Cochrane Heights and the All Candidates Forum

Yesterday, I knocked doors in Cochrane Heights with my friend Grace. Some of the issues we heard from citizens concerned old sewage infrastructure, issues with tree cutting and lack of tree cutting, Domtar land redevelopment and the process involved from a historic perspective, the lack of growth management to ensure facilities and services are in place, and lack of follow up and follow through by Town council members and adminsitration to address citizen issues. Some people in Cochrane Heights feel that the town does not care about them. High taxes and lack of explanation of the net benefit of taxation were also raised as issues: one person wondered why the Town did so much hiring and consultant engagement during a recession and queried why our staff are not able to do some of the work given to consultants.

The Town really should take a good look at underground infrastructure that is being put to the limit in older parts of Town when tied into new pipelines and underground services from newer communities. This common concern that we do little to maintain our existing infrastructure and to ensure it can handle tie ins from newer areas, was expressed as a major problem that causes thousands of dollars to homeowners in the area without any hope of compensation by the Town.

There was some discussion about the branding process and how that was handled by the current council. Overall, the old friends I saw again, and the new people I talked to were encouraging and wished me success, and I am grateful to everyone who took the time. I will get back into Cochrane Heights before the end of this week.

In the evening, I attended the All Candidates Forum at Frank Wills Hall that was hosted by the Cochrane Settlement Community Association. It was well attended by people from all over town, and I will submit a separate posting for some of my observations from that event. It was very good of the community association to hold the forum and give candidates an opportunity to meet with interested and engaged citizens and with each other.