Eastern Charlotte Ward 1 Candidate: Nancy Coulton
1. As candidates, what would be your key priorities over the next four years in your community?
- Definite need for affordable housing so people can have a home, to either rent or own.
- Protection of our water supply be it the municipal system, or rural wells
- Maintenance of existing streets and roads .
- Encourage new Business/Industry both large and small to come to the area. There is a potential to further develop tourism.
- Our Fire Service and its members provide a service at present which is critical to our community.
2. How would you achieve those priorities within your mandate
To achieve some of these objectives, new council will have to seek out opportunities for growth and also investigate which provincial and federal programs are available to help with this.
3. How will you ensure transparency and accountability in council decisions and communication with residents?
I can only hold myself responsible to ensure transparency and be accountable for my decisions, actions, and code of conduct . The residents of each ward must be made aware of issues that council is dealing with that affects them which could be accomplished through newsletters, bulletins, meetings, etc.
4. What is your approach to managing growth and development while preserving the character of the community?
There are many good ideas out there, and who better to know this than the residents living here. However, many good ideas are potentially lost because a citizen hesitates to speak in public or feels there is not enough time allocated to fully describe their ideas. If elected, I would like to explore a formal way for someone to present these ideas to council.
5. What is your position on property taxes, and how would you balance affordability with maintaining services?
My position on property taxes of course would be to keep them as low as possible, but we must also look at what services that are essential to the municipality and the cost to provide such services. It is vital to the well being of a municipality to make sure we have fire protection, safe water be it rural or town, affordable housing, well maintained roads and streets, all while being fiscally responsible.
6. Why are you the best candidate to represent your ward, and what experience do you bring to the role?
I suspect that every candidate running for their ward believes that they are the best candidate for their ward or they probably would not have put their name in. For myself, I have the time and desire to devote to representing the residents of Ward 1 and will make myself available 24/7. I have had previous experience working with different levels of government, private industry, and town council. I have been a lifelong resident of Eastern Charlotte County.
Each candidate was provided with the same six questions and equal limits on response length and time. Candidates who did not have publicly available contact information through Elections New Brunswick were required to contact The Courier in accordance with its Municipal Election Coverage Fairness Policy. Candidates who did not respond or declined to participate are noted. Failure to participate will not result in additional coverage elsewhere in the newspaper.
