Terri Drover

Terri Drover

Candidate for Ward 2 Councillor

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Terry Drover is a Ward 2 candidate with nearly 40 years of executive experience and a long history of community involvement. After retiring a year and a half ago, Drover decided to bring her background in executive leadership, regulatory matters, financial management, and problem-solving to municipal government.

Having spent nearly 15 years in Stouffville, Drover says she wants to help manage the municipality’s growth while preserving the character of the community.

• Background: Drover cites a long senior executive career, seven years on the CHATS board, and a family history in municipal politics. She says her leadership, regulatory, fiscal, and problem-solving experience would help manage growth.
• Pace of Growth: She says residents she meets while door-knocking are concerned about the pace of growth, supporting infrastructure, where development goes, what it looks like, and its impact on community character.
• Growth Constraints: Drover notes the Province’s mandate for growth. She calls environmental and moraine restrictions “a curse and a blessing,” providing great benefits but limited space to develop.
• Planning Ahead: She says impacts on traffic and fire services should be examined during the planning process rather than through a “knee-jerk reaction” once a project is going in.
• Resident Engagement: Drover says residents want to be engaged and need a more efficient and effective way to connect with Council, the Town, and the Province.
• Ballantrae Sports Dome: She shares residents’ concerns about the facility’s traffic, size, noise, and a perceived lack of communication, but says changes could cost millions and would need broad community support.

What Is Your Background, and Why Are You Running for Office?

Drover said she has worked in senior executive roles for over 30 years, and that she has been “steeped in community engagement” even as a child. Her grandfather was a mayor and her father a councillor, she said.

While working, she volunteered with community organizations, including CHATS, where she served seven years on the board, and a residential condominium board. “So I’ve always had a history of giving back to the community,” she said.

Drover said she retired about a year and a half ago and believed the skills she acquired would “suit so well to helping the growth within my municipality,” where she has lived for almost 15 years. She named executive leadership, regulatory experience, financial and fiscal management, and complex problem-solving as skills she would bring to the role.

What Is the Leading Issue Facing Residents in Ward 2, and How Would You Address It?

Drover said a common theme she hears while door-knocking is concern about the pace of growth. She noted the Province’s mandate for the Town to grow at a certain level, and said environmental and Oak Ridges Moraine restrictions are “a curse and a blessing. While the community has great trails, she highlighted, it also faces limited space to develop.

Residents are concerned about the pace of development, the infrastructure needed to support it, where it goes, what it looks like, and how it will affect the character of the community, she said. She would work closely with Council, Ward 2 residents, and the broader municipality to manage that growth and its impacts.

What Does Responsible Growth Look Like to You?

Drover said growth is coming, so the focus should be to “manage that growth in a way that doesn’t overwhelm us” or change the character of the community too much.

That means planning ahead for infrastructure, she said, rather than a “knee-jerk reaction” when 90 townhomes are going in and the Town must then consider the impact on traffic and the pressure on fire services. Those critical questions should be asked alongside the planning process as development options are evaluated, she said.

Drover added that resident feedback must also factor into those decisions. People want to be engaged, she said, but need a more efficient and effective way to connect with their Council, the Town, and the Province.

What is your position on the Ballantrae Sports Dome?

In follow-up comments to Bullet Point News, Drover said she may have suggested a different location had she been on Council. However, she also noted she would have been only one vote and may not have been able to change the project’s direction.

Changes to current decisions and plans have been reported to potentially cost millions, she explained. Such a decision could raise taxes at a time when the Town is already financially challenged by funding shortfalls.

Based on her inquiries, Drover said the Planning Department has met statutory requirements for community consultation. “That being said, I understand and share our Ward 2 residents’ concerns about the traffic, size and noise of the proposed facility in this location and a perceived lack of communication,” she added. “Residents need answers.”

If elected, Drover committed to creating an open dialogue, getting answers to residents’ questions, and representing their concerns in any further planning discussions and approvals.

Any change to the project would also require support from the broader Stouffville community, she said, telling us, “I cannot make promises I may not be able to keep.”