I have been active in municipal politics since 2014, when I was elected Deputy Mayor of the Town of Collingwood. From 2014 to 2018, I served as Deputy Mayor of Collingwood and a member of the Collingwood Police Services Board. I also served as a Councillor on the Simcoe County Council and a member of the County Audit and Finance Committee, a member of the Simcoe County Housing Corporation Board and a member of the Board of the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.
In the fall of 2018, I was elected Mayor of Collingwood. From 2018 to present, I have served as a full time Mayor, stepping away from my legal practice, and member of the Collingwood Police Services Board. I am also serving as a Simcoe County Councillor and am the Chair of the Audit and Finance Committee and a member of the Simcoe Housing Corporation Board. I am Vice-Chair of the Regional Government Review – Service Delivery Task Force, looking into efficiencies in County operations at the direction of the Provincial P.C. Government.
In 2018 I joined the Board of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, a bilateral organization founded in 2003, by Canadian and American Mayors of Cities located on the shores of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence, to address our joint interests in the health and well-being of our shared water resources. I am the Canadian Chair of the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Shoreline Resilience that was recently created to look into shoreline impacts of the high water levels and work with the other levels of Government in Canada and the United States to proactively invest in measures to protect our shoreline.
Since 2014, I have been active at the most immediate level of politics, and it has been my pleasure to represent the 24,000 plus residents of Collingwood and the 500,000 plus residents of Simcoe County. During that time, I have championed fiscal responsibility and the integrity of municipal governance striving to improve transparency and accountability. The Town of Collingwood has reduced its external debt from approximately $35 million in 2015 to approximately $20 million in 2019. During that same time period, Collingwood advanced from a net deficit position of approximately $6 million in 2015 to a net surplus position of $34 million in 2019.
Since becoming the MPP for Simcoe-Grey, I have worked tirelessly to bring more investment to this riding. Just in the last 12 months, more than half a billion dollars have been invested by the Province of Ontario in Simcoe-Grey hospitals, schools, companies and infrastructure. Jobs are being created!
I’m Brian Saunderson, working to make every day a better day in Simcoe-Grey.