Campaign Donations
All campaign donations are public record and available on the town website. It makes campaign donation transparent and keeps members of council accountable.
Prior to the 2018 election the province of Ontario approved legislation that prohibited campaign donation from corporation and the individuals’ couldn’t be reimbursed for campaign donations by a business. For me this was a welcome change.
I have received donations from individuals only. I don’t enquire or request information about the individual and I don’t do computer searches on the individuals
I can also state that over 19 years on council never has anyone who donated to my campaign ever influenced a decision or vote at the council table.
Council Compensation
To be clear council didn’t vote an increase to our compensation but rather to the future council.
Most of council voted to support the staff recommendation to increase council salary, I also supported the motion. The motion also included increases in the compensation for job classifications as well. The town does this approximately every 5 years to ensure that we are in the middle of a number of comparable municipalities If we didn’t compare and adjust then we would find it difficult to attract and keep staff.
For members of council it would be the same. The job of councillor today is vastly different then of the past. It is becoming a full time job and to attract members of the public to serve, fair compensation is required.
Council expenses are more of an issue for me and I feel that some expenses shouldn’t be coverd and will push for a review. I don’t support council being able to expense tickets to community events and fundraisers, and defiantly not meals. I have never expensed these but have not had support to make the changes either.
Follow this link to a well written article on the issue;
Voting Record
You might have seen a flier that shared the way I voted on some issues. There isn’t enough space to discuss each vote over the years, so I will be general and if you want to know about a specific vote please contact me.
All motions are either supported or defeated through an open vote in council. All members of council vote freely on an issue.
I don’t vote on an issue based on how it could look on an election flier, either mine or someone else’s.
When I vote on a motion in council, I learn as much as possible from staff or do my own research. I then ask myself is this the best that I can do for my residents and the town of Caledon. If it is I support it, if not then I try to introduce change to make the best outcome for us all.