Race for Belleville, Ont. mayor’s seat sees incumbent versus former mayor, MP

The pack of candidates for the mayoral race in Belleville, Ont., features a few familiar faces.

Incumbent Mitch Panciuk, first elected in 2018, is running once again.

Opposite him is former Bay of Quinte MP and former two-term Belleville mayor Neil Ellis, who finished his last municipal term in Belleville in 2015.

Panciuk said he plans to build on the successes he’s had during his first term.

“Part of the plan for the next four years is to address things like housing and making sure no one’s left behind, but also making sure that we continue to provide the investments that are necessary to grow our economy,” he said.

Panciuk noted that he feels the reception he’s received on the campaign trail compared with 2018 is far more positive.

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On the subject of housing, he says progress has been made and is being made on housing in Belleville.

“Many other communities have taken note of what we’ve done here and they are looking to replicate what we’ve done. It’s tough, but we are well on the way to improving it,” he added.

Meantime, Ellis also says there’s work to be done on the housing front.

“We have to build not only more affordable housing, we have to build transitional homes, we have to build geared-to-income homes,” he said.

Ellis sat in the mayor’s chair in Belleville for two terms from the mid-2000s up until his election as MP in 2015.

Although he’s running against a former two-term mayor of Belleville in Ellis, Panciuk said he feels the residents are ready to look forward instead of back.

“The city’s changed, the job of the mayor has changed, and you can really sense the difference, and that’s why this election is going to come down to, do we keep moving ahead with the progress we’ve made over the past four years,” said Panciuk.

As far as Ellis is concerned, there are problems that have slipped under the radar of the current administration.

“The city has changed, but it has the same problems that my council solved back in 2006-15, and mainly that was doctor recruitment. My council had it solved and now the foot pedal is off the gas,” said Ellis.

Polls open for the 2022 municipal elections on Monday, Oct. 24.