After a year in the mayor's seat, Martin Ritsma remains "humbled" by the honour.
Elected representatives sat down at city hall one year ago, November 21, 2022, for their first city council meeting.
The election brought in new faces, and a new mayor.
A veteran city councillor who decided to run for mayor, Ritsma discussed his first year in the role with StratfordToday, reflecting on the past, some big issues, and looking to the future.
Topics that were top of mind when he was voted into office are still relevant today, chief among them housing and homelessness.
“I talked about homelessness and housing, number one, I talked about the Grand Trunk, I talked about working together," he recalled.
Ritsma reiterated that there is no “silver bullet” to the housing crisis.
He revealed that three applications to housing grants through the federal government were created. None of those applications were successful.
The reason for that is there is a limited amount of money to go around and this is a national issue with every municipality requesting help, he said.
Moving forward, Ritsma said that if grant dollars are unavailable for housing, taxpayers will carry that responsibility.
“It might be part of our budget, that we have to set aside dollars to create housing, and maybe that housing is for the most needy individuals. Maybe it's for the ones that do need that wraparound support.”
Theoretically, he said by investing in housing it would put less pressure on Stratford Police Service, the social services department, and on the region’s hospitals.
That could result in savings for the municipality.
“If there was a silver bullet, if there was an easy answer, somebody would have it figured out by now and we’d all be doing it.”
One of Stratford’s biggest projects is the renewal of the Grand Trunk Block, the 18-acre site on the edge of downtown.
Residents have expressed that the building, which has sat unused for decades, should just be torn down. Others have argued for some sort of heritage status for some or all of the building.
“I've been in it several times and every time I go in, I think about what took place in that building with regards to an economic driver of the past,” Ritsma said. “And I can visualize the economic driver of that location in the future. It's a place for all kinds of economic growth, but also all kinds of public growth as well.”
Ritsma pointed to a recent open house allowing residents to walk through the building. Just over 1,000 people toured the building, evident of a desire to re-purpose the space.
Last month, Stratford City Council approved the 11 committee members to serve on the Ad-Hoc Grand Trunk Renewal committee, chaired by former mayor Dan Mathieson and the current mayor.
The committee, along with the five working groups, formed to assist, will create an execution strategy for council to use as the project moves along. Mathieson estimated that an execution strategy will be ready for council by early 2024.
Ritsma said that he is pleased with the pace the city has maintained and is looking forward to what the committee comes up with.
“The limit of what will happen there is imagination, and probably our strategic planning priorities,” he said.
Public transit is always a popular topic for city council. Ritsma said the thickest file in his office is housing. The second biggest is transit.
On Oct. 13, the last train for the London to Toronto GO Train pilot project rolled out of Stratford’s train station.
The pilot project was started in 2021, extended from GO Transit’s Kitchener line with stops in Stratford and St. Marys.
News of its end meant that many residents and visitors to the city did not have reliable transportation.
Since the pilot project ended, Ritsma has had a meeting with Metrolinx, which runs the GO Transit service. He called that meeting “very functional.”
A Stratford stop is not justified when it comes to dollars, he said. Going forward, the capacity needs to be generated and demonstrated to Metrolinx or VIA Rail.
“It’s slow work,” he admitted. “But maybe it's greasy wheel work where you continue to push and prod and call and write letters … I don't think we can keep banging on the table and saying ‘we want a train now’ … We have to think of what kind of grant dollars are out there to support us.”
In the future, Ritsma said it is a priority to enhance regional transit.
Recently, a Transportation Master Plan was adopted by city council, which lists advocating for expanded rail service and for enhanced regional public transit, such as PC Connect, as priorities.
To designate or not to designate ...
By far the largest turnout for a city council meeting in the past year was around deliberations on heritage designation for Stratford’s first hospital, Avon Crest.
On Mar. 27, Stratford residents packed the gallery of city hall to petition council, however, after obtaining a legal opinion, council did not move forward with any historical designation.
“I’m a huge advocate for history,” Ritsma said. “One: we don’t own it, so we have to tread lightly when you don’t own it. And then you say ‘yeah we’re going to designate.' Guess what, now all of a sudden you’re the owner of that dollar figure.”
Ritsma pointed to the Grand Trunk Block, which he has continually advocated to be refurbished. It is owned by the city and it's a good investment, the city has been told by engineers.
With Avon Crest, he said that sometimes it is better to start fresh and better to use the entire footprint of the property.
“That one challenged me,” Ritsma said about Avon Crest. “I had to wrestle with it.”
Demolition on Avon Crest began last week. In its place, a 128-bed long term care home is expected to be built through a partnership with the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance and Revera Canada.
With a year under his belt, Ritsma, a veteran city councillor before leading the city, knows how important his role is as the elected leader of the city. He thanked city staff for their caring, compassionate, and relentless work and for the people of Stratford as a whole, who never fail to keep him informed.
