Vote Joel ScottFor Cobourg Town Council

Every Cobourg Resident Deserves to Feel Safe

You told me this loud and clear. Safety and security ranked in the top three priorities in my community poll. It is the number one conversation I have. And it deserves a direct, honest response.

Drug use in our parks, our streets, and our waterfront is not acceptable. Full stop.

It puts families at risk, it drives people away from our downtown and waterfront, and it will not be tolerated in our public spaces. This is a health and safety issue for every resident and taxpayer in Cobourg.

When you tell me you do not feel comfortable walking through downtown after dark, I hear you.

When you tell me families are skipping the beach on summer weekends, I hear you.

When you tell me businesses are losing customers because people feel unsafe on King Street, I hear you.

But let me be clear about something else you have been telling me. The problem is not only the people struggling with addiction in our community. The problem also includes the people who are profiting from their suffering. Drug dealers are operating in our community, and the penalties they face do not reflect the damage they do.

I will be a strong voice for tougher enforcement and stiffer consequences for those who are selling drugs in Cobourg. Taking dealers off our streets is just as important as connecting people in addiction to the help they need.

Cobourg deserves both. A community that shows compassion to people who are struggling and zero tolerance for those who are preying on them.

Public safety is not a partisan issue. It is a basic expectation that every person living in this community is entitled to. And right now, Cobourg is not fully meeting that expectation.

Let me be clear about something. Feeling safe downtown and caring about people who are struggling are not competing values. They are the same goal. The fastest path to a safer Cobourg is not moving people from one park bench to the next. That just shifts the problem around the block.

Real safety comes from quickly connecting people who want out of street life to detox, treatment, housing, enforcing our bylaws consistently, and ensuring every part of our community response is coordinated and accountable.

As your councillor, I will never use public safety as a political talking point. I will treat it as a responsibility.

My Commitments

• Push to establish a coordination protocol between Town bylaw officers, parks staff, and County homelessness services. Named contacts. Clear responsibilities. Defined response times. When a situation happens today, it is not always clear who calls who. That needs to change.
• Support consistent bylaw enforcement that protects public spaces for everyone. Parks, the waterfront, and our downtown need to be welcoming for families, visitors, and business owners.
• Push for quarterly public reporting on safety outcomes in Cobourg specifically, not just County-wide numbers, so residents can see whether things are improving.
• Advocate for stronger community policing partnerships that keep our officers visible and connected to the neighbourhoods they serve.

Cobourg Deserves Real Answers on Homelessness and Housing.

Over 1,300 households are on Northumberland's housing waitlist. The average wait is 10 to 11 years. That is not a statistic. That is our neighbours.

Seventy percent of respondents in my community poll named homelessness, mental health, and addictions as their top concern. More than any other issue on the list. That tells me something important: Cobourg residents are not asking me to ignore this problem.

They are asking me to take it seriously. I will.

I want to be honest with you about what a town councillor can and cannot do. Housing services are a County responsibility. As your councillor, my role is to advocate, collaborate, and push. I cannot single-handedly build new shelters or fund treatment programs.

But a Cobourg councillor who says "that is the County's problem" is choosing not to do their job. Because the impact lands here.

On King Street. In Victoria Park. At the waterfront.

I have read the County's 2025 Housing and Homelessness Annual Report in full. The County is doing real work under difficult circumstances. But there are evidence-based strategies that other Canadian cities have used to reduce homelessness, that we have not adopted. Medicine Hat, Alberta reached near-zero chronic homelessness. They have a data-driven, coordinated system that ensures fewer people are experiencing chronic homelessness than can be routinely housed in a month.

These results are possible. They require political will, proper funding, and a coordinated plan.

I will bring that conversation to the County table on behalf of Cobourg residents.

My Commitments

• Request a Cobourg-specific report from the County showing shelter use, housing placements, and By-Name List data for our community. Cobourg residents deserve local numbers, not just County-wide averages.
• Advocate for a 90-day housing placement target at the County. From the moment someone is identified as homeless to the moment they are placed in housing. Medicine Hat did it. Northumberland can too.
• Champion a dedicated outreach team at the county level that brings mental health, addiction, and housing support directly to people in crisis, seven days a week, funded through a provincial application.
• I will push to secure every dollar of County, Provincial, and Federal funding available to support this work locally.

Once-in-a-Generation Growth is Coming. Is Cobourg Ready?

I want a vision of Cobourg our kids and their kids will be proud to call home.

Two major regional projects, if they proceed as anticipated, could change Northumberland County for the next 50 to 75 years. Cobourg sits in the middle of both of them. The question is not whether growth is coming. But will we be ready for it.

To our east, a new $400 million regional hospital is planned for Campbellford. Construction alone is expected to bring over 1,000 trades and health care jobs to the region. When the hospital opens, it will attract healthcare professionals who will need homes, schools for their kids, and a community to belong to. Will Cobourg be a community of choice for professionals who want to work in Trent Hills?

To our west, Ontario Power Generation is proposing a major large-scale nuclear generating station at the Wesleyville site in Port Hope. If it proceeds as anticipated through the federal impact assessment process, it could support up to 10,000 megawatts of clean energy capacity, enough to power approximately 10 million homes, and is projected to contribute $235 billion to Ontario's GDP over its lifespan of an estimated 78 years. The project is expected to create 10,500 jobs across Ontario, including at least 1,700 new positions directly in Port Hope. Think of what General Motors did for the Durham region over the past 60 years. That is the scale of what may be coming to our doorstep.

But here is what I also know. Growth without a plan is not an opportunity. It is a crisis waiting to happen.

Communities that do not plan for growth end up with traffic, sprawl, overwhelmed services, rising housing costs, and a downtown that loses what made it special. I am not willing to let that happen to Cobourg.

But not everyone is excited about growth.

Many people who chose Cobourg chose it because it is a small town. The beach. The downtown. The sense that everybody knows everybody. That is worth protecting. Good planning does not sacrifice small-town character. It protects it.

Note: Both projects are in planning and approvals stages. Timelines are subject to change. These commitments are based on preparing Cobourg responsibly for the growth these projects may bring.

My Commitments

• Advocate for an updated Town of Cobourg Official Plan that allows for a long-term growth strategy that ties every planning and zoning decision to where Cobourg is headed over the next 25 to 50 years, not just the next budget or election cycle.
• Advocate for an infrastructure readiness review covering roads, water, sewer, and transit capacity benchmarked against regional growth projections. Find the gaps before they become crises.
• Support workforce housing planning that accommodates new workers and families at a range of price points without displacing long-time Cobourg residents.
• Advocate for infrastructure funding from all upper levels of government proportionate to the regional growth Cobourg will be asked to absorb.

Your Tax Dollars Need to Work as Hard as You Do.

Property taxes in Cobourg rose 19.9 percent over three years. Did our services get 19.9 percent better?

That gap between what residents pay and what they receive needs to close. And it starts with council taking fiscal responsibility seriously.

I know what it costs to run a household in Cobourg today. I work with families and individuals in this community every day. Rising costs are real. When you open your tax bill and see that number going up year after year, you deserve more than a shrug and a press release explaining why it had to happen.

A community task force of Cobourg residents already did the hard work of identifying where the money is going and where decisions need to be reconsidered.

I am not running to cut services. I am running to make sure every dollar Cobourg spends is justified, debated openly, and delivering real value to the people paying for it.

My Commitments

• Be a strong advocate for every dollar at County, Provincial, and Federal levels of Government
• A line-by-line review of the recommendations from the Cobourg Community Budget Task Force and move to implement the ones that reduce costs without reducing service.
• Support service-level budgeting that builds the Town's budget around specific services and the cost to deliver them, so residents can understand exactly what they are paying for.
• Advocate for a Resident Budget Advisory Committee made up of Cobourg residents embedded in the annual budget process. Not a one-time task force. A standing commitment to keeping taxpayers at the table.
• Vote against unplanned borrowing. Every major capital project should have a clear funding plan before it is approved. No more surprises on the tax bill.

A Commitment to Transparency.

Cobourg residents are not asking for a politician. They are asking for someone who will show up, do the homework, say what they believe, and be honest when things are not working. That is what I am offering.

I spent 16 years on the radio in this community. My whole career was built on communicating clearly with people. No jargon. No spin. Just information that helps people understand what is happening and why. I intend to bring that same standard to council.

Transparency is not just about posting meeting minutes online. It is about making sure residents actually understand what is being decided, what the options were, what the costs are, and how their councillor voted. Every time. Without having to file a freedom of information request to find out.

I will also be honest about my own limits. When I do not know something, I will say so. When I change my mind based on new information, I will tell you why. When I vote against the majority, I will explain my reasoning publicly. And when the community tells me I got something wrong, I will listen.

Accountability runs both ways. I will hold the institutions I serve on to a higher standard. And I will hold myself to one too.

My Commitments

• Hold two community "town halls" per year, one in person, one online, where residents ask questions directly and get straight answers, not talking points.
• Establish a monthly newsletter with a clear, jargon-free update on what council actually did and what it means for Cobourg.
• Publicly explain my reasoning any time I vote against the majority or change my position based on new information.