Ward 12 Candidate Linnet Rimmer: Tackling Homelessness, Finding City Savings & Putting Families First

Ward 12, Linnet Rimmer is here in the studio with us.(...) Linnet, good to see you. Yes, good to see you too. I'm going to ask you, first question, what caused you to throw your hat in the ring to(...) become a counselor?

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Well, I feel like that's a question that has actually kind of evolved over time.

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When I first committed to this journey, it was because I'm a mother of six kids, and

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we have a huge stake in the future of the city. So I was kind of tired of just sitting by and watching things happen, and wanted to get in there and kind of hope to make a difference. Then along the way, especially getting really involved in municipal politics and kind of watching and learning, it's become really apparent to me that there is a negative perception around(...) it. Right. A lot of people don't vote because of it. Very low turnout. Yeah, and it actually shocked me when I was researching the broader turnout in my ward(...) for the last election. It was only 36%.

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That's unbelievable to me. So(...) democracy is so important, and having the right to vote is so important, and I think promoting that is so important. I hope to change the narrative and have people think that politics don't necessarily have to be a negative thing.

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That's kind of my mission.

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I also want to fix the narrative of misinformation. I find through this election season, there's been a lot of things that are said about the city that are untrue in terms of money and where is it going, and all kinds of theories.

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If I were to go... Sorry, if I were to get on council, I really want to make a point of finding ways to get the accurate information out there to more people so they know the actual truth. So the transparency. Mm-hmm. You know what? You're the first person to say it was about the kids.

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No, really.

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Can you expand on that? Because right now is a very important election. Well, every election is important, but this one's pivotal from...(...) in the sense that(...) there's a lot going on, and we...(...) the people want... ultimately want to be steered in the right direction.(...) So...(...) that being said,(...) voter turnout was(...) rather low. How do we get more people to actually go out and vote? Because their idea is in their head, well, nothing's going to change.

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I mean, the best I can do is just go out there, try to reach as many people as I can, and that's something that I've been doing between door knocking, hosting events, going to all the candidate events that I can attend,(...) making social media posts, all the things. Just... I want people to know who I am and what I stand for, and that'd be the reason that they vote for me.

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So... Yeah, it's just so important. It's so funny, like, when you say it with the kids, like, my very first thought when I was way back in the spring, I... I...(...) Coach baseball three nights a week. Oh, that's busy. Those games are two hours each. Yeah. And so I spent a lot of time at our fields. Yeah. And in the spring, with all the flooding and such, we had a really big issue at some of the fields where, like, they were soaked for weeks, we had to delay our start because they were soaked unsafe. And so I'm sitting there being like, it wouldn't take a lot to fix this. And like, this would help all the kids in this association, like... And then I started going past that, and we... We're a huge hockey family. Yeah. And we've always had an outdoor rink in our backyard. And my husband grew up in Sudbury and played on the outdoor rinks, like, a lot when he was a kid. But now it's not so much of a thing. I think I want to actually kind of carry on Joshlin's tradition of, like, taking care of our parks. It's actually one of my big platform points is getting... Now steering towards our rinks, our fields, even, like, the tennis courts, squash courts, all those things. Getting them up to date so that the people that pay taxes can enjoy them. Yeah, so they can actually use them.(...) So when you're outdoor knocking, what are some of the concerns that you hear directly from your constituents? So it depends on the area of the ward. I find more in Sudbury, there's been a lot of talk about, like,(...) the Montrose meandering.(...) Oh, what's that? So they want to... It's been in talks for a long time, but they want to extend(...) Montrose all the way to Mallee. Okay. So there's actually a group, the Carp Group, and I've actually got to sit down with Dennis De La Front. He's a very, very nice man and got me up to speed on all of that. And I'm totally on board with that. But so instead of having a straight through because of traffic, eventually when the new subdivision is put in, they're suggesting that it meanders all the way through the subdivision. That way speeds are reduced and it's not the same situation as, like, on Lansing.(...) Okay, so Lansing is a busy thoroughfare? Yeah, and it's a straight through from La Salle to Mallee. Now they've put in a few speed bumps and stuff, but if you go down there, there's quite a few cars that actually go pretty quick. And actually, even Montrose, as it is without even the straight through, I find the traffic is very, is pretty high. My kid always get off the bus at Grandview and Montrose and like, we get all up to high almost every day. I'm not joking you. It's so ridiculous. Like... Because people are just impatient? Yeah, but because there's so much traffic.(...) And I have a kindergartner and two great twos. So they're little kids. They're taking their time. And I'm trying to get them off the bus. And I'm trying to hurry and people are like, come on.

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So it's already a busy road. Imagine how much more traffic there would be if it went all the way straight through to Mallee. And as a resident of that area with little kids, I don't have that. Yeah, that'd be something else. What about the other areas that you're in that(...) are not new Sudbury focused? So when I look more to like the Dunavon and the Flower Milt area, a lot of that has to do with like the homelessness, the addiction situation. Okay. Lots of concerns there. I've actually spoken with numerous businesses along(...) Notre Dame and things. And(...) they all express kind of the same concerns. And(...) I thought about it and thought about it. And it's like, what can we do to make it better? But it comes back to the same solution. At the end of the day,(...) permanent housing is going to be the solution to fix it. Because when you get people off the streets, then(...) they're like, if they have a house to live in, they're not going to go out in public and do drugs in the bus stop. Like why would they?

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And they're not going to litter their garbage because they also have a place to live. So it removes some of it from the streets first in terms of helping the businesses and stuff.

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But well, we can get into housing after that's a huge thing.(...) One thing that I remember from(...) the, from Amanda at the Elgin Street Mission was that, and I don't know if this is more than one case, but in one case there was someone that did obtain housing and ended going back out to the street because they wanted to be with their people.(...) They felt lonely. Okay. So there's that aspect of it as well for the housing that, you know, everyone needs a sense of community for those that actually want to be helped. Because at the same time, there might be some people that just want to be left alone.

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But(...) either way, it's tough. It's tough. Yeah. So that would be probably one of the biggest concerns, but I also learned about the(...) flooding in the Flower Mound. Oh yeah. That was something that wasn't on my radar before(...) pursuing council because like I don't live in that area right now. Well, I actually used to. I lived on Bond Street when I was in university. Okay. So I actually from really with the area. With the areas. But(...) learning about that and the struggles that some of the people there went through this spring. So the Junction Creek. Did it overflow?

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No, I, yes. But they're working on the project now to, to fix it.(...) They're widening, I believe they're widening the creek bank so that it won't go over and cause that problem anymore. Yeah.

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One of my priorities is making sure that that is seen through to fruition and in a timely manner. Okay.

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When it comes to affordability in the city, what(...) can be done?(...) How do(...) you see affordability?

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That's a tough question. Like(...) in terms of like, you mean in terms of like the housing and like.(...) Daily, well, okay. So I guess daily life, everything is, everything's going up.

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So from a counselor counselor point of view, what, what can you actually do about it?(...) So one of the things that(...) I've been actually focusing on as well is trying to actually come up with different, different measures to actually maybe save us some money.

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Now you've got everyone's attention.

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Well, okay. Is it okay if I check my phone? Oh yeah. Yeah. Use it as a tool. Because I don't want to get this information wrong. Okay.

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So(...) back in 2015, are you familiar with the, with the project P6M? No. Okay. So it was a one time initiative that was(...) started to just, oh my gosh, I'm sorry. Save $6 million in 2015 when bigger campaigned on a 0% tax increase. Oh, okay. Okay. It relied on input from citizens and staff for ideas on how to save money, kind of like a suggestion box. Yeah. City staff triaged and reviewed the ideas for viability.

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Those ideas ended up saving the city $2.1 million. So(...) my proposal would be that we make this an ongoing program that we do every year.(...) Lean into finding efficiencies(...) because honestly, what's the downside if we're finding efficiencies?

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The remaining 3.9 million that was found, I want to clarify, was found through staff as petition, which is something I'm not suggesting we do. Like, I don't think we should cut jobs at the city or not fill positions that need to be filled. That's not, so I'm not guaranteeing that there's going to be millions saved every year. However, the last time that was done was in 2015. Right. So I can't speak to what there could be, but that's just one idea that we came up with in the last number of weeks while campaigning that could really work to save some money. I don't know what the actual number would be. It would be maybe higher some years, maybe lower others, but it's a start. And it's something that we're really focused on(...) trying to also find savings because I don't think it's(...) not fair to say that taxes won't go up. They're always going to go up. Right.

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But if we can kind of(...) lower the gap. Close the gap in. Yeah.(...) Well, and I think even just having that line of communications open with the citizens is always good because there's(...) I think a lot of the ideas are going to come from the citizens or the frontline city workers, not necessarily from upper management. And it gives citizens a voice that they have a channel for their ideas to be heard. And if they are viable, then that's great. And I know when they did them in 2015, there was wise words handed out for people that came up with really good cost saving ideas and stuff. So it's a really cool idea. I think(...) it's one of the big things I've got listed on my platform as well. OK.

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We're going to go. Let's move just a little bit downtown. The new event center. Where are you on that? Is it a good idea? Bad idea? I know they're already knee deep in the water.

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What do you think? Can I check my note? Oh yeah. Use it. Use it. I expected this to be a question because it's such... Well, it's definitely out there. And it has to be dealt with.

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Some people love it. Some people hate it. Some people don't even care.(...) So in my personal opinion, when(...) they first started talking about even discussing a new arena, those first talks started back in 2013. I was only 23(...) years old then in the middle of university. I wasn't really paying attention. So when the talks started, I wasn't really paying attention. It didn't really matter to me. But then, as you know, over the years, the location, the scope, the preferred approach,(...) that's all changed. So it's really easy(...) to say in hindsight that, "Oh, I would have done this. I would have done that." But the truth is that I wasn't privy to all the conversations or all the information, the considerations into why they made those choices. So now what matters to me as we move forward is a(...) significant decision was made. There's been huge investments put in this. Businesses have closed because of this. So(...) to make this possible. So for me, I don't want(...) those sacrifices to be in vain or for those impacts felt by those business owners to be for nothing.

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I(...) believe that a decision of this magnitude,

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I support moving the arena project forward, ensuring that it reaches fruition, working to maximize the benefits to bring our community. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. Revitalize? Yeah, to revitalize our downtown. So I'm not going to focus on relitigating an issue of the past. I think what's done is done. Move forward. Yep, and let's just focus on the positive and the future. It's like for all those people that go mud bogging, once you get stuck in the mud, you don't just leave your vehicle there. No.

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Some do. The cost(...) to change...

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It's going to cost more money. It's not worth it. Imagine being(...) the owner of old rock and being like, "I lost my business because of an arena, and now there might not be an arena." I don't want that to happen to those people.(...) So on the sense of business, what can the city do to lay the foundation in order to attract more business here in(...) our area?

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Be it with new business or young entrepreneurs or everything else in between, how can we get(...) more jobs(...) happening?

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Honestly, I think the biggest issue we need to tackle is the homelessness issue.

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Homelessness?

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Homelessness and addiction.(...) Because for me, that's(...) my number one priority on my platform. And(...) a city has such a bad reputation because of it. I hear citizens talking about their own city in such a negative way. When there's such a negative...

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You(...) know, around it, what's going to really make people want to come to a city that their own citizens aren't happy here?

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So I think when we really focus on this problem, tackle the problem,

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clean up the downtown, get that all sorted, it's going to revitalize it, as we said. It's going to draw more people to want to come back from there. There's apartments that are vacant, so more living space, which is also going to generate more business for the businesses that are there, because there's people already living upstairs. I'm just going to go get coffee downstairs, you know? Whatever. So I think tackling that problem first will help(...) our city in so many ways. I say things with the businesses. When we tackle the homelessness, all that trickled down effect of,(...) "It's not an issue anymore." When the homelessness problem is fixed, those problems don't exist. It seems like a natural way to clean it up. Yeah.

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So with that, of course, you clean up the homelessness and the addiction. That's going to lead to safer streets. So(...) everyone will feel, I guess, safe again to(...) venture out wherever they want, without having to really worry about stuff? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And you know what? When it comes to(...) homelessness, I have found, especially in the city, even myself, I wasn't as educated as I should have been.

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And coming into this election,(...) I was like, "What can we do? What can we do?" So I didn't have answers, but I took the time to actually really go down a rabbit hole and research. I was like, "What do other countries do? What have actually been really successful in reducing their homelessness populations? What are their solutions?" So that is something that I was like, I find so fascinating.

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Yeah. Have you got an example? Yes. Where is it here?

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Yes. So(...) there's two cities(...) that follow really, really good approaches. The first one is Helensky. They follow actually a very similar approach to what we are doing right now, housing first. Helsenky in Finland? Yes. Okay.

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So their core philosophy is crisis intervention and human right, unconditional permanent housing must be given before addressing underlying issues like addiction or employment.

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Their mechanics, they converted shelter infrastructure into individual apartments and deployed intensive onsite social support staff. So that helps with the loneliness and feeling like community, having all the supports there,(...) chronically homeless individuals and those with high

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acuity support needs for their target population.

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And the eligibility limits, there was no income ceiling. Selection is strictly based on immediate housing vulnerability and urgent need. Fair enough. The other one that has also been super successful, their model was quite different. Their Vienna's approach is more of a social housing mainstream.

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Their philosophy is a universal prevention. Housing is a public good. If the state keeps overall housing abundant and cheap, people won't fall into homelessness.

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Mass municipal(...) and sub-site housing built on own land, mixed seamlessly into neighborhoods.

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The target(...) population is the general population. So 60% of Vienna's citizens live in sub- subsidized or public housing owned by the city. Interesting. So(...) same as the other one, no income ceiling, anyone is eligible. We actually, I recently learned, have a program in the city that's moving forward. Have you heard of Raise the Roof? I've heard of it, but I don't know what it is. It's a nonprofit that's doing the same sort of thing. So in that situation, Vienna, the city, is owning the homes. Whereas in what we're doing,(...) the city is selling off houses, making homes to raise the roof, the nonprofit, they've purchased them. They have a program where they take construction workers and they bring in people that have been on the streets, that don't have a lot of work experience, and they teach them a trade. So they renovate these houses, make them into two and three bedroom apartments, both upstairs and downstairs.(...) I think the last, there's five units that have been purchased and converted into now 10.(...) We just agreed, I think I read it was in 2024, there's been purchased, five more have been purchased, so I guess they're in the process of being renovated as we speak. But they place them, the objective is to place them in different areas of the city. So I know there's some in my ward. Right. So integrating people together, it's going to elevate your city as a whole. Whereas when you keep one side here and one side here, there's nothing in the middle to fix it. Right. That's right. So bridge the gap. Exactly. Exactly. And like feeling a sense of community. And(...) part of the reason they said that they wanted to do that, mixing it all together, is to prevent ghettos being created. Because if you group them all together... Yeah, that's not...(...) then you're going to get that sort of outcome. Yeah, exactly. So by integrating it into different areas of the city makes it(...) seem like there's not such a... big disparity or a big(...) difference, big gap. Yeah, exactly. And like, it's so funny to me, like my hairdresser, she's from Nepal. And we've had a huge talk about this and homelessness and stuff, and she said, "You know what's crazy to me is that in Nepal, they don't have the homelessness and the addictions like they do here." And she's like, "You know why?" And I was like, "Why?" And she's like, "Because(...) we're considered a third world country. We take care of one another. Everybody lives in the community together. They pool their resources and they all take care of one another. When somebody gets sick, they take care of them. If somebody...(...) whatever, like they all look after one another and they don't let people slip through the cracks." And it's so ironic that here we are,(...) a first world country... What's supposed to be a first world?(...) And here we are, it feels like so many people are focused like, "Me, me, me." Yeah, yeah.

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I(...) think that's what I'm trying to... I want to say "Pramod," that's not the right word. You're trying to move towards...

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If everybody could understand addiction better and understand how people end up homeless better, because I feel like that's a huge piece of misinformation in the city as well.(...) I've seen so many comments of people saying, "Oh, they want to. They(...) don't want to get better." And(...) honestly, that's not true.(...) That is not true.

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I feel like I can say that because I've actually lived it personally. Okay.

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This is not something that I've ever shared probably before. Uh-oh.

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Yeah, it's okay. I actually...(...) In 2018, my now-husband and I sat down and we decided that alcohol was not serving me any good. It was something that I most certainly needed to stay away from.

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And I know firsthand that(...) it's not necessarily a choice. I don't think anyone out there homeless at this moment, at five years old, was like, "I can't wait to grow up and be a drug addict. I can't wait to grow up and be homeless." That's my life ambition. No, that's not what happens.(...) I can guarantee that every single person out on the street right now behind their addiction(...) or reason for being homeless is some sort of trauma. An(...) addiction has led them... Was there their solution to fix the pain? Was there crutch?(...) Yeah. It was the way to escape, to try to fix the problem, to try to feel better. And then once it becomes an addiction, it gets in your brain. And then the disease itself takes over and it makes it really hard to want to quit. It's not like someone is...(...) Especially when they're active in it, they're not speaking necessarily for themselves. It's the addiction driving that craving that's saying, "I want to get high again."

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It's not the person saying, "Nah, I don't want a better life." That's not the case. So(...) getting down to the root cause of whatever happened, the source of their trauma leading to their addiction or whatever it was,

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trying to steer them and change the course of their ship will lead to better outcomes.

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I(...) agree with that wholeheartedly. Honestly, I think mental health is one of the biggest driving factors. If I had a million dollars and could do... Well, millions of dollars, let's say, and do something to fix it,(...) today I would have a counselor put in every single elementary school across the country.

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And I would have every kid starting in June, your kindergarten, providing parents good permission,(...) sit down with that counselor once a month, whatever is deemed necessary,

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and have an outlet for all those children to talk to a counselor(...) for years. It could be the same counselor. And then when the kids start at such a young age, especially little boys, they're growing up with someone they recognize, someone they trust. Someone they can talk to. Because not every kid is privileged enough to have parents that they can talk to at home or boys that have dads that are teaching them how to express their emotions in healthy ways and things like that. So having a counselor(...) to teach them as they're growing up and help navigate all the emotions, I think that(...) would help the mental health problem significantly. And then when the mental health problem is significantly reduced, I guarantee you would see way less homeless people and addicted people. Yeah, I think that carries a lot of weight because even sports,

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the little munchkin might talk to their coach or the assistant coach,(...) because that's someone that they look up to in the sense of the sporting world, because they may not have that outlet where they can actually speak to their own parents about whatever it is(...) that's really bothering them. So I've actually seen that firsthand.

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Switching gears, last question I'll give you here is...

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Oh, what was it?

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I had it. Oh, the budget.(...) The budget. Let's get into the dollars. The budget.

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Yeah, and this is a big shift from the mental health thing down to dollars. The budget.

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Right now, I think last year we were at $870 million for the overall budget thereabouts.

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How can we... The next year's budget's tabled December's on the horizon as for when they have to actually go through it and hash it.

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Is a zero-based budget realistic or do we have to keep on going? So,(...) one of the things I love about the government,

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and when I had a real job in a couple of the other government organizations, healthcare and education, one of the things is...

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And I think this goes along the way for anything in the public sector, but(...) let's say a department has a budget of $100,000.(...) If they don't spend that $100,000,(...) then the next year they may get less. They might get only $85,000 within that department to spend. So, they make sure they spend it all.

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So,(...) when it comes to the budget, there's departments that may... Can we get the overall budget down? Is that actually realistic? So, money's not just spent frivolously so that they will(...) get their dollar amount the following year? Is that something that's actually doable? Zero percent? No. I think with inflation and everything else right now, it's not attainable.

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I do know there's also... I have notes on it.(...) In terms of the capital tax levy,(...) there's a...

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They committed. What accounts do they commit to?

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So, a levy meaning an increase in the amount of monies going towards capital projects? Yeah. So, in 2023, the previous council voted to introduce a special capital levy of 1.5% per year to close that gap(...) for infrastructure, sorry, without a massive one-year increase in taxes. Okay. So, because(...) we've neglected our infrastructure, unfortunately, now there's such a backlog.

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What's needs is up here, and where we're at is down here. So, we need to close the gap. However, as we begin to close the gap, that's already in place with the 1.5% of the compounding interest that's being added.(...) As(...) we begin to close the gap and start maintaining our roads better, it'll start to level out, if not surpass itself on its own. Because once the roads are eventually caught up, preventative maintenance is so much cheaper than full-blown repairs. Yeah, definitely. So, it just takes time. And part of the reason, at least for our roads and the infrastructure and that budget, is so out of whack. People, I feel like, is that(...) you have to remember our landmass is almost the size of Toronto.(...) And think about how many millions of last taxpayers we have paying into our tax base for the same amount of landmass and roads. So, between neglect and that huge difference, we'll never be able to get the same tax base(...) as Toronto. We just won't happen. We just don't have the density. Exactly. So, we have to close that gap somehow. But, again, that's coming back to the P6M idea.

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I'm hoping there are more ways that efficiencies and stuff can help, maybe, lessen that burden.

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Linnet, any last remarks you want to make before getting to wrap up?

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Honestly, this has been one of the biggest joys of my adult life, aside from my family and having children. This has been one of the most positive, cool, amazing experiences. And(...) it really proved to me that I do love public service. And I really hope to have a shot. And if it's not this time, then I will be back. Alright,