Port Elgin Ward in Saugeen Shores has a newly appointed Councillor.
Eight candidates put their names forward and each made an oral presentation to Council on Wednesday (Mar. 23), in addition to answering a random question.
At the end of the presentations, each Councillor then voted openly for the candidate of his or her choice.
Catherine Dianne Mini Jacques received six of the eight votes by Council, making their choice almost unanimous.
Jacques, a born-and-raised in Port Elgin resident, has a long history of serving on many community Committees for 36 years, with a focus on “… helping others reach their full potential professionally and personally”. A semi-retired Marketing and Communications Specialist and small business owner, she was Port Elgin’s first Tourism Co-ordinator with the Chamber of Commerce and created the municipality’s brand slogan … “A great place
to live, work and play”, that was used during amalgamation in 1998 and is still used today. While with the Chamber, Jacques also presented many delegations to Council and served on several Town ad-hoc Committees that included events and festivals.
Relevant to being a Councillor that includes issues such as housing and development, Jacques represents five income properties, was a member of the Attainable Housing Task Force and was Marketing and Sales representative for the Edinburgh Club, which she points out gives her a unique perspective from a builder’s and developer’s perspective.
Also while on the Waterfront Committee (2011-2013), Jacques set up public meetings, conducted surveys, spoke to 21 stakeholder groups and, therefore, pointed out that she has in-depth experience as to public concerns when it comes to the Waterfront.
Jacques also served on the Town Economic and Development Committee and currently serves on the Accessibility Committee (2007-present).
“I am interested in ‘aging in place’ and working with Council on the position that people can actually come here as young adults, move through to their later years and be able to age in place and live in their community,” she said.
The question randomly selected that Jacques had to answer was: Council members are appointed to various committees throughout their term on Council – what two committees are you interested in serving on and why?
Jacques responded saying that her first committee choice does not yet exist. “I would like to see an ad-hoc committee for a 55+ strategic plan as that is one of the largest population groups in our community and, when the consensus comes out on April 16th, it will show the demographics and income. (At that point)We’ll see that (segment) is growing and it’s an area that we are promoting as a retiree community. I would also like to see that we have the funding for the 55+ group and that our residents have a range of housing especially for seniors who are wanting to downsize, perhaps into rentals. I would like to see outreach and sharing, as one of the things I was hearing from seniors is that they often do not know about certain things, particularly if they do not have the technology. There is also the issue of transportation for seniors and perhaps we could work with the County on that.”
The other committee that Jacques said she would like to be part of is the Commitee for the new proposed recreation centre. “I would like to see all ages and incomes be able to use the centre through programming and would like to see what options would be there for those with lower incomes, and the middle class, so that they could actually be able to afford and use it. It would be a health benefit for all ages.”
