New term of council for Lakeshore officially sworn in

The official new term of council for Lakeshore has been sworn in. 

Inauguration took place on Tuesday evening where council, new and re-elected members were sworn in for the next four years. 

Those elected on October 24 during the municipal election had three weeks to digest their win before the ceremony, and those elected are ready to get started. 

Tracey Bailey, Mayor of Lakeshore, says she was beyond honoured and thrilled during the inauguration watching her fellow members be sworn in, as well as herself. 

Tracey Bailey officially sworn in as mayor of Lakeshore, November 15, 2022 (Photo courtesy: Tracey Bailey)

Bailey, who was last terms deputy mayor, beat four-term incumbent Tom Bain for the mayor's seat.

She says she wants to thank everyone for helping her get to the mayoral position. 

"It was a beautiful event. It gave me a nice opportunity to be able to thank my friends and colleagues and the community at large. I had a lot of support during the election timeframe and I'm just thrilled that I have been elected, and I just really want to say thank you and show my gratitude."

She says it will be a busy four years as there is many things she and council are looking to accomplish.

"We know that we have some big items to address. We have infrastructure challenges, and funding shortfalls and replacement of capital assets, and changing of our official plan, updating by-laws and all of those kinds of things. We will be asked to balance the needs with the wants, we'll be asked to increase levels of service yet keep the taxes low."

Bailey explains how she thinks the dynamic of council will be for the next four years.

"I do think that this will be an action council. We saw a lot of reports and a lot of studies done in the last term, so I think that this will be a very action orientated council. And I believe in collective decision making. And so I think you're going to be able to see a lot of collaboration that goes on and a lot of prep work that's happening."

She says council has already met up prior to inauguration to talk about the next term and connect with one another.

"The members elect were getting together and were collaborating already, so certainly there were synergies in all of our platforms, you know the work that we want to get done, everybody is very excited to talk about the issues and to think outside of the box."

Other council members sworn in turning the inauguration was deputy mayor Kirk Walstedt, Ward 1 councillor Ryan McNamara, Ward 2 councillor Paddy Byrne, incumbent Ward 3 councillor Kelsey Santarossa, incumbent Ward 4 councillor John Kerr, Ward 5 councillor Ian Ruston, and Ward 6 councillor Larissa Vogler.

The next meeting for the new council will take place on November 29 at 6 p.m.