By Katie Strachan
The Oshawa Express

Regional Councillor John Henry says it is just another thing political candidates can do to protect residents.
The Oshawa councillor recently made a motion, in conjunction with Brock Mayor Larry O’Connor, at regional council that would have the region to ask the province to amend the election act to include criminal reference checks for all running candidates.
“There are so many things out there to protect our residents and this is just another thing we can do,” he says.
“This is a very simple thing…to bring confidence in the voters.”
Councillor Henry says it may increase voter turnout too.
“If you look at the amount of people that actually come out and vote, it’s not great,” he explains.
The motion proposed, which later passed, states because accepting an elected office position is the highest order of public services and elected officials are responsible for service delivery and financial management of the city and the region, criminal reference checks should be used.
Councillor Henry says employers and other organizations like volunteer agencies often use criminal reference checks.
“You have a number of people who have to pass driver’s abstracts just to be able to drive a municipal vehicle,” he explains.
“If we ask that of our volunteers, it’s something we should be doing.”
He says federal parties have candidates submit criminal reference checks before they’re accepted into a party.
Ultimately council voted in favour of forwarding the motion to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing for consideration. A copy will also be forwarded to the Attorney General, local MPPs, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.
Councillors Robert Lutczyk, Steve Parish, April Cullen and John Grant voted against the motion.
Councillors Nester Pidwerbecki, Charlie Trim, Jim Abernethy, Bill McLean, Rick Johnson and Mary Novak were absent for the vote.