Mayor David Conn's
 Inaugural Address
 December 6th, 2010


Good evening members of Council, Fire Chiefs and Fire Captains, members of Township staff and honoured residents of Seguin Township.

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the Foley Agriculture Hall for this inaugural meeting of council for the Township of Seguin.

I am deeply honoured and privileged to be here tonight to begin my third term as your mayor. I am truly humbled by your support, by your confidence, and by your expectations. I am also filled with optimism and excitement as we begin another term of governing our magnificent Township.

All of us on council are very cognizant of the serious responsibility which you have bestowed upon us. We accept this responsibility willingly.

Tonight, I want to talk about the future. But to speak of the future, I believe we must first reflect on the accomplishments and activities of the recent past.

Let me make it clear that these accomplishments were not achieved exclusively by council. Rather, they were achieved by a partnership of all the residents who gave us their time and talent to serve on committees and boards; by all of the residents who provided their input; and by our very talented Township staff who provided guidance and who executed our decisions with excellence.

As partners, we have worked together to approve an environment-first Official Plan.

Together, our partnership supported our Official Plan with tree cutting, blasting, and fill bylaws. A water quality testing program has been initiated. We have continued the septic re-inspection program; and we have introduced a very informative lake stewardship guide.

Together, we have restored the financial health of our Township.

Together, we have invested to substantially improve our roads, bridges, and facilities.

Together, we have facilitated new economic development projects, including the exciting growth of new businesses at our airport.

Together, we provided the leadership to develop the first ever economic development partnership among Seguin, Parry Sound, and McDougall.

Together, we achieved many other things too numerous to mention.

And so as we look ahead, I believe that it is absolutely critical that we maintain our partnership approach of transparent and inclusive governance. We must view our accomplishments of the past as a solid foundation on which to build for the future.

As we do this, I believe that we should focus on the following priorities:

1) Without question, I believe that the first priority of this council and every council that follows must be to protect and preserve our incredible natural environment. We are blessed to be living in Seguin Township with its natural watersheds, beautiful forestation, the Canadian Shield; and an environment that abounds with birds, animals and fish. Our environment is the envy of the world. Further, and very importantly, our environment is the economic engine of our community.

So there is no question in my mind that preservation and protection of our environment is fundamental to our quality of life in Seguin. We really must remember that we are just borrowing our environment from our grandchildren.

In this term of governance, I will be requesting that council provide the leadership to continue to put the environment first. We need to continually improve and update our Official Plan. We must expand our water quality testing program. We must maintain our septic re-inspection program; and we must vigorously promote resident use of our Shoreline Sustainability Guide.

2) I believe that the second most important priority of council will be to maintain and improve the financial health of Seguin.

We must strive to maintain our municipal tax rate as one of the lowest in the Province of Ontario. We must demand cost effectiveness and efficiency. We must continue to benchmark our financial performance against similar municipalities. We must continue to maintain an appropriate level of reserves; and we must always plan long term, invest wisely, and execute with excellence.

I am very pleased to tell you that we will be debt free by the end of 2012. This will free up almost one million dollars annually and I look forward to a vigorous council debate as to how these funds should be used.

3) Another important priority must be to continue to invest to improve our roads, bridges and facilities. For example, our long term capital plan has earmarked $900 thousand to renovate this building we are in tonight as well as to improve our fire hall and library facilities in Foley.

Other priorities include:
• Ensuring that our very effective team of fire fighters is properly and efficiently resourced;
• Continue to challenge our very talented library board to maintain and improve the standard of excellence they have achieved for our library system;
• We must find ways to help seniors and the disadvantaged in our community;
• And very importantly, we must continue to partner with our neighbouring municipalities to promote economic development in our area.

Given all of these priorities, I am sure that it is clear to you that your council will have an ambitious work schedule over the next four years.

In every election there is a passing of the torch. So permit me to thank our outgoing councilors who are Susan Adams and Brian Sturgeon. Both Susan and Brian worked hard to make a positive difference in our community. Their contribution is appreciated.

I would also like to recognize our new members of council:

First is Rod Osborne who was elected to represent Ward Three. Rod is a long time resident of Seguin. He operates his own telecommunications business and he has prior council experience, having served as a councillor in Gravenhurst.

Second is Jack Hepworth who represents Ward Six. Jack has proven to be a tireless and very positive contributor to our community. His consensus style of operation will be welcome on council.

I would also like to recognize our returning members of council who are: Alex Chidley in Ward One; Bruce Gibbon in Ward Two; Doug Sainsbury in Ward Four; and Everett Jacklin in Ward Five.

Members of council, I am honoured to have been elected to lead you. I think we have an excellent blend of experience, background, and skill level.

I know that we won't always agree but I am hopeful that we can operate as a team. Let me define what I view as a council teamwork approach. First, I think each councillor should understand that he represents both his ward and the overall township of Seguin.

Second, on any issue I fully expect each councillor to come to the council table with his own independent viewpoint. I fully expect each councillor to have done his homework and to use data, logic, and persuasion to convince his fellow councillors to support his viewpoint.

If your viewpoint prevails, then congratulations. But if your viewpoint does not prevail, then I fully expect you to support the decision of council. That is what I define as council teamwork.

Council, our residents have high expectations of us. We must retain our governance style of transparency and inclusiveness. As with all governments, we will never have sufficient resources to fund all of the wishes of our residents so governing our community will always be a matter of difficult choices. I am confident that we will make the decisions that satisfy most of our residents most of the time.

Ladies and gentlemen, your council stands before you tonight humbled by your confidence and committed to your service.

This concludes my inaugural address. Thank you for your time and attention.