Story created by
Tim FitzGerald
Ian Rabbits has been a Norfolk County Councillor going on four years now.
He has seen both the ups and downs of County politics.
Ian studied political science at Brock University and continued education in PR and HR at Niagara and Conestoga respectively https://ca.linkedin.com/in/ian-rabbitts-b-a-chrl-ab11b546 . Ian expressed that he is local and has experienced the same challenges "that you have" - making a living, cost of living and taxes.
Ian advises that he will use his experience and skills in HR to build consensus across council and deliver on the kitchen table issues that concern voters in Norfolk County.
A few issues - water supply constraints are constraining development leaving us with fewer rate payors to spread the load. The legacy costs of maintaining ancient buildings for youth and senior citizen centres have precluded investment in modern facilities.
A few questions from Rotarians - downtown Simcoe appears to suffer from decline? One causation is the lack of affordable housing, there is a a less than 1% vacancy in the area. Ian has seen other jurisdictions with an independent housing corporations achieve a higher per capital success - this needs to be explored.
Ian is a fiscal conservative and has never been shy of "honest - hands on work".