Rose Kitney's Vision for Peterborough

Peterborough has real potential but potential doesn't turn into jobs and investment on its own. Rose supports the development of a Multi-Use Sports and Conference Centre, a facility that would draw visitors, tournaments, and conferences to the city while signalling to developers that Peterborough is ready to grow.

Critically, this can't fall on the backs of taxpayers. Rose will push Council to actively pursue private, provincial, and federal funding partnerships to get this built, not default to local tax increases. Done right, a project like this makes Peterborough a destination of choice, which in turn attracts new business, strengthens existing ones, and creates the kind of revenue and employment growth the city needs.

Year-over-year tax increases of 6.5% are not sustainable for Peterborough households and small businesses already stretched thin. Rose believes the City's first obligation is to find efficiencies within the existing budget before asking residents for more. That means a hard look at spending priorities, cutting waste where it exists, and holding the line on future increases so families and seniors on fixed incomes aren't priced out of their own city.

Peterborough's growth is constrained by its current municipal footprint. Rose supports continuing collaborative discussions with Cavan Monaghan Township around potential annexation — particularly in the area surrounding the Peterborough Airport, a site with real potential for industrial and commercial development. Expanding our boundaries thoughtfully opens the door to future tax base growth, employment lands, and long-term planning flexibility the city currently lacks.

Downtown Peterborough should be a place residents are proud to visit, shop, and work; not a place people actively avoid. Rose supports immediate, tangible action to address the open drug use that has come to define the core, paired with real investment in the social services and outreach programs needed to address the root causes, not just the symptoms.

This isn't an either/or. Public safety and compassionate social support have to move together. Restoring downtown means businesses can flourish again, and residents and visitors alike feel safe walking its streets.

Safety is foundational to everything else on this platform, and it starts with two immediate priorities:

One City Peterborough / Trinity Hub — The ongoing and proliferative drug use connected to this site is actively undermining the safety of the downtown core, for residents, business owners, and vulnerable individuals alike. Rose supports immediate, coordinated action between the City, service providers, and law enforcement to address this.

Residential Traffic Safety — Speeding in residential neighbourhoods is a persistent concern for families across the city. Rose supports consistent, city-wide speed limits paired with real enforcement, so every neighbourhood street is safe for kids, pets, and pedestrians.

Roads, water, waste management, and core infrastructure are the unglamorous backbone of a functioning city and they can't be the first thing cut when budgets get tight. Rose is committed to protecting community priorities and core services in the municipal budget, ensuring Peterborough's infrastructure keeps pace with its growth instead of falling further behind.

Peterborough's unemployment rate remains one of the highest in the country. That's not just a statistic, it's a signal that the city's economic strategy needs a real reset. Rose believes a renewed, deliberate focus on economic development can shift this trajectory, positioning Peterborough as a destination of choice for new residents, businesses, and investment. Growth and job creation aren't separate from the other priorities on this platform, they're the engine that funds everything else.

The Tiny Homes project on Wolfe Street, operated by the Elizabeth Fry Society, is a genuinely promising model, one where individuals participate in structured programming as a condition of continued support, encouraging real progress rather than a purely transactional shelter model. Rose supports expanding this program and increasing shelter capacity across the city, alongside deeper involvement from community organizations to support long-term outcomes for marginalized individuals working toward stability.

Every resident deserves a safe, stable place to call home and right now, too many Peterborough families and individuals are priced out of that basic security. Rose supports increasing housing density and enabling multi-level housing developments to expand the range of affordable options across the city.

At the same time, growth has to be done with communities, not to them. Rose is committed to ensuring genuine community consultation happens before any new multi-level developments move forward, so neighbourhoods have a real voice in how their communities change.