Ward 9 Eddie Astgen: Sudbury's Tax Dollars, Failing Services & Keeping Northern Wealth in the North

Ward 9 has a number of candidates this year for the upcoming municipal election and in the studio we have Eddie Astgen today. Good to see ya. Thanks for having me. Eddie, why are you running?(...) I'm running because I'm out in the community already.

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We're at a point where I feel like residents are being heard on a consistent basis(...) from City Hall but also from City staff as well. It's really hard to get a line of communication going. So I think we're at a point where we need people who are ready to listen and ready to(...) take the bullet by the horn so to speak and start dealing with some of these issues. So who's going to listen? Definitely me for sure. Okay. I already do that part of the CAN in Coniston and it's part of the CAN in Garston and Volg Bridge before that. So what is the CAN just so everyone gets to hear it from you? Yeah, absolutely. So the CAN stands for Community Action Network and they were brought about after amalgamation to give the outlying communities a voice.

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Now since the City has decided to move to a new model,

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those CANs are kind of being disbanded in a certain way. Oh.(...) That being said, there was a report with Stuckless(...) Consulting(...) and it(...) wasn't totally indicative of what actually CANs are doing and the people they support.

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So can you give an example of what the CAN actually does? Yeah, for sure. It sounds good, but I still don't know what do they actually do. Okay, so my role as a CAN Chair would be to have an executive board and then have monthly meetings with the community. Everybody's invited. We don't, there's no like memberships or anything like that. Everybody from the community is invited.(...) And we talk about the issues and we also talk about things that we want in the community. So I've planned parades, I've planned tree lighting ceremonies. I've helped in the Canada Day celebrations in Centennial Park in Coniston.

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A lot of this is not just me, I want to make that very clear. Volunteers. Right. Volunteers lead the way.

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Beyond that though, there's a responsibility on the CAN Chair to help chase down(...) issues(...) that residents are having with the City.

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And not being able to get a line of sight on which direction to go to solve their problem. So that's been kind of my role. Wouldn't the residents go to the Councillor or is a CAN another avenue they can go through? Yeah, it's definitely another avenue. So the Councillor,(...) they(...) go to council meetings, they dictate policy. They don't only dictate policy, but like they're one of 13 votes on that.(...) And then they also do listen to their constituents, but in a ward of 13,500 people, one person. That's a big footprint. Yeah, especially geography. You've got the part of the south end and then you've got, is it Coniston, Wanup and Wanapate?

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So you've got really urban areas and then a lot of it, some of it's really rural-ish. Well, James Ward was on here. He pinpointed a lot of rural issues. So the(...) types of communities are vast, right? So we've got Coniston, who's really just a nice little tucked away community.

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Very close, very, very,(...) everybody knows everybody type of thing. But then you've got Wanapate, who's kind of in the middle between that rural and the Coniston feel. Depending on how far you go out. And then you have the south end, so you've got a lot of lakes, long driveways, you've got a lot of space, a lot of roads to get to these houses. So it is a little more spread out. And then you've got the Algonquin street area, which is suburban.

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So it's very vast. And for one councilor to(...) cover everything, but like get involved in the nitty-gritties. So you got like little concerns like my garbage wasn't picked up and I can't get a hold of anybody at the city. Well, it's definitely helped to the councilor to have somebody that's able to just be like, no, no, no, we need to take care of this. Let me help the residents. And then you sort of build a rapport with your residents in that community. So(...) you've been outdoor knocking somewhat? Yep. And(...) how's it going? It's going good. Yeah. So a lot of walking. Yeah. More walking in some areas than other areas. Yeah, absolutely. But we all have our teams right? Yeah. So what are the people saying when you actually talk to them one on one?

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A lot of it is like I said, we're not, we don't feel heard. Okay. We don't feel like we're getting equitable investment. And that's not, I want to be clear, equitable is different than equal.

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Yeah. So(...) a lot of people want equitable investment and services, not so much equal. It has to just make sense. Are you hearing, so for people that are saying they're, they're not getting heard, are you getting that from people in the outlying areas as well as people in the more urban areas as well? Yep. I'm hearing it from, from everybody in every type of community we have. Where the houses are right side by side or where the houses are baseballs throw away. Yep.

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If, if not more. Yes. And, and, and I think that comes down to(...) a few things.

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I find somebody's very good at implementing things, but not adjusting them to where they need to be.(...) Okay.

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So the 311 system, you call, put in a complaint or a concern or whatever it may be, people working at 311 are beauties. They're great.(...) Always very polite with me.

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But then, so that goes to whatever department.

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Once it hits that department, the resident gets your concern has been(...) marked in progress. That's all you get. And then they'll do their work, whatever it is, whether or not you're requested a callback is up to you. Yep. And then once the concern is either dealt with or they've decided that they won't or can't deal with it, they go, your concern has been closed. Is this digital or is this by email or what they get emails? Email. Okay. And(...) so, so now you have a resident getting an email saying, Oh, my concern has been closed. Hasn't been fixed. Maybe they take a drive to where it is or, or they just know that it hasn't been fixed and they call 311 and say, well, my concern. What? No, it shouldn't be closed. It's still happening. And then the whole process starts over again. Oh, well, we've already closed that ticket. We've got to open up a new ticket. Anybody who's worked with IT ticket system. Sounds like Bell Canada. Oh, it's mad, right? It's maddening. And then it's just a waste of time, a waste of(...) resources to have a system that works that way. So we need even external comments for a city manager, city worker to say, this is why we closed the ticket. And it just gives a little context, right? Yeah. The residents calling for an issue, they just want it resolved one way or another, not closed and then reopened. That's(...) a bit of a pain in the butt. Yes, absolutely. Okay. Yeah.

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And coming from the, so that's the city process side of things. Coming from City Hall, there's been a lot of,(...) a lot of big changes in our city.

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Coming big changes, big changes that have happened.

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Big spends on things. And I know we're probably going to get to the event center and that's all been fine. You brought it up. Yeah.

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Look at me leading the way.

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So(...) I feel like not everybody's, and I don't think everybody, but not the majority's expectation was,(...) is what is happening.

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That's a long way to long. Can you break water? So break it down. Break it down. So I feel like there was a lot of concerns over $200 million on an event center. It took three terms of council to get to some sort of(...) shovel in the ground, which, which shows that not everybody was on board.

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The $100 million for the, everybody's just calling the library, but it is so much more. $100 million for the library, the(...) city archives that are moving into that building,(...) and a new council chamber. And that's inside City Hall? Yeah. Okay.(...) I think there's one more thing in there.

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Cultural center? That's what it is. Okay.(...) So(...) a lot, not a lot of discussion was had with the residents from the councilors about our views on this. Someone else brought up accessibility to get into the building.(...) If you're in a wheelchair or(...) do you have to take stairs unless you go to the underground parking and then you can take an elevator? So I'm going to be absolutely honest. I don't have a,(...) I've never noticed it, right? Okay.

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That being said, it's something that we should definitely look at. And it's definitely a gap in my knowledge. I should, I have(...) basically made a mental note to start looking at these things.

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But that's all part of changing as a leader, right? You need to start looking at everybody's perspective. And it's(...) something that does take time and we'll look at it. But if somebody brings the concern, take a drive out there, let's take a look. Yeah. Let's talk to that resident.

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Not the answer can't always just be, well, call 311.

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That's ridiculous.

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So when it comes to the event center, it's like you said, they're already, it's already being worked on.

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Did, you(...) know, for Murray, you sit as a resident and a perspective counselor.

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Did City Hall get it right?

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In my opinion, no, I don't. I don't believe we need an event center downtown whatsoever.

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But the arena is past its prime, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. And(...) that being said, I don't think it belongs downtown. Where would(...) it go? I fully like the Kingsway location. I did really enjoy that. There is a lot of room there. And I know there's people that don't and everybody's opinion is valid.(...) How would the proximity of the dump affect that?

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I'm not sure. I don't think it would(...) in any sort of(...) real measure. Yeah. I don't think it would really affect that. Okay.

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The city says we don't have much longer on our dump anyway. So it is going to be closed. It is going to be mitigated(...) at some point. Yeah. And then we're going to have to find a new(...) waste facility. Okay. So that'll be interesting. Yeah. Oh, God.

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Yeah. That's going to(...) be some big conversations. Yeah. Maybe another NIMBY. Not in my backyard. Probably. There's probably going to be a lot of that. But we need a dump, right? Somewhere. Yeah. And again, those conversations need to happen with everybody involved. And they have to, the conversations and the concerns have to be taken seriously from residents. And I don't feel like the city does a very good job of that right now. In terms of the homelessness, the drug use and that sort of thing, what's your solution to it? Like everyone's talking about stuff. Yeah. But really,(...) what are you going to do about it? What am I going to do about it? Yeah.

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I'm 36 years old. I'm not going to pretend to have any(...) factual based evidence on what's 100% going to work. We need to(...) talk to the province. In, again, a realistic manner. We need to involve our stakeholders, including all our non-profits that deal with this. We have to talk to other councillors.

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And I don't mean just that term of councillors. I mean other councillors that have served and have seen this problem growing and growing and growing. Perspective needs to happen on this. We need to get this right. We can't just keep throwing money at it. So(...) that's the next thing, the money part.

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We already know the answer. Who's going to pay for it? Well, truthfully, it's Ontario's responsibility. It's the province's responsibility. That being said, the province has a great history of downgrading all issues to a municipal level. Right?

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That's where advocacy(...) and getting on the same page as councillors come in. We have to put in the work to say, "No, this isn't right." But we all have to say the same words together. Would policy change change it up? Like, you know, you could ask the forefathers of whoever's been in(...) council, where could things go? You could, you know, ask them for guidance and that. But obviously something needs to happen. It's not just a Sudbury problem, but(...) like Thunder Bay, they have tiny homes now in a little community, wherever that is, with little red roofs.

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I think they're red roofs. But(...) you still have to have a real concrete plan. And for the homelessness and addictions, you need to have a support system. So how does that fit into everything? So the support system is,(...) right now they're the Ontario government and some people and some leaders in Sudbury are going after the involuntary treaty. Okay. There's been many studies done that says that doesn't work. So why would we chase it down? So why are they chasing it down? I think we're at a wits end of ideas. And this is,(...) I don't want to call it a last ditch effort because that implies that there's no solution beyond that. But I feel like they're just like, we need to do something. And it's almost panic driven.

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So reactive? Yes. Okay.

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It's very reactive. Studies say it doesn't work. Why would we attempt to do something that doesn't work?

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Why put the square peg through the round hole? It's not going to go. Exactly. And I don't believe in that kind of(...) policy. We need evidence based things that actually work.

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That being said, ideas are valid and ideas(...) that come from outside of the box need to be considered as well. And those need to be studied as well. The tiny homes thing is great.(...) Let's see if that's working over there. Right. Let's see. Yeah.

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I(...) think it's important for some variants to know, really Ontario to know that some people don't want to help.

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This isn't going to be(...) okay. We did this. All the homeless and addicted are taken care of. Some people don't want to help.(...) What do they want? Do you know? I have no idea. Okay. In that situation, I'm not going to knock on it. Sorry. I'm not. I can't speak to what they want. Yeah.

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Yeah. To find out what they want, would you be closer to the root cause? Well, exactly. For sure. Let's have those conversations.

(...) So switching gears,(...) is it possible to have a zero base budget? Like our budget is approaching about the hundred million dollar mark for our city of whatever size population it is, whatever the numbers are today. Is a zero base budget possible?

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I think it is. I don't think it's a zero base budget every year, every term. I think that's unrealistic. I think every so often, every two or three terms, we do need to start fresh. We do need to look at(...) efficiencies. We do need to look at waste. We do need to look at all these things.

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And I think it goes beyond just the budget.(...) And I think it goes to(...) high level city staff as well. I think we need to see what's working. If there's any overlap between the departments and then we can save money there as well. So I think a zero base budget is a great idea. Line by line, let's see what's going on once every so often. I think to do it every year, every term would be a little ridiculous. So in the department sense, if there is overlap, what would you, where would you go with that? Well, there's no shortage of work at the city. Oh, no? No, no, there's no shortage of work that needs to be done at this city. I think, again, efficiencies need to be put in place. If there is, again, something that isn't working and I'd say there is. I don't know if you've looked at the Sunshine List in any(...) capacity lately. Pretty bright. It's, well, from I do believe it's 2004. I think we had like three or four people on the Sunshine List. In 2004? Yeah. And now we're at 800 and something. Really? Of people that work at the city?(...) Yeah. Just the city. How many people work at the city in total? I don't know. I'm just not sure on that number. Okay. But that's(...) a pretty good place to work then. Well, yeah. And I'd like to give that context and say like a $40,000 a year job is no longer(...) a livable wage. No, it's tough to get by. Well, it's... And that baseline for(...) the Sunshine List hasn't changed. Still $100,000. Right. So that has to be considered as well. Yep.

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But there are... You can see the top employer or the top employees and what they're making year over year and the raises that they've gotten year over year. Right.(...) Are they in line with the cost of living, like inflation? They're exuberant. Really? Yeah, they're pretty high.

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How does that happen? I don't know. I'd love to give you an answer. I don't think it's right. Okay.(...) Because where does their salaries come from? Our tax base. Okay. I think we have over $800 million of tax revenue. Yep. And 42%(...) of that, I want to say, is salaries. Yeah, that was the number that I came up with back in 23, maybe... 22, 23 for sure. And I don't think I looked into 24, but yeah, the number was 41, 42, 43% somewhere in that. And that's(...) a strong number. It's a lot of money. Yeah. It's a lot of money. And if residents, again, it all goes back to the residents, if they're not feeling heard, are we truly doing the work that needs to be done at the city for those wages? So again, the residents don't feel heard. Specifically, what are they(...) crying out about? Well,(...) everybody in the city knows about the nation. It's an absolute disaster.(...) The city actually, city staff don't say the word. Okay. They call it the A word. Oh yeah? Yeah. Yeah, it's Voldemort over there. Okay. Okay. It's a little ridiculous. The A word. Yeah. And honestly,(...) there's been no...

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We've just been trying to make the same thing work that hasn't been working over the past 20 years. The square peg trying to go through the round hole? Exactly. The A word. You're the people that work at the city?(...) That's a real thing? That's the term. Really, eh? Yeah. So they're aware of it. They know about it. They know amalgamation has not worked.

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It's not, and I'll be clear, the city can't do anything about it. It was mandated by the province. So there's nothing to be done(...) over de-amalgamation with the city. That's not a realistic option. They'll never be able to do that.

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Never is a big word too. Yeah. I shouldn't say never. Yeah. It's not realistic.

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That being said, just because we are amalgamated doesn't(...) mean we need to run like we're amalgamated. Okay. We can have service areas like we used to. Like would that mean giving more autonomy to the outlying areas? I believe in more autonomy to the outlying areas, but I think that's(...) a broader statement than(...) what I'm thinking. What I'm thinking is(...) there's no reason why all city trucks have to start from the center and move up.(...) So we should have, let's say, Garson, Falcon Bridge,(...) one of Tae and Coniston. Two trucks that know the routes, the drivers know the area, right? They're based in those communities, in one of those communities. And when we get 48,000 inches of snow,(...) they're on it. They know what needs to be done first. They know what can wait. So right now, the snow plows all come from one location? Well, they're all parked in one location, and then they have their(...) certain routes. But if you look at the city snowplowing map, it's based,(...) the majority of the snow plowing happens in Subford, in the center. But what about the outlying communities that,(...) like, let's talk about Wanapate, for example. It snows, road needs to be plowed. Where's that truck coming from? Where's it starting? I do believe Froebrischer.

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Oh, yeah. That's Froebrischer.

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So I know it's not your area, but(...) anyways, I won't even go down that road. But wouldn't it make sense to have it in the community, like you mentioned? Yeah, absolutely. So have a small yard. We own a lot of land in every community, so have a small parking yard where the operators can get their trucks going and move out from there.

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And the same thing with policing.

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Instead of having all calls coming from the station or wherever they're patrolling, we're not getting the proper patrols in the outlying areas, right? So have people designated for those areas.

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Garstam, Falconbridge, Wanapate,(...) Coniston. You got a couple cruisers for there. In case something happens, you're not...(...) Miles away? Exactly.

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And I realize there's probably kinks in a plan like that because I'm in no way involved in the planning process for police. But(...) I think it makes a lot more sense than what's happening now. What's happening now isn't working, so let's try and adjust. So when it comes down to moving along the affordability, everything's getting...

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Most people are feeling the squeeze.

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Bag(...) of groceries is now 100 bucks a bag instead of 100 bucks for four bags of groceries. It's really tightening up. I heard on the radio,(...) whatever, however quantity of chicken was over 30 bucks.

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And for chicken breasts, whatever. But that's not a municipal thing. But what(...) can(...) the councillors actually do to help out with daily life?

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Like just the cost of daily life? Yeah. I think councillors have a purview over our tax dollars. And I think the savings there could be significant. That's not to say I believe in zero tax years or anything like that.

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Tax pays for everything we do have.

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That being said, I think we need to start making incentives for local businesses to be able to(...) thrive. OK. We have big chains coming in. And big chains are great if you...

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Like I use big chains as well, right? If you would(...) launch a groceries for your two kids, you know.(...) But we need to start having incentives for those local businesses. Smaller businesses? Yeah. That are trying to(...) build a name, build a reputation, and truly become part of our community.(...) And I can make a great example to that.

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So you have Costco, you have Walmart, you have... All the big box stores? Yeah, absolutely. But in Coniston, we have Andrew's Independent. OK.(...) Miraculous store. The guy is there whenever you need him. He helps out his staff are fantastic.(...) His prices are(...) maybe a couple of cents higher than... But this guy, he helps out community like you wouldn't believe.

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Any barbecues we have, he's there. Any snacks we need for a parade, he's there.(...) These small businesses and these small companies are the ones that are helping the communities. So we need to start giving back to them by showing our patronage.(...) Patronage? That's the one. According to CFIB, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, when you shop local, 66 cents out of that dollar stays in town, whereas if you go to a big box store, a chain or whatever, it's 11 cents that stays in town. That's a big discrepancy.

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That's huge. That's massive.

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So how can we attract more local business to set up shop here in town?

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Trying to duck the red tape. Yeah, well, and that's a big thing. The city's really good at putting up red tape and not taking it down.

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So we definitely need to start working with these businesses. And we had an event at the Chamber of Commerce, and I didn't really get to speak to anybody at the Chamber of Commerce, but I really think that they do a lot of work to advocate for local businesses as well. So we need to start getting people all on board.

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Past that though, the information that comes from these meetings needs to(...) be easily accessible and easy to understand.

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We don't do, as a city as a whole, we don't do very good in those two. So communication(...) needs a tune up? Absolutely. Absolutely.

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And I think that's highlighted by(...) a couple things. We had that drinking water advisory. Yeah, earlier this year. Yeah.

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Alerts went out on Facebook. Okay. I don't know if you've ever been, I don't know, on Facebook. That's an American social media platform. Well, it also doesn't support Canadian news, right?

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No, that's another story, you know, beyond the scope here. But yeah, you're right. You can't get news on there. Well, and then beyond that, how many times have you logged on to Facebook? Like, oh, there's an event this morning and it was... It's already gone. Yeah, it's already passed. Okay. So social media does a horrible job of serving up information when you need it. It's not built for that. Right. We need to build something that is(...) citywide but also hyper-local at the same time. Okay.(...) I've built it. Yeah.

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It's built. Yeah. And there was a(...) big push earlier last year over trying to get something implemented. Yeah. Unfortunately, it did fall by the wayside due to red tape and politics. Okay. Which sucks.

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But these are the types of ideas that we need to start actually chasing down and putting real merit on.

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I don't think it's unrealistic to be able to have a system where the city sends out an alert and you get a push notification on your phone. Everybody has their phones with them at all times. Yeah. Yeah. So, oh, there's a drinking water advisory. I probably shouldn't drink the water. Cool. I don't know. It's very simple. Yeah. It's very simple. And(...) I think we definitely need to start investigating systems like that.

resource rich.

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A lot of the monies in the North end up leaving the North for other communities. So, is that something that council has or can actually do something about? Because(...) the North has been getting the short end of the stick for decades. Absolutely.

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Again,(...) city councils per view is going to be tax dollars, right? That's where we're receiving revenue from.

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We can't really stop big businesses from shipping our resources wherever they want. They've mined it.

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That's their product at this point.

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All that being said though,(...) we have a mining act, a mining act that is not working for Northern Ontario. A mining act? Yeah. Okay. The provinces mining act is not working for us. Who's working for?

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Not us. Okay. Okay. I can't answer that, but it's definitely not us. Yeah.

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We're able to charge taxes on buildings above the ground. Correct.

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Yeah. More and more mines(...) are moving their(...) infrastructure below ground. Yeah. Have you ever been underground?

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Big nickel mine, that doesn't even count. No. Aside from that. You get the trust of it, right? No.(...) So there's massive shops. I underground? Massive shops. Okay. Like football field? Like huge. Can service a few jumbos? Can service a few big scoops? Like these things are big.(...) And we're the city as a whole is losing out on the tax dollars from having those,(...) those be able to be added into the tax base, right? Yeah. So(...) while I understand it from a business side of things,(...) from a city municipality and a community side of things, it's not good.(...) So(...) I,(...) one thing I do support of Paul O'Fave is him trying to amend this, my name's act and declares a special economic zone because we are, we are special economic zone.

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So his work to do that. Yeah. I believe in it. Yeah.

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I believe it needs to be pushed. Yeah.

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There's, there's a lot of things that me and Paul(...) differ on a lot.

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But that is the one thing I will say needs to happen in this, in this city. In order to(...) keep some of the royalties here? Yeah. Keep some of the tax base, keep, be able to(...) charge these companies a little bit more for the amount of destruction they're doing to our roads, to our infrastructure. Yeah. Yeah.(...) We have the half load restriction in the springtime. But(...) that's not, doesn't seem to be doing it. And we also have roads and a lot of people don't realize this, but we also have roads that(...) are exempt from that. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Do you, can you(...) rhyme one or two of them? Second Avenue and constant. It's exempt from the heavy trucks? Yep. So you can bring full load. Turn the spring down. No problem. Tri-axle dump truck? Yep. And go. Yep.

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And the city says, I talked to the manager of the department, David Coninstin. Yep. And his reasoning was the road is built to be able to handle that.

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Okay. Great. Awesome. If that's the case, why aren't we building the other roads like that then? Yeah. Why is there a difference? Exactly. If this is the standard. Sudbury's built on rock, isn't it? Yes. So if we need to go down to bedrock, go down to bedrock. Okay. Again, I'm not a road center by any stretch of the imagination. Yeah. But it's just, to me it's logic. If(...) one road can sustain it, and that's what you're saying it's meant for, why are we not building all roads like that?

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Roads, infrastructure, pavement. Yep.(...) Redoing the same thing over and over again. Yes.

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What would you do to change that? I think, and this is my personal opinion, I think the whole d'wacco with the recycling,(...) Bashful recycling company was a mess. Absolutely a mess. How? Well, he has new technology. Okay. We need to explore that. We are(...) in the north.

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We're a city that(...) we're not like down south. We need new ideas, new technology to adapt to the things we see here, which is(...) buff recycles. Yep. Which is deep, deep winters, which is snow plows having to scrape the roads before we get a freeze. And that's, a lot of people(...) criticize it when they're scraping bare pavement.

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But a big reason of that is because you have that thin layer of slush on the road, they scrape it off before we get that big freeze. Yeah, which makes sense. However, you know, we do live in the city of a few lakes. Why are we still using salt and not sand? Well, I think that it's a mix. It's a mix? Yeah. So there's definitely a mix. That being said,(...) I've looked into the salt management plan that the city has and it's not accessible online. It's not? No.(...) What kind of plan is that then?(...) An ineffective one.(...) Can somebody get the plans if they want through a freedom of information request? You need to do a FOI request for it.

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You'd probably have to reach out to Conservation Submarine to get that because that's who it's handled through. Oh yeah. On that topic, the Conservation Submarine,(...) this(...) shared jurisdiction, but we don't talk to each other. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, it doesn't make sense. We had the flooding in Coniston. Well, we had the flooding everywhere this year.

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But in Coniston, we have had it consistently every year on Crusoe Street. Consistently.(...) There's a lake there. People continuously have insurance plans(...) every winter.(...) And as far as my duties as the can, let's track down some of them. What is happening? This is ridiculous.

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So I finally got a hold of(...) Conservation Submarine.

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Their jurisdiction is the waterways. That's their jurisdiction. They don't have the equipment to manage the waterways. They have to go through the City of Submarine. So a resident does what they're told to do through the City, which is call 311. 311 says that's not her jurisdiction.(...) Call Conservation Submarine.(...) So a resident may or may not at that point be frustrated.

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If they decide to take the long haul and just go for it, they call Conservation Submarine. Conservation Submarine, well, we don't have the equipment to deal with that.

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Can't they work together somehow? Well, that's being implemented now.

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Because there's no point in just passing the buck. Absolutely. But the gap's been addressed. Yeah. So they know of the gap now. It's being addressed, I'm hoping, in a productive manner. But it's, to me, a little silly that the can chair of Coniston(...) has to identify this gap to get things rolling.(...) Somebody's got to get it done. Well, and I have no problem being that guy. Somebody's got to get the ball rolling. I have no problem being that guy. But the fact that this is happening since before(...) I even moved there, which is five years ago, right?(...) And not one city staff was able to track down(...) what the gap was, I think is a little ridiculous. In the end, in closing, what do you want to say to your prospective constituents from all the communities that Ward 9 covers?(...) Do(...) I look at a camera?(...) Yeah, there's one over there. You can look at this one.

(...)

Come October 26th, I hope you guys get out and vote. Even if it's not for me, we have a lot of great candidates running in this election. And I really hope that you take the time to research them yourself and see if they align with your values. This isn't an election about a person. This is an election about the people. So we need to actually get on board and start making sure we have change in this city. So come October 26th, I do hope you vote for me. But make sure to get out and vote. Last question. How do we get more people out to vote? Because the last election, the voter turnout was very low.

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How can we(...) get above 50%? Imagine that. Yeah, we removed the toxicity.(...) We removed the toxicity in the election process.

(...)

Expand on that just a little bit? Yeah, for sure. So(...) I'm sure you've been on Facebook. You see all these arguing this person arguing with that person over stance and whatever. And now it's gotten to a point where candidates are getting involved. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's getting very toxic. I don't agree with that. Everybody has put their name forward to try and serve their community. Whether or not they're able, capable, or desired to do so, that(...) was still done(...) with probably the greatest of inventions. I like to believe in the best of people. And that may be a little naive, but I'd rather be naive than cynical. Yeah.

(...)

If we keep criticizing the people that are putting their names forward to better their community, nobody's going to want to put their names forward. I think(...) Mark Gentile on Sudbury.com had an article about how it's the lowest(...) interaction. I'm paraphrasing, and this is probably not a direct quote, but like lowest interaction, lowest signs, he hasn't seen signs out.(...) And I think(...) that(...) may be indicative to people are scared to talk about politics because it is such a hostile. It seems like a dirty word. Yes, absolutely. And we got to change that. And I mean,(...) is that going to change the recovery? Maybe. Let's change it. Yeah.(...) But we all just need to be a little more positive, a little more collaborative. If you don't agree with the view, that's okay. Yeah. Let's talk about it. Maybe something comes out of that. Opinions can change based on conversation. Yeah. If you're steadfast and this is what's right and it's just hostile, nothing's ever going to change. Eddie Astgen, hey, thanks for joining us today. Thanks. Thanks for having me. That was great. Okay.

(...)

Also, this, beautifully handcrafted. Oh, yeah,

(Music)