Candidate name: Aaron Burchat

Occupation: Electronics Store Owner, Skate Shop Owner Manager of Security and Telecommunication Company

Position on council: Councillor

Contact information: 905-377-5065

Social Media: www.Instagram.com/aaron_burchat www.Facebook.com/AaronBurchatCouncillor

Biography: I was born in Pembroke, Ontario in 1985, the oldest of 5 siblings. My family moved to Northumberland County when I was a toddler. My K-12 school years were all at Cobourg schools. When I was 17 I started working part-time at Kentucky Fried Chicken in Cobourg, where I met

my wife, Lindy. Not long after, I moved from my parents house to her parents house in Cobourg.

We lived there while I attended Sir Sanford Fleming College in the Home and Building Automation program, learning the technical skills that I have used in my employment at Alliance Security/Compton’s Telecommunications since graduating college.

Lindy and I have 3 children together, they are now 17, 14, and 8 years old. We are all animal lovers, and our family has 5 cats and 5 rabbits.

I ran in my first municipal election in 2014. While I did not win that one, I used my time after the election to become more involved with the town, joining the board of directors for Northumberland Central Chamber of Commerce, and the Planning Advisory Committee for Cobourg. When a council seat became vacant in 2016, I was appointed to that position, and was given the Coordinator of Planning and Development portfolio.

In 2017, my wife and I purchased a long-standing Cobourg retail electronics business, where I take care of the home installations.

I secured a council seat in the 2018 elections, and I have been the Coordinator of Protection Service

since then. I also joined the Rotary Club of Cobourg in 2018, to be able to be a part of the great fundraising they do for this community.

This past March, I was able to realize a personal dream of mine, and I opened a Skateboard Shop, combining my hobby with business.

Identify one hobby or guilty pleasure you do that is not related to your profession or politics:

When I’m not working or doing council business, you can find me perfecting my skateboard tricks at the skate park!

Please answer each question clearly and concisely in no more than 500 words.

1. Why are you running for council? I am running for re-election because I love Cobourg. I love living here, and raising my family here, and I want to continue making Cobourg a great place for families to live. I like being involved in the key decision making within the town, on the things that affect residents’ daily lives – the roads we drive on, the parks we play in, the community events that bring people together, the safety and accessibility of our citizens.

2. What is the single, primary reason you are running?

A priority item on my campaign platform is the service delivery – to make it easier for residents to contact town staff to deal with issues or get information in a timely manner.

3. What will you do to address this issue?

I plan to provide town staff with the tools required to create a single point of contact at town hall who can take the information from residents and get back to them with a resolution, or direct them to the correct person within the organization. This point of contact will be able to help track each item as required, to ensure proper follow-up is done, and the town can be sure that the issue has been rectified.

4. Identify one success of the previous council? One of the biggest successes of the previous council is the steps we took to encourage more public engagement/involvement. We started holding open forum at the end of our council meetings, where residents could speak up and ask questions of council, or simply state their opinions, or let council know of anything they have an issue with. We also began using our engagecobourg.ca

website to do surveys and have a web forum to gather opinions from residents prior to working on big projects, like Police Officer body worn cameras, or more recently, the pickleball courts and skate park.

5. Identify one criticism of the previous council?

Certain projects that we had intended on doing, unfortunately did not get completed during the last term of council, for example, the east Pier reconstruction, and the tannery lands project.

6. How will you address the one issue you identified from the previous council?

I will be making sure that projects that are outstanding are brought forth for discussion early in the new council term, so any new council members can be brought up to speed and we can work together to ensure they do not fall through the cracks during the council transition.

7. Why should voters select you over others?

Voters should select me over others because I come with experience of being on council

previously. I use common sense in my voting, trying to balance the needs of the community, while keeping the budget requirements in mind. I will always try to do what is best for Cobourg overall.