Barrie’s mayor has already started working on his New Year’s resolutions for 2020.
“My personal one, I guess, is intentionality. I feel like, unfortunately, with so much going on with my personal and political life, I feel like sometimes I’m just trying to keep the lights on. I get carried away with events and I want to feel like I’m more purposeful in 2020,” said Mayor Jeff Lehman.
“I’d like to focus my time and make sure I'm spending the time with my daughter I want to spend. I just don’t want to get carried along by a schedule that’s often 60, 70 or 80 hours a week. I’ve started implementing my New Year’s resolution already and my staff have been amazing to help me out with this,” he said.
“I sit on seven different boards, I chair four of them. That’s too much. I need to focus more.”
Politically, Lehman says his goals would be related to his personal goals for 2020.
“In 2020, I want to get back to an agenda that’s building a better Barrie,” he said. “Not just dealing with the issue of the day. We dealt with many critical issues this year; some of them very difficult on the social issue side of things.”
“Our council started with strong strategic planning. We had five clear goals for our city. But, I think we got pushed off them a number of times as we dealt with issues of the day. Some of those issues are what I would call side-shows. They were a distraction,” said Lehman.
In 2019, one meeting sticks out in Lehman’s mind as something of which he’s most proud.
Lehman said he sat down with Dr. Brian Irving, who runs the Rapid Access Addiction Medicine (RAAM) clinic, which is the drop-in treatment centre in Barrie.
"He gave me his patient numbers, and they had more than doubled,” said Lehman.
From April to June, Lehman said the centre had about 400 visits. From July to September, they had 840.
“Those numbers stick in my mind because I was proud of our community and the efforts of our Connected Core program. Most of all, because treatment is finding people help. It’s not putting a Band-Aid on things,” he said.
“The reason I’m proud of that, is because we made a concerted effort to help get people into treatment,” Lehman added.
When the Snowbirds flew over Barrie just before Canada Day, Lehman also recounts a feeling of pride that day.
“I’m a proud Canadian, but as mayor of Barrie, I was proud they were here and there were 40,000 people around the waterfront,” he said. “One of the best things about being mayor is a lot of what we do as a city is events that are free for the public.
"I have a picture in my office of a father reading to his son in the library. One of the reasons I love that is because libraries are free. They’re for everyone. It was a proud moment.”
Looking to 2020, Lehman said he’s looking forward to seeing some planned projects finally come to fruition, such as highrises planned for the downtown, and the new transit terminal at the Allandale GO station.
Most of all, in 2020, Lehman hopes to see more personal connections within the city.
“In 2020, I’d like to grow our compassion as a community. The world seems to be losing its compassion right now, in part because we talk to each other through our phones. I don’t want our community to lose its sense of connection,” he said.
