I’m proud to say that this week’s blog is written by my wonderful wife Alecia. I’m fortunate to have a partner that also has a passion for what happens in our city and is out there volunteering her time and skills to improve the lives of the people in our community.
-S.M.
Last week, the Ecology Action Center hosted a “Meet Your HRM Candidates” event at NSCC Leeds campus, where over a dozen organizations from a variety of sectors came together to present to municipal candidates from all districts.
Stephen attended, and I, acting as his Official Agent, tagged along. As we moved among the crowded tables of participants, neither of us really sure what to expect, we approached a few groups and talked to the participants. I was struck by how passionate and engaged each participant was- they didn’t come to play- and it became evident how valuable this event was going to be. We also noticed that nearly every group was represented by at least two people, so we came up with a plan.
We visited the participants together. Stephen approached them as a candidate: introducing himself, his vision for HRM and the North End, listening to their concerns and answering their questions as to his intentions. In the background, I drew aside the other(s) participating, and asked them point blank, “What do you need from the municipal government?” Their responses were frank and illuminating.
Nearly all of the participants told me that they just need city council to listen to them. That the municipality does do a good job of engaging them and getting feedback, but when things shake out and decisions are made, their feedback isn’t taken into consideration. It was very clear from how often I heard this refrain that it’s a systemic issue.
There were groups in attendance, however, that did feel that their concerns were being addressed on the municipal level, but that in order to make things happen, they need the municipality to champion their work to other levels of government (provincial & federal).
I heard from several groups that noted grant funding models as a limiting factor. As anyone who’s ever worked in academia, or other industries where positions are grant-funded can attest, not knowing if your job will exist after 6 months or a year is not conducive to long term planning-which, ironically, is what most of these projects require.
Then, of course there was the little things that could make a big difference. One group mentioned that their center of operations for a new community hub fed onto a busy highway-like street and could benefit from a stoplight. Another group mentioned free transit for artistic and cultural events. One group suggested a simple by-law change that could be so impactful that we’ve set up meetings for further discussion. As I mentioned earlier, this event was extremely valuable.
On a personal note, this post was a bit late coming because the day after the event was our kid’s 10th birthday. First-time double-digit birthdays are kind of a big deal, and they wanted to spend it at Magic Mountain and visiting Stephen’s family, so that’s what we did. We went to the water park and the zoo (where we got the cool raccoon mood rings in the picture at the top of this post) then hung out in beautiful Miramichi for a few days.