Mayoral candidates go head to head

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Matt Flood

Windsor’s mayoral candidates presented their platforms and answered questions at a debate hosted by The Canadian Federation of University Women.

More than 100 people filled three conjoined rooms at the WFCU Centre along with the candidates Oct. 3. The candidates bidding for election are Tom Hensel, Matt Marchand, Frank Dyck, Ernie Lamont and incumbent Drew Dilkens.

Each candidate was allotted four minutes for opening statements. Debate moderator Tamara Stomp asked each candidate four questions, with three minutes each to respond. Attendees were also given the opportunity to ask their own questions, which the candidates were at liberty to respond or not.

Tom Hensel spoke first and described himself as “an ordinary citizen just trying to step up to the plate.” Hensel said he would like to address the increasing poverty rate in Windsor, repair roads and sidewalks and take a more aggressive approach in order to combat flooding throughout the city.

“The city does have the sewer master plan of course and there’s been some progress on that, but I think we really need to make a much more focused effort to do what we can a lot faster,” said Hensel.

Hensel said his primary campaign component is to appoint an independent auditor general in order to save taxpayer money from unnecessary expenses. He claimed Marchand’s plan to implement an auditor general within 100 days of election will not be fast enough.

Marchand said consultation with the community is an important factor regarding his bid for mayor. He mentioned his plan called Windsor 2022, announced previously that day, as an economic plan to align community needs with spending priorities.

“No more street cars, no more focusing on parking garages and legacy projects. We will invest $40 million over 10 years to fund our Windsor 2022 strategy. It’s our plan to revitalize our downtown, make our streets safer, improve our business and take care of our most vulnerable,” said Marchand.

Similarly to Hensel, Marchand also spoke about speeding up the sewer master plan, specifically from 10 years to six, along with the implementation of an independent auditor general. Dilkens said he disagrees with both prospects.

Dilkens and Lamont claim hiring an independent auditor general would cost at least $300,000 more than to leave what is already there.

For the sewers, Dilkens said the plan in place will be a long process as the issue has been neglected for so long.

“This will be the first of several plans that come forward and I would expect if there are two, three or four more of those plans to cover the rest of the city of Windsor. You can expect the order of magnitude of those plans to cost somewhere around $100 million each,” said Dilkens. “It will take 10 years to move through. It will be the next mayor and the next 10 mayors that will continue to work on this plan because the problem has existed for a long time and no one person could solve it in one term of council.”

Dilkens said he wants to continue to diversify the economy to attract a variety of employers to Windsor and bring more opportunity to the city.

“I want to continue improving our quality of life, and continue making this city attractive for the people who live here and for people who are looking at investing in our community,” said Dilkens.

A focus on jobs was accentuated by Lamont.

He is campaigning to bring in more jobs and things for people to do including a new casino, an aquarium, a checkered flag race course, an amphitheatre and an amusement park to Windsor, amounting to 50,000 jobs over four years.

Lamont also said improving Windsor’s roads should be done immediately and the only way to do this is by implementing toll roads.

“You want to live in the county, you want to come into this city, you’re going to pay a dollar each way. Maybe even two dollars,” said Lamont.

Unlike the other candidates, Dyck is focused on making Windsor an environmentally friendly city and reducing pollution. Dyck said he wants to improve Windsor’s bus system by converting the buses to run on vegetable oil and alcohol instead of diesel and gasoline, along with taxis and commercial vehicles. Dyck also said he wants to update water treatment by replacing chlorine used in the treatment process.

“It needs hydrogen peroxide rather than chlorine in it, hydrogen peroxide is a green chlorine,” said Dyck. “It’s good for the environment.”

Dyck spoke about his own plan for the mega-hospital project. Rather than build a new hospital he wants to expand upon the current hospitals.

“I want to keep the hospitals where they are and build them 10, 20 stories high instead of six stories high,” said Dyck.

Advance polls have already started but the municipal election will take place on Oct. 22.