy rather than another blanket moratorium. When I say ‘maintain the current pace,’ I do not mean Council should pick an artificial target to speed up or slow down approvals. Projects should move when they meet the planning rules and there is confirmed or funded servicing capacity for them. Faster processing is not the same thing as faster growth. Growth-related infrastructure should be paid for according to the development-charge study and the law, with existing users paying only the share that benefits the existing community. And servicing is bigger than water and wastewater. Roads, stormwater, parks and recreation all have to be part of the conversation as growth is sequenced.

Kathy Jeffery

☒ Maintain the current pace · ☒ A sequencing tool

Municipalities do not build houses. Provincial and Federal governments need to understand that infrastructure development underpins municipalities’ abilities to approve the building of more homes. Those other orders of government also need to understand that without making municipalities whole on the reduction of development charges, guarantee that DC reductions actually get to the buyer, the fact that municipalities cannot run deficits and have no income tax/ corporate tax / HST type sources of revenue that they have no choice but to buoy the municipal infrastructure gap.

Norm Sandberg

☒ Maintain the current pace · ☒ A sequencing tool

Collingwood will continue to grow. The question is not whether we grow, but whether we manage that growth well.

I am neither pro-development nor anti-development. I am pro-good planning, pro-collaboration and, above all, pro-Collingwood taxpayer.

The Town and the development community are both community builders. We need reasonable, predictable and workable planning rules, while ensuring that growth pays its fair share of the infrastructure it requires.

Servicing capacity should be used to sequence development responsibly while capacity remains available. But it cannot be treated as an accounting exercise. When physical capacity is exhausted, it becomes a hard constraint. Front-ending Agreements should be considered, as appropriate, to help facilitate this.

Growth should proceed at a pace our water, wastewater, transportation and other municipal infrastructure can responsibly support.

Good planning means anticipating those requirements before they become barriers to appropriate growth.

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