Hryniewicz dodges debate question, attacks Caicco instead

What would Julie Hryniewicz's top three priorities be if elected mayor of Sault Ste. Marie?

Who knows?

Hryniewicz, whose campaign has so far has focussed on community walks and clean-up projects with few hints as to the specifics of her community vision, was the only one of four mayoral candidates to completely dodge that question at a SooNews-organized debate last night.

Hryniewicz, a motivational speaker dedicated to empowering others to articulate and achieve their life goals, neatly sidestepped a moderator's question about her own goals for the City, choosing instead to use all her alloted response time to attack the way fellow candidate James Caicco answered the question she evaded.

Here's how the three other mayoral candidates responded to the priorities question:

Ron Schinners 1) Achieve a residential tax decrease 15 percent over four years.

2) Look at a tax decrease for small business owners

3) Improve Sault Transit, possibly running trolley cars as a tourist attraction.

Debbie Amaroso

1) Improve low satisfaction rating among new small and medium-sized businesses, ensuring the Sault is truly open for open for business.

2) Youth retention. 3) Health care, including supportive housing in which staff are available 24 hours a day to assist seniors with daily living needs.

James Caicco

1) Economy and jobs - improving transportation links such as a deep water port, rail service and dependable roads.

2) Expanding local tax base through synergies with businesses coming to town. 3) Lifestyle, quality of life issues (unspecified, Caicco was cut off by the bell as he was about to explain this priority).

Hryniewicz indicated at one point in her response that she was about to address the question about priorities, but instead spent most of her allotted time questioning whether Caicco could realistically expect to complete all the infrastructure projects he mentioned in his response.

"The plan sounds wonderful, it really does Jamie," Hryniewicz said. "But we're talking about a very large number of very large projects that all of a sudden we're putting into play when... the taxes in our community are already maxed, we have a levy coming at us from the hospital over the next four years."

"How is that possible?" she demanded. "How are you going to come up with the dollars to do that in a four-year term?"

"Sault Ste. Marie needs to decide collectively what we need to see happen, and that's been the difficulty. When we have one person's vision of what they want for the community and we try to shove it down people's throat, that this is what we want. We have to start creating this environment of inclusion and respect that citizens in this community have an opportunity to be heard."

Debbie Amaroso also took a shot at Caicco, cautioning voters at another point in the debate that they should not be misled by the number of signs they see for a particular candidate. Turning to Caicco, Amaroso pointed out that "when you're a property manager, those options are available."

Voting day is October 25.