TOWNSHIP OF GEORGIAN BAY

Re-elect
Peter Koetsier
for Mayor

Experienced Leadership That Listens

Get in Touch

Vote for:

  • Protecting Our Environment And Water Quality

  • Investing In Our Communities

  • Responsible And Sustainable Development

  • Better Value For Our Tax Dollars

  • Long-Term Thinking For Future Generations

Every Vote Counts!

Every Vote Counts!

Dear Residents of the Township of Georgian Bay,

It has been an honour and a privilege to serve as your Mayor for the past eight years. Now, I am asking for your support to continue serving our Township for another four-year term.

During the past eight years we have worked to strengthen the Township's ability to serve residents, protect our environment and provide opportunities for sustainable and responsible development.

I am proud of the progress we have made. But municipal leadership is not simply about what has already been accomplished. It is about preparing for what comes next. I remain committed to listening, working collaboratively and providing experienced, responsible leadership, which understands our Township's history.

Read Peter's Letter to Voters

Priorities

  • Investing in MacTier

    ·      Continuing the momentum of the ReFresh MacTier program by significantly investing in MacTier. This will cover both facilities and programming, making MacTier an even better place to live, work, and visit.

  • Respecting Community Plans

    ·      Ensuring community plans are respected in the Official Plan and Zoning By-law review, which will be completed over the next two years. We must ensure environmental protection while adjusting to the evolving Provincial regulations. 

  • Waste Services

    ·      Finalizing new solid waste service levels, and associated taxation, with the District of Muskoka.

  • Enhancing Library Services

    Upgrading Port Severn library services to accreditation levels, as has already been achieved in the Honey Harbour and MacTier branches. 

  • Better Taxpayer Value

    ·      Leveraging the groundwork I have laid at the District of Muskoka to ensure better services and value from our taxes. Ensuring that our Township’s unique characteristics and challenges are better recognized as the District undergoes a governance review under a Provincially appointed Chair.

  • Protecting Our Waters

    Creating water quality and septic system testing protocols that will lead to action, where necessary, to better protect our waters.

Here’s some of what we’ve achieved over the past eight years.

  • The Township of Georgian Bay is now fully staffed with well qualified individuals

  • Planning applications are now heard in months instead of years

  • We have secured long-term funding from the District of Muskoka for Georgian Bay General Hospital and the West Parry Sound Health Centre

  • We have protected very significant tracts of land through the Corridor Project, in conjunction with Georgian Bay Land Trust

  • We have invested in docks, a new shelter with rink, and pickleball courts in Honey Harbour

  • We achieved a Low Volume Roads policy at District to ensure our roads get more attention

  • We have conducted water quality studies which will inform new policies to protect our waters

  • Library services in MacTier and Honey Harbour are now at accreditation levels

  • We have improved internal technology and policies, leading to improved operations and better long-term decision-making for our investments

  • We provided heavily discounted Food Cyclers to many of our residents, and large item pick-up events, at reduced cost, after District pulled out of that service

Record:

About Peter

A Lifelong Connection to Georgian Bay

Although I was born and raised in Waterloo, Georgian Bay has been part of my life for more than 60 years. My family began coming to the Honey Harbour area in the 1960s, visiting family friends and spending time at Camp Wabanaki on Beausoleil Island. After renting cottages here in 1969 and 1971, my family purchased our cottage in December 1971. Georgian Bay has been home to my heart ever since.

I met my wife, Wendy Wingfelder, here 40 years ago. Wendy's family has been cottaging in the area for about a century. We have been married for 37 years and raised our two daughters, Sarah and Kristin, in Barrie and Honey Harbour. Georgian Bay has helped shape our family's values, our work and our commitment to community and environmental service.

Experience That Prepared Me to Serve

Following a decade of higher education, working experiences, and travel, I spent 29 years with an international manufacturing company based in Barrie, serving as Comptroller, Vice-President Administration and Senior Vice-President Strategic Planning. That experience taught me the importance of sound fiscal management, long-term planning, collaboration and finding practical solutions to difficult problems.

Over the years, I have served on many not-for-profit and community boards, including the Honey Harbour Association, Georgian Bay Association, Georgian Bay Land Trust, and Georgian Bay Mnidoo Gamii Biosphere. I also served on the Township's Committee of Adjustment.

My involvement in the effort to save the Honey Harbour schools further strengthened my commitment to serving our communities.

These experiences gave me a deep understanding of our Township - its communities, its people, its unique environment, and the challenges we face in balancing responsible development with protecting the land and waters that make the Township of Georgian Bay so extraordinary.

Qualifications

Mayor of the Township of Georgian Bay

8 Years

Councillor of the District of Muskoka

8 Years

including Chair of Finance Committee

5 Years

Director, Simcoe Muskoka Health Unit

7 Years

Director, Georgian Bay Mnidoo Gamii Biosphere

11 years, 9.5 as Treasurer

Director, Georgian Bay Land Trust

10 years, 9 as Treasurer

Director, Honey Harbour Association

6 years, 5 as President

Senior Executive with Barrie manufacturer  

29 years

4 years, 1 on executive committee

Director, Georgian Bay Association

Member, Committee of Adjustment

4 years

Seasonal resident of the Township of Georgian Bay

60+ years

Open-minded, patient, fair, objective, with a willingness to listen

Experienced, with a strong desire for collaboration and results

Let’s Keep Moving Forward Together

Georgian Bay is an incredibly special place. Whether you live here year-round, spend your summers here, operate a business here or have generations of family history on these shores, we share a common interest in protecting and strengthening the Township we care about.

I respectfully ask for your support so that we can keep moving forward together - for the good of our Township and the natural environment we all treasure.

Thank you,