Fred Perry

Oct 02, 2014

Councillor

Fred Perry – township has progressed but there is unfinished business.

Fred Perry was not born near Myers Cave, in what is now North Frontenac, but he did move to the area when he was pretty young, 3 weeks old in fact. He was born in Quebec, primarily because that's where his mother was from and there were no hospitals anywhere near his family home.

He went to elementary school in Cloyne, to high school in Flinton, and then like so many others before and since, he left the area in order to seek employment. He took a job at Massey Harris Ferguson in Toronto, and then started working for Northern Telecom (which became Nortel) in Brampton. He started as a lift truck driver and then took many management courses. Eventually he managed a number of operations, including a silicon technology lab in Ottawa. After he retired in 1992, he volunteered for the United Way for 12 months, then volunteered at CHEO, helping raise $6 million in corporate donations for a research building.

In the 1970s, he bought a cottage with his wife Monica near where he grew up, and in the late '90s they built a year-round home, where their son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren come to visit often.

In 2004 a council vacancy for Ward 1 (Barrie) came up when Dick Hook resigned for health reasons. Fred was encouraged to put his resume in, and he was selected. He was acclaimed to Council in 2006, and ran successfully in his first contested election in 2010. He served as deputy mayor of the township for the last four years, and is currently the acting mayor.

“I think we have been a pretty forward-thinking council,” he said, “things are a lot better now than when I got on council. We have tight budget controls; we have moved to managing the township like a business; the roads are well maintained, and we have instituted asset management and long-term planning. We have really put a lot of energy into our recycling program and our waste sites are now good for 25 years, and we are debt free. The only really disappointing thing has been economic development, but that is not easy task and we have been working on it,” he said.

He is not certain that a new township office is required, but since dealing with water issues and requirements to meet provincial accessibility standards could cost a considerable amount, he thinks building new may have to be considered in the future.

While he said he is “comfortable with the level of staffing at the township,” he thinks “there could be a lot of value into looking at shared services, and turning 506/509 into a county road system would be good for North Frontenac.”

He said he is running again to see the strategic plan implemented and to work on shared services.

“I also enjoy being involved,” he said.