December 6, 2011 One year ago today, I was officially inaugurated as the Councillor for Ward 6. In my first address to Council, as a male engineering graduate I reflected on the tragic events of December 6, 1989 at Ecolé Polytechnique and the need to work hard to promote inclusion and diversity in our community. […]

October 24, 2011 Yesterday, Mike Connolly passed away. He served his community with passion and a dedicated focus to the issues he cared about, including nearly 11 years on local municipal councils. I saw a lot of Mike over the past year – from the campaign trail last year and, regularly, on the Northdale Special […]

September 25, 2011 I was in Savannah, Georgia about one month ago as part of a short, but much needed vacation. The original capital of the colony of Georgia and founded in 1733, this bustling capital and fourth largest U.S. port city is also host to one of the country’s largest historic districts. Encompassing nearly […]

July 28, 2011 On August 15, Council will spend the morning in its first budget-related workshop towards the 2012-2014 City of Waterloo Operating and Capital budgets. Earlier this summer, we adopted our 2011-2014 Strategic Plan. Under the six pillars of “Sustainability and Our Living Environment”, “Public Engagement”, “Healthy & Safe Community”, “Vibrant Neighbourhoods”, “Getting Around”, […]

July 28, 2011 Accepting an invitation from Kevin Thomason, earlier this week I headed out with my spouse, Kate Daley, to the west side of Waterloo to get local perspective on the developments of late and over the last several years. It was a perfect evening for a walk through the Schneider and McNally lands. […]

July 10, 2011 I was pleased to have the opportunity to tour the displays, try some of the delicacies, and attempt an Ebru under the guide of Shuhrat Ochilov, a University of Waterloo PhD student. I learned about the art of Ebru – water colour marbling – from Feyza Baykan, who, after two years of practice in […]

July 6, 2011 How the City of Waterloo changes over time is substantially guided by its Official Plan. Council has now received the second draft of this plan, and anticipates considering it in the fall. But before then, it is back out for public consultation. There is an Open House scheduled for Wednesday, July 20th […]

May 18, 2011 Last week, Waterloo City Council took the momentous step of adopting a revised Rental Housing Licensing By-law, bringing our 25 year-old efforts in this area into the 21st century. Given the lengthy and healthy debate over the past several months, I thought it was important to provide all of you with an […]

May 3, 2011 Tonight I was pleased to attend the annual general meeting for Supportive Housing of Waterloo (SHOW), an apartment complex in my ward that has taken 30 individuals experiencing persistent homelessness off of our streets and into safe housing. The project was instigated by the faith groups behind the Out of the Cold […]

April 10, 2011 The question I get most frequently at the grocery store, on the bus, or walking around Waterloo hasn’t been about rental housing, rapid transit, or any of the other hot-button issues starting with ‘R’. The question I hear most often, from people I know well and those I’m meeting for the first […]