If you have kids in West Perth, you already know: this community runs on its rink, its fields, and its parks. Weeknights at the arena, Saturday mornings at the ball diamond, summer evenings at the playground — that’s where our kids grow up, and where parents actually meet each other.
So when I talk about supporting recreation, I’m not talking about a line item. I’m talking about the places raising the next generation of this town.
Parks have to keep up with growth — not chase it. The town has a plan to build parks based on development, and that’s the right idea. But it’s applied after the development, not before: houses go up, families move in, and the park arrives years later — leaving whole sections of town without a playground in the meantime. Flip the sequence. Parkland should be dedicated and scheduled up front, as part of the subdivision approval — not as a fix for a problem we watched happen. And then maintain it to a published standard: safe playgrounds, fields that actually drain after rain, trails kept up instead of quietly deteriorating.
Youth programs run on volunteers. The town should be a good partner. Minor hockey, baseball, soccer, ringette — hundreds of local kids, coached and organized by parents giving their evenings. Council’s job isn’t to run those programs. It’s to make sure the volunteers aren’t fighting the town to do it: reliable ice and field time, fees that are fair and published where everyone can see them, and facilities maintained well enough that fundraising goes to kids, not to patching what the municipality let slide.
Plan it like infrastructure, because it is infrastructure. I’m an engineer — I think in asset plans. A rink roof, a playground structure, a ball diamond’s drainage: these all have lifespans and replacement costs, and every one of them is cheaper when you plan ten years out than when you react one emergency at a time. Decide what the town needs, price it honestly, and pursue every dollar of outside funding before asking taxpayers to cover the rest.
If I’m elected, here’s what I’ll push for: a real long-term recreation asset plan with public numbers, outside funding pursued first as a matter of policy, and a standing habit of publishing what recreation actually costs per family. Our kids deserve facilities we’re proud of. Our taxpayers deserve to know what they’re paying for.
What does your family use most — and what’s falling short?