Your Candidates - Tay Valley Township

Jeff Green | Oct 14, 2010

South Sherbrooke

MARK BURNHAM

Mark Burnham served for three terms as councilor on Tay Valley Council between 1998 and 2006. He sought the position of deputy reeve in 2006 and lost the election to Susan Freeman.

Even though he has not been a member of council for the last four years, Mark Burnham has not really retreated from township politics. He has remained as the Tay Valley representative to the board of the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority, and he has been the chair of that board for five years. He has also remained active on township committees, including the mining committee and others.

“The only difference not being on council was that I did not have to go to meetings on Tuesday nights,” he said.

From his experience on previous Tay Valley councils and what he knows of this latest council, Mark Burnham has found that the council has generally been “pretty reasonable and sensible in its approach to issues, and there are not a lot of divisions on council.”

He is happy with the direction the township has been taking by paving many of the side roads, and will encourage that to continue. “Once the roads are paved they are cheaper to maintain,” he said.

Another project that Mark Burnham was happy to see started is the new fire hall that is being built in Maberly.

Looking forward, he sees some problems ahead for council in terms of indirect obligations coming down from other levels of government, which will lead to tax increases. He cited an example from the Conservation Authority (CA).

“The province gave the CA the responsibility for mapping, without any funding, so that cost ends up being passed down to the municipalities. These kinds of costs can come from a lot of directions, and they impact on taxes,” he said.

DAVE CAMPBELL

Dave Campbell's family has been farming in Lanark County since 1816.

He was raised in the Balderson area, where his cousin still owns the family farm, and he has been a dairy farmer in Maberly for many years.

Because of “bad knees, a back back, and aches and pains,” Dave Campbell sold his dairy quota a few years ago and has been raising a variety of livestock ever since, including keeping a few cows, some pigs and goats. He is now looking into raising rabbits for sale.

Over the years he has been very involved with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) and is a past president and active member of the Lanark Federation.

“The OFA just got permission to hold another lobby day at Parliament Hill in April, so I will be busy all winter organizing that. It takes a lot of work,” he said.

This is the first time he has sought municipal office.

“I've always followed politics and farm politics, and I thought at my age it would be interesting to do my bit for my fellow citizens in the ward. My philosophy is that whatever is good for the membership is good for me too,” he said.

He also said he would like to see some better representation from South Sherbrooke ward on council. “I think a member of council should be out and about in the community, at events, church suppers, that sort of thing. I think people want that.”

He notes there are a lot of farmers in Tay Valley.

“There's one other farmer on the council so if there are two of us it would make it a little better for agricultural stuff. It is a big industry in our county, and a strong agricultural point of view on the township would be a good thing,” he said.

Dave Campbell said that he knows there are going to be a lot of issues in front of council and he would take them on if elected in the same way he takes on all challenges.

“I'm a very positive person and I will try to take on council politics that way,” he said.

ROXANNE DARLING

Roxanne Darling grew up in Kingston, and moved to the Burridge area in the early 1980s. She lived in Burridge and worked in marketing and advertising in Kingston for 17 years.

During that time she developed an interest in municipal politics and was a member of council in Bedford for two terms.

She now helps run her family’s small business on Bobs Lake and is committed to economic growth and local employment. “I originally ran for council in Bedford because I wanted to get more involved in the community. I jumped in with both feet. I wanted to do the same thing in Tay Valley. There is no better way to get to know your municipality than sitting on council,” she said.

Roxanne Darling was acclaimed to her position last time, so this is her first contested election in the township.

“I must say I thoroughly enjoyed my last four years on council. There is a great diversity on this council and I'm amazed at just about every meeting at the insight that my fellow councilors bring to the issues. We don't always agree but we listen to each other and come up with good decisions. This has been a real growing experience for me,” she said.

In terms of issues that are facing the new council, Darling is concerned that a lot of new regulations and responsibilities are coming down from the province that could affect municipal funding. “It all leads to more pressure on taxes, and until we find a new mechanism for our assessment taxes will keep going up. I know what it’s like to live on a lake,” she said.

While high taxes are a problem for all waterfront property owners, Darling said, “It is those who are on a fixed income that I really worry about. I don't know that the answer is for this, but I'd like to be given another chance for four years to work on it.”

Among other issues that are important to Darling are the expansion of municipal involvement in local economical growth, as she would like to give their children a reason to stay and live in this area; enhancement of all municipal processes to make them more user friendly; and improvement of transparency and easy access to council.