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Meet the Candidates: Elaine MacDonald
Municipal Elections are taking place in October. As one of the main media outlets in the City of Cornwall, The Seeker is always eager to getting to know the candidates. As such, we send each candidate a questionnaire requesting for them to give their position on the most pressing issues near and dear to you, our readers. During the upcoming weeks, we will be publishing the answers from each candidate who choses to respond. Every candidate was sent 11 questions, penned by our own, Jason Setnyk. They can chose to answer as many as they want. We will post them online as they come in. Here are Elaine MacDonald’s Questions and Answers. Click on any question to reveal the answer.
1 – Please give us a brief biography / tell the readers about yourself.
(e.g., work/family/education/experience)
I am a retired teacher and four-term councillor with strong community ties in the labour council and the Ontario Health Coalition. On all three fronts, I intend to keep working. Most of what councillors do contributes to the smooth efficient running of the city and its many programs that support the residents. Beyond that though, we can engage our peers around the council table to break out into a new direction, as we did with the arts centre or we can re-prioritize elements in our Strategic Plan as we are doing with housing. Going forward, I will emphasize our community’s response to the Calls to Action in the Truth and Reconciliation Report. We have the opportunity to forge a new relationship with First Nations and I commit to advancing it.
2 – If you were on Council the previous term, tell us about your accomplishments during the past four years. If you were not on City Council this last term, please tell us why you are running and what you hope to accomplish.
I was on council last term and prior as well. Two things come to mind in a discussion of accomplishments: The first is that none of us gets anything done working alone, and secondly, we rarely accomplish anything big within a single term. The future arts centre is a good example. After co-founding a community group with that goal in 2014, I participated in serious agitation in the community and added intense advocacy at the council table for a multi-disciplinary municipal arts centre. Now, eight years later, we’re almost at the finish line. I’m proud to say I was part of it every step of the way, and I was never walking alone.
3 – With rents skyrocketing, what can City Council in Cornwall do to prevent renovictions like those at Cumberland Gardens that have impacted many in our community?
No answer.
4 – In 2018, the City of Cornwall purchased the old Bank of Montreal building in our downtown for $450,000 as the future home of Cornwall’s Art Centre. In 2019, Council heard a report that renovations would cost an additional $4 to $6 million dollars. In addition to the fundraising already being done, will you support some public tax dollars going towards a Cornwall Art Centre, or should the municipality pause any additional financial support?
The city recognizes the great value of the arts centre, both as an anchor of economic activity downtown and as a tourist attraction. Consequently, administration, with council’s support has completed intensive studies and overseen preliminary work to bring the project to the point of tender issue. However, beyond city control is the challenge that COVID has imposed on supply lines. That is an unavoidable pause or delay and none other should be entertained. The community has contributed over$1,128180.00 to the Art Trust Fund and momentum like that can’t be ignored. Across Canada, the arts sector generates more economic activity than do sports activities. Pause? Slow down? Most definitely not! The arts are an economic generator as well as a cultural matrix.
5 – Post-pandemic, what can Council do to improve Economic Development for the city and support existing businesses?
No answer.
6 – What are your thoughts on the McConnell Medical Clinic closure? Although health care is a provincial issue, is there anything Council can do to attract more doctors and nurses to our city?
No answer.
7 – While climate change is a global issue, what can the City do locally to keep our neighborhoods cool and protect natural resources like the St. Lawrence River?
Climate change is a global issue but the pushback has to happen locally. As a city, we are aggressively tipping the balance between waste and recycling, with our 2-bag limit and our approaching green waste program. As with many great programs, there is an economic benefit to the transition. Reusing and recycling limits dead-end or single-use manufacturing and stimulates secondary and tertiary production from the original resources used.
As a city, we are cognizant of the benefits of converting bio-solid waste to energy and co-digestion and our Environmental Services staff are conducting feasibility studies on best practices all the time. Also, being mindful that innovation is expensive, they are always looking for opportunities to secure funding from upper levels of government too, such as they did when we built our secondary waste water treatment plant with 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 funding.
And most importantly, as is frequently showcased in council meetings for the educational benefit of the community, the city is an active supporter and partner of the many environmental groups that champion the health of our great river and bountiful lands. The environment is the one aspect of our lives where we’re all in it together!
8 – Many City businesses are open on Sundays, and many events happen on Sundays. Do you support Sunday service for Cornwall Transit?
No answer.
9 – What can we do to improve social services in Cornwall? Examples include but are not limited to Cornwall Transit, childcare spaces, or LTR spaces.
No answer.
10 – Do you support keeping tax increases to a bare minimum? If yes, where would the savings come from, and would you support reducing some services? If you do not support keeping tax increases to a minimum, explain your reasoning why.
No answer.
11 – How can candidates contact you? Please provide a phone number and/or email and/or one website (or one social media link).
I can be reached at 613 330 3117 and [email protected].
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