Aggie Mlynarz
It is Thursday, Sept. 27 and I prepare to interview Aggie Mlynarz at The Ontarion office on campus. Walking in, she asks for a charger and plugs herself in to send off some emails — she seems busy but not frazzled. During the interview she tells me that she picked up three students on the way to campus who were left behind in the glow of a “sorry bus full.” She is sympathetic, she remembers the feeling from completing her BA and MA in Theatre Studies at U of G. Mlynarz is a young, wide-eyed, idealist, yet carries herself like a seasoned politician. This is her second campaign of the year.
On privatization of transit and transit policy
Aggie Mlynarz: No. That’s the line in the sand between me and [Guthrie]. Keep transit public.
We need to aggressively invest into transit and that is going to be a very important conversation to have with front line workers.
The fact that we have done this high frequency transit along Gordon to help with the student population, and yet what we’re ignoring is that there are people that live here all year long that need to take transit to get to work and the service is unreliable — to me [that] is devastating. I think what has happened is that transit has been so starved that this is the result.
I just feel we are a city that is way too mature, and we have way too much industry to afford to let this happen. One of the key factors for new industry coming is how reliable is the transit. When you hear time and again it’s not, and people have gotten to the point where they snapped and bought cars, we have a big issue on our hands. It just feels like bandaids have been put on for the last four years. In 2016 a more aggressive plan was put forward and maybe one recommendation was taken from that.
On affordable housing
AM: What we can implement is inclusionary zoning. I think the best practice right now is 20 per cent, internationally. Of course we would have to review if that would work for Guelph. And that would be units both to buy and to rent that would be 20 per cent [of housing and rentals] below market value.
From my understanding with conversation with the [Guelph & Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination], having the financial support of $325,000 a year would be helpful, but it would have to be consistent funding. They would also like to see consistent funding in terms of $500,000 a year into our affordable housing reserve. The current mayor likes to say he’s put in a million dollars, but by 2018 zero dollars has been put into the fund. I think these are funds that we need to make sure are stable and consistent.
Also, buckling down and raising that vacancy rate to a healthy three per cent so there’s more competition on the market. There’s many ways we can do that: more accessory apartments sure, the mayor likes to talk a lot about tiny homes, but again, that’s ownership, that’s complicated, not everybody has the resources to start to build houses out of a container.
[Tiny homes] is one option, but I think we need to think bigger picture [and] more aggressive in terms of getting those rental properties up and available and making sure they are meeting our needs.
On the police force, opioid crisis, and mental health initiatives
AM: [Cam Guthrie] said up to $750,000, so I’m finding the numbers are shifting around this and this is why I am not comfortable with promising figures. I have spoken to members of the police in my research, and they’re relying more on overtime. If you look at the numbers from police officers to residents it’s growing. One police officer is almost responsible for 741 people in Guelph — there is a staffing concern.
We need to address the staffing concern immediately. Over the last four years, how there has been a reliance on overtime from police to transit, really perturbs me, how has that happened under the current administration’s watch?
I have also been very clear, I want to be addressing the staffing concern, but why I am not putting a figure on that is because: A) I want to hear it from them, and B) I’m concerned about how the role of police has started to grow [and] the pressure we are putting on police to be the frontline on mental health crises. Impact is an amazing program, but it’s not 24 hours and it’s a provincial pilot program, so expanding that is definitely a conversation.
If we give the police all this money we are growing their role exponentially. In a few years we are going to have the same problem: they’re overworked, they’re tired, and now a mental health worker [as well]. Even our chief of police, Jeff DeRuyter, has said that the police have a role to play in what’s going on in the opioid crisis, but again, they have a role to play.
If we have a surplus of some money then maybe it’s better to put it somewhere else. That’s where we need a mental health strategy. It’s a decision that needs to be made with more consultation all around because the opioid crisis impacts so many organizations and community stakeholders, not just police.
On Cam Guthrie’s candidate controversy
AM: We have 35 candidates running. We don’t know who the population of Guelph is going to elect as new members. I think the action of consolidating power before that decision is made is one that is harmful to the future council. It is already a divisive tactic and I don’t think it shows strong leadership and collaboration.
For me it reads like it’s the mayor trying to turn his vote into six or seven. If we don’t have these party-like politics on Toronto’s council, why are we bringing them onto the council in Guelph? It’s a big question, it’s a ballot box issue, and it’ll be up to the voters to decide on that.
I thank Mlynarz for her interview, she thanks me and goes into the hallway with our photographer for a photo shoot.
Cam Guthrie
I meet Cam Guthrie on Friday, Sept. 28 at his office in a small strip mall on Victoria Road. I am early. A man is picking up a sign; there is an air of confidence in Guthrie’s interactions. In the movement of laughing goodbyes and opened doors Guthrie tells the man he can keep the sign in his garage until the next election four years from now, that is, following this campaign.
The office is a pop-up: there are a number of foldable tables parallel against the wall, a desk by the door, old coffee machine, Guthrie signs, Guthrie t-shirts, Guthrie pamphlets, Guthrie postcards. Guthrie himself is drinking an ice cap, I say he must be busy, he says that’s why he’s on his second ice cap of the day. Candidate Guthrie simultaneously works, emails, and ribbon-cuts as Mayor Guthrie.
The office itself seems like an old daycare. The walls are green and yellow and the rooms are labelled in multi-coloured, alphabet letters.
On transit privatization and transit policies
Cam Guthrie: When I talk about looking for other delivery service options, that dovetails into what has been implemented under my leadership over the last four years: service reviews. Service reviews are a deep dive into the departments at city hall to make sure that services that are funded by tax dollars are being done in the most effective and efficient way possible.
If we can find a better way to be able to deliver a better service in a different manner than that’s something we should be willing to explore and that is exactly what the service review is doing with transit.
Privatization doesn’t mean drivers for example, there are different parts in a department: scheduling, maintenance, clean up, route evaluation, and mobility service, which is already partly privatized.
Matteo Cimellaro: If your service review says privatization then you would implement it?
I take the full recommendations from staff, but I also want to hear from the public, and the debate around council. I like to have those three things before I make a decision. But any recommendations that come out of the service review shouldn’t be dismissed outright.
Other transit policies
CG: The next stage is looking at the accordion buses. We need to be looking at different types of transportation when we look at the actual vehicles we have to look down the spine — which is Woolwich, Norfolk, Gordon, where the 99 goes — we need to look at bump outs or bump ins so loading in and out is easier. We also need to be looking at implementing timed lights through the intersections.
On affordable housing
CG: We have updated our affordable housing policies; that includes home ownership and the rental market. We have been trying to get more land available, so more supply can come on stream, so that will lessen the demand.
We [also] need to really start looking at the different housing types. As much as some people might want to be in the market for traditional types of homes, and there’s a big demand for that, we need to start looking at things like tiny homes and container homes.
Next year we are going to be doing comprehensive zoning bylaw across the whole city that will help define how some of these tiny homes can be developed [and] to allow these other types of housing options for people, so they can either have ownership or a place to rent.
[Further], if we can get more people living in higher density in walkable and sustainable communities along transit corridors, then the overall household overhead gets greatly reduced.
On the police force, opioid crisis, and mental health initiatives
CG: Number one we need more officers, and [number two] we need more proactive policing. We need to make sure we are having boots on the ground in order to see police presence in our city and especially in our downtown core where most of our complaints are coming from.
[For] the prevention methods, let me give you an example, we have several stakeholders who have gotten together and pooled some money together to fund [something] like a social worker. This individual walks around downtown all day helping people, finding a way to move them to recovery, so that type of funding is only a pilot project. A pilot project that is receiving those type of results — we need to be dedicated to fund things like that.
I also mentioned technology, so red light cameras around school zones is an example. If we pay for that, that might free up an officer to go somewhere else.
Lastly, under the police services we have a group of individuals with a program called Impact and they are workers from the Canadian Mental Health Association that are embedded with our police officers to go and help with mental health problems. [Impact] drastically reduces the calls that are constantly coming into the police that are not really police related, [but are] mental health related.
So this [$750,00] it’s important for people to understand it’s for officers, it’s for prevention and relationship building, mental health programs, it’s for technology, but all and all it has to go towards the issues of theft, crime, increase drug use that is on the rise in our community.
On Cam Guthrie’s candidate controversy
CG: The reason why I have been transparent about this issue is because in the last election, and in this election already, there have been candidates who have misrepresented themselves at the door indicating that they are supportive of my platform [and] supportive of the direction I’d like to take the city, but then they get elected and do something completely different.
I’m putting a stop to that and being completely transparent with the community saying: “Here are some candidates that are aligned with some of the common platform issues that I am presenting to the community.” It does not mean that they have to vote for them and it does not mean that they have to vote in the same manner as me. But in these common issues we have that common thread in regards to my platform. The roots of this issue come back to candidates misrepresenting themselves at the doors and I don’t think that’s right.
MC: Did you know these candidates prior to campaigning or did you speak to them prior to them running for councillors?
CG: No, some of them I didn’t.
MC: Most of them or some of them?
CG: No, well they’ve been reaching out to me, because some of them didn’t know my platform either, so they came out and reached out and said: “Oh I really liked what you did over the last four years on your term and I’d like to meet some of the people at their doorsteps with you.”
MC: And those conversations happened after they announced their candidacy?
CG: It could’ve been a bit both. I’m sorry, I can’t remember, but it could’ve been a bit of both.
After the interview Guthrie walks me outside, and asks if I have a ride home, I said I’m okay to walk, but thank you. Guthrie picks a screw off the ground in the parking lot. Don’t want anyone to pop a tire, he says with a smile.
Editor’s Note: These interviews have been condensed and edited for brevity and clarity.
Photos by Alora Griffiths and Karen Tran