Questions and Answers
1. Does the City/Region need more regulations for new and future businesses to protect groundwater?
Jan Liggett: Yes (City of Cambridge)
2. Do you support a bylaw restricting the non-essential, cosmetic use of pesticides (for lawn and garden care)?
Jan Liggett: Definitely
3. The issue of a new Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph is still simmering. What is your preferred solution? (ie leave existing road as is? widen existing highway? put in commuter train between K/W and Guelph? build new highway, etc.)
Jan Liggett: Widen the highway and commuter train possibly running off of the proposed LRTS
4. What are your recommendations for alternate transportation (ie bike/hike trails, buses, LRT, GO train)
Jan Liggett: Hiking & Bike trails are not transportation routes they are recreational. Bike lanes on roadways are more apt to be used by people seriously trying to get from A-Z rather than trails. Bus routes need to be increased in the city of Cambridge. Some areas of the city are not serviced at all. LRT is great if it ever comes here (pardon my cynicism). With the provincial debt load I doubt the GO train expansion, but I wholeheartedly support it and would lobby for it.
5. What are your solutions for gridlock?
Jan Liggett: Stop creating segregated industrial and shopping areas. That's where gridlock starts. Cul de sacs are another problem. Cities that are not laid out in a grid pattern create gridlock. Planning has to be changed. Railway intersections should have the roadway below grade.
6. Do you support defining an urban border that puts an end to urban sprawl to protect farmland and natural areas?
Jan Liggett: Definitely. I think my record shows that I am a preservationist of not only our built heritage, but our natural heritage as well.
7. Do you believe that our size should be limited to our carrying capacity (ie groundwater resources, geographical barriers, impact on natural environment)
Jan Liggett: Again definitely. The costs incurred both financially as well as environmentally are too high if that doesn't happen.
8. What measurable initiatives can you take to improve air quality locally?
Jan Liggett: Every property should have trees and other vegetation for more than aesthetic reasons. Car idling needs to be discouraged.
9. How do you envision reaching zero waste?
Jan Liggett: Recycle, recycle, recycle. The region's refuse pickup availability is a problem. It encourages residents to throw out large items rather than recycle them.
10. How do you see the City/Region 20 years from now?
Jan Liggett: The city of Cambridge has the opportunity of accepting and implementing the recommendations of Legacy Cambridge, which will be given to them on Nov 24th. This report will be recommending a master plan for the protection built, cultural and natural heritage features. The master plan would make recommendations for major official plan changes to start in 2005. As the vice chair of this committee and a member of the subcommittee working on this proposal, I can't be emphatic enough about the importance of this issue. Cambridge will be protected if the incoming council is not weak.
11. Should Cambridge fit into the Region's future? If yes, how?
Jan Liggett: Cambridge needs to fit in with the region of other communities around us (note the small r). The Region has grown in the wrong direction and become a government rather than the service board that was originally set up. Too much backroom politicking is happening with tradeoffs. All of our surrounding communities need to work together to ensure natural corridors intersect the entire region and to protect our groundwater.
12. How do you propose to obtain the maximum level of forest coverage for this area?
Jan Liggett: Developers need to be required to have a certain percentage of land left with trees and if they are not already there plant them. Don't leave it up to the new homeowner who doesn't think to have money built into their mortgage for trees (or doesn't think it is important enough. Once the trees are there they sure won't want to pay $1000. to have one taken out. The green spaces that we have left need to be protected as if gold. Rezoning from forest areas should not be allowed to happen.
13. How can you best work with community groups and concerned citizens to achieve environmental sustainability?
Jan Liggett: My record again shows what I have already done. My husband and I were the driving forces in setting up the Cruickston Coalition to save the land preserve from the U of G. The coalition was a very dedicated group of individuals who doggedly worked to keep up the heat on politicians and the media. Because of this the first donor to purchase the land came out of the woodwork. Born from the coalition was the Grand River Valley Coalition a group formed to stop more bridges and the degradation of the river valley. I have remained a member of this group as well. For the past 2 years I have sat on Legacy Cambridge (a committee of council) made up of individuals as well as representatives of numerous groups. See response to question # 10 with regard to Legacy Cambridge. I was the first person to file an appeal against the region and the city of Kitchener to try and stop the Doon Valley Golf Course expansion. I spent 5 weeks as a volunteer agent representing Heritage Cambridge at the OMB hearing. I sit on the GRCA's Heritage Working Group (ensures the designation of the Grand as an heritage river).
14. How would you support and develop lifelong environmental education in the City/Region?