dan kellar Cambridge, ON – Cambridge Mayor Jan Liggett has used the “strong mayor” powers granted to her in 2023, to present her own “strong mayor budget” for the first time on October 28th. While Liggett had the power ahead of the 2024 budget, she directed staff to prepare that budget.
Strong Mayor powers were introduced in 2022 by the provincial government for Toronto and Ottawa and expanded in 2023 to include Cambridge, Waterloo and Kitchener. The provincial government argued the new powers would help alleviate the ongoing housing crisis by allowing mayors to gain by-law approvals with only 1/3rd of council support, grant veto powers to mayors in the budget process, and require a 2/3rds majority for councillors to override any vetoes.
The budget presentation in cambrdige initiated a 50 day approval process which includes 30 days for public delegations and amendments, 10 days for the Mayor to veto the amendments, and a further 10 days where city council can override any vetoes with a 2/3rds majority vote.
On November 7th public delegations responded to the budget, and staff is still accepting written comments to present to city council on November 21st.
This show features an interview with Danielle Manton, Cambridge’s city clerk. Manton speaks about the “Strong Mayor”powers, how the process for the budget will proceed, and how residents can still take part. Mayor Liggett was not available to discuss the budget.
The practice of “place making” in urban design and “pedestrianisation” of urban spaces and downtown cores have been methods used to address well-being and connectedness of a city’s residents and boost health and safety of an entire population.
In 2019, noting the lack of a permanent pedestrian zone in the downtown and being long concerned about the safety of residents when getting around the city while not in their cars, local musician, community organiser, downtown shop owner, and Kitchener resident Sam Nabi amplified an idea on twitter – transform “Gaukel Street”, the short quiet road starting at city hall and leading down to the entrance to Willow River Park (aka Victoria park), into a pedestrian zone.
In Waterloo Region, while the number of collisions involving automobiles being driven into pedestrians and cyclists has been trending down for years, in 2020 (which is the most recent year with data available) there were still 67 people not in a car or on a bike who were driven into by driver of an automobile, and another 78 collisions involving people driving automobiles and people on bicycles. The plurality of these collisions occur at intersections or in crosswalks where the pedestrian or cyclist has the right of way, and the driver of an automobile was found to be inattentive.
Over the years in Kitchener, local advocates and some dedicated city staff have worked to implement more accessible, friendly, and safe neighbourhoods with a lot of attention being focused in the downtown core. For many years, King St through the downtown has been occasionally closed to car traffic during certain days or weeks for special events or holiday markets, but the area was always returned to its car-centric design for the majority of the year.
As popular “human scale” urbanist Brent Toderian has said, “The truth about a city’s aspirations isn’t found in its vision. It’s found in its budget.”, and through the cooperative efforts of community members and city staff, funding for Gaukel St pedestrianisation was included in the 2019-2020 budget. Subsequent years’ budgets have seen continued funding to accomplish a more comprehensive project.
In May and June 2023, after several years of more casual organising around the space, as approvals and permits were worked out, the first section of the fully pedestrianized Gaukel Block opened with more permanent features, dedicated booking options for the public, and a full schedule of community events through the summer.
Today’s show features an interview with Sam Nabi about the successful campaign to have Gaukel Street in downtown Kitchener, converted into the “Gaukel Block” pedestrian area, as well as a discussion of budget priorities, the effects of neoliberal economic thinking on public space, the importance of grassroots place making initiatives, and what is happening on Gaukel.
This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, Heritage Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
It’s city budget season and we’ll kick that off by taking a look at Kitchener’s preliminary budget which includes a rather passionate discussion around whether to try to get the proposed 1.1% tax increase down to 0%.
We’ll also discuss the Region’s recent decision to close its 5 regionally-operated child care centres in 2021, resulting in the loss of over 200 existing child care spaces as well as the equivalent of 62 full time positions.
Lastly, we’ll look at some other stories worth keeping an eye on, including the Integrity Commissioner’s recent announcement regarding Wilmot mayor Les Armstrong’s Facebook post earlier this year.
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This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news., and other stories commissioned under the Local Journalism Initiative at canada-info.ca.
You can follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca
