HaltonHillsToday is profiling every candidate in the upcoming municipal election. Up next - candidates running for Ward 4 (south Georgetown).
Ward 4 candidate and local businessman D’Arcy Keene wants to keep the character of Georgetown consistent.
If elected, he's got a plan for affordable housing, alternatives to transit and ways to cut Town spending.
“I’m in favour of affordable housing, and I think there are options we want to look at for providing a reasonably priced, privately developed housing in Georgetown,” he told HaltonHillsToday.
For Keene, these can include affordable low-rise condominiums, as well as co-operative housing. He opposes the idea of public housing because “government has proven itself over the decades to be incapable of being successful landlords in the same way they're not capable of developing properties. It's not their business.”
A large reason why he ran in 2018 had to do with the McGibbon Hotel redevelopment. While he was originally "very concerned that it wasn't going to be a successful project," he has since changed his mind and told HaltonHillsToday that he sees it as a good affordable housing development that will stimulate the local small business sector.
He acknowledges that growth is coming and said he hopes to create slow, controlled and meaningful development by imposing property standards.
“I look at communities like Kleinburg, for example, where you've had some sustained substantial growth, but it's been at a reasonable pace,” he said. “You still have that small-town feel.”
He has come out against public spending on transit projects, believing that a municipality like Halton Hills doesn’t need it.
"We have [ActiVan] for seniors, we have a scrip system for students that want to take taxi cabs. Why can't we think more outside the box in terms of using modern technology?” he mused.
He proposes that the Town should follow in Innisfil's footsteps, which partnered with Uber to create a ridesharing transit system.
Finally, he casts a scrutinizing glance at the Town’s budget and what he calls the “unnecessary projects that money is being spent on.”
He said he would request a comprehensive review of the budget to find cost savings or ways to redirect funds to services that are in demand.
Keene spent much of his life in Alberta and moved to Toronto to start his career. He struck out on his own as a businessman in 2008. He moved to Georgetown in 2009 and officially opened Keene Garage Doors Systems the following year.
