Five questions with Solange Courteau, candidate for Brockville council in the 2026 municipal election

Editor’s note: To help voters to be better informed, Brockvilleist will be asking the same five questions of all council candidates in advance of the municipal election, which will be held on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. Questions were sent to all candidates on Sept. 4, 2026. We will publish their responses as we receive them. Below are the responses from candidate Solange Courteau.

1) Tell us a little bit about your professional background, including any prior municipal or other political participation, as well as about you, personally. What made you want to run for council?

I attended St. Mary’s in Brockville, left for school and work, and eventually came home to raise my family.

I haven’t had a straight career path. I’ve been a teacher, communications professional, investigator, federal public servant and military officer. I spent eight years helping people deal with complaints at the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, then investigated complaints under the Official Languages Act, and then worked in senior advisory roles with the federal government in policy, strategic planning, organizational change, accessibility, official languages and employment equity. Today I serve as an officer with the Brockville Rifles.

Locally, I serve on Brockville’s Municipal Accessibility Advisory Committee, and I’m involved with my husband in Dusk Till Dawn Studio. My life has brought me into contact with entrepreneurs, tradespeople, artists and people with disabilities who have valuable skills but sometimes face unnecessary barriers to participating fully in the community. This inspired the development of Creative Technology Workshop Brockville, my current project.

I’m running because I want Brockville to be a place where people can afford to live, find opportunity, participate fully and build a future. I’ve spent much of my career serving in different ways, and I want to bring that experience home.

2) How would you describe your personal political ideology and/or affiliation?

I don’t believe politics should be about defending a tribe. The left-right divide can make people dismiss each other, punish compromise and overlook good ideas.

I would rather ask four questions: What works? What is fair? What can we afford? And, what is best for Brockville as a whole?

That means I’m socially inclusive and believe government should intervene when there is a real problem it can help solve. I support action on housing, homelessness, accessibility, healthcare recruitment and public transit. At the same time, I’m fiscally cautious. I want to know what something will cost, whether it falls within municipal jurisdiction, what evidence supports it, what trade-offs we are making and how we will know if it worked.

I might support public investment in one situation and argue for restraint in another. I can support businesses while also advocating strongly for people struggling with poverty or disability. I don’t see those things as contradictions.

Municipal government should be practical and non-partisan. I want council spending its time and taxpayers’ money solving problems as efficiently and fairly as possible.

3) What are the three most common issues voters bring up to you as you campaign?

The three that come up most often are affordability and housing, access to healthcare and taxes and municipal services.

Housing is fundamental and it shouldn’t be a luxury. Although homelessness is linked to many societal problems, housing is not only an issue for people in immediate financial difficulty. Young adults wonder whether they will ever be able to establish themselves, employers need workers who can afford to live locally and illness or disability unbalance our best plans without warning.

Healthcare comes up constantly, especially access to family doctors and primary care. Residents understand that healthcare is mainly provincial, but they still want the City advocating strongly and helping Brockville recruit and retain healthcare professionals.

The third is really about value for taxes: roads, infrastructure, transit, bylaw enforcement and whether residents feel City services are working well. People want services maintained, but they also want to know that their money is being spent carefully and transparently.

4) What three issues are most pressing/important to address locally in your opinion?

My first priority is affordability, housing and economic opportunity. I support more housing choices and gentle density where appropriate, supportive housing and coordinated social services for homelessness, simpler municipal approvals and partnerships that bring County, provincial, federal, non-profit and private investment into Brockville. I also want small businesses to have a predictable “one-window” path through City approvals rather than having to navigate municipal departments on their own.

Second is better access to healthcare and community well-being. I support strong advocacy for primary care and a permanent regional recruitment and retention effort involving different levels of government and local organizations. Recruitment should include helping healthcare professionals and their families build long-term lives here.

Third is an accessible, participatory and well-run city. That means maintaining infrastructure before it fails, improving transit and ParaTransit where evidence shows the greatest need, removing barriers to participation, aggressively pursuing outside grants and cost-sharing and publishing clear quarterly reports so residents can see what major projects cost and where public money is going.

5) What do you feel sets you apart from other candidates?

What may set me apart most is how deliberately I try not to begin with a left-wing or right-wing answer.

I have seen how easily political disagreement can become tribal. Once that happens, people can start defending “their side” rather than examining whether an idea is actually good.

My professional and academic background has reinforced the opposite habit: understand the problem, read the policy and legislation, listen to people who disagree, determine who has jurisdiction, look at the evidence and costs and find a workable way forward.

I also bring a combination of federal policy experience, military leadership, accessibility work and firsthand involvement with local entrepreneurship.

I won’t arrive at council pretending to have every answer. I will listen, do my homework, ask questions, work with people whose views differ from mine and be accountable for the decisions I make.