Members of the Belleville Chamber of Commerce packed the Grand Hall Wednesday morning to hear from the three people running to be mayor of the city on October 24.
Each of the candidates, incumbent Mitch Panciuk and candidates Neil Ellis and Kyle Thompson introduced themselves and their priorities in brief one-on-one conversations with the Chamber’s CEO Jill Raycroft.
Mayoral candidate, incumbent Mitch Panciuk, with Chamber CEO Jill Raycroft. (Photo: Quinte News)
First up was Mitch Panciuk, who moved to Belleville in 2001 and opened the Boston Pizza franchise. He served as the Chamber’s president in 2013.
Panciuk said no one could question council’s achievements in the past four years, saying many residents have taken note.
“We were stagnant for a few years and I got involved in local politics not because I needed a job but because I wanted to do a job, to get things moving. We’ve made record investments in infrastructure, in social agencies, and in various recreation facilities and programs. We’ve done this while presenting residents with the lowest annual tax increases in the region and in one year we actually had a negative tax increase.”
Panciuk said when he started as mayor in 2018 he had a list of eight platform goals he wanted to achieve during council’s term.
“We’ve completed most of the eight, with the others almost completed after being delayed by the pandemic. We are laser-focused on responsible growth so we can offer more services to the residents of Belleville and we are growing and I hope I can continue to help move the city forward.”
Panciuk said Belleville has a bright and promising future.
Meanwhile moderator Jill Raycroft tried to break some big news when she asked Panciuk whether he could say anything about what she called “the elephants in the room,” Amazon and Costco.
While not mentioning Amazon by name Panciuk quickly described the over 100 acre land sale in the northeast industrial park, the over one million square foot building being planned, and the 800 to 1,000 jobs expected. Regarding Costco, he said city officials continue to communicate with company officials but said the retail/wholesale giant makes its own decisions on when to expand. Panciuk says Belleville was and is an approved site for a new store when the company decides to expand, adding that Peterborough waited 10 years before Costco finally built there.
Former Mayor Neil Ellis. (Photo: Quinte News)
Next up was former Belleville mayor and Bay of Quinte riding MP Neil Ellis. As a Member of Parliament Ellis served as Chair of the Veterans Standing Committee and was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture.
Housing was the top priority for Ellis, who served two terms as mayor starting in 2010. “Homelessness is an obvious and growing problem in the city. We’re not doing enough about it. We need more transition housing, more affordable housing, and especially more geared-to-income housing to look after our working poor.”
Ellis said an integral part of solving homelessness was not just building more structures but providing mental health and physical health care services to residents in a “wrap-around” system. “The federal government has programs to fund many of these things and it’s time we went after that money.”
Ellis also said much more needed to be done to attract family doctors to Belleville. “It’s great council just signed up two doctors the other day but we need more. Fifteen thousand people are still without primary health care. When I became mayor in 2010, council invested $1 million in the budget to get the recruitment program going. In our four-year term we signed up 21 new doctors. Recruiting two a year (on a $300,000 annual budget) just isn’t doing the job.”
“We need to put our foot down on the gas pedal and hire a full-time physician recruiter as Quinte West and Prince Edward County have already done.”
Ellis also noted that he was hearing from seniors upset with this year’s voting system in Belleville which is by phone and internet only. “We need to make voting easier, not harder. Many seniors can’t deal with the technology and I would bring paper ballots back as a voting option.”
Belleville businessman Kyle Thompson. (Photo: Quinte News)
Belleville businessman Kyle Thompson took his turn on stage. Thompson spent his first 21 years in Belleville before moving away and moved back a few years ago and is the owner of Park Provisioners Barbershop and Haberdashery in the Downtown District.
Thompson says the downtown’s historic charm made “people smile” and he said he’d work to continue working on its revival hoping it would become an entertainment hub in the not too distant future.
“Most of my generation moved away from Belleville when we were young because not much was happening but now many of us are moving back as the city’s culture has become more diverse (Thompson’s daughter is adopted from China) and people have the option to work from home.”
Thompson said that as mayor he’d focus on health care and essential services. He’d also offer a voice to the many who want more freedom of choice and fewer mandates coming from senior governments. Thompson was fined for keeping his store open for a few days during pandemic lockdowns in January of last year.
Thompson also sees homelessness as a major issue saying it is likely to grow. “We need to take “drastic and decisive” action to tackle the problem. “We need to get together as a community and meet with the homeless people themselves and all stakeholders to work on solutions.”
“We need to do things differently, to think differently. We need to get together as a community and create projects that we feel we own and benefit from.”
Thompson recently spoke to a Prince Edward County farmer who said the county once had 13 canneries operating, processing local produce. All have since closed with the industry’s move to larger corporations.
“We as a community can get involved in business and work together on social issues to improve our standard of living and I want to lead those discussions.”
The Belleville Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Ward 1 plus mayors’ candidates night at the Empire Theatre Wednesday October 5.
The following night a Thurlow ward candidates meeting will take place at the Gerry Masterson Community Centre.
Both events go at 7 p.m. with doors open at 6 o’clock.
