MEET THE CANDIDATE | Daniel Turner, Ward 4

Fort Erie’s municipal and school board elections are taking place from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on October 26. Advance voting will take place from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Fort Erie Leisureplex October 14 and 17, and online voting opens at 10 a.m. on October 5.

Daniel Turner is running for town council in Ward 4. Fort Erie Radio posed several questions to Turner and what appears below are his unedited answers:

What is the most important issue facing Fort Erie, and how would you address it?

Affordability. High water bills, electricity, gas, and property taxes, on top of inflation, are making it harder for people to stay in their homes. The Town cannot control every cost, but we can work where we have influence.

My first priority is growing the industrial and commercial tax base so more of the load sits on business assessment and less of it falls on residential taxpayers. I would also work to reduce water loss in our system and push hard for provincial funding to upgrade water infrastructure, lowering costs over time instead of just passing increases along.

The next four years needs the experienced leadership, responsible planning and strong advocacy I offer to keep Fort Erie and Ward 4 moving forward.

What should council’s approach be to taxes and municipal spending?

Council’s approach should be disciplined and public. Any new proposal that would raise the property tax levy should come with a trade-off: what we are willing to delay, reduce, or drop, not an automatic tax increase.

I want monthly updates from Finance on revenues and expenses, including costs that ran over budget that month, and I want those updates shared publicly so residents can see the same numbers Council sees.

Councillors should also work with counterparts in other municipalities: compare procurement, learn from their projects and purchases, and look for joint buys and shared services. We already share a town solicitor. There may be other opportunities to get better scale and better prices without putting more of the load on residential taxpayers.

What role should the Town play in the future of health care in Fort Erie?

The Town should keep pressing for two things at once: keep Fort Erie’s Urgent Care centre open and restore it to 24/7, and continue to work to attract more Primary Care physicians to Town.

Primary care is not urgent care. Many people end up at Urgent Care when their family doctor is away, unavailable, or cannot deal with the problem in front of them. A primary care hub is not a perfect substitute for an urgent care centre. Attracting more family doctors matters, and so does Urgent Care. It is both, not either or.

I will ask the Province what Fort Erie has to do to secure a hospital investment, the way Grimsby did, then follow that playbook. Grimsby is also about 20 minutes from Hamilton’s hospitals and the Marotta hospital in St. Catharines. While that work continues, the Town should keep fighting to maintain Urgent Care in Fort Erie and get it back to 24/7.

How should Fort Erie balance growth and development with infrastructure and neighbourhood concerns?

New growth should fit the neighbourhood it enters. Where the street has single-detached homes, new development should be similar in scale and character, not something that overwhelms the area.

Higher density is better directed to the east end of Fort Erie, where the Anger Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plant has the most capacity. Growth must follow infrastructure, not the other way around.

If the Province wants more housing units here, it must partner with the Town on funding so we can actually deliver modern roads, pipes, and connected sidewalks. We should not approve growth that leaves disjointed infrastructure behind.

What should the Town do to address housing affordability and homelessness?

The Town should work more closely with Niagara Region’s Community Services division to get a clear picture of homelessness in Fort Erie: how many people we have now, how that has changed over past years, and how we fit into the rest of the region. We are one connected region, and we cannot plan well without those numbers.

On housing, we should not start by paving new greenspace. I would rather work with Niagara Regional Housing to add units at existing affordable housing sites before looking at new greenfields.

East Fort Erie is the right place for more housing types and sizes, including apartments near existing apartment buildings such as Albany Place. That is where there is servicing capacity and where intensification already fits.

What infrastructure issues should be the highest priority over the next four years?

We need to maintain the roads we already have, not only pave new ones for new development. That includes connecting disconnected sidewalks. I would not put scarce dollars into new roundabouts that can cost more than a million dollars to build when existing streets and sidewalks still need work.

On water, we should monitor the system more closely to identify where we are losing the most, then prioritize replacing the oldest and leakiest pipes. Cutting that loss is one of the few ways the Town can help reduce water costs for residents who are already squeezed.

Gorham Road and Stevensville Road are Regional roads, but they are among the busiest in town after Highway 3. Many Ward 4 residents use them daily, as do people from other wards. I will advocate to Niagara Region that those roads be kept to a high standard.

What can the Town do to strengthen Fort Erie’s economy and attract or retain jobs?

We should also work harder to attract investment from the United States. Over the last two years many American firms have looked for other places to put capital, and Fort Erie has a history of landing significant U.S. investment. That door is still open.

On new land, the Town should work with the Province on infrastructure for the 500-plus acres of industrial land added to the Official Plan. If we target companies that complement what is already here, such as Airbus, Fleet, and Abatement Technologies, we can make a stronger case for provincial support, and for federal support if the investment is defence-related.

Downtowns matter too. The Town should work with the BIAs on what they need to thrive. In Ridgeway, this includes surveying residents and existing business owners about what they want in the vacant properties, then pursuing those kinds of businesses, including firms already operating in other towns, as long as we establish a climate that actually welcomes them.

What are your views on the future of municipal governance in Niagara, including possible amalgamation?

Fort Erie should not be amalgamated.

When the smaller municipalities that now make up the City of Hamilton were amalgamated, I remember hearing that newer vehicles and equipment from the smaller towns were sent to the bigger city’s downtowns, and the smaller communities got older, run-down equipment in return. That is not a deal Fort Erie should accept.

The promised tax savings also did not materialize in the Hamilton or Toronto amalgamations. Wages tended to rise to the highest previous rate. If one municipality paid planners less and another paid them more, amalgamation often meant everyone was paid at the higher level.

The better path is more cost sharing with neighbouring municipalities. We have done this before by sharing a town solicitor. There may be other opportunities to share resources or buy together to achieve economies of scale without giving up local control.

When the interests of your ward and the broader municipality differ, how would you approach that decision?

I would represent the people who elected me and stand up for Ward 4. If interests compete, I put Ridgeway first.

That does not mean ignoring the rest of Fort Erie. Councillors still have to work together, and every ward should get its fair share of funding, infrastructure, and services. I will fight to make sure Ridgeway has a strong voice and receives that fair share.

I also want Fort Erie to feel like one town. People from other wards should feel welcome at events and businesses in Ridgeway. Representing your ward and keeping the town together can both be true.

What is the most pressing issue in your ward, and what would you do about it?

People in Ridgeway want to feel protected. That means protection from high taxes and utility bills, protection for neighbourhood character, a visible police presence, volunteer firefighters who have proper training and cancer prevention, safer roads with traffic calming especially near the elementary school, and primary, urgent, and emergency care close to home.

I would work those files the same way: grow the industrial and commercial tax base and cut water loss so residential bills are not the first place we look for money; keep new development in character with the streets it goes on; advocate for adequate policing in the ward; support training and cancer-prevention measures for our volunteer firefighters; push for road maintenance and traffic calming on local streets, and press the Region on Gorham and Stevensville; and keep fighting to maintain Urgent Care, restore it to 24/7, attract more family doctors, and follow through on a hospital investment for Fort Erie.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This candidate profile was created as part of a paid advertising campaign. Fort Erie Radio extended the same questions to all candidates who were eligible for a “Meet the Candidate” feature and allowed each candidate to answer as many or as few of the questions as they desired. Answers appear exactly as submitted to Fort Erie Radio.

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