July 13, 2018 · 0 Comments
By Mike Pickford
With October’s municipal election looming, local resident Simran Bhamu has seen enough over the past four years to confidently say that change is desperately needed at Town Hall.
Since relocating to Orangeville with her young family back in 2014, Ms. Bhamu has kept a close eye on the happenings inside council chambers. It’s fair to say she has not liked what she has seen. With a background in finance and business management, Ms. Bhamu believes the community deserves better from its elected leaders.
She condemned this current Council for its “unhealthy” spending habits, ineffectual use of time during bi-weekly meetings and inability to stand up for the community’s youth. Having made the bold move to run for Council as a fairly new resident, Ms. Bhamu is confident in the skills she can bring to the table.
“I believe we need more people that can add real value to Council, who can bring different backgrounds to the table,” Ms. Bhamu told the Citizen. “I feel I can add real value on the finance side of things, utilization of resources and working with youth. One thing I’ve always had is a positive attitude and ability to generate good team spirit. I’d like to bring the kind of civility and togetherness we need to make the right decisions for this community.”
A big part of Ms. Bhamu’s platform focuses on Orangeville’s youth. A mother to a four-year-old boy, Simran very quickly realized there wasn’t much for kids to do in town. After she took a position with a local McDonald’s franchise, she learned it was a problem that affected teenagers too. All too often she watched on as talented, young individuals left the community in search of greater opportunities elsewhere.
In an attempt to engage these youth, Ms. Bhamu held bi-weekly workshops and seminars to educate them on the resources that are available to them in the community. Still, she’d like to see the Town do more to ensure its youth aren’t continually searching beyond the community’s borders.
“The lifeblood of any town is its youth. Without youth, what would we do? Who would be the next leaders of our community?” Ms. Bhamu said. “For the average 18 to 22-year-old, out of school, what is there to do in Orangeville? There’s nothing for them here, there’s no way for them to stay here. The local job market is thin, there’s little in the way of social programs. We need to do something about this.”
Ms. Bhamu believes opening a “central hub” for youth is the answer.
“We have so much talent in this town, we just need to learn to utilize it and provide opportunity,” Simran said.
While lobbying for local youth is and will remain one of Ms. Bhamu’s chief passions, she understands there are several other issues in town that require immediate attention. If elected, she would be in support of re-opening the OPP/OPS debate, stating, like many other candidates, that the Town needs to commission a thorough third-party analysis. Simran would like to see the municipality do more for its senior residents, providing more transit options so they can better navigate the community in the evening.
Most notably, Ms. Bhamu says she’d like to see the next Council take greater care with taxpayers’ money.
“We need to make sure our money is being spent appropriately. I’m okay with paying higher taxes if I can see a fantastic standard of service being provided, right now I’m not seeing that,” Ms. Bhamu said. “Right now, as a taxpayer, I get the impression I’m putting my money into a pocket that has many, many holes in it. I’m okay paying the money, but we need to patch those holes first and that’s what I’m here to do.”
Already two months into her campaign, Simran says the number one thing she is telling local residents is that they simply need to get out and vote. Only 7,544 ballots were cast back in 2014, translated to a 39 percent turnout rate.
“We need to encourage as many people as possible to exercise their right to vote. In the last election we had 39 percent of the population deciding who leads the community. Basically, 39 percent of Orangeville made the decision that the other 61 percent had to live with. I think we can do better here. We need to do more to get as many people as possible out to vote,” Ms. Bhamu said.
As of press time, there are eight individuals vying for five Council seats, with a two-horse race for the deputy mayor position. Sandy Brown is the only person officially running for mayor to date, although it is expected that incumbent Jeremy Williams will file ahead of the July 27 deadline.