Dave Le Gard
For Councillor, Ward 3
Lanark Highlands
Chats From the Front Porch
Good conversations start with listening, and there’s always more to hear from the people around us.
Saving money to keep or taxes in check
- Review our methods of doing work to ensure it is being done in the most expedient and cost effective way.
- All costs small and large need to be reviewed and scrutinized for best value for money
- We need to be fully integrated on the accounting software platform that was started a couple of years ago for better reporting and tracking of our finances. This will result in better cost analysis, accountability and transparency.
- We must utilize life cycle management of our assets to give us predictability of future replacement costs.
- Transition paper heavy process to digitized operations like building permits, severances etc. into self-service portals. It reduces administrative hours and provides citizens with easy access to the status of their files.
- We need to review our third-party contracts. Are they necessary versus using in house staff? Ensure those contracts are competitively tendered and retendered on a regular basis to maintain competitive pricing.
- The procurement by-law needs to be revised to reduce the ability for sole sourcing and selective bidding contracts as that does not deliver lowest or best value cost contracts.
- Look at sharing specialized equipment with neighbouring townships
- Collect unpaid taxes
- Review our unused or underused assets that maybe a drain on our revenue to see how we can better use them, turn them over to the community or sell them.
Dealing with Noxious weeds
The Township and residents are mandated by The Weed Control Act to eliminate invasive plant species near agricultural and public areas.
There are various options to eliminate wild parsnip: Spring mowing, hand pulling, chemical spraying or blanketing the plants
It is also recommended that areas be reseeded with native plants to choke out regrowth -the township does not do that.
All of Lanark Highlands is sitting on a highly vulnerable aquifer, due to the type of rock overlay we have, it is very porous so susceptible to pollutants draining through to the aquifer. We have to be very conscious of this in our decision making as we all take our drinking water from that aquifer.
We need to explore alternate ways of dealing with the wild parsnip instead of using the current chemicals we are spraying to eradicate them. We need to explore pulling the wild parsnip, mowing or blanketing as an alternate. Encourage residents to pull the wild parsnip in front of their properties or have volunteer groups adopt a road and pull along that road. If we must spray let’s look at far more ecco friendly herbicides and only spot spray the actual wild parsnip. In every case we need to be reseeding to choke out the regrowth of the noxious weeds.
On the skeet shooting range in Hopetown
The fact that this use was permitted in a residential Hamlet is shameful. This just highlights the lack of common sense in the current decision making.
It is wrong on so many levels, public safety, nuisance, noise impacts people’s right to quiet enjoyment of their homes and yards and environmental safety (lead impacts on our drinking water).
The residents of Hopetown have complained to the Township and Council to no avail. This has gone on now for a year and a half.
The Township has the means of ending this problem just like Mississippi Mills did when they had the exact same problem.
Section 119 of the Municipal Act clearly permits Municipalities “for the purpose of public safety, to prohibit or regulate the discharge of guns or other firearms, air-guns, spring-guns, cross-bows, long-bows or any other weapon.”
Section 129 of the Municipal Act clearly permits Municipalities to prohibit and regulate noise.
The simple fix for the nuisance and noise being imposed on the residents of Hopetown and beyond by the barrage of gunfire created at the skeet shooting range when in use is for Council to amend its noise by-law prohibiting the discharge of firearms in Hamlets, Villages and residential zones or other densely populated zones (except for the protection of livestock.) This is not about hunting or sighting guns which are carried on outside these more densely populated areas.
There is ample precedent for this in many municipalities in the surrounding area including the City of Ottawa, McNab Braeside, Mississippi Mills , South Frontenac, North Grenville to name a few.
Our current Noise by-law is 26 years old it’s time to update it and address this issue for the peace and security of many residents.
It’s simply about common sense.
Hazardous Waste
Once per year is just not enough.
This will encourage dumping at home or elsewhere, which will lead to pollution of our lands and aquifer.
Staff did recommend to Council on June 24, 2025 to have the hazardous waste collection once per month, which would allow employees and students to run it. Staff advised this was the cheaper option.
Council selected the once per year option which appears to be more expensive.
If staffing is an issue for once per month, we could look at hiring seniors or using volunteers.
We need to return hazardous waste collection to monthly or quarterly.
I will advocate for this.
Communication and Transparency
The public have lost their trust in this Council. I am hearing this from so many of you and it was front and center at the Middleville candidates meeting. Trust is built on good communication and transparency. People have a right to know what decisions are being made, why and have their voices meaningfully heard. That means an obvious post on the website, local paper or mail out about upcoming major decisions to allow real input from residents.
It means getting out to the public in our local halls or around the kitchen table to seek input from residents and regularly update them. I am doing just that. To date, I have personally met face to face with 500 of you listened to your concerns, ideas, answered your questions and heard differing points of view.
If I am elected, I intend to keep meeting with you face to face; monthly at local halls or at kitchen tables, because that is the best way to give updates and get real input. I will keep my website to update folks.
Ultimately, this isn’t about my having all the answers. It’s about bringing people together to find practical solutions and moving toward the common goal of keeping Lanark Highlands