Councillor Groves has found success by putting community first

By Rob Paul

Since she was first elected as Bolton's Regional Councillor in 2000, Annette Groves has dedicated her time to being the voice of the people. 

The longtime Bolton resident has been a key cog in many of the events run in Bolton over the last two decades and she hopes to continue to champion initiatives such as Che's Place, the Bolton Farmers' Market, and the re-establishment of Bolton Midnight Madness.

Groves initially wanted to become a Councillor over 20 years ago to help make positive change in Bolton and, since then, she's only been inspired to work harder to bring the community she loves everything it needs to thrive.

“The only thing that motivated me to run for Council was my drive to help the community and be a voice for them,” she said. “I look at myself as conduit between bureaucracy, government, and the people.”

Caledon, and more specifically Bolton, is where Groves calls home, it's where she has raised a family and she knows what it can offer to those who live in it. That's why she is always looking to improve it and bring the families in it the events and resources they need to live their best lives.

“I've lived in Bolton for 26 years and in Caledon East before that, so I've been here for about 30 years total,” she said. “Bolton is somewhere my son was born and raised and he's now 20 years old. It's a wonderful community and, quite frankly, Caledon is just a beautiful place and Bolton has been the hub of Caledon. Throughout my years I've been very active in volunteering with different community groups and organizations, and it's been such a great place to live and raise a family. As a leader, I always want to make it better and make it so that families here are happy and enjoying the beauty of the community.”

Although she's accomplished a lot, there are a few things in Groves time on Council she says she is most proud of. She's adamant that none of them would have happened without strong community partners.

“If I look back, I'm going back years now, one of the accomplishments that has been really great for the community and that I'm proud of is the Goodfellow medical building,” she said. “It was great to have a state-of-the-art medical building. I think the doctors approached me back in 2006 and I was happy to work with them and Ross Goodfellow. We were able to get that building built and right next to it is the movie theatre and that whole area there has grown and served the community well. Healthcare is a very important thing, we need to keep our residents healthy physically, mentally, and socially, and that building has served the community well.

“Working with Ross Goodfellow and Ross Gray, we were able to also get the addition to the Caledon Centre for the Scouts and the Guides because they never had a home. They had to move from place to place and it was just very difficult for those volunteers to be moving around constantly. Having a generous $1 million donation from Ross Goodfellow was very helpful and that's been a great achievement and a really good thing for the community to get the Scouts and Guides their own home.”

Building relationships with residents and groups is of the upmost importance to Groves as a Councillor because, at the end of the day, she says nothing gets done alone and being a Councillor is about uniting your community as a team for a cause to benefit everyone. 

“Another thing I'm so proud of are the community events I've been able to be a part of brining to Bolton and organizing alongside some of our community groups. Midnight Madness was something that's been around for over 40 years in our community, and I was happy to bring it back, but I couldn't do that all by myself because an event like that takes dollars and everything you do, you do it as a team. I've had a very successful group of volunteers in the Bolton Community Crew and working with them has been so important. Thanks to the time they've volunteered, we've been able to have some very successful events.

“I also really enjoy working with the Shop with a Cop Program. I've been able to raise funds for that program. The OPP has been great running [it] for families and children at Christmastime who may not be fortunate financially. We take them and shop with them at Walmart and they're able to enjoy Christmas. We also had the Bolton Kinmen generously donate the gazebo for the leash-free park so that when families go to the park, they have a place to get out of the rain and sun and just sit and socialize. There's the track and turf field over at Humberview Secondary School and that was done in partnership with the school board and trustee Stan Cameron was instrumental in getting that done. We've heard a lot from the community over the years that we needed a running track and that was great to get. The years that I have spent on Council have been great, I look back in the community and I see what we've been able to achieve, and I don't achieve those things by myself because I couldn't.”

Groves already has big plans for 2022, starting with ensuring the land donation from Bryon and Catherine Wilson goes towards a future healthcare facility and that Bolton gets an indoor athletic facility to ultimately help drive more money into the economy. 

“I'm really appreciative of the Wilson land donation of 20 acres, that's been something I've been working on for a long time and I'm happy to see it finally coming to fruition,” she said. “Now, my advocacy will begin with fundraising for the urgent care centre and working with Regional staff on building some affordable seniors housing—a senior village in that area. It's been a huge achievement for the community and it's a big win for Caledon, because healthcare services are challenging right now with the shortage of nurses and doctors and concerns with our hospitals being filled up. The pandemic has made everything a lot tougher, so having an urgent care centre in Bolton will be great for everyone. This isn't just for Bolton; it will serve all of Caledon because I don't think we'll be getting a hospital anytime soon and this is the next best thing. It's so important for the community. 

“Also, in the budget I managed to get an indoor facility through, and we'll partner up with Mayfield Secondary School. It's going to be a great partnership and great for the community because then people won't need to drive out of the community, they can stay here, and we'll run tournaments here. That allows us to bring people in from other communities to spend their dollars in Bolton or Caledon, rather than us leaving to spend in other communities. We will be able to support our own community even more through this and that's something the soccer clubs have been asking about for many years. I didn't do it by myself, I worked with Caledon Soccer and our staff in the recreation department has been instrumental in getting this done.”

After years on Council, Groves notes that the most important aspect of being a Councillor is understanding that your constituents come first and being the voice for them in council meetings is why they elected you. That's led her to credit the residents as the main reason she believes she's found so much success representing Bolton.

“You've got to listen to the people, and I think that's what makes a good Councillor, someone who listens to the people, someone who actually cares about the community, and basically you've got to be in the trenches with the people—you can't sit in the ivory tower and expect to know what's going on,” she said.

“You need to be out there with your residents and be part of the community. I enjoy doing what I do, it's challenging at times, but everything in life has its challenges and you've just got to learn how to work through those challenges. I think over the years I've managed to do quite a bit for Bolton and the people, but I've been so successful because of this community and its willingness to comes together during crisis or when there's a need. Nothing was achieved alone, it's always a group effort and that's what makes this community so special. We have so many volunteers here and people who give tirelessly and quite frankly, that's what has made me a successful Councillor: it's the people that I work with who support the community.”