Ward 2's Growing Frustration: Christel Brandle on Roads, Housing, Transit and City Hall Accountability

(...) Everyone has a first. And sometimes you never know when it's going to happen. So here's our first here at Love the North. We have award two candidate Crystal Brandle back in the studio. If you want to come back and give an update on how things are going. Crystal, good to see you. Good to see you. Thank you for having me back. So how's campaigning going? Campaigning's going very well. I have made a very conscious decision not to just be knocking on general people's doors. Oh.

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I'm the kind of person that if someone just shows up at my door uninvited, that doesn't really(...) bode well with me. I prefer to be invited. So lately a lot of what I've been doing is locals have been inviting me to their home and inviting their neighbors over. Okay. So that way we can have several people at the same time have a nice little visit, have a chitchat, have more of a dialogue because it isn't just one on one. It's what's going on in the neighborhood. So they're reaching out to you to come over and... They're reaching out to me to come over because they aren't happy with what's going on in their area. So they're looking for somebody who will listen to them. Okay. One of my most recent trips was out to Sleepy Hollow Road. Yep.

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Something has to be done about that. That is an absolute... What's happening? To make the left hand turn into their community. Oh, off the highway. Off the highway. Yep. You're taking your life in your hands. It's the fast lane and it's also the turning lane.

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Okay. Yeah. Because it kind of goes down the hill and then you got to turn and... There's a blind corner on the top. There's a blind corner on the bottom.(...) I actually had to drive all the way up to Sallow Road, do a U-E on Sallow, and come back through because there was no way I could make the left hand turn onto Sleepy Hollow Road. Yeah. When traffic's motoring, it's motoring. Oh, they're doing a well over 100. So if you try to pull into the fast lane and then put your left hand turn lane on, you're going to get plowed into by a truck. So what would fix that?

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After talking to the residents there, we all sort of agree that it may be a good idea just to cut that part of the road off. Oh, yeah. Sleepy Hollow has access from other roads further... closer up the highway and further down the highway. Right. So if you eliminate that entrance, put a roundabout for the garbage truck and for the snow plow truck. On the main highway? On Sleepy Hollow. On Sleepy Hollow, okay. So on the PN, that no longer has a highway access. You put a roundabout, a turnabout there so that the vehicles, the big trucks can turn around and then they head back down the road because it's the family who's building there right now on the edge of the road(...) daily. There's people coming off the side of the road, horns being beeped,(...) brakes being like... Screeched. Tires, rubber. Tires. It's frightening. And they have small children that they plan on raising on that property. Okay. So that means a school bus or something else is going to have to be a part of how they get their kids to and from. So how did you find out about this problem? They actually called me. They asked me to come in to take a look at their new build, see what they're doing. They're both very environmental people and they're trying to ensure... because where they are building is partial wetland. Okay. So they're ensuring that the wetland is not being destroyed, that the animals and the ducks and the frogs and everybody can still coexist with them. And their new build, they're building(...) very eco-friendly using materials that are sustainable.(...) They're not building a McMansion. They're building something that is sustainable. They can heat and cool in the summertime and everything. And they're making it a homestead right from the beginning. So there is going to be a small place for his parents to live on the property as well. Okay. So that the children get to grow up with grandma and grandpa as well. That's always important.(...) One thing I was thinking about this morning is tiny homes. Yes. To get a real tiny home, not a mobile trailer as defined, I think, right now by the policies that are there. What is it, especially if you have space, what does it take to... is a tiny home realistic? Like you can have a tiny home that might be...

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I don't know what the square footage is going to be, maybe 600 square feet. It would take... that's usually what a tiny home falls into. And if you have a second floor, then... It's usually a loft style at that point in time. So it's about another half of that. So, yeah. So especially with the affordability and the cost of housing,(...) is it practical to redefine what tiny homes really look like, especially in your ward, where(...) people got space. Yes, they've got space. We can build entire communities in some of the places where they put one or two houses. Yeah. Yes. And most... if you're looking at a prefab tiny home,(...) it's a plug and play kind of situation. So the tiny home is built already...(...) all of the piping, all of the electricity is built within it. And then there's two pieces that come out of the side that get plugged into the sewer system and get plugged into the electrical grid and... Yeah, but wasn't it you that said if there is no... because there's no city infrastructure, you can't do that? That's part of the issue is the city is holding us up on infrastructure. That's why the city tells us we can't do that because there's no infrastructure there. But it also comes to the homesteading and some of the larger properties as the city says, "Oh, well, you're affecting the city infrastructure." When there is no city infrastructure on those properties anyways, they're going to be tied into people's wells and septic tanks. But if we were to build a tiny home community, it would be... you put the infrastructure in, it would be the same as doing any subdivision. The power goes to each lot. You're right. The lots would just be a lot smaller and we could fit in a lot more people. You know, one of the sayings I like not necessarily from the person that says it, but...

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Elon says, "Who made this rule and why?" Exactly. And... Who's it benefiting?

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Okay, so who's it benefiting? But with the affordability of... like... housing is expensive.(...) It's not like you're paying rent. I'm going to go back to the olden days from as far as I can go back, where you can get a two bedroom(...) apartment for $5.25. All in.(...) $5.25. You can't even get a room for five and a quarter these days. And I'm sure going back further, it was... oh boy, that's amateur hour.

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I'm sure going back to even further, it was... it was less. I have the original leases from the building I just retired from. Oh, okay. There were two bedroom apartments renting for $120(...) a month. Okay, but that... That was heat hydrant. That was back in the early 80s. Okay, that's a different time and space. Yes, and I realize that. That's different time. I realize that. That same unit now though, rents for over $2,000.(...) So if you look just in a 30, 40 year span, we've gone from $120 a month, heat hydrant included, heat hydrant water included to over $2,000 a month, heat hydrant water included. That's a large jump in 30 years. Yeah. So what else are you running into? Like what prompted you to, you know, to want to come back in and talk to your constituents? I think that(...) because it is election year, we are seeing a lot going on in everybody's community. It's not just my community. Every... it happens. It's part of the process. And even when we say election year, it has nothing to do with that. It takes time to plan things. So the planning that's happened over the last few years is just coming to fruition now. That being said, there are a lot of unhappy people in the ward because things are all torn up. Things have not been completed within the timeframe that the people have been told. Like, you know, like the Anderson Drive project, supposed to be a two year project. We're on year four. They're thinking it's going to take five years. Is that the sauna? No, that's actually Anderson Drive where they're digging up the sewer and the water and all the rest of it. Oh, I remember there is some story of a resident who was wondering when it was going to finish because they couldn't... Oh yeah, because we're already two years past the deadline and the rumors going around right now is going to take another five years. So it's going to be a nine year project that was only supposed to take two years. And what is that project on Anderson Drive? It's supposed to be to be redo the... redo this sewer, the water, the hydro, the gas. Problem is they can't find any of the existing lines. Every time they go to dig in the ground, there is some sort of safety issue, which again, our workers have to... That has to be the primary objective is safety for our workers. Safety, yeah. But at the same time, the people who live there should have the right to live there. There was a gentleman on Facebook the other day, I guess he went for a walk down there just to take a peek and see what's going on while the temporary streetlights are so horrible that you can't even walk down the road. If you live on that street, you need to take your dog out for a pee and it's dark. Yeah. You're taking your life in your hands because you're going to fall into a hole somewhere. You're going to trip over something. Right. There is no sidewalks there. Everything, the street is torn up, the sidewalks are torn up. There are lots of places you can't even drive your car into your driveway(...) anymore because the way the street has been blocked off, you have to park down at the end of the street and walk in. What's going to happen when winter shows up? Well... Snowplows? Snowplows never get through there. The garbage truck didn't make it through there right now.

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It's sad. What if somebody wants to move or needs to move, what's going to happen to their property value? They're diminishing. There are three houses for sale right now on that street because they don't want to live there anymore. Oh really? And they can't sell the house. They can't get a moving truck in to get their stuff out, let alone who they sell the house to, to get their stuff in. So that's a good deal for someone? Oh yeah.

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If anyone's looking for a... Exactly. I had an issue the other day. I went... My girlfriend retired. She's worked down at...

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Local. For 25 years or so, she finally got to retire. I'm a responsible adult who don't drink and drive. I walked home from the bar in Lively and not one street light is on down Main Street in Lively through the walking path by the arena. Oh yeah? Not one. The video's posted on the Ward 2 Facebook page. It was scary.

and there's a place where it's highly wooded and we have to be honest people now. So there was one more... By the... On the corner of Anderson? Yeah. By the arena? Yeah. Yeah. Because I was in Lively last night at... You know, it was dark? Well there's no light at the... There used to be a light in the... That whole path used to... Yeah. It wasn't lit up? None. Not one street light. From the farm all the way down to Jacobson Drive. Oh by Home Hardware? Yeah. Okay. You got one street light on that side of the road. Well you got stars and moons. Oh yeah. And the best thing was when a car came to you, at least the headlights on the car flew lit up the back so you can see where you were going. Okay. What's going on with the construction over at Tim Hortons? I see the big excavator down there. Yeah. That again is wastewater which again, all of this infrastructure needs to be redone. It's 25 years old. We don't want sewer backups. We need this stuff done. But they have not adjusted the lights properly at the grocery store or at 55. Is that screwing up traffic? It's bottlenecking traffic like crazy. There should be no reason that it takes 45 minutes to get out of Lively. Okay. It's Lively. Like, you know, even if there's an accident on Main Street in Lively, it takes 10 minutes to get out of Lively, not 45, which it took me a year or so. Yeah, you can always escape out down Santala. Down Santala. If you know ahead of time before you get stuck into the bottleneck, then you can at least take around and go back around. That being said, now the bridge on 55, just before 55 and municipal road 24, is being refurbished. So if you do come out on Santala and you're working on the bridge, you're stuck in the construction there. Okay.(...) So the construction season, all of these things are coming to fruition after years of planning. Yeah. It just doesn't seem like(...) people plan the extra step. They don't seem to look at the big picture of what's going on. Yeah, that project needs to be done. That project needs to be done. But how is that a project affecting this project? Correct. How's that project affecting what's happening down the road or in the next little community over? Because again, where's the traffic flow going? You got to look at the macro effect instead of just the micro effect of specifically what's going on. So(...) what else prompted you to want to come back in? Well, we discussed it the last time I was here about the properties that are available that the city of Sudbury owns. Oh, yeah. So I did a little bit of a... Digging? ...less(...) deeper dive to see what the general public can just find out. Okay. So just basically through a Google search. Yeah. What's available. So according to the Google search, there's 609 properties that the city owns.(...) A majority of them are considered Greenland. So it's undeveloped land. Okay. So Greenland. There's still trees and grass and fields and that kind of stuff.

green space or buildings or what do we have? Well, there's 27 buildings right now that the city keeps the heat on in the wintertime to make sure that the pipes don't freeze. What types of buildings are these? Some of them are... I'm going to refer my notes because I do not want to make any mistakes here.

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So(...) there are buildings in Capriall in Moonlight,(...) Highway 17 East, Little Britain, Whitefish. I did not include any addresses because I don't want anybody showing up at these buildings. Yeah, okay. Good idea. Just take them over. They could squat. Yes, exactly. There are what they call unoccupied municipal assets, which are water, waste, salt domes, that kind of stuff, which is understandable that the city owns those because they are part of our city infrastructure. So that makes total sense.

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The biggest thing is these green lands.(...) The Auditor General was the last one who did this report, which is kind of funny considering we don't have one anymore. So when the new report comes out, we don't...

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Till someone reinstates Auditor General, we won't be getting a new report. So a majority of the property is green land. Now I'm not saying that we should be giving up all of our green land because no, we need place for wildlife, we need place for our wetlands, we need... Animals need to live in our community. But I don't think we need to own 500(...) green land properties when we can be increasing our tax revenue. If it's green land and not a marsh and just like regular field or rock, can that be used perhaps towards helping the homeless? Absolutely. Tiny homes? Tiny home community could be perfect in something like that. Are there any other examples of anywhere in the province where they've actually done something like this because you may not want to be the first? Yes, I understand that. There's nothing wrong with being the first? No. However... You're the ones who are going to learn the hardest lessons. Yeah. Honestly, I don't know. I think lots of municipalities are afraid of this because of being the first. And(...) it is a new concept because majority of people, when they dream of homeownership, a tiny home isn't what they're dreaming of. They're dreaming of a three bedroom home with a pool in the backyard and(...) two car driver and two car garage. You know what? It's great to dream, but you've also got a... Realistic. The dream is here and reality is here. Exactly. You have to be realistic.

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And sometimes(...) even downsizing isn't a bad thing. And a lot of times too, we run into this unfortunately at the apartment building, a lot of people want to downsize. Well, because they've stayed in their unit for so long, the fair market rate of the smaller apartment is higher than their fair market rate. Oh yeah, it's crazy. So to downsize is going to cost them more money.

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And then you also look at seniors who have their home paid off completely and for them to downsize, it's going to cost them more to get into an apartment or into a condominium or into some sort of assisted living.(...) Places like Finlandia are great because you can start off being independent and then move your way into cared living. Problem is you need to have a nice chunk of change in your bank account to be able to afford those things. You need to have 20s in your shoes.

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So this is the issue. It's almost impossible even for a senior to downsize because in the long run it's going to cost them more. And this is part of our housing crisis is that if people, when you have one person living in a home that can(...) accommodate five or six,(...) if you can get that one person into a place that they just live on their own by themselves with the enough space that they need and then sell that home to accommodate five or six people, this would help with our housing crisis. But if it's not affordably feasible for a senior to move out of their house because their month to month(...) output is going to be larger than their house, why would they move? Yeah, that's just how much money are you parting with on a monthly basis and if it's going to cost you more,(...) unless(...) there's a real reason to make a move. Unless you're physically not able to get up your stairs anymore. That could be something. Yeah. So what else are you running into? You know, you've got a week. You've got a week until the official(...) voting starts. The online early voting has already started. Yeah. So(...) what else?(...) Well, I'd like to make sure to let everybody know if they are going to vote online, please do it early because I have heard from several people there's been issues. Okay. And(...) you don't want to be on October 26th at 5pm, finding out that your PIN number doesn't work for you to vote online because there's not going to be much you're going to be able to do about it at that stage of the game. So I would encourage people who are voting online to do it early. So if they do have any issues, they can be resolved.

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So far, the only things that I've heard from people about the online voting is that the number just keeps coming up saying it's an invalid. Okay. So apparently, I have been told by a few people that if you go to the local library, they will get you another PIN number. And, but again, if you're doing this at five o'clock on the 26th, it's going to be, you're not going to be getting another, a new PIN number. So the local library in your award is in lively itself on main street. Yeah. This is in Centurion. Okay.

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I'm just hoping everybody gets out and vote.(...) This 25, 30% voter turnout. Yeah, it was really low. That's not okay. And I was always taught that if you don't vote, you can't complain. So if you go down and vote, then you can complain. So if we could get voter turnout to be somewhere around 50%,(...) that would be absolutely amazing. You know, I have one of my friends lives out in your ward. He's just over 70. And he, I said, are you going to go and vote? And he says, why bother? Nothing's going to change. How can you change that sediment? And I, you know, I tried to coax him and just, you know what, it doesn't take long. You can even do it online. You got the internet at home. Just tickle the ivories and make it go. You know, when it comes to point and time to it with a 70 year old person, it might be hard to change that attitude. Oh no, this guy's mobile. Okay. He's everywhere. Okay. It's just,(...) I think it has a lot to do with the way you're raised from the beginning. I was raised that voting is, again, you're not allowed to complain. So if I don't go, I'm not allowed to bitch and complain about things. Yeah. Really sucks because if things are going wrong, we should have the right to complain about them. But if you haven't made your voice heard, then you're not allowed to, you're not allowed to complain. So I think that that should be the number one motivator for people that if you're not happy with what's going on, especially what's it going to change?

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Then at least go vote. Then you can complain about it afterwards. And in some people's lives, it really.

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I know several people who are single men, no children, never been married. Everything that goes on in our provincial and federal rules about how tax breaks happen and income tax and all the rest of it and stuff. It doesn't matter who they vote for. They are the one paying for everybody because they don't get child tax benefits for their kids. They don't have a spousal. They don't have that because there have been single men with no kids their own whole entire life. So I do understand the perspective that they're coming from. That being said, there should be other people in your life that those things do affect. Correct. And you should be voting for them.(...) That's why you go out and vote is to make sure that the people that you love who are affected by these things,(...) you know, get the proper(...) the proper representation that they should have. So don't make it just about you, but also make it for the money. The munchkins of tomorrow and, you know, and the community, like you said. Exactly. OK.

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Besides(...) that, everything's going very, very well. Yeah, I have to say we(...) Eric had put out a Eric Benoit put out a nice little thing and encouraged everybody in Ward 2 to say something nice about each other. Yeah, I saw that. And, you know, we're not(...) we're not running a smear campaign. No, none of that's going on in our in our community, which is really, really nice. Every time we see each other at a meet and greet, I just ran into Dan in front of the home hardware on Saturday. You know, we had a little chitchat and stuff like that. There's no we're not having any hard feelings between anybody. We're all out for our community. We all feel that we can do a better job than the other one, obviously, because we wouldn't be running for the position if we didn't feel that way. But I do believe that(...) regardless of what happens, our community is going to be represented(...) by somebody who actually cares.

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Have you done any any debates where all of all the prospective councillors. Who(...) won't any of the community groups that offer the meet and greets call it a meet and greet? No debate, no arguing, no rebuttal. It's stated flat out in the rules that we're not allowed to, which I disagree with completely because that's how you see how people.

There was a Ward 1 debate a week ago at Crosscut Distilleries, and there is three candidates that are running in that Ward. You've got Tyson Gollonee, you've got Mark Singeretti and you've got William Cable.

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Two out of three showed up.(...) Yeah, one, the current counselor couldn't make it for some reason. And it was an open style(...) debate. So the questions were given and they took turns answering. And then if(...) they needed to, they were able to have a rebuttal.(...) But furthermore,(...) the audience members were able to ask a question. So the mic was actually brought to them. They put up their hand and that was happening. Why can't you do that in your ward? I would love to. I'd absolutely love to. Well, what's the hold up? We need a community group to put it together. We need somebody who's willing to host it. And(...) I think it would really(...) set everybody apart. I think that once you saw all five of us actually having a conversation and being able to answer questions on the fly without having a week's notice to prepare a written response and that kind of stuff, I think it would definitely separate the waters between certain candidates. So(...) the venue was where it was at and I love the North actually hosted it. Oh, right on. So what if we did that for Ward 2? I would love that. I would more than accept it. Where would be a suitable venue? That becomes an issue because of... How about the Walden Arena? You have to look into it because it's a municipal... Oh, yeah, you know what? I think it has to be off city property.

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I'm still not entirely sure how the Walden can was able to hold the meet the candidate at the arena. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So they did something. Is this a two tier system running here? Well, that being said, there are no more cans, apparently. So they've... Oh, really? Oh, that was last week's news. Apparently, they're shutting down all the can programs in the City of Greater Sudbury. Who's shutting them down? Current council, current city. Isn't the can supposed to be for the community? It's supposed to be. But again, that's transparency, that's oversight.(...) Our current council doesn't seem to like transparency. Was there a vote on that? Not that I know of. It was just an announcement made that said that the cans... It came in at the same time when we found out that the people who(...) are union members at the current arena... Yeah. Will not be getting their jobs when the new arena...(...) What new arena? Yeah. When the new... The downtown arena? Yes. Well, who's going to be operating it?

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Ask the CAO. She's the one that made the announcement. Did they announce who's going to be running, doing the maintenance at the new arena? Just that the current people that are doing it. I think they said there was 100 jobs, union jobs that will not be(...) re-offered at the new event center. Who maintains the arena now? Honestly, I'm not 100% which union it is covering that. If it's the Sudbury facility, wouldn't you have Sudbury, city staffers, employees

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doing the work there? You would think so, yeah. Are they not qualified?

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I can't see. I honestly, I don't know. I really don't know. I have a feeling that that might have something to do with it, but I don't know. Can't they be trained? Can't they be able to be trained? There are... Everybody should be able to be trained. There are people? Yes.(...) There are people that we already employ. So if their(...) employment is going to become redundant, then retrain them and employ them someplace else. So what's the real root cause? Do we actually know... The whole problem with that downtown event center is we don't know what the real root cause is.(...) They're doing things however they want. They're changing the rules as they go to get whatever they want. It seems so absurd that the rest of us are just sitting here watching this going,(...) "What the heck?" And we know things are going to change coming to 26 because there are five wards that there's no incumbent running.(...) What does that mean? Well, that means there's five wards that are going to have brand new representation in their ward. Okay, okay. Because the incumbent is not running. So we know they're really changing. So you've got ward 12, ward 9. After ward 4? Or ward 5. But everything after that, there's no incumbent running. Okay. So you get two more changes. That means seven out of the 13 jobs will be newcomers. Okay. Well, that means then the newcomers have the advantage. They have the power of the vote.

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So... Interesting.

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It's...(...) Like I said, there is going to be some change that happens on the 26 because if you've got five out of the 13 jobs, there's going to be a newcomer coming into that job.

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Things...(...) Unless they drink the Kool-Aid, there should be no status quo. Things should change. So what, Deirina, have you learned anything more because of your time running for council? Actual facts about what's going on in the arena? No, there is no disclosure. There is...

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Like I say, most of those conversations seem to be happening behind closed doors. The things that I've learned is how much more upset the constituents of Ward 2 are about this arena.

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Yeah, but they live so far. Yeah, I know. That's why. Because why is all this money going to downtown? Meanwhile, we can't get a proper sewer or a road or(...) anything put into our ward when the whole downtown is... It's all about the downtown. It's all about the downtown. I know a lot of the outlying areas, you know, Lavaquana, Ping, Capriall, the residents sometimes feel that their voice is not being heard. Is that being echoed out in your ward, out in the outer rim? Absolutely, 100%.(...) Okay. 100%. We don't have public transit. No, you don't. It's not... Public transit doesn't go beyond Norton, correct? Exactly. Okay. And even then, that's a harrowing ride. Once an hour? Once in two hours or something. Oh, once every two hours. Yeah. Okay. So, but that's the thing. They live out in Beaver Lake and in Worthington and stuff like that, and they're spending(...) millions and millions of dollars... Downtown? ...on this downtown, and my teenager can't get on a bus to go to his part-time job. Yeah. Does it start at six o'clock in the morning?

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Well, depending... If you're a teenager, if you're going to school, you're not going to work in the weekend. No, but... In the scepter on the weekend, but even the buses in the bus routes that are in my ward don't start at six o'clock in the morning. Okay. Things don't start running until about eight or so. Eight or so.(...) Consistently. There was another candidate that was in here, and actually it was a mayoral candidate. Actually, no, a mayoral and a ward 12 candidate that both mentioned they would like to see buses running earlier.

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Would it not be sensible to have a case for it on a...

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You don't want to run the bus when it's empty. No, I don't want to run a whole-size bus. No, I was making jokes about this in Beaver Lake. The short bus? I(...) was a special ed student in high school. I took the short bus, okay? I can make short bus jokes. Thumbs up for you.

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It's all good. But why do we need a full-size bus? Especially if it's going out to Beaver Lake and stuff like that. Those little go-ho handicap buses, the ones that pick up people in the wheelchairs and stuff like that, don't put the wheelchair spot in or keep the wheelchair spot, because if you do need it for a handicap person coming from Beaver Lake, okay, fine. But we don't need a full-size 100-seater bus to go out to the outskirt community. Is there such thing as Trans Cab that runs out there? No, we don't even know that. Like, I know out in Long Lake because my mom used to work for the Walker and Taxi at one point in time.

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Trans Cab runs out there? Yes, runs out in Long Lake and it will take you from where you are to where the local bus stop is and then the bus will pick you up from there. We don't have those services out in Long Lake, too. Well, what's the difference between those people that live in...(...) What's the difference between you people who live in Long Lake and the people that live in Beaver Lake? I have no idea what the difference is. And again, I don't think it has to be, "Let's try it. Let's see." Let's say if we go and we put the short bus out into Beaver Lake for six or eight months and see what the ridership is like and see what it is. And if the people don't use it and it's not feasible, okay, fine. It was a pilot project. It didn't work. We move on to something else. But there's no reason why it shouldn't be given a shot. I don't think it's fair to parents who,(...) you know, you're trying to teach your teenager right and wrong. You're trying to teach them how to be an adult, how to be self-sufficient. And meanwhile, mommy and daddy have to drive you to work and pick you up. Yeah, there's a lot of cases out there(...) where the parents have to shuttle the kids until they can become the age of... You have a licensed driver. Correct. Yeah.

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So that... but again, most people out in the rural areas are self-sufficient. They are self-sufficient and they do understand that that's part of what is going on now. But should it be? Like we live in a city. We live in a large city, nevertheless. We should have some sort of transit services. Especially if they're paying taxes just like everyone else. That's correct. And more than some places. Yeah, which is... That's something.

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In wrapping up, what else do you want to cover? What else, you know,(...) what are the things that your ward members are actually talking about? They want to see happen.

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Where are the constituents? You know, you've got Copper Cliff, Lively,(...) Waters, Naughton, Whitefish, Beaver Lake, Fairbanks, Panache, down there. Panache Road is very bumpy. It's crap.

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At one time it was very nice. I think that's when Judy Arilla was the liberal MP. And that road was like... That was a few years ago. That was... Somebody made a good go. That road was like a tabletop. It was like a pool table. Yeah. Now, of course,(...) winters happen, salt happens.

(...)

Salt. Okay. Let's just... Yeah. Is there any way to redo... We live in the land of lakes. Yes. We've got a lot of lakes here and... That is not our friend. So,(...) you know, I'm going to throw this out there. What can be done about the salt situation? Like, I know it's cheaper. It's cheaper to keep your vehicle and(...) save a life.(...) Personally, our building with snow removal and stuff like that, we try to always use that. Okay. Biggest reason is because of the animals that live in the building. The dogs are walking... Oh, yeah. So, if you've got salt on all the sidewalks, that's getting on their paws. It also makes a mess and all the rest of it.

(...)

But we're all... We also... That building is built on small plant. So, behind us all is marshland. Yeah. So, we are trying to be environmentally conscious. Now, there are times when it's freezing rain. I got no choice. Right. You got to get the salt out or someone's going to get hurt.

(...)

I think that we live in 2026 and I do believe that there's better technologies out there than just salt and sand.

(...)

I'm not 100% sure that...

(...)

I know that there is technologies and pavement that will help... Heat to warm. Not necessarily heat, but it works with the sun and it creates a higher thermodynamic so that the ice doesn't have a chance to form on the road. Right. Now, again, I'm sure that's going to cost more to pave our roads, but when you look at the whole budget of things... Long-term. Long-term over a 10, 15 year span and what the deterioration of our pavement, because of the salt and the sand and all the rest of the stuff that we put on there.(...) I always made a joke when I was young that the road should be made out of rubber and our tires should be made out of the pavement.(...) How(...) would that work? Well, in theory, it would be better. But again, the cost of making our roads out of rubber is...(...) But they do also now, there is a program where they use old tires and stuff to put into the pavement to make the pavement more pliable so that as it's put on clay and other surfaces, it actually heats with the surface below as opposed to cracking and breaking. We live in 2026. There's technologies out there that we don't need to do things old school way. We can look at doing things a new way and a better way. Okay. And(...) we have so many roads in the city. Yeah, there's a lot of roads and someone mentioned how many kilometers of roads we actually have because of the spread out geography that is there and there's a lot of miles to cover. A lot of miles.

(...)

Okay, well, hey,

(Music)