Doug Maskell running for Ward 3 Councillor

September 21, 2022 · 0 Comments

Maskell says he’s bringing specific plans to the table, not just generalities

By Zachary Roman

Doug Maskell is a man with plans.

The Ward 3 Councillor candidate has lived in Caledon’s Ward 3 for 22 years with his wife, and raised his two daughters here.

Maskell has worked as a teacher for 33 years and, if all goes to plan, he’s going to be retiring at the end of the current school year. It’s one of the reasons he decided to run for Ward 3 Councillor this election, since he’ll be able to dedicate himself to the role full time for the majority of the term.

Maskell ran for Council once before in 2014, but was unsuccessful. He said it was a great learning experience as he’d never run a political campaign before.

Maskell said he has strong roots in the Caledon community. He has been a teacher and guidance counsellor at Humberview Secondary School since 2007, was a volunteer coach for his daughter’s hockey and soccer teams, and was an executive with EcoCaledon and the Friends of the Caledon Public Library.

In his career, Maskell said he’s always had to be accountable to students and their parents. During his time as head of a guidance department, he explained no one ever called when things were going well.

“I spent the last 10 years, 15 really, just solving problems and calling people back,” said Maskell.

Whether it’s the answer someone wants or not, Maskell said he always does the research and gets back to them. He said he’ll bring this same level of preparation and dedication to the Councillor role, if elected.

Maskell said with the amount of money Caledon Councilllors make ($49,841 after their recent 24 per cent compensation increase) they are not consistent with Councillors in nearby municipalities like Orangeville.

If elected, Maskell said one of the first things he’d do is advocate for the compensation increase to be reversed. He said the raise is unfair to front line workers and others who suffered during the pandemic, and that the new Council deserves to vote on any matters related to their salary once elected.

“For me, it’s a sign of the arrogance of many of the people who are running, that they believe they can get away with anything and the people aren’t going to notice,” said Maskell. “That is unconscionable that somebody gave themselves a 24-and-a-half per cent raise… and only two Councillors had the guts not to [vote for it].”

Maskell said something many Caledon residents may not realize is the taxes they’re paying on their homes are based on the homes’ 2016 assessed value. The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation’s 2020 assessment was delayed due to the pandemic, and delayed again in 2021 and 2022, said Maskell.

Since property values have increased since 2016, Maskell said when the 2023 assessment is released, Caledon residents’ property taxes could increase dramatically.

If elected, Maskell said he’d look to adjust the Town of Caledon’s property tax mill rate to ensure residents aren’t hit with an unexpected tax increase. He also wants to advocate for doubling the Caledon Older Adults or Persons With Disabilities Tax Assistance Program to $1,050, and broaden its reach to all taxpayers with a net family income of less than $50,000.

“You got to protect people from that kind of a [tax] increase… no one in these times we’re living in can endure that kind of an increase,” said Maskell.

Caledon has healthy reserve funds (about $50 million), a large amount of deferred development charge revenue (about $85 million), and a significant amount of cash and cash equivalents (about $165 million) said Maskell, referencing the Town’s 2021 financial statements which are accessible to the public on the Town’s website.

He said because of these numbers, he’s surprised residents’ taxes were increased during the pandemic.

Maskell said he understands the importance of keeping reserves, but that less could be kept by the Town and more given back to the taxpayer who has put the Town in a good position.

If elected, Maskell said he’d advocate for collecting development charge revenue immediately, rebating 75 per cent of the tax portion of any Town of Caledon budget surplus, and investing the $165 million of cash and cash equivalents into the Town and/or using it to pay off any debts.

In Ward 3, Maskell said he wants to see the speed limit reduced in the community safety zones on Airport and Old Church roads. He also wants more automated speed enforcement cameras throughout community safety zones in the whole of the Town of Caledon.

Maskell said trucks will often use Airport Road as they want to avoid the scale on Highway 10, but if the Town makes it so that Airport Road is a slow route for truckers to take by reducing the speed limit and enforcing it more, they’ll no longer want to come through Caledon East.

“I did my own little personal traffic study over the summer… I sat outside the LCBO on a chair on the grass there and counted on the trucks that went through that intersection in an hour,” said Maskell. “In one hour on a Wednesday afternoon, it was 74 trucks. I thought, ‘Well, maybe that was a bad day,’ so I came back on the Friday morning… 74 (again).”

Maskell said he’d like to advocate for more police enforcement on traffic safety too, in hopes of preventing a traffic tragedy in Ward 3.

Maskell said long-time residents of Caledon will remember when Caledon was proclaimed to be the Greenest Town in Ontario in 2003. Maskell said Caledon would absolutely not be in the running for that title anymore in 2022, something he said can be attributed to the people running the Town since then.

“I think they talk about caring for the environment and do exactly the opposite,” said Maskell. “How could you possibly be a farmer and be for the 413 which is going to destroy… the best farmland in the country? If you’re a farmer, you’d be saying, ‘you got to protect that land.’”

Maskell said decisions need to be made with future generations in mind, and that by compromising Caledon’s farmland and natural environment, we would be destroying what makes Caledon so special.

If elected, Maskell said he’s going to support the Town’s request for the Federal Environmental Impact Assessment on the 413, as well as try and unify Council against the 413 to make the Town stronger in the face of the Provincial Government.

In the 2022 municipal election, Maskell said Ward 3 residents have a chance to do something they haven’t in a long time: vote for a Councillor in their ward to represent them (Wards 3 and 4 will no longer be combined following this October’s election).

Maskell said a disturbing trend in Caledon’s 2022 municipal election is people running for office in wards they don’t live in, something he said defeats the entire purpose of the ward system.

“I just really fundamentally believe that this election is a crossroads election for the town… we have really stark choices to make here as to what our future is going to look like,” said Maskell. “I’m a committed member of the community, I live here and I want to make this place a better place. That’s what I’ve always wanted to do, in whatever position I’ve been in.”