The terms Responsibility & Accountability are often confused with one another. One of the reasons for this confusion, is that you cannot have one without the other.
A council is held accountable for the record of the past four years. An individual councillor is held accountable for the entirety of their time in office. But they are not always responsible for the events that transpire. Not always to blame for the failures and not always the hero of the successes.
If elected I will work with the council and the staff to clearly assign both responsibility and accountability. These steps are not innovative or original. The establishment of sound management practices will ensure that individuals feel safe to achieve their objectives and grow the village. All while establishing a clear measuring post to track performance.
A car cannot hope to go anywhere if all four wheels are not going in the same direction. Like a car or truck the Municipal Government of Belledune is supposed to function as a vehicle for the community to move towards a brighter future. Years of infighting, power struggles and vindictive actions have left our village team and much of the community divided.
This division is a large part of the reason that our village has failed to evolve and has seen continuous decline in population and businesses since the 1990’s. Unfortunately, there are those looking to lead that fail to see this trend. We as a community have to make a choice of whether we wish to be a place where we fail to take responsibility for our own future and blame others, or if we are willing to realize that future generations will hold us accountable for the decisions we make today, and take on the responsibility of buiilding a better future for Belledune.