Brant County council will take on a different look when councilors are sworn in on Nov. 15.
Three newcomers were elected in Monday’s municipal election, with 26-year-old Lukas Oakley, a product manager and laboratory technician, being among the youngest councilors elected since amalgamation of the county in 1999.
Also taking seats for the first time are Christine Garneau, co-owner of Creek View Acres, and Jennifer Kyle, a communications professional and farmer, making for the highest number of women on council.
“It’s a bit surreal at the moment,” said Garneau, who garnered the most votes in Ward 5, ahead of incumbent Brian Coleman, who was re-elected. “It’s certainly a positive outcome and a strong mandate for both the council and the mayor.”
She attributed her success to campaigning door to door.
“I’ve always said that municipal politics is on a personal level, and you have to connect with the residents to earn their trust,” said Garneau.
“I knocked on over 1,700 doors and many residents hadn’t seen a candidate ever.”
Ward 5 encompasses nine communities, including near the Brantford airport, Oakhill, Mt. Pleasant, the east side of Scotland, Oakland, Burtch, Cainsville, Newport, Langford, Onondaga, and Middleport.
“It’s a large word geographically and is primarily rural, so it’s a lot of driving but I think that getting out there made the difference,” said Garneau.
Garneau said a priority for the council must be road safety.
“As I met with residents, that’s what I was hearing,” she said. “It’s a combination of speeding, dangerous driving, and changing use of our roads. We’ve got more residents in the community now and a lot of the roads weren’t built to handle what traffic that they have on them now.
“I think that it’s a priority for some of the other folks that were elected last night too, which is encouraging that I think we can have that conversation as council.”
Garneau thanked Joan Gatward, who decided not to seek re-election after serving on council for 30 years,
“She really paved the way for women on council and she held the fort there for quite some time. I think her retirement is well earned and I am grateful because she certainly gave a lot back to the community.”
Kyle joins incumbent John MacAlpine to represent Ward 1, which covers the area north of Paris, Glen Morris, St. George, Harrisburg and to the north edge of Brantford.
“Mathematically, St. George is where you have to do well, and not being from St. George, I certainly needed to make some inroads there,” Kyle said on Tuesday. “The team that I worked with sure helped me to do that. So, I am very grateful for them for all that work. It was a lot of door to door knocking and info delivering, so it paid off and I’m pretty excited about that.”
She said development in the county is one of the concerns she heard from many residents.
“Stopping it is not a realistic thing, but council can certainly play a significant role in helping to manage how that happens, so that it makes sense for the communities that are impacted,” Kyle explained.
“Obviously, Paris is a great example of where things got really big really fast,” she said, adding that the situation is “almost cart before the horse in some respects,”
She said the county has to make sure that what happened in Paris isn’t repeated in a community like St. George. “Putting the brakes on, making sure every consideration has been looked at, and making sure that when it does go ahead it makes sense for the communities.”
Kyle said she is passionate about improving the quality of communication between council and residents.
“I am hoping I can help, and draw on some of my professional expertise to better engage and make people feel like their concerns are being heard,” she explained. “I’m very excited to get to work with the whole council and look at the different concerns from across the county.”
Oakley will represent Ward 2, along with incumbent Steve Howes.
“We need to start looking at a plan to continue some of the previous council’s work with affordable housing and transit, hopefully partnering up with the City of Brantford on bringing buses (to the county) and expanding our shuttle bus and E-ride,” he noted. “I think we need to start pursuing a regional transportation approach to fixing a lot of our traffic issues. We’re developing at a rapid rate due to the provincial mandate.”
Oakley said surrounding municipalities face the same issues and trouble getting funding from the province.
“Partnering up with other municipalities, there is strength in community, so by crowd funding and being a force to bargain with the provincial government, we can get funding for stuff, like a Bishopsgate bypass interchange, and a Green Lane bridge that our community really needs to handle all this growth.”
Howes said he is grateful to continue to represent Ward 2.
“I think the results last night, right across the board, are going to put together a very solid council with some really beneficial new voices,” he noted.
“I’m looking forward to us getting back to continuing the work we were starting to do.”
He said a priority is to get the county’s draft official plan turned into a final official plan.
“That’s the guidebook by which we do all our planning,” he explained. “It’s been sitting on the province’s desk for a year. It’s unbelievably frustrating.
“Within that plan is a very specific, intentional approach by staff and council to manage the pace of residential development, to try to control, manage, and phase it over a stretch of time that is easier to accept, and build the necessary infrastructure. ”
Howes said council has wrapped up a transportation master plan.
“We have to start turning that into execution deliverables. We need to do things to improve traffic in various parts of the county, particularly in downtown Paris.”
Brant Mayor David Bailey was re-elected for a second term.
Other members of council are: incumbents John Pierce and John Bell re=elected in Ward 3; and incumbents Robert Chambers and David Miller acclaimed in Ward 4.