Sheridan student runs for Milton council

Ryan Devries, 20, is running for Milton council to help improve planning in a fast-growing city.

STORY BY JENNIFER STIENSTRA

Ryan Devries, 20, a third year student in Sheridan’s Global Business Management, decided to put skills he’s learned to use and run for local councillor in Milton.

Devries says he decided to run to help improve the planning of the city and be the voice of the older part of town where he grew up.

“I’m not really interested in the political side of things,” he says.

“The reason I’m running for council is because I’ve been born and raised in the older part of Milton and I’ve got a background and experience in planning and thinking long term.”

The town has experienced much growth in recent years, and Devries, who’s running in Ward 2, which is an older part of town, hopes to improve long-term planning. According to him, his ward is expected to grow from a population of 7,000 to 27,300 by 2031, which means plenty of infrastructure must be in place to make sure the growth goes smoothly.

“That’s what I’m really interested in, where I can see where we can make improvements because I’ve a good concept of civil engineering and I do my research.”

“I’m there to work with the residents because I can always see so many issues myself and I want to make sure that the older part of the community doesn’t get left behind.”

Sean Ford, his campaign manager, feels that Devries is the perfect candidate for the job.

“He’s really dedicated to Milton – loves the place, and knows an awful lot about planning issues and development issues which are negatively affecting the community right now,” he says.

According to Ford, with Milton growing quickly some people have felt left behind and he believes that Devries can fix it.

“What’s happened is that the existing residents and their needs and their requirements for roads and recreation and the hospital and all of that have really not been addressed properly so the place is growing very quickly but no one’s taking those important things into account . . . and with all of the growth that’s coming you need people like Ryan.”

Because he’s young, Devries put time into making sure he was ready for the task. He says that he made sure that council meetings wouldn’t interfere with his classes.

Devries also sat down with Colin Best, the local regional councillor for Wards 2, 3, 4 and 5, and with Zeeshan Hamid, local councillor for Ward 8.

“I sat down with both of them, basically asked what are the pros and cons, what’s the actually job looks like, because reading the job on paper is one thing but actually doing it is something else.”

Ford also believes that having a younger person on council would be better for the town.

“It brings a youthful presence to council, which they need to have that kind of young, next generation viewpoint on how the community needs to evolve. I think the fact he’s been influenced greatly by the programs at Sheridan on the ideal [of] what we’re supposed to be striving for [and] what we’re supposed to be doing.”