Clarington Professional Fire Fighters Association
IAFF Local 3139
As a candidate for Clarington Council, I have made a clear commitment to open and accountable governance. I do not believe that candidate positions on matters affecting Ward 2 taxpayers should be kept behind closed doors.
Below are my formal, on-the-record positions regarding the priorities raised in the Clarington Professional Fire Fighters Association (IAFF Local 3139) candidate survey.
1. Frontline Staffing & Minimum Shift Strength
Clarington’s Emergency Response Service Review found that staffing could occasionally fall below four firefighters per truck, with total full-time staffing dropping to 9–11 firefighters per shift. In those circumstances, the Municipality could not meet the NFPA best-practice benchmark of 15 firefighters on scene within eight minutes, while crews of three faced significant restrictions on fireground operations.
I support the approved transition to four firefighters per frontline pumper and maintaining sufficient daily staffing to provide a safe and effective initial response as Clarington grows.
2. Labour Relations & Workplace Safety
I support the right of labour unions to advocate on behalf of their members before Council. Frontline firefighters provide practical operational knowledge that should inform decisions concerning equipment, protective gear, staffing and fireground safety. Occupational exposure to contaminants is also an established firefighter health and safety concern.
I support continued investment in firefighter health and safety, including effective decontamination, toxin-reduction and exposure-control measures.
3. Emergency Medical Response & Motor Vehicle Collisions
I support an evidence-based approach to determining which high-acuity medical emergencies and serious motor vehicle collisions receive a tiered firefighter response. Clarington restored its pre-COVID tiered response to calls involving chest pain and difficulty breathing. Station 1 responds to approximately 48% of Clarington’s emergency calls, while the Municipality’s emergency-response review identified significant response-time and staffing challenges.
Where rapid firefighter intervention can provide meaningful early assistance to patients and stabilize trauma scenes before transport arrives, Council should ensure that dispatch protocols and operational resources support an effective tiered response.
4. Capital Planning & Proactive Infrastructure
Fire stations, staffing, equipment and training capacity must be planned proactively based on projected growth and operational response data.
Over the next four years on Council, I will:
Support the timely delivery of Clarington’s Fire Training Facility, protecting the $3.2 million provincial Skills Development Fund investment and supporting prompt selection of an appropriate new site so local firefighters have access to modern, local live-fire training facilities.
Support responsible long-term planning for a future north Bowmanville fire station, with timing based on updated growth projections, response data and demonstrated operational need.
Ensure all eligible growth-related fire capital costs are fully captured through Development Charges, provincial grants and appropriate external partnerships to protect existing property taxpayers.
Support evidence-based firefighter staffing, advanced personal protective equipment, gear decontamination systems and occupational toxin-reduction measures aligned with professional safety standards.
5. Budget Pressures, Decision Priorities & Association Engagement
I will prioritize essential emergency-service capacity while pursuing efficiencies and appropriate growth funding before increasing the financial burden on existing taxpayers. With Clarington’s long-term capital program identifying significant fire-service infrastructure requirements, any tax adjustment should follow a transparent assessment of service needs, available grants, eligible Development Charge funding, reserve funding, external partnerships and internal efficiencies.
I support meaningful consultation with the CPFFA before major decisions affecting fire-service operations, staffing, equipment or working conditions. Frontline firefighters provide valuable operational knowledge that should inform Council’s deliberations, while final policy and budget decisions remain the responsibility of elected Council.
6. Vision for the Community
My vision for Clarington is grounded in Canada’s founding principles: Peace, Order & Good Government—building a safe, well-serviced and fiscally accountable community where public safety and infrastructure scale concurrently with growth rather than lagging behind.
Thank you for your email. This response will be posted on my website, voteglover.ca. I encourage your membership to visit my website if they would like to know more about my vision for Clarington moving forward. If you would like to schedule a meeting I would be more than happy to speak with your members personally.
Sincerely,
Joshua Glover
Candidate for Councillor of Ward 2
On October 26 vote Joshua Glover for Peace, Order, and Good Governance.
All Candidates Forum: Racism
At the recent All Candidates Forum, I was asked about racism in Clarington and the Municipality’s response to it.
Over the past several years, Clarington has experienced incidents of anti-Black racist graffiti, and the Municipality has a responsibility to ensure that residents can participate in community life without discrimination.
To meet that responsibility, the Municipality must establish clearly defined objectives and be able to demonstrate measurable results.
In my response at the forum, I referred to difficulties experienced by the former Anti-Black Racism Task Force. The municipal record documents problems with quorum, engagement and direction. In 2024, members themselves discussed clearer objectives, better goal-setting and the need to measure results. Members also acknowledged that meetings lost to a lack of quorum had contributed to a lack of direction.
Council subsequently elevated the Task Force into the standalone Clarington Anti-Black Racism Advisory Committee, which now reports directly to Council.
This leads to an important question that I believe Council should ask of every municipal initiative:
What are we trying to accomplish, how will we measure it and how will residents know whether it worked?
This is not a standard that should apply uniquely to this committee. Council’s advisory committees exist to bring additional knowledge, experience and community perspectives into municipal decision-making. Their work should have clear objectives, meaningful support and a way of demonstrating results.
During my time as an elected school board trustee, I took committee work seriously. I attended committee meetings, participated actively in their work and brought forward proposals intended to improve how committees operated. I supported the important role committees play in bringing additional perspectives and expertise into the decision-making process.
I would bring that same approach to Clarington Council.
When Council establishes an advisory committee, councillors should not simply appoint its members and walk away. They should understand its work, listen to its recommendations, ensure that it has clear objectives and examine whether those objectives are being achieved. Where a committee is struggling, Council should ask why and determine what can reasonably be done to help it function effectively.
We can condemn racism unequivocally while also expecting municipal programs, committees and expenditures to demonstrate their purpose and results.
On October 26 vote Joshua Glover for Peace, Order, and Good Governance.
Reconciliation Meets Governance
Today is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and I’d like to share a reflection with you.
My campaign is founded on the Canadian tradition of Peace, Order and Good Governance. To me, one of the effects of Good Governance is unity. We will not always agree, nor will our interests always align, but we can remain united by common principles, confidence in our institutions and the knowledge that every voice is entitled to be heard and treated with respect.
In my capacity as school trustee, I believed Truth and Reconciliation had to be reflected in Good Governance principles: following our own rules, honouring our commitments and ensuring that Indigenous voices had a place in decisions affecting their communities.
In 2023, a proposal was brought forward to add a First Nation trustee seat to the Board. I supported the goal of greater Indigenous representation, but the proposed model was flawed in two important respects: the representative would be appointed rather than elected, and the position would represent First Nation communities without providing representation for Métis and Inuit people. To me, Indigenous representation should be both democratic and inclusive, with Indigenous communities having a meaningful voice in determining who represents them.
As I examined how the proposal had come forward, I discovered that our own First Nations, Métis and Inuit Advisory Committee had neither discussed nor voted on the proposal before it was brought to the Board. To rectify this and restore the integrity of the process, I brought forward a motion to refer the matter back to the FNMI Advisory Committee so its Indigenous members could formally consider and vote on the issue. The motion carried.
Ensuring that Indigenous committee members had a direct voice and a formal vote on a matter affecting their interests remains one of my proudest achievements as Trustee.
That experience reinforced my belief that Truth and Reconciliation must be measured by more than words, ceremonies and institutional programming. Institutions can devote significant public resources to reconciliation, but those efforts ring hollow when they fail to follow through on the actions that matter most.
Good Governance means respecting the rules and bylaws that give people a voice. It means ensuring consultation is genuine rather than procedural. It means following through on commitments once they are made. And it means being willing to speak up when minority voices risk being overlooked.
Truth and Reconciliation must be reflected not only in what our institutions say, but in how they govern.
That is the standard I sought to uphold as Trustee, and it is the standard I continue to believe in today.
On October 26 vote Joshua Glover for Peace, Order, and Good Governance.
The Art of Governance
In modern times the difference between governance and administration has become confused. Members of council are expected to represent the local community and act on its behalf. They exercise a policy making role through which they determine services, approve budgets, enact rules and regulations, and generally shape the local community and the quality of life within it.
A third general role of councillors is managerial, and it involves providing oversight of municipal operations to ensure that policies are implemented as intended. Administration manages day-to-day operations, but Governance—the role of an elected Councillor—demands independent judgment and a willingness to champion the community’s needs.
When I first took office at the school board, Clarington had not had a new Catholic school built since 2007. In fact, one of our schools in Ward 2 (St. Elizabeth) housed over 700 students in a school built for 386. The school board had tried for many years to secure funding for a new school, but always to no avail. I made a point to visit the school early in my term to better understand the ground conditions that parents, students and staff were enduring.
After seeing the effects of overcrowding firsthand, I initiated a plan for the board to invite MPP Todd McCarthy directly to St. Elizabeth for an on-site visit. It was unorthodox but I concluded that Mr. McCarthy had a vested interest in seeing the conditions of the school. Mr. McCarthy accepted the invitation and upon visiting the school he saw what I saw and agreed something needed to be done.
The MPP’s tour of St. Elizabeth gave our cause the fresh momentum it needed, and months later the Provincial Government announced a nearly $27 million investment in a new 493-student Northglen Catholic Elementary School.
When governance and administration work in sync—each respecting the role of the other—communities achieve extraordinary things. But true collaboration starts with knowing where administrative routine ends and elected leadership begins.
I have that experience, I understand the distinction, and I am ready to bring that collaborative, results-driven approach to Council.
On October 26th, vote Joshua Glover for Ward 2 Councillor.
