Diane Holmes says her work in Somerset Ward isn’t done.
Somerset Ward's veteran councillor will be seeking re-election to city council in this fall's civic election because she thinks her job isn’t yet done.
“There’s so much unfinished work to do on behalf of the residents and the job’s very interesting. It keeps me busy,” says Holmes, who has been on city council and the former regional council for 27 years.
She has a long list of ongoing projects and future projects that she wants to start. At present, she’s engaged with the long-range plans for the new public library and the light rail project.
“There’ll be many meetings with the community about the light rail,” says Holmes.
“We need to find out how many buses are going to go on what street. There are many roads to redesign. The public has a lot to say about what to be done there.”
Another priority to improve the downtown environment is a green roof policy which would see more gardens on downtown roof tops.
“As you build a new house you have to have a green roof. It saves money for the heating and you provide some oxygen for the city. I think that a green roof situation would be easy to implement.”
Holmes also wants more trees planted, construct more safe biking routes in the city, reconstruct some of the parks and encourage the residents to drink less bottled water and more tap water.
She realizes her agenda will be time consuming but she’s undaunted by the process. “It’s long days but I don’t really get tired.”
She rejects the idea that at 71 she should have reached retirement age. “That’s pretty old thinking now. Today, people are much healthier, stronger and can go on much longer.”
But she says she welcomes new and younger challengers because she appreciates diversity on city council.
Holmes says that many people from the community have encouraged her to run again,
She has been councillor for the Somerset area since 1982 with a three-year break between 2000 and 2003 when she served on regional council. She adds there’s no other ward she’d rather represent.
“My ward has a very interesting mix of people of different races who get along very well; from low income to high income. And Somerset has great commercial streets. I think it has everything.”
But Holmes is aware of one serious future challenge in Somerset.
“The challenge will be to maintain some affordable housing in Somerset to keep it from becoming only a high-end area. "
She’ll begin thinking about campaign strategies later this spring. In the meantime, she’s quite relaxed about her re-election chances.
“We’ll see. I always go in and don’t take anything for granted.”