O’Connor confident work on council earned her second term

When Stuart McCormack resigned from Niagara-on-the-Lake council on July 1, 2020, Sandra O’Connor hesitated just a bit before accepting the offer to fill his position as the ninth-place finisher in the 2018 municipal election.

“It came out of the blue,” she told The Local Tuesday night after attending a climate change seminar at the NOTL Public Library. “The actual approval had to go through council, and they had to check with me first. I thought, ‘this is what I always wanted to do, to give back to the community as a councillor’. So I went for it.”

It was a natural progression for the Laura Secord Secondary School graduate, who had strongly advocated to council previously for the addition of a nurse practitioner and extended health care facilities. She also sat as a citizen on the town’s finance committee and contributed to the agriculture committee. The first thing she did once she indeed decided to fill McCormack’s vacated seat was to watch the prior six months of committee of the whole and council meetings. She also read all the meeting minutes in an effort to prepare for her role in the chamber.

Her two-plus years on council have given her a chance to prove what she could do on a number of issues. That was important for O’Connor, who suspects she is often mistaken for a one-issue person, that issue being the environment. “We can have growth while also considering the environment,” said O’Connor. “The governor of the Bank of Canada said the economy and the environment are indivisible. They have to be considered together. I think there is a place for both.”

O’Connor admits that she looks through an environmental lens at everything that comes up at council. Sometimes that takes a little bit of finesse. “What I have to do is lay out my logic,” she said, “and explain where I’m coming from and what my objective is to the rest of council. They’re not always as familiar with environmental considerations as I am. Having to present my case is important to do and can be a bit of a challenge.”

O’Connor was also instrumental before her appointment in pushing for the town’s tree bylaw, which covers trees on private as well as municipal property. She’s proud that NOTL is the first community in Niagara to have such a bylaw on the books.

She finished fifth in the voting this year, a bump of four places, and is quite confident that her work since July, 2020 is what earned her the confidence of the voters Monday. She’s ready to transition to begin working with the new council the next four years. “It’s going to take a while to gel as a team,” she said of the new group of eight and the new lord mayor, Gary Zalepa.

“There will be some workshops to get the new people up to speed on the planning act, and zoning, the process for development, and what you can and can’t do as a councillor as well.”

And with the experience she has gained since her appointment in 2020, she’s no longer one of the new kids on the block. That makes her ready to provide guidance and advice to new councilors Tim Balasiuk, Adriana Cater- Vizzari, Maria Mavridis and Nick Ruller. “It is a bit of twist, isn’t it?” laughed O’Connor. “But many years ago, I was a teacher. I like to mentor and tutor. That is a great role for me, and I don’t mind that at all.”