What a year it’s been in Brighton, and Northumberland County! So much has happened that I needed to review the meeting minutes. Here are some of my highlights and things I’m most proud of for 2025.
January
We were a little behind on budget last year, so much of January was spent in Committee of the Whole meetings to get it done. But the most memorable meeting of January by far was the Special Council Meeting at which we received presentations from members of our community who sought to fill the council seat vacated by our late friend Byron Faretis.
There were nine such presentations, and I continue to hope for that level of participation or more in the 2026 municipal election. Any of the candidates would have done an excellent job, I have no doubt; but I’m still very proud of our choice in Councillor Hannah MacAusland. She represents a segment of Brighton’s population that is otherwise unrepresented on council, and brings a perspective that helps keep us oriented to the long-term impacts of the choices we make today. She’s doing a great job, and I hope that her example might inspire other young people to consider public service through council and its committees.
February
In early February Mayor Ostrander brought a Mayor’s Report recommending the formation of the Brighton Homelessness Task Force. He had noticed that community-based support for our neighbours who are living rough was significant, but uncoordinated and under-supported; and he saw benefit in exploring what role a lower-tier municipality like Brighton has in homelessness services, if any. His initiative was fruitful, resulting in a Task Force report delivered in December.
In February I also attended the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Sustainable Communities Conference in Fredericton, along with Northumberland County’s Sustainability Officer. This was an invaluable trip that helped me refine my vision for a more sustainable Brighton, and make connections with organizations and individuals from across the country that may yet help Brighton become more environmentally and economically sustainable moving forward.
March
In March we approved some changes to the Planning process to help make it faster and cheaper in support of developing more affordable housing. Our changes improved communications with the public, and allowed developers to defer Development Charges to the time of occupancy if their developments were affordable, sustainable, or met other community benefits criteria. Since then the province has made deferral of Development Charges the norm, which takes away the incentive that we were trying to create, but the new system is still better than it was when we required DCs be paid up front.
In March we also participated in the Housing Solutions Workshop, put on by the Northumberland Inter-Municipal Task Force on Housing and Homelessness. That Task Force had been started by a motion I brought to Brighton council the previous year, and was subsequently adopted and supported by every Northumberland municipality; I served as Chair for the first year. By the time this event came around I was still serving as a member, but the Chair position had been taken over by two councillors from Port Hope. The report from this event made several important recommendations that have since also been endorsed by Northumberland municipalities, and our CAOs and Planners have agreed to work toward implementing similar policies to create a more seamless Planning environment in our county.
April-May
We finally implemented the Community Improvement Programs for downtown beautification and accessibility that we’ve been talking about for the past few years, and committed to funding them. To date we’ve issued grants under both CIP categories, and hope to add more in the future, to ensure that our community is accessible and beautiful!
We also awarded funding for a feasibility study for the proposed new recreation facility, formally opposed Strong Mayor Powers and the province’s repeal of the Endangered Species Act, and directed staff to install a public notice board downtown. This last one seems small, but in an era when we all seem to rely on social media to know what’s going on, and social media is not at all reliable, having an old-fashioned (or new-fangled) physical message board can be critical for sharing important information, particularly if that information might be a lifeline for our neighbours experiencing homelessness and not knowing where to turn for help.
June
June had plenty of controversy: we approved the proposal for a six-storey hotel on the east side of town, and approved the Automated Speed Enforcement by-law. Both were challenging decisions, in the sense that they were unpopular. But knowing our goals for housing density in town in order to maintain the integrity of the natural and agricultural areas outside of town, it still makes sense to me that we allow development to go up so it doesn’t have to go out. And Automated Speed Enforcement, once it was finally in place, reduced the number of speeders by over 75%.
July
While we only had one meeting in July, it had a particularly big decision: we awarded a contract for our new wastewater treatment facility, with an estimated cost of ~$55 million. The construction has since begun, putting to rest a controversial issue that’s been hanging over Brighton for over a decade.
August
In August I attended the Association of Municipalities of Ontario annual conference in Ottawa, and led a delegation to the Associate Minister for Municipal Affairs and Housing representing the Inter-Municipal Task Force on Housing and Homelessness to advocate for regulatory stability (read: “please stop changing the rules so we can catch up!”). I also attended Brighton’s delegation to the Ministry of Health about physician recruitment, and learned a lot about how other municipalities are tackling the issues we all face.
September
Inspired by Andrew Coyne’s presentation at AMO (and his book, which I’m still reading), I brought a Notice of Motion to council calling for democratic reform at the federal and provincial levels. As federal and provincial politics gets more polarizing and toxic, that toxicity trickles down to the municipal level — and dysfunctional politics at upper levels creates chaos for us as we adapt to a yo-yo-ing policy environment based on political battles rather than positive changes. Believe it or not, Canada’s political institutions are in notably bad shape compared to those of many of our cousin countries. I remain incredibly grateful to be serving on council here in Brighton, where we’ve had a term almost completely free of drama. We have incredible staff, and a council committed to civility and constructive input even when we disagree with each other. I really do think we’re doing it right here, for the most part, and that makes the toxicity of other levels of government all the more apparent to me. Council passed my motion, and several other municipalities from across the province subsequently supported it, prompting Fair Vote Canada to feature it and invite me to a conversation on the role of electoral reform municipally.
September also saw us adopt the community engagement policies for our Planning department, as well as new policies to make it easier to get Additional Residential Units (ARUs, i.e., a secondary suite in your home). We also celebrated Applefest, which is always a highlight, and gave our Strategic Plan an update.
October
In October we heard an update on the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan, one of the initiatives that I’m most proud of: I began advocating for it in the first year of this term, and this year we’ve been slowly working on it. We’re getting there, but it’s not ready yet – one of my goals for 2026 is to get the plan over the line so that we can go about implementing it next term.
We also received the finalized Secondary Plan and related Streetscape policy. These documents will determine the way that Brighton develops into the future, and cast a vision of more densely populated and beautifully designed corridors around the edges of town. The Secondary Plan was started last term of council, so I’ve been eagerly anticipating it all term. I’ve become a bit of a Planning nerd over the past few years, and in my experience these documents represent good planning.
November
In November we approved a new branding package for the Municipality of Brighton, another of the more controversial decisions of the year. Both of the finalist logos were excellent, but I am very pleased with our choice of a more modern logo, and I look forward to seeing it appear on our website, letterhead, and eventually, on our vehicles and signs as they need replacing.
We also got into the budget in earnest. We had a new process this year, due to the imposition of Strong Mayor Powers that require the Mayor to present a budget; and due to us having a new Treasurer.
I was also very involved in the budget process for Lower Trent Conservation Authority, as a member of the budget committee there; we began meeting in August, presented a budget to the board in October, and continued to debate it in November. I attended a council meeting in Trent Hills when the Lower Trent budget was being presented there, which gave me some insight into other perspectives and approaches in Northumberland.
Finally, in November we kicked off the start of our Official Plan review project. No plan or document has as much influence on the shape of our community as the Official Plan does, and it’s long due for renewal. I’ve been itching to start that process all term, and I’m excited to start in 2026!
December
Finally, December had a few things I’m particularly proud of. First, our new By-Law Officer Samantha Sheppard brought a new Clean Yards By-Law that recognizes the ecological value of our yards and allows for naturalized areas. This is a huge improvement, and I was so impressed with the responsiveness and adaptability of our staff.
Second, but certainly first in my heart, I finally brought the report of the Brighton Homelessness Task Force to the Task Force for approval on December 9th. I had spent all of November working on it, and I’m proud of it. I think the Task Force has given us the understanding we need to chart a course for lower-tier municipalities as they deal with homelessness, and I’m excited to see what we can do with that in 2026. Council included funding for a more strategic report in our budget, to be funded through a grant program.
Other Fun 2025 Facts
Those were my highlights, month by month. What was a highlight every month, though, was our staff: they execute their roles with quiet competency, expertise, and excellence. Like the invisible gardener, if they do their job right we never even know that they’re there. So I want to say it again, so everyone knows it: our staff are doing a great job!
Brighton continues to grow at an accelerated pace, even though house sales are down. The value of the developments we issued permits for this year was just shy of $147,000,000, and includes a 256-bed long-term care facility, a wastewater treatment plant, and a lot of housing. The apartments on the west side of town are almost finished, grading work is starting for the hotel on the east side of town, and major development proposals continue to come in. While we cannot control whether or not our community will change, if we embrace change then we can at least guide it into forms that are beneficial to the community as a whole, and I’m excited about the community we’re growing into.
Along those lines, we continued to make incremental progress on the Land Banking program on the east side of town. The RFP for design went out in December, and I can’t wait to participate in that planning process in 2026!
How About You?
What were your highlights of 2025? What are you hoping to see in Brighton for 2026? Let me know in the comments, or send me an email; I always love to hear from you!
It was an honour to serve on council in 2025. Thanks for having me.