MEET THE CANDIDATE | Scott Boumeester, Ward 5

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 4 and 7, and online voting opens at 10 a.m. on October 5.

Scott Boumeester is running for town council in Ward 5. Fort Erie Radio posed several questions to Boumeester and what appears below are his unedited answers:

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

For me, it’s protecting local health care and the future of Douglas Memorial. And this one is personal.

Our family chose Fort Erie as our home. Our doctors are here. Our extended family is now here. Our mother was a resident at the new Gilmore Lodge.

We are Fort Erians.

As Fort Erie grows, we should be fighting for more access to local health care, not less. We need to protect Urgent Care at Douglas Memorial and push for expanded access, with the goal of 24/7 Urgent Care in Fort Erie.

We need strong advocacy with Niagara Health and the Province, but advocacy alone isn’t a strategy. We need a Plan B and we need to investigate every realistic partnership that could help protect and expand health-care services here.

That’s what I mean by proactive, not reactive. Don’t wait until something is gone and then start fighting to get it back.

Health care is number one for me, but affordability, taxes, food insecurity, infrastructure and economic development are all major issues facing our community as well.

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

Treat taxpayers like customers.

I spent more than 35 years in business, and one lesson never changed: if you forget who the customer is, you’re in trouble.

At Town Hall, taxpayers are the customers.

Every dollar council spends came from somebody who worked for it. I support a detailed line-by-line review of spending, including consultants, contracts and programs.

Before hiring another outside consultant, let’s determine whether that expertise already exists within Town Hall or whether we can develop that competency internally.

This isn’t about cutting services just to say we cut something. It’s about finding efficiencies, doing more with less and getting better value.

We also need responsible economic growth to expand our assessment base. We can’t continually go back to the same homeowners and businesses and ask them for more.

The question I’ll keep asking is pretty simple:

What value is the taxpayer getting for this dollar?

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

A very active one.

Health care may primarily be a provincial responsibility, but Fort Erie cannot afford to sit on the sidelines.

For my family, this is personal. Our doctors are here. Our extended family is here. Our mother was a resident at Gilmore Lodge. Like thousands of other Fort Erie families, we depend on local health care.

We need to fight for Douglas Memorial and expanded Urgent Care, but I also believe we need to think bigger.

Fort Erie needs a champion for Douglas.

Other communities have attracted major philanthropic partners. Michael Lee-Chin provided significant support to Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington. Peter Gilgan has provided major philanthropic support for hospital care in Oakville and elsewhere.

Why shouldn’t Fort Erie look for our champion?

It could be an individual, family, foundation, business or group of partners who believe in the future of health care in Fort Erie.

Government still has the responsibility to fund public health care. I’m not suggesting replacing public funding. I’m saying we should be building every partnership available to us — the Province, Niagara Health, physicians, community organizations, businesses and philanthropy.

And somebody needs to lead that effort.

Don’t wait until we lose something and then write letters asking for it back.

Build the vision. Find the partners. Find our champion for Douglas.

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

Responsible growth.

Our family moved here because we saw what so many others see — Fort Erie is a great place to build a life.

Growth can expand our tax base, support local businesses and create opportunities. We need it. But development has to come with the infrastructure necessary to support it.

Roads, water, wastewater, drainage, traffic and emergency services all need to keep pace.

Residents also need to be involved earlier. Don’t bring people into the conversation after a decision is basically made and call that consultation.

This is another reason having a visible councillor matters.

Get into the neighbourhood. Talk to the people who live there. Understand what development will mean for them and take those concerns back to Town Hall.

I support growth that strengthens Fort Erie while protecting what made people want to live here in the first place.

Growth isn’t the enemy. Poorly planned growth is.

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

There isn’t one answer.

We need more housing choices — rentals, starter homes, attainable ownership, apartments, seniors housing and supportive housing.

Our mother was a resident at the new Gilmore Lodge, so our family has seen firsthand how important quality local housing and care are as people age.

The Town needs to work with Niagara Region, the Province, non-profits and community organizations while removing unnecessary municipal barriers to appropriate housing.

But I would broaden the affordability conversation beyond housing.

We need to address the epidemic of food insecurity in our community.

Through my work as President of Advancing Crystal Beach, I’ve seen residents struggling to put good food on the table.

Instead of just talking about it, our team created Pop Up Markets providing affordable fresh fruits and vegetables through partnerships with local businesses, organizations and volunteers.

People who never imagined needing help are watching every grocery dollar.

Government doesn’t always have to create another program. Sometimes its best role is bringing the right people together and supporting organizations already doing the work.

These aren’t statistics. They’re our neighbours.

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

Start with the basics: roads, drainage, water and wastewater.

As Fort Erie grows, our infrastructure has to keep pace.

But infrastructure is also what residents experience when they walk out their front door — speeding, traffic flow, sidewalks, pedestrian safety and neighbourhood roads.

In Ward 5, roads such as Erie, Derby, Ridgeway and Schooley need attention as traffic patterns and development change.

I’m open to practical solutions: traffic calming, lower residential speeds where appropriate, additional stop controls and even looking at whether more one-way streets could improve safety and traffic flow in some of our older neighbourhoods.

And we don’t always need an expensive consultant to tell us what residents already know.

This is where a visible and active councillor matters.

Get out of Town Hall. Stand on the street. Talk to the people who live there. See the problem yourself. Work with our qualified Town staff and find the solution.

Proactive, not reactive.

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

Make Fort Erie easier to invest in and easier to do business in.

Reduce unnecessary red tape, move appropriate approvals faster, support businesses already here and actively pursue new investment and jobs.

Fort Erie isn’t one economy. Tourism, manufacturing, logistics, agriculture, construction, retail and small businesses all matter.

Crystal Beach has another challenge: seasonality.

Our businesses can be packed in July and struggling a few months later. We need more reasons for people to come here throughout the year — events, tourism, destination marketing and responsible development that puts more eyeballs on our local businesses.

Through Advancing Crystal Beach, we’ve hired local youth at our Tourism Hub and provided bursaries to local high school graduates.

That matters to me. I want our young people to have opportunities here and see Fort Erie as somewhere they can build their own future.

And I want Town Hall talking directly to business owners.

What do you need? What’s getting in your way? How can we help?

That’s listening to the customer.

Economic development isn’t always about landing one huge employer. Sometimes it’s helping an existing business survive another winter, expand or hire one more person.

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

I’m open to investigating any initiative that can genuinely save taxpayers money without negatively affecting services or jobs.

But show me the business case.

Where are the savings? What duplication are we eliminating? What happens to services? What happens to jobs? What happens to local representation?

Our family chose Fort Erie.

We are Fort Erians.

That local identity matters to me, but that doesn’t mean we should be afraid to investigate change or look for efficiencies.

There may be duplication between levels of government that can be eliminated without eliminating communities themselves.

A decision this significant needs facts, financial analysis and meaningful public consultation.

I don’t start with a predetermined yes or no.

Show us the facts and demonstrate whether a proposed change actually delivers better value for taxpayers.

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

I’ll advocate strongly for Ward 5. That’s the job residents would elect me to do.

But I’m also a Fort Erie resident, and every councillor has a responsibility to the entire municipality.

Those responsibilities don’t have to be enemies.

My experience with Advancing Crystal Beach has taught me that you accomplish much more by building partnerships than building walls.

Listen. Understand the facts. Look for common ground. Make the decision.

And then explain it.

I also believe strongly that a councillor should be visible, active and responsive.

Cutting ribbons, attending dinners and being at community events are all part of the role. I’ll be there.

But that isn’t the whole job.

The real work happens between those events.

Return the phone call. Answer the email. Meet the resident. Visit the business. Walk the street. Understand the issue. Take it back to Town Hall and work on it.

To me, that’s getting the voice of the customer — the taxpayer — and doing the work they elected you to do.

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

Ward 5 needs visible, active and responsive representation.

Crystal Beach is changing. We have infrastructure and speeding concerns, development pressures, affordability and food insecurity, and businesses trying to build a year-round economy.

For the past three years, I haven’t been standing on the sidelines.

As President of Advancing Crystal Beach, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a great team of volunteers and community partners to get things done.

We’ve tackled food insecurity through our Pop Up Markets. We’ve provided bursaries to local high school graduates. We’ve hired local youth through our Tourism Hub. We’ve supported seniors through KeepFit programming. And we’ve built partnerships with businesses, schools, government and community organizations.

That experience reinforced something I’ve believed throughout my career:

You accomplish a lot more by doing than talking.

If elected, I’ll hold my first Ward 5 Town Hall within 30 days and continue them quarterly.

I’ll return calls and emails. I’ll visit our businesses. I’ll be in our neighbourhoods. I’ll listen to residents and take their concerns back to Town Hall.

Community events and ribbon cuttings are part of being a councillor, and I’ll be there.

But the real work happens between those events.

Our family chose this community. Our doctors are here. Our extended family is here. Our mother was a resident at Gilmore Lodge.

We are Fort Erians.

I’m not running just to occupy a seat at Town Hall.

I’m running to be visible, to listen, to respond and to do the work.

* * *

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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