Bisback has files he would like to see closed

Expect more, says council candidate Allan Bisback’s website.

More accountability, more transparency, and more results are what he promises if elected to a second term of council.

In 2018, Bisback was one of 24 candidates running for one of eight council seats. Only four incumbents were in the race, and of those, John Wiens, was the only one returned to the council table. Niagara-on-the-Lake voters were ready for a change, and Bisback was seen as one of the candidates who could deliver.

It seems likely there will again be four seats to be filled, although that could change before the nomination deadline of Aug. 18. 

Gary Burroughs and Sandra O’Connor are taking another run at a council seat, and newcomers — to politics, not to town — Maria Mavridis and Tim Balasiuk, have both announced they are running.

Bisback comes from a background of retail and customer service, as vice-president of sales for Sobey’s, and as the national general manager for retail operations for Canada Post, Canada’s largest retail network.

When nominations opened May 2 for the October 24 election, Bisback was the first to officially declare his intention to run. 

“Once you make a decision, you may as well declare it,” he says, “and I knew there were a few things I wanted to get done, so I”m giving it another four years.”

While “a bit of a turnover on council is good,” he says, referring to the expected number of empty seats, “there are still some major files, and it would be good to have had them finished” during the current term of council.

He says although 2018 was definitely seen as a time for change at the ballot box, this doesn’t seem a “change issue,” and he believes the current council is one voters would have been okay with for another four years. 

Council, he says, has had some good discussions, and occasionally some tension, “but the one thing I’ve learned is that even though tempers can get a bit frayed, sometimes councillors do change their minds after listening to their colleagues. The diversity of opinions has made for a good council. And in most cases once a decision is made councillors will stand behind it.”

Over the last three and a half years, Bisback has contributed in many ways, and on several town committees, but perhaps the most important role he has played was first as vice-chair for a year, and then chair of the town’s audit and finance committee — the committee in charge of the town’s budget. It has become a very different process over the last term from previous years, and one that was streamlined, easier for the public to understand when presented to council, easier for council to understand before approving it, but sufficiently detailed to be transparent. 

“The financial system and budgeting process was broken,” says Bisback, and he, Coun. Norm Arsenault and treasurer Kyle Freeborn worked together to improve the process, introducing a new computer program that was extremely helpful in simplifying it.

He also introduced the business case scenario, where each department had to present a case for any new spending and defend it to the audit committee.

Bisback says if elected, he would like to continue on the audit committee, and chair it if asked. His goal, as he has spoken of in the past, is a sustainable budget with pandemic costs behind them. If he is successful in the upcoming election, and could leave a legacy from his second term, it would be to support a sustainable budget, “not that is sustainable for the next year, but the next five to 10 years.”

He was one of many candidates who ran on a platform that included finalizing the town’s official plan, and that is now before the region, with regional  approval expected this summer.

Developed in 2019, there are updates already being worked on, with changes that could include more control over building and housing development. He would like to see a return to looking at conceptual zoning, taking streetscape into consideration, rather than allowing houses maximum heights and setbacks that are permitted under zoning bylaws but don’t fit in with the neighbourhood.

There is also more to do in preserving heritage,  expanding the heritage district, and enhancing heritage designation across the municipality, he says.

It’s been talked about since the beginning of the term, “but we didn’t do a lot about it.” He’d like an opportunity to see that through, including in areas of Virgil and St. Davids, and to ensure heritage properties aren’t lost through neglect, by “slipping through the cracks. As a community we need to do more to protect them.”

Balancing life for residents with tourism will likely be a hot topic as we get closer to the election, Bisback said, pointing to the need to complete the tourism strategy next term in a way that’s collaborative, to balance community infrastructure “through traffic control and calming measures, bus parking and idling controls in tourist areas, improved tourist assets funded by the municipal accommodation tax,” and a master recreation plan that deals with parks, pools, and playgrounds, among other facilities.

He also speaks of increasing communication from council regarding town activity, which was discussed at a recent planning committee meeting.

He would like to see the council chamber open, and last week was the first time a presentation from a member of the public was made in person.
He includes leveraging the town’s new website, and the livestreaming of meetings, as ways to improving communication.

 “I’ve enjoyed these last three and a half years, and I feel I’ve contributed. I feel I’ve made a difference,” he says. But to him, council decisions aren’t about the issues of today, they’re about what happens in the next decade. “We have to do a better job of looking into the future.”