Summerside mayoral candidates focus on housing, cost of living and business growth

As the three mayoral candidates go door-to-door in Summerside, there is a recurring theme from the conversations: it's getting harder for people to afford to live in the city. 

The first thing that needs to be addressed is housing according to Brent Gallant, a 17-year veteran of council. 

"I've met many many seniors and met many young families, and they're really struggling to find an adequate space to live," he said.

"We really have to work hard with our federal and provincial governments, developers, and I think the city's going to have to become part of that equation as well."

Entrepreneur Nancy Beth Guptill thinks there needs to be a plan set out with a comprehensive housing strategy. 

"That takes in the need for all citizens, so there's seniors' housing, there's people with lower incomes," she said, adding the problem goes deeper than housing. 

"We own our own utilities, and there should be a way that we can find to extend a benefit to our residents."

That's something Basil Stewart — who was mayor for 29 years before losing to Bill Martin in 2014 — agrees with. 

"I don't believe personally, that we have to follow Maritime Electric's rates, but I can only vote if I have four councillors that will agree to reduce the rates."

Brent Gallant doesn't think that will work. 

"You can only spend a dollar once," he said during Island Morning's Summerside mayoral candidates roundtable Tuesday. 

"If we don't continue to keep the same cost as Maritime Electric, then we are going to have to raise the tax rate because it's part of what we use in the ... budget."

Open for business 

Stewart says targeting those rates is a way to solve another part of the affordability issue — bringing more business and jobs to Summerside. 

"The reason we aren't attracting that, in my opinion, and what people are telling me, is the cost of the electricity, the tax rate and the regulations are too strict, so that's what I'm hearing," he said. 

Guptill thinks bringing new business to the city is important, but also wants better lines of communication between council and businesses already in Summerside. 

"One thing I would like to do is bring the entrepreneurs and small-business community together to have a roundtable discussion to look at what is working well, and how else we can be supporting them so that they can grow and expand their business," she said. 

Gallant also thinks focusing on existing businesses is the key to growth. 

"I'd really like to turn our attentions toward the local businesses to see what we can do to make their expansions more possible and employ more people," he said. 

Voters have until November 5th to decide who to put in the mayor's chair. 

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