call us 647-542-5624
It's Time!
WARD 1 needs
Ian Sinclair . . .
Ian Sinclair . . .
"You Asked Ian ..."
On this page you will find some examples of Ian's well-thought out answers to questions about a variety of issues. Voters have contacted him and he has responded with both careful consideration and forthrightness. When you read these you will learn a bit about the care and attention he will give to your concerns when he becomes your Mayor.
It’s Time … for Ward 1 to become a place where:
* You can have a say in the future of your community.
* Your Town administration and staff will respond to your needs by providing prompt and efficient service and you will comprehensively represented at the Region of Peel.
* Your Regional Councillor will listen and base their decisions on input from you and your fellow community members.
* There will be far fewer instances of conflicts between citizens and their Council resulting in expensive Ontario Municipal Board appeals pitting our municipal government against their own communities.
* As your elected Councillor I pledge an attitude of public service and will adhere to the principles I am sworn to uphold, and will earn the respect of my constituents, not just at election time, but more importantly, throughout my term in office.
On this page you will find some examples of Ian's well-thought out answers to questions about a variety of issues. Voters have contacted him and he has responded with both careful consideration and forthrightness. When you read these you will learn a bit about the care and attention he will give to your concerns when he becomes your Mayor.
It’s Time … for Ward 1 to become a place where:
* You can have a say in the future of your community.
* Your Town administration and staff will respond to your needs by providing prompt and efficient service and you will comprehensively represented at the Region of Peel.
* Your Regional Councillor will listen and base their decisions on input from you and your fellow community members.
* There will be far fewer instances of conflicts between citizens and their Council resulting in expensive Ontario Municipal Board appeals pitting our municipal government against their own communities.
* As your elected Councillor I pledge an attitude of public service and will adhere to the principles I am sworn to uphold, and will earn the respect of my constituents, not just at election time, but more importantly, throughout my term in office.
© 2018 Sinclair For Regional Councillor Committee All rights reserved
Call or email to ask your question, get more information, request a sign or just let Ian know what's on your mind .....
647-542-5624 SinclairCaledon@gmail.com
ORGANIC and GMO FOODS
In an email Ian was asked about his vision for local food production and marketing. He responded in his usual carefully considered fashion.
He said, “We are citizens of Caledon. We are considering who we want to vote for this election. We are very concerned about the food we eat.”
The first question asked was, “What are your plans to support local ORGANIC farms?”
Ian listed his priorities as:
• Work with other Headwaters municipalities and grow local / eat local movements to design a wholesale organic-based fresh market
• Associated with the wholesale market could be a small scale food washing/packaging facility and possibly a commercial kitchen for making high quality preserves under member’s own labels.
• Promote a Headwaters Tourism Culinary Tourism campaign
• New residential areas are likely to be compact urban areas with minimal land. I would like to see “victory garden” type areas on flood plain adjacent to residential subdivisions so that people who are interested may have fertile ground to grow their own food.
• Promote local farm produce retail markets in Caledon
• A careful business plan and cost recovery approach must be taken on new municipal projects as the general property tax burden now is too high for retired seniors and young families.
He was also asked, “What are your plans to mandate the labeling of Genetically Modified Organisms in our food?"
• The quick answer is that municipalities have no jurisdiction over food labeling.
• However, having no jurisdiction and having no influence are not the same thing. The Town of Caledon could work with the local organic movement to articulate the need for improved food labeling and pass motions requesting changes to be made by Provincial & Federal authorities. Working with the Peel Public Health department would be an added asset.
Ian then answered the next question in a direct and honest way; “What are your plans to encourage biodiversity?"
• I don’t like the term biodiversity. There used to be a term, NATURE, which was a collective for all life forms, energy systems and interactions between them. There was an inherent humility in the notion of nature, acknowledging we did not know everything and that caution and respect was needed. Biodiversity seems to be associated with a management perspective where somehow all of the life forms, energy systems and interactions between them become inputs to the economy of, and control by, humans. No humility anymore.
• What I have observed is a change in outlook by government from conservation of nature to a protection paradigm. Conservation approaches worked with landowners to reforest poor lands and valley lands such as the Dufferin and Ganaraska forest projects, all of which started before conservation authorities were established. Many small projects were also undertaken on a site specific basis. The protection paradigm uses legislation and threats to prohibit landowner uses of their lands, without compensation and also without substantial in- stream or in-ground ecological restoration of nature.
• My approach to promote nature is to revert back to conservation programs and ecological restoration of lands and work with landowners to achieve measurable gains of forest cover and habitat.
The final question for Ian was, “Caledon has many GMO crop fields with pesticide leachate. What are your plans to change this situation for the better?"
• The quick answer is that municipalities have no direct jurisdiction in agricultural crops and pesticides which are regulated federally.
• There has been pesticide leachate ever since the first pesticides were introduced following WW2.
• The trend has been to carry out highly controlled laboratory tests on pesticide substances in order to gain market permits from the federal government. These laboratory tests do not include combinations of pesticides or combinations of chemicals, such as wetting agents, for example, commonly used to apply the pesticides. Once market permits are obtained, the trend then has been to demand absolute scientific certainty for proof of the harmful effects of a pesticide before the substance can be removed from the market. So, a very limited testing before approval, but absolute certainty required for removal.
• I think the best jurisdictional leverage municipalities can utilize is their public health mandate. The Region of Peel Public Health Board is the Regional Council. If people are becoming sick from pesticides Peel can network with other Regional Medical Officers of Health to pool resources and push for change by the federal regulators.
• I am admittedly weak on the health effects of GMO but very concerned about the patenting of major parts of our food system by vast multinational corporations.
• I did Chair a Caledon Pesticides Advisory Committee when I served on Council from ’94 -’03 and the outcome was the Caledon Healthy Horticultural Landscapes By-law which predated the Province’s herbicide ban.
Please DONATE now
Make Cheques to:
Campaign of Ian Sinclair
c/o 16795 McLaughlin Road
Caledon ON L7K 1T5
Make Cheques to:
Campaign of Ian Sinclair
c/o 16795 McLaughlin Road
Caledon ON L7K 1T5
