Saint Andrews Mayoral Candidate: Guy Groulx
1. What is your vision for the municipality over the next four years, and how will you measure success?
My vision for Saint Andrews is to be a community that cherishes its natural beauty, rich heritage, and spirit of togetherness. We will welcome visitors through responsible tourism to create memorable visitor experiences and keep our heritage alive for generations to come.
As a hub for marine biology, we will nurture curiosity and stewardship of the sea and encourage our community college to grow. Here, lifelong learning will thrive, empowering citizens of all ages.
Our retirement community will be active and engaged, sharing wisdom and experience, while young families will find support, opportunity and a place to grow.
Together, we will build a unified and inspiring future—a place where every generation belongs, where our rural and town way of life flourishes in harmony with nature and each other.
We will measure success in the quality of visitor experiences, level of growth, preservation of heritage and bonding as one community.
2. How will you balance fiscal responsibility with maintaining and improving municipal services?
To balance fiscal responsibilities with maintaining and improving municipal services, the Town must focus on delivering core municipal services. As a first step a review of the services being offered should be done to identify potential savings or if the service being funded is even a Municipal responsibility.
The next step is to examine the level of service delivery to ensure that the services being delivered meet the expectations and needs of the public or can an adjustment be made to generate savings.
To measure service delivery costs, the Town needs to measure and track the work that is being done by Town staff. A work order management system where all work is assigned a work order to track and prioritize work will enable the Town to carry out preventive maintenance which can lengthen the lifespan of assets, dramatically reduce infrastructure costs and improve municipal service delivery.
3. What is your strategy for long-term infrastructure planning and funding?
Saint Andrews like many other municipalities, faces significant challenges due to the poor condition of its infrastructure assets. To address these challenges the Town needs robust asset management practices that include inventorying all infrastructure assets, evaluating their condition, assigning an asset priority and setting clear maintenance and replacement schedules.
This process will enable the Town to make informed decisions and more effectively allocate scarce resources to areas of greatest need and risk. Leveraging asset management software can help streamline data collection and analysis, providing a reliable basis for long-term infrastructure planning and funding decisions.
Moreover, accurate asset management data is essential for securing funding from provincial and federal programs. By demonstrating a clear understanding of infrastructure needs and priorities through reliable data, the Town can strengthen its applications and better justify requests for financial support. St Andrews can and should be a leader in municipal asset management in New Brunswick.
Many communities in the region are experiencing population changes, including aging populations, affordability issues, homelessness.
4. How will your leadership address workforce retention and attract new residents?
Sometimes moving ahead starts with taking stock and recognizing the unique blend of heritage, tourism, and marine biology that defines our community and who we are. Strengthening our tourism industry, promoting our heritage, building on the marine science expertise and embracing Saint Andrews a center of knowledge will provide opportunities for growth.
The model which brought us the subdivision of dividing Town land into smaller serviced lots and selling those lots below market value can be the vehicle for attracting young families. For existing homeowners, the Town can decrease the tax rate at the same rate as assessment increases so that the average property tax payable remains the same.
To address workforce retention, the Town can work with developers to create affordable dormitory style accommodations at NBCC where students can stay during the school year and seasonal workers can live during the summer.
We can and must do better.
5. Describe a difficult decision you’ve made in a leadership role. How will that experience inform your approach as mayor?
As Chief of Asset Management for Parks Canada, I was responsible for $23 billion of infrastructure across the country including 450 bridges.
In September 2006, the de la Concorde overpass in Montreal collapsed killing 5 people and injuring six others. Parks Canada did not have a formal bridge inspection program at the time and I decided to recommend that all 450 Parks Canada bridges be inspected on an emergency basis which was very expensive, time consuming and disrupted the entire maintenance program. The lesson I learned from this experience was to be prepared and anticipate the unexpected.
For example, Saint Andrews would face a major challenge if the Province transferred ownership of highway 127 and the side roads to the Town. Similarly, our aging infrastructure poses a risk of expensive unexpected failures that could impact our ability to deliver municipal services.
We need to be prepared for the unexpected…
6. Why should voters trust you to lead the municipality at this time?
To lead the town to the next level, qualifications are important.
In terms of education, I have a Masters degree in Civil Engineering and a Masters Degree in Business Administration.
In the realm of experience, I served as a military engineer, managed service contracts valued at $100 million annually, provided leadership in the management of $23 billion in Parks Canada assets including 5 resort towns, managed over $400 million in construction projects and served as a Town Councillor for over 6 years.
Locally, I have raised over $1,800,000 for the local community, supervised construction of a large part of the Van Horne Trail, oversaw the construction of washrooms at Katy’s Cove, and organized the delivery of groceries and medicine during COVID.
Trust is earned, not given and I can only offer my services and work hard to earn the trust of the voters.
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.
