Gail Degagne is relatively new to municipal politics but she feels comfortable taking on the role of Chisholm mayor with the support of a strong council, staff and community members.
“Kind of overwhelming at this point,” Degagne said after being appointed to the position this week. She is replacing long-time mayor Leo Jobin, who resigned recently to focus on his health.
Degagne, who teaches at M.T. Davidson in Callander, joined council shortly after the 2018 election as an appointment to take a vacated seat. While it’s been a whirlwind ascension, she feels both honoured and fortunate to be supported well to begin the journey.
“I'm looking forward to it. It's quite an honour, that's for sure,” Degagne said. “I'm lucky that I have the support of Leo Jobin, the previous mayor. He's been in my court and he's agreed to also be a mentor to me through this process.
“So it's nice to know that I have his expertise to be able to kind of fall back on and rely on too, or if you need somebody to kind of bounce ideas off of. So that's a nice thing, too,” she said.
Related story: Long-time Chisholm mayor resigns for health reasons
Community involvement is a tradition in her family. Aime Laferriere, the late grandfather of her husband, Andre, was on Chisholm council for two decades.
“It’s important to the community, both to me and my family,” she said, describing her perspective on community-centric leadership. “We had our Grand-Pere (Aime) Laferriere, who he was on council for, gosh, it was more than 20 years. And so it's just kind of that family tradition of being involved within the community and keeping the people of Chisholm at the heart of those decisions, which is what Leo did. He was really good at making sure that when every decision was made, it was made in the best interest of the people.
“That’s really what I aspire to do … continue to make sure that the voices of all the people in Chisholm are being represented and that Chisholm continues to be a great community to live in,” she said.
There are almost 1,300 people in the community east of Powassan and south of Lake Nosbonsing with Wasi Lake at its heart.
“We want more people to come and live and work in Chisholm, and we can only do that if it's a nice community that they want to move to. Right? So it's got to be about the people,” Degagne said.
While there’s been a lot of changes on council, she feels the current mix leaves a solid core.
“We have a really strong council right now and that's a positive going into all of this, you can really use the strength of the council that we have in,” Degagne said, noting they’ll have to decided how to fill her vacant seat after she official becomes mayor Jan. 12.
Deputy Mayor Nunzio Scarfone, for example, is “very intelligent,” she said. “He's got history with the roads and he worked closely with the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority. “
“And then you get Jim, (James Gauthier), he's on the lake as well as the other, both live on the lake (Wasi). But he knows about the lake and he's very passionate about the Internet and collective agreements. And he comes from a policing background.
“And then just recently, we got Bernadette Kerr and she's been a longstanding community member. She's been in this community forever. And she knows everybody and has all of those relationships, those personal relationships, more at a grassroots level,” Degagne said.
“So, yeah, I think it's a really well-balanced council and I think, for me, it's a good time to step into that role because I've got such strong people behind me, it supports that learning curve.
“I'm not going to claim that I know anything or everything about the role. I am here to learn and I'm here to learn along with my colleagues. And again, thankfully, I have Leo in my back pocket who's willing to support me as well,” she said.
“They'll bring different strengths to the table. So I think about that diversity piece too, and then us collectively and collaboratively working through so many of the issues.”
Asked about her vision for the future, Degagne said it will require coming together to chart a course that everybody can get behind, including the surrounding townships.
“I think it's about a bunch of pieces, but I think one is about building relationships and trusting relationships with not only council and staff and the community, but other communities, too,” she said.
There’s a lot of work, however, that needs to be undertaken before dividends are realized.
“Investing that time and energy and having those meaningful interactions means that people are going to buy into what's happening in the community and they're going to become more invested in what's happening to the community and more engaged.”
Strategic planning, by it’s nature, brings community members together, she said.
“It’s going to promote engagement, which I think is huge. And then it makes things transparent as well because people know what's happening,” Degagne said, adding it helps leadership when the mandate is clear.
“That makes it easier to advocate for the community because you really have a good sense of what's happening and what their concerns are or ideas, things that they want. And I think that if you're consistent and you're transparent and you develop those relationships, then there's a common message going out to the community.”
What are some of the priorities?
“We’ve been working on our asset management plan,” Degagne said of the council and staff work already underway. “We're really looking at how we maintain our current infrastructure and how do we then improve on what we've already got and where are the hotspots?
“So that's something that we're continuing to work on … really examining our roads and seeing where the needs are.”
Degagne is also interested in doing what they can to protect the environment and Chisholm’s immediate ecosystem as much as possible.”
“Quite some time ago, I put a motion of support to declare a state of emergency in terms of the environment. We need to really start examining our gas emissions and what we're putting into our landfills,” Degagne said, explaining how they’ve already started to reduce some of recyclable garbage.
Related story: Chisholm takes a bite out of plastic waste
It will be important to see how things are changing through recent legislation as recycling moves from a consumer to producer responsibility, she said.
Degagne said she’s also working the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority as it tries to ascertain how new legislation will erode its power to shape development.
“That's quite concerning, so that's something I'll continue to investigate and monitor the implications of that,” she said.
It boils down to making sure they have a solid plan based on the latest information.
“So we're currently reviewing our strategic plan. Our CEO was in training … getting that global vision, a really clear picture of what we are doing really well and what do we need to do better and then how are we going to move in that direction? I think that's going to be a beneficial piece … to clearly know where we are, where we're going and what's the best way to get there,” Degagne said.
“We also have our service delivery model and it's under review,” she said, with provincial funding allowing them to work with Watson and Associates consults for an upcoming report.
“It's being put together now and be able to present that to council in the new year. And I’m looking forward to really implementing some of the recommendations that I saw in the preliminary report.”
She said it looks at the strengths and weaknesses, what can be enhanced with additional investment and what can be trimmed, she said.
“So it's not just about cutting,” Degagne said, more about “where we can do better with our money.”
Maintain balanced budgets is a priority, as it has been in the past, she said, adding it’s about “trying to really make the most out of our tax dollars, getting the best bang for our buck.”
Dave Dale is a Local Journalism Reporter with BayToday.ca. LJI is funded by the Government of Canada.
