Tracey Stevens wants to help the County find efficiencies to improve affordability.

The North Marysburgh candidate met with residents at PELC last week, part of its Election Connection program.

Ms. Stevens educates businesses on when and how to use AI through the consulting business she operates from Cressy, 3sens.ai. She brings to the table degrees in computer engineering, business, and educational technology.

“It was my job to come in as a consultant and say, you have a big problem? How can I analyze it and come up with a solution,” she said.

Fiscal responsibility and affordability are top of mind among residents, says Ms. Stevens. For the people of North Marysburgh, however, better communication and getting their fair share are equally prominent issues.

“I’m running because I really believe it’s important to have some level of civic engagement, and I feel I have the appropriate background to assist the municipality at this stage,” Ms. Stevens said. “The big issue is communication and consultation. People in my ward feel they haven’t been spoken to. Their opinions haven’t been heard.”

Without getting into specifics on how to solve the issues surrounding water and wastewater in the County, Stevens explained she intends to scrutinize the process and find efficiencies. The same kind of analysis will be applied when looking at bringing in affordable housing, or making a decision on large scale infrastructure.

“When a proposal is put forth, what kind of metrics are used? Is there a best case, worst case, reasonable scenario, where do the metrics come from? Have they been pressure tested? Is there an economic cost and benefit analysis for today, tomorrow and 30 years from now? Those are things we can do better,” Ms. Stevens said.

Residents can expect the same level of scrutiny when Ms. Stevens is tasked with finding efficiencies in the budget. While responsible growth is one part of improving affordability in the County, she noted there is always room to improve.

“Every situation I’ve been in, corporate or private, there are always efficiencies. In your own household, how you manage yourself, there’s always efficiencies. In every organization I’ve been part of, an annual objective would be to try to cut costs by 10 per cent, for example,” she said.