President Joyce introduced our Mayor Brian Ostrander:
Brian began his career in the printing and publishing world at the University of Toronto Press and has worked in sales, marketing and business development most recently for book and magazine printing and publishing company Maracle Inc, the publisher of the Brighton Beacon. First elected to Brighton Council in 2003, Brian has worked to bring progress and stability to the community and Council, providing independence to staff and management to effectively operate the municipal business and drawing on years of procedural fairness to govern over Council meetings. Brian is married to Tammy, a teacher at Spring Valley and they have two daughters, Kaitlyn a United Church Minister in Arden and Megan in client services with B&H Carpet here in Brighton.
Brian shared with us some initiatives that he has spear headed to bring people together and run with the issue and happily at minimal if any cost to the Municipality at this time.
The first is a Mental Health initiative. Brian became aware of bullying and violence by young people here in Brighton and repeated crisis happening at ENSS. This has been confirmed in discussions with the OPP and the principle at ENSS. The answer to the question, 'how can we help?' was to bring awareness and support for Mental Health. A brief survey on social media revealed many people don't know what to do or where to access help and support for mental health concerns. Brian has been able to bring together individuals from various organizations including the County, churches, school board, hospital and others to seek a solution(s). Their initial plan is to host a series of events the first week of June starting June 6 to bring awareness and educate people about Mental Health.
A second initiative regards ECO Tourism, such as waterfowl weekend and sportsman show that we have had in the community in the past. Again the idea was to bring people of various interests and skills together to develop a plan to promote what we have and advocate for local businesses. The Chamber will lead this endeavor.
A third working group is being put together to replace and develop Murals downtown to showcase what Brighton means to people.
All of these initiatives involve bringing a variety of people together working for a common purpose / goal.