A little more than a year after the 2022 municipal election, BradfordToday reached out to the nine current members of Bradford West Gwillimbury council to ask them to reflect on their accomplishments and challenges so far, as well their priorities for the remainder of the term.
This is the first article in a five-part series that shares their responses. Today, they answer this question: What would you say has been your greatest personal accomplishment so far this term?
Mayor James Leduc
Having residents vote for me as their mayor and having the support, trust and confidence of our community has been my greatest personal accomplishment. I am thankful to the community and grateful to have this opportunity to drive positive change throughout Bradford West Gwillimbury.
Deputy Mayor Raj Sandhu
On a personal level, I believe my personal accomplishment is that I am able keep my health goals that I set for myself last year.
On professional level, I was happy to see that we were able to deliver the cricket pitch as requested by our residents and moving ahead with the youth centre.
My personal commitment to residents has always been since I became member of council in 2010 that I will always be available to you and you will always get an answer. However, there might be times you might not like the answer as we have to follow laws and processes, but you will get an honest and correct answer.
Ward 1 Coun. Cheraldean Duhaney
My greatest personal accomplishment was when I decided to run to bring a different and unique perspective to the council. Thanks to the residents in Ward 1 for electing me.
Ward 2 Coun. Jonathan Scott
If I had to pick just one thing, I would point to the renovations underway right now to transform the old pool change rooms at Lions Park into a youth centre, and the accompanying new hires we’re bringing on to provide more recreational programming for youth, and more inclusion coordinators for people with special needs.
Long-time residents may remember that I was active as a Bradford (District) High (School) student advocating for more activities and amenities for youth — many, many years ago.
I truly believe that if we support our youth, it will pay positive dividends in so many other ways, and I’m excited to see how this new facility serves our community.
Ward 3 Coun. Ben Verkaik
Being available for residents, actively listening to them, honestly answering their questions, responding in a timely manner and helping out where I can.
Ward 4 Coun. Joseph Giordano
Significantly advocating for families and implementing real and meaningful changes on my campaign agenda promises and being super responsive and over-driving actionable results to all the constituents concerns that effect them.
Ward 5 Coun. Peter Ferragine
I struggled with this question because everything is a team decision and a group achievement. I'm personally proud of what we have accomplished to this point and all of our goals moving forward, but nothing has been accomplished as an individual person.
Even if I had an idea that I brought to a committee or council, it still needed to be agreed upon as a group, so I look at all of our achievements as a group accomplishment.
Ward 6 Coun. Nickolas Harper
I would say creating the largest safety initiative in Bradford’s history through the community safety and traffic committee. We added 35 new community safety zones (CSZ), that will pair with the newly signed agreement for the speed camera pilot initiative to help residents not just in school zones but also in the CSZs throughout the town to help reduce speed and traffic in built up areas. This is a large stepping stone in the right direction to ensuring residents can start to feel safe in their neighbourhood communities. This is a mega announcement that is going to impact safety for everyone.
Ward 7 Coun. Peter Dykie
One of my most notable personal accomplishments this term is becoming a chair on the accessibility advisory committee, along with seeing the start of upgrading existing mature areas in Ward 7 including speed mitigation, the commencement of upgrades to Luxury Park along with road improvements.
In the second part of this series, which will be released tomorrow (Nov. 7), council members will answer this question: What would you say has been your greatest accomplishment as a group so far this term?
