Vote Matthew Gillis for Council

Matthew Daniel Gillis

As long as I can remember, I've always wanted to contribute to my community. As a kid living in town, I delivered the Chronicle Herald and the Vanguard, was an active member of the 299 Yarmouth Air Cadet Squadron, a member of Cubs, playing sports of all kinds. All of these activities helped me learn about contributing to my community through volunteering. Whether it was the poppy campaign with cadets, or helping the Lions Club with their Food Bank drive, I was taking the time to volunteer and help my community.

In my High School years I attended King's Edgehill School in Windsor, Nova Scotia, where we would organize the local Terry Fox Run and was always a focal point of the Rememberance Day parade in Windsor. I was the Captain of my Softball team, Allstar Basketball player, Drill Team Commander and Platoon for our Army Cadet Corp, and always helping out my fellow students with their studies. Living in dorms helped broaden my cultural perspective when over half of the students in dorms were foreign exchange students. I graduated with my International Baccalaureate Diploma and earned a scholarship to Carleton University in Ottawa. I won awards for Platoon Warrant Officer of the year, and MVP of the Softball team in my last 2 years.

While living in Ottawa, I was able to gain a new perspective on life by living in our Nation's Capital. It was a beautiful city, but after awhile, I knew it wasn't for me.

In 2011 I returned home to go to school at NSCC. I graduated with Honours in IT Networking/Systems Management, and even earned the Governor General's Bronze Medallion for having the highest average in the entire school. I spent any time between classes and after school tutoring Adult Learning Program students, and students with Learning Disabilities Math. It was great taking the time to help students who needed the extra help raise their marks. Going to NSCC was a great experience, and gave me an opportunity to work at our local School Board as an IT Support Specialist on Temporary Contract. After my contract ended, I found my potential career working for CSC.

Since moving home, I met my wife Jenesta, we got married in 2017, and we have 2 amazing young children Halle and Carter. I joined the Carleton Volunteer Fire Department, and I have been umpiring baseball for Baseball Nova Scotia now for 7 years. The past 2 seasons I have been Umpire-in-Chief for South-Western Nova Scotia and I'm a Board Member for Baseball Nova Scotia's Umpire Division. My wife and I have been a big part of the Carleton Community helping organize the Trunk-or-Treat, the Christmas Parade, and a community fund to help families in need with meals during the holiday season and gifts for children. We even took the time to create an event for elders in our community to learn about senior safety and other useful information.

With all that I've accomplished, I feel it's only fitting to take my next step into Municipal Politics. I've been active in my community, and I want to contribute more with intelligent decisions that help create a prosperous future for our Municipality.

Building a Better Future

My vision for our community is to be better connected, both socially and technologically. By bringing our communities together, we create and maintain a strong support structure for our youth and elders in all aspects. We can connect with the outside through media and technology. We can connect from within by committee and volunteering. Having a strong leader that can help foster this growth, and guide our community into the future is paramount for positive change.

With a strong community, we can continue to work to bring in more businesses from outside to create more jobs. I like the work we have done for Tourism, but in the end that isn't enough. We learned that with the COVID-19 Pandemic that Tourism can't be the main economic driver for our region. We have a strong fishing community, and the next step is to bring in more businesses and continue to show the world that our community has a strong workforce. A workforce that can learn and adapt to any challenge. With more jobs, we can continue to work on enhancing our services and create new services along the way.

Amalgamation will inevitably be a hot topic in the years to come, and I think with thoughtful discussion, we can work to understand whether this is an acceptable direction to go. We can't take a decision like this lightly, and if it is to benefit our community, it needs to save us more than just a little money and our CAO's time. It needs to create a promise of a better community, and not just be a way for one group to gain access to a larger tax base to cover their debts.

In order to create a better connected community, I promise that I will take a major focus on pushing the Provincial Government to pressure the local Internet Service Providers to continue the rural internet project, and to even escalate the process. At this time, with the pandemic, the world is entirely connected through the internet, and our province was forced to move education onto a mostly online curriculum which left a lot of our rural students in the dark. To me, this is unacceptable, and our entire province needs to be connected. Internet is an essential service in my opinion, and the province needs to understand this.

In the end, I know that I would be a strong leader, that will be able to help make intelligent decisions, and guide our community to a better future. Please vote for me October 17th at your local voting locations, or take the time to vote online anytime before when the Municipality makes it available. If you ever want to talk with me to discuss your issues, and things that you feel are important to you when it comes to governance, feel free to contact me via the below links. I have created a Facebook Page which you can message directly, or you can email via the link below. From there we can organize a meeting, or we can talk over the phone, whichever makes you more comfortable. I'm here for the community, at large and in District 3.

These are my Top Priorities if I become Councillor

Mariners Centre Expansion
Water Access
Job Creation
Improvement of Policies and Bylaws
Is Amalgamation Right for Us?
Rural Internet Connectivity

District 3 Region Includes:

Highway 340 - Tinkham Rd to Lily Pond Rd
Lily Pond Rd
Durkee Rd just past the Killam Rd
Killam Rd
Hoopers Lane
Saunders Rd - Killam Rd to Hwy 340
Haley Dr
Braemar Dr
Captain's Lane
Mood Rd - Saunders Rd to Small Gains Rd
Pitman Rd
Brazil Lake Rd - Hwy 340 to just past the Brenton Rd
Brenton Rd
Hardscratch Rd - Hwy 340 to Greenville Rd
Lake George Rd - Hwy 340 to North Ohio Rd
North Ohio Rd
Skyco Dr
Sunday Lake Rd
South Ohio Cross Rd
Meadow Brook Dr - Hwy 101 to North Ohio Rd
Rose Rd - Hwy 101 to Meadow Brook Dr
Tinkham Rd
Jedediah Rd