If elected I will bring forward an initiative to request a value for money audit, of the current model Severn Township is using to monitor the health of our Lakes and Rivers. We need to dig deep on this issue and look at best practices across the province. We need strong partnerships that result in ongoing dialogue with neighbouring townships we share interconnected waterways with.

We need to listen to our affected residents by unlocking closed doors to their ideas, suggestions and voices. We MUST work together to better understand root causes, ensuring consultations are real, creating a dialogue that can be used to help form policy. Education, Incentives and Enforcement (if necessary) are tools we can use to get in front of this serious issue of declining quality.

Growing up in an independent grocery store, I learned early that small businesses are the front line of community life. Business operators are some of the hardest-working people you will ever meet and their success strengthens the entire community. If elected, I will bring my experience in small business and community development to Council discussions.

While individual councillors do not direct staff or recruit businesses, we can listen, raise issues, support policy improvements and work together to ensure Severn remains a place where farms and businesses feel heard and valued.

My Focus Areas

1. Retention & Support

I will listen to existing farms and businesses, bring their concerns forward at Council and support efforts that help them feel valued and understood.

2. Collaboration

I will encourage stronger connections between local businesses, community groups and government partners. Councillors can help open conversations, identify shared goals and support initiatives brought forward through staff.

3. Clearer Processes

While councillors cannot change permitting systems or create new staff positions, we can request staff reports, support reviews of existing processes and advocate for clearer communication that helps residents and businesses navigate municipal requirements more easily.

4. Community Image & Local Character

Small businesses help define our villages and hamlets. As more home-based and digital businesses emerge, I will support discussions on how Severn can continue to foster a welcoming environment through policy, planning, and community engagement.

By working through Council and staff and by listening to the people who operate farms and businesses every day, we can help strengthen the social and cultural fabric of Severn’s communities.

Have you noticed all the road side farm stands popping up? Did you know Severn's top industry sector is Agriculture? Severn needs to quickly become THE LEADER in Agri-tourism and make sure the benefits reach our farms, businesses and our entire community. But instead our small producers are locked out of participating in Simcoe County's Tap into Maple that runs 28 days.

For more than three years, Severn’s farms and small businesses have been stuck behind a Council that keeps finding new ways to delay our potential of Agritourism. In August 2025, for example, farmers and producers asked the Township for a seasonal allowance to host visitors during Tap Into Maple, Maple Weekend and Harvest Season.

Township staff came back 7 months later and said NO, but proposed a permit that has been ready to enact since June 3rd, 2026. Council needs to choose a licensing period and package. Tap Into Maple runs for four weeks. A farm that fully participates in the regional promotion Simcoe County built to drive tourism dollars into townships, needs a 28-day permit.

Yet a 4-day permit is being tabled by this Township. Two seasons already of lost visitors, lost spending and lost momentum while our neighbouring townships move ahead without us. If elected I will encourage a review of the proposed permit and stronger connections between small producers and council that can result in better outcomes that support our farms and businesses.

My experience in tourism can push for a REAL seasonal window not a 4 day cap — so our argriculture producers can finally participate with the rest of Simcoe County and get this issue unlocked. No more Agritourism delays in Severn.

Young families deserve more recreation opportunities in Severn — and they shouldn’t have to wait years for them. Recreation helps keep our kids active, healthy, social and connected to their community. It also gives parents — and especially busy mums and caregivers — more opportunities to get their children involved in affordable activities close to home.

Thanks to a provincial grant Severn has expanded children’s programming and introduced summer day camps. The community centres and parks were brought to life with children learning and playing. Now we need to build on that momentum and offer families more programs, more often, throughout the year. But expanding recreation does not automatically mean spending millions of tax dollars.

We explored programming in similar size communities, and I suggest we add basketball skills and drills programming with volunteer convenors. Pickleball has exploded in popularity. Adding regular beginner and intermediate times as well as evening programs are needed. This does not necessarily require more staff as volunteers have offered their services.

If elected I intend to work with council and staff to propose getting the community more access to empty time slots in facilities that already exist. In the short term, I want Severn to review agreements with neighbouring municipalities and community organizations that could give our residents access to existing arenas, gyms, pools and other recreation facilities within a reasonable drive.

That could mean swimming lessons, skating, indoor sports, gymnastics, youth fitness, parent-and-child programs and other activities — using facilities that already exist while Severn gets to work securing funding to build a community center long overdue on the hiway 11 corridor. Lets reset Severn and put the power back in the hands of the taxpayers.

No more passing the buck. #deputymayor #suzyforseven #recreationforkids #communityprograms See

How many gravel pits does one township have to host before somebody says enough? Severn already does its share — and then some. We've got the quarries, we've got the truck traffic chewing up our roads, we've got the dust and the noise. And back in 2020, nearly 200 of our neighbours around Lake St. George had to organize a petition just to stop a new quarry on environmentally protected land in our own watershed.

Residents have been sounding this alarm for years. Here's what most people don't realize: Severn isn't a township with a few gravel pits — we are the 5th-largest aggregate producer in ALL of Ontario, digging up nearly 6 million tonnes a year, and that output has grown 45% since 2015. Those are the industry's own numbers, not mine.

Meanwhile one local quarry holds a 10-year permit to pump up to 21.6 million litres of groundwater a day. So when I say Severn has done its share, I'm not guessing — the scale already dwarfs what a BEAUTIFUL scenic township like ours should have to carry. Let me be blunt: I don't want Severn to become the GTA's gravel pit.

Our watershed, our lakes, our greenlands — that is our backyard, and it is not for sale. Now the straight talk: the Province issues the licences, not the township. Any candidate who promises you "never another pit" is making a promise they cannot keep. But here is what I CAN promise: - Not on our greenlands.

I will defend the 2024 Official Plan's environmental protections — no rezoning protected land for extraction. - Not on our roads. Aggregate trucks are tearing up township roads faster than the levies repair them. I will fight for haul-route agreements with teeth, so the industry pays its own way instead of taxpayers footing the bill. - Not without a fight.

I will commit this township's full legal weight at the Ontario Land Tribunal against any proposal that threatens our water, our wells, and our watershed. And while we are drawing lines: DATA CENTRES. Hamilton said wait. Mississauga said wait. These are massive industrial operations with a massive thirst — for water, for power — and right now Ontario has more hype than rules.

Severn has no proposal or plan today, and before one ever lands on a council agenda, I want a time-limited public study on the books. Rules before rush. If big tech wants our township, it plays by our rules, and on our timeline! This is our home. Our lakes, our forests, our farms, our kids' future to grow up and have the country village or cottage life that we have.

As your Deputy Mayor, I will stand in front of it — not behind excuses. Lets reset Severn and put the power back in the hands of the taxpayers. No more passing the buck. No more stonewalling or slinging.

Severn's Planning Department has been costly — a nightmare for some small businesses, farmers and homeowners. Let's be honest. With new staff arriving, it's time to unlock Severn! We're way behind other townships in getting things done, and done sensibly - and this is what I'm hearing and it's our experience as business owners.

Let's fix it, affordably. As Deputy Mayor I would work with staff and council to reduce the Township's own red tape paperwork. Severn's planning flowchart — their slide, not mine — walks you through Stage 1 pre-consultation, Stage 2 pre-consultation, circulation, peer reviews… and ends with the words **"Formal Application Submission (timing unknown)."** Their own chart admits nobody knows how long it takes.

If that's not the problem stated plainly, I don't know what is. So here's the reset — I'm leading with the two that could change everything: **1. Hire the culture.** New planners are walking through the door. This is our once-in-a-decade window. Day one, the goal gets set: *our job is to say YES...CORRECTLY.* "How can we help you?" isn't a slogan — it's the job description.

We hire for a SERVICE mindset, not a gatekeeper reflex. This has been sadly missing in Severn. **2. Take it online.** Apply, pay, and watch your file move — every comment timestamped, every delay visible to you. Municipalities using modern portals issue permits up to 80% faster than paper-based ones (that's AMO's number, not mine).

No more phoning the office to ask where your application went to die. We can be more fair, more efficient and more cost effective, bringing back the humanity, to the job. **3. One pre-consultation, time-boxed.** The old rules allowed two stages, multiple rounds at staff's "sole discretion," and peer reviews billed to you — also at their sole discretion.

The province has already taken away the power to *force* pre-consultation (Bill 185), so let's finish the job: one voluntary meeting within 10 business days as a goal, written requirements list within 10 days after. Done. That should be the Service standard we're striving for. **4. Publish the clocks.** The law still gives applicants appeal rights at 90 days for rezoning and 60 days for site plans.

We'll publish Severn's performance against those clocks every quarter — right alongside the Taxpayer's Receipt. Sunlight should be the whole new policy in an improved Planning Department. **5. Freeze the checklist.** What you're told you need at pre-consultation is what you need. No new studies invented at week nine, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Again, that should be the goal. **6. Peer-review rules, in writing.** Published triggers, cost estimate up front. No more blank cheques and surprises. **7. A Duty Planner.** Real hours, real humans, plain-language guides — for severances, home businesses, farm diversified uses, a deck or bunkie. First question out of their mouth: "how can we help?" **8.

Delegate the routine.** Minor variances and technical site plans decided by professional staff, not paraded through the full council process for months. Nobody wins with that. And let's talk money honestly: We can't snap our fingers and cut fees — the law says fees must reflect actual cost. But we *can* promise a full fee audit, a published schedule, and no surprise bills landing mid-application.

Again, No blank cheques, period. Small business is the backbone of this township. Homeowners trying to build a garage shouldn't need a lawyer and a prayer. Let's stop blocking our own people — and start unlocking Severn.

LET'S TALK ABOUT WHAT ACTUALLY WORKS. I hear it everywhere I go: people are fed up with speeding on our roads. Near the schools. On the concession roads. On streets where our kids ride their bikes. So let's be straight about it. Here's my plan — and here's what I won't do. I will NOT bring back speed cameras.

The province banned them last fall, and frankly, good riddance. They were a cash grab, not a safety plan — Severn residents even petitioned against them. That debate is over. Here's what I'll fight for instead: GO AFTER PROVINCIAL MONEY FOR REAL FIXES. The province put $210 million on the table for traffic calming — the right fix for the right road: better signage, radar feedback signs, raised crosswalks, speed humps where they make sense.

I'll push council to apply for Severn's share instead of leaving that money for other towns. MAKE OUR POLICING DOLLARS VISIBLE. We pay for OPP contract policing, and residents deserve to see the results. And here's the thing: the worst speeding many of you describe is on county roads — and the OPP polices those too.

Through the detachment board, I'll push to make traffic enforcement a stated priority on every road in Severn — township roads and county roads alike — and I'll report back publicly on what we asked for and what we got. I can't order officers onto your street; But I can make the ask loud, official, and on the record.

FINISH THE SIGNAGE JOB. The township maintains about 2,900 traffic signs. I'll ask staff for a proper review of speed signage in our settlement areas — faded, missing, or confusing signs don't slow anyone down. USE THE TOOLS WE ALREADY HAVE. Severn already has community safety zones around our schools, where fines double when an officer catches you speeding.

I'll push to make sure they're properly signed and actually enforced — not just lines in a by-law. No gimmicks. No cameras. No promises I can't keep — just the fight, out in the open, with the receipts to prove it. What roads worry you most? Tell me below.

"WINDROW" Program for Seniors (snow removal at end of driveway). Did you know rural municipalities across the province have windrow programs to help seniors to help with snow removal costs? If elected I propose Severn adopt a windrow program. When the plow goes by it essentially makes seniors prisoners in their own home.

A windrow program or at the very least a subsidy program for low income seniors would be a great fit for Severn.

Clarification of the Clarification!!! Every winter, the same thing happens on streets across Severn. The plow goes by — thankfully — but it leaves behind that hard-packed ridge of snow across the bottom of your driveway. The technical term is a “windrow,” but most of us just call it the ice/snow/wall. For most of us it's an annoyance and a sore back.

For a senior living alone, or a neighbour with a disability, it can mean being stuck — missing a medical appointment, or getting groceries, or simply not getting out the door that day. This isn't a wild idea. It's a practical problem other Ontario municipalities have already wrestled with, and we can learn from all of them.

On Southern Georgian Bay they have a subsidy program. King Township clears those ridges for seniors, free, on a capped list. Greenstone — a small northern municipality a lot like us — does it for low-income seniors. Georgina costed theirs, capped it, and made it permanent. Some towns charge residents a modest seasonal fee; others keep the list small and targeted.

And where it's gone wrong — Aurora's pilot ran into real delivery headaches — that tells us exactly what to avoid. We don't have to guess at any of this. There's a decade of other towns' experience sitting there waiting for us. Here's what I'm proposing — not a blank cheque, and not a promise I can't keep.

A proper, costed look: a pilot program, capped, aimed at the seniors and residents with disabilities who need it most, building on the Snow Angels volunteers already helping Severn. Let staff revisit this issue and bring back real numbers and let council decide with its eyes open. Our neighbours deserve to know their township at least asked the question seriously.

Let's unblock some driveways — and let's unlock Severn! View original Facebook post ↗

Provincial, Federal, and County Grants: More for Our Tax Dollars — Not More Taxes.

Severn has tremendous opportunities ahead of us in recreation, tourism and agri-tourism. We have partners who want to work with us in Severn! We have been lagging behind our neighbouring municipalities. We need to unlock this opportunity that my opponents have been sitting on.

But before asking taxpayers to reach deeper into their pockets, I believe we should be doing everything possible to bring outside funding into Severn. This is my specialty having secured over a hundred thousand in grants with the festival from 2011-2022 as a private citizen. We have already seen what can happen.

I've already worked first hand to build partners for Coldwater. This year, Severn secured a $99,700 Ontario Trillium Foundation grant to help launch its new SUMMER day camps for children. That funding supports staffing, training, equipment and programming and will help provide camp experiences for up to 150 children.

Underused parks and facilities came to life with the sound of kids laughing and learning. I witnessed this and it was wonderful. This is exactly the kind of opportunity we should be pursuing more often - and not missing out. There are potential funding and partnership opportunities through the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the County of Simcoe and regional tourism organizations like Orillia Lake & Country.

The County’s Experience Simcoe County Partnership Fund alone committed more than $400,000 to 54 projects in 2026, supporting tourism, culture and recreation initiatives throughout our region. Severn should be positioning itself to compete for every appropriate dollar available. From the Province (eg. RTO7) and from the County (eg.

Simcoe Tourism) That means developing a funding strategy and calendar, identifying eligible projects well before application deadlines, building partnerships with community organizations and neighbouring municipalities, and ensuring good Severn projects are ready when funding opportunities open. For recreation, outside funding can help us expand programs and improve community spaces over the next 48 months.

For tourism, it can help us promote the tremendous experiences Severn already offers. And for agri-tourism, partnerships can help our farmers, maple producers and rural businesses bring more visitors — and more economic activity — into our community. We shouldn’t start every conversation with: “How much will this cost taxpayers?” We should also be asking: “Who else will help us pay for it?” As Deputy Mayor, I would push for a more proactive approach to grants and partnerships, with regular reporting to Council on the opportunities available, applications submitted, funding secured and opportunities still ahead.

Council can do a lot, if the will is there. Every outside dollar we successfully bring into Severn is a dollar that can potentially provide better services, stronger programs or better infrastructure without placing the entire burden on local property taxpayers and families. More programs. More partnerships.

More investment in Severn. MORE for our tax dollars — not simply MORE taxes.

Vision moving forward: CULINARY EXCELLENCE IN SEVERN TOWNSHIP through farm and restaurant seasonal experiences. This Thanksgiving weekend, our tables will be full of what this land’s food producers give us. Here's my question: Why should the rest of Ontario get more of Severn's harvest than Severn does?

Today I'm launching a bold idea — my vision to connect our township together and make it the place Ontario comes to taste the season. To put Severn’s Villages and Hamlets on the Map with a distinct brand for culinary excellence much like they have done in renowned Prince Edward County. I've done Festivals.

I know how to make this work! Before anyone calls it a dream — it's been done. In Muskoka, they filled a farm field with 500 people at $65 a head for a single afternoon of local food, and the province put $50,000 behind promoting it. In Norfolk County you can have breakfast on a farm or a farm-to-table outdoor dinner.

SOLD OUT! The model works. Now let's build Taste Severn — large area built with a foodie brand made to last. A Backroads Culinary Trail, a Savour Loop, a Taste Trail, it’s happening all over the world right NOW. Let’s start with YOUR IDEAS, like Savour Severn? Let's do a Branding Contest for Severn’s producers and food industry residents!

Let's get this right the first time. Grassroot initiatives are the best and my specialty. Let’s build this together and make Severn a world class culinary destination. Severn has all the pieces, we have the talent, the people, now we just need to connect our corridors, build farm, café and restaurant partnerships, package culinary experiences, promote through destination marketing and believe it CAN happen here! **1.

Own the season. ** From the last week of August straight through to the Fall Fair — 132 years strong — Severn becomes the epicentre of harvest season, while the cottagers are still here. Every farm gate open, every market buzzing, every restaurant featuring what's grown right here. **2. Bring home our share of the money. ** There's matched tourism funding sitting there waiting — RTO7 matches local dollars 1:1, including a storytelling stream that puts professional creators to work telling OUR story, and Simcoe County's own $400,000 partnership fund.

Every local dollar we put in comes back doubled. Other townships apply. Severn should be first in line, not last to hear about it. From 2014-2022 we secured Arts and Cultural Funding for Severn, I have what it takes. **3. Every business in.** A map/passport/APP that drives visitors to every farm gate, market, and restaurant.

Co-op advertising that turns small budgets into big reach. Wayfinding signs that pull drivers off Highway 400 and Highway11. An anchor event designed to pay for itself — ticketed and sponsored, not another line on your tax bill. **4. Unlock the farm gate — a pledge I've already made. ** Weeks ago I called for a seasonal visitor-hosting permit so our producers can welcome guests without drowning in bureaucratic red tape and endless cycles of discussion.

I repeat it today as part of this vision: we will review every fee and rule that paralyzes and punishes the very farm businesses we're celebrating. No more passing the buck between departments while yet another season passes by. **5. Run it in the open with full financial transparency. ** Driven by a volunteer committee — producers, business owners, residents — chaired by the Deputy Mayor.

Me. Meetings public, decisions on the record, every dollar accounted for where you can see it. I've spent my life connecting people and getting them around the same community table — that's exactly what this job needs. Perhaps some around council table will say tourism isn't the township's job, or that we should wait for the county or the province to lead us.

This does not happen. We've waited long enough. A deputy mayor can't do it alone — but I can bring the motion, chair the table in the open, and fight for our share. That's the job. I am looking at economic development tourism models happening right now in neighbouring municipalities. There is a realization in some progressive areas our township councils can do more in E.D.O. and visitor experiences to reap the benefits for its citizens.

Let's unlock support for farm and business. Here's my question for you this Thanksgiving: what does YOUR Severn taste like? What does it look like? What is your family tradition that involves our land? Is it the centrepiece? Please tell me and spare no detail below! — is it the maple, the apples, the sweet corn, the beets or ALL of it?

This week I ordered some homemade horseradish from Greg and Leanne Sharp’s farm up the road. The bulb is still in the ground as I write. I never thought at 60, a jar of horseradish would make me so happy, but somehow this small batch harvest grown by caring people in my community I will soon have (pre-ordered online!) does just that.

It's exciting and the freshest money can buy, Severn! I want this vision built from your tables, not just mine. What culinary experience do you love from Severn that exists right now?