A Councillor you can rely on. Giving residents a voice.

- Our Council established annual 'State of the Town' events to provide residents an opportunity to meet their Councillors, ask questions and hear updates about some of the initiatives we have been working on.

 

- Andrew provides regular feedback via social media on meeting highlights. For most Council meetings, Andrew will provide a summary online so residents so hear his thoughts and actions taken in Council meetings. All previous highlights are available on Andrew's website.

 

 

Enhancing public transportation services.

- Our Council adopted the active transportation policy, to enhance the network of transportation options throughout our town (cycling, walking, etc…)

 

- Andrew is the Town Liaison on the Codiac Transpo Governance Committee. Council and Transpo staff have been actively working to establish new routes for Riverview. After community consultation, much review and research, a proposal was put forward for new routes in the 2016 budget review. Due to budget constraints, and an inadequate solution for service in East Riverview, the new routes were not able to be adopted at that time, but work continues.

 

- The Codiac Transpo Governance Committee is developing a request to the province to establish a provincial policy on public transportation.

 

 

Ensuring we seek funding for Bridgedale blvd and West Riverview Blvd.

- Our Council ensured that these two projects were both included in the long term planning for the town. Bridgedale blvd is included in our 10 Year Capital Budget plan. This road will be instrumental in connecting the East end to Findlay Park, the new Mill Creek Nature Park and helping traffic flow.

 

 

Maintain and repair existing roadways.

- Our Council finished the Trites Rd extension and invested in ongoing street repair, adding sidewalks, curb and gutter and other local improvements as well as adding lights at Hillsborough and Old Coach, warning lights at Trites and Whitepine, etc….

 

- We approved an infrastructure study by GIE which helped to create a pavement management program to address the backlog in tertiary and crumbling roads within 11 years. This will mean that approximately $2Mil per year will be invested just for the backlog plus additional funds for regular maintenance.

 

 

Supporting the creation of a wellness center.

- Our Council established a Wellness center committee that has been preparing for the creation of a new wellness center for Riverview. This process has included a study of our current facilities to see what can be repurposed and what should simply be replaced, community consultation where residents and key stakeholders were consulted, including seniors and youth.

 

- A feasibility study was accepted by Council that lays the ground for for a Wellness center to be completed. This project has been included in the 10 year capital plan. We want this project to be successful but also sustainable and to be completed without a major impact to the tax rate and so it is necessary that we perform our due diligence.

 

 

Effective use and planning for existing facilities.

- During the review for a new wellness center, we also looked at the usage and future of our existing facilities to determine what could be repurposed and what needs to be replaced.

 

- Council has approved a proactive proposal from staff to begin a facilities management program to begin to plan for issues that will surely arise in aging facilities over the next number of years.

 

 

 

Policing and community safety.

- Andrew worked with Councillors Cassista and Hayward as well as some great residents (who I won't name without their permission) to establish the Neighbourhood Watch program and have received great praise from the RCMP for the work that has been done by Riverview residents through this initiative. - -

 

- The RCMP have been great at responding to concerns from Council about traffic related issues and a variety of other concerns brought forward. The RCMP has continued to implement prevention based programs and done some great work in their youth division. We have maintained an open line of communication and have ensured that our Council brings up any and all concerns from residents regarding public safety.

 

- Council approved a traffic calming policy from Public Works which establishes a process for identifying streets where traffic calming could be required and for working with residents to identify possible solutions.

 

 

Empowering youth. 

- Community collaboration was a key point in the new Strategic Plan and consultation with youth was included in this. For example, projects the the development of Mill Creek had consultation session with students specifically to get their feedback. The same goes for the wellness center project. These are examples of our town's commitment for community engagement.

 

- Andrew provided updates to the Riverview Youth Advisory Council to gather their feedback on what students felt were important issues. This Council ended in 2015 but while operating, discussed a number of issues including determining whether or not Riverview could be considered "Youth Friendly".

 

 

Renew voice for the business community.

- Council approved a plan to create an Ad Hoc Business Advisory group chaired by David Ford, owner of Jean Coutu. This group was made up of local business owners from a variety of backgrounds and prepared a report with nine recommendations to the town for future support to businesses. Many the Town had already began working on. This was a very informative process for us and we had the opportunity to hear from business owners we hadn't heard from before! Those recommendations were:

 

1.Better Communications between the Town and Riverview Businesses (Formal and Informal)

2.Ensure business is considered in all municipal decision-making

3.Completion of a Riverview Business Directory

4.Quarterly Business Sessions

5.Focus on Business Section

6.Development of Cooperative Advertising Option

7.Municipality to consider changing its focus for economic development.

8.A Connected Riverview

9.Positioning Riverview as a community welcoming to both official languages and all cultural groups.

 

Many of these recommendations will forever be ongoing. We have done things like creating the business directory, implementing the forums, creating business newsletters, staff make in person visits now and report monthly on them, changing focus for economic development through the sustainable lense and much more!

 

- The Town has implemented quarterly business forums where business owners can gather and provide feedback on a number of commercial issues from promotions and marketing to the for growth of the commercial sector.

 

- Council made the decision not to have a BIA anymore which resulted in businesses not having to pay a levee to that organization and allowed us to work directly with local business owners throughout the entire town, being more inclusive to business development outside the downtown core. This opened doors for some great initiatives including the previously mentioned Business Advisory recommendations and business resource center at town hall.

 

 

Support economic growth.

- The Town continued to support and work with 3+, a business development group aimed at creating economic prosperity in the tri-community. We were also a partner on the Economic Leadership Council with Robert Irving. Here regional strategies were discussed to see growth in the entire region.

 

- Our Economic Development department lead the way in establishing Envision Riverview, a committee on which I was pleased to be part of. This committee focused on the creation of a Integrated Community Sustainability Plan, available on the town website, or through the link in my portfolio page. This group also held the first Sustain-a-palooza, sustainable development conference which brought multiple community partners together and even featured student presentations on projects they would like to do. The ICSP is to be considered in all future planning of the town. A sustainable development plan primarily takes into consideration environment, arts and culture, economic and social factors. Our plan is a great read and offers tips on things individual residents can do to help make our community sustainable.

 

- The town will now be offering micro grants for small projects that support sustainability, an initiative that came out of Sustain-a-palooza.

 

- Andrew developed a social media campaign aimed at getting IKEA to consider coming to Riverview. An online invitation was written to IKEA with over 400 signatures from residents inviting them to come see our town. We did receive a response stating that they would forward our correspondence to their committee. No IKEA yet, but Riverview got some media attention as a promising location for commercial growth.

 

- The Fundy Chocolate River Station has always been a hot topic in Riverview. The building was vacant for a long time as was the case when our Council first started. We formed a review committee aimed at ultimately determining the future of this building but so far has focused on ensuring the building stayed full and reviewing operational concerns. We approved new tenants the Cocoa Room and La Spa and are welcoming new business Unplugged Board Game Cafe in addition to long time tenant, Briggs Maple.

 

 

 

Work together and build partnerships.

- Collaboration has been a key focus in our strategic plan. Whether it's community consultation for a new playground or consultation on a larger project like the Mill Creek Nature Park or Wellness center, we have been committed to ensuring that residents are engaged and have an opportunity to be a part of the planning process.

 

- Sustain-a-palooza was another great example of partnership building. We reviewed what the needs of the community are and discussed who is already working on those issues and how the town can provide support. We realize the a sustainable community requires everyone to be on board and engaged and this philosophy of collaboration will be essential to the continued progress and growth of our town.