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ABOUT RICHARD

613 812 1827
rschooley2026@outlook.com
richardschooley.ca

Born in Ottawa, Richard moved to Perth during high school when his father’s insurance business brought their family here. Richard graduated from PDCI while serving as co-president of Student Council. It was on student council that
he met his wife, Karen. They moved to Toronto
for four years, where Richard worked as a property, casualty insurance underwrite and Karen obtained her RN while training at TGH.

When they moved back to Perth, Richard joined
Glenn Crain’s growing insurance brokerage at 49 Gore East. Five years later, Crain & Schooley Insurance Brokers Ltd was formed and moved to 81 Gore. That same year they opened a first Branch Office in Carleton Place. At retirement,
the firm operated from five offices with a staff
of over sixty. In all, Richard spent 47 years in business on Gore Street.

Together, Karen and Richard raised three children — all Stewart School and PDCI graduates.
Today, their adult children along with their six wonderful grandchildren live within 20 minutes of them — Karen and Richard feel truly blessed.
Two of their children are the third generation
of Schooley’s managing an insurance
business in Perth.

Richard is a graduate Fellow of the Insurance Institute of Canada (FCIP); a graduate member
of the Canadian Insurance and Risk Management Society (CRM) and a past Territorial Director for the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario.

For five decades, Richard dedicated his life to consistent change management in business strategies. In order for Perth to progress we need Richard’s expertise and strategies for success
to guarantee our growth into the future.

RICHARD
SPEAKS OUT

Why I ‘m Running for Deputy Mayor

As our community finds itself on a knife’s edge of remaining sustainable and viable,
I will offer resourceful strategies and resilient planning for future growth.

Being Seen and Heard

After 50 years in the insurance and risk management business, I’ve learned that solving problems begins with identifying their root cause. This steadfast approach brings the greatest success in finding long-term solutions. Perth’s problem is neither fiscal mismanagement nor councillors’ lack of respect for taxpayers. But rather, it is our municipal governance model that is causing a threat to viability.

Root Cause Analysis

The Perth Community is one interconnected collective, yet we govern ourselves as four separate municipalities. At Lanark County Council, that means we are seen as a population of 6,500 instead of the collective 26,000-person community that we are. Those numerical discrepancies result in less access to services at the County level. Mississippi Mills recognized this decades ago by bringing its community together under one municipal government.
The Perth Community should be asking why we cannot do the same.

Numbers are relevant when attempting to access provincial and federal infrastructure transfers. The numbers that matter are population and property assessment base. Which municipality is more likely to get into the hierarchy of grant consideration for a new $10,000,000 arena, the one with 6,000 people or the one with 26,000?

Responsible Decision-Making

Begins with responsible Land Use Planning that must marry Climate Change reality and Environmental Respect with the topography of our geography as opposed to using municipal boundary lines. This means Perth Community based land use and development planning. We skirt the edges of this with County level growth and Subdivision Control. It must go further and be fully based on Community planning as opposed to municipal boundary planning. This might mean that we don’t end up with 1,000 home subdivisions on land that is 50% Provincially Designated Wetland and losing a golf course while we are at it.

We want prudent spending of community property tax dollars. This should mean planning our administration and services needs, for the Perth Community as a whole and not broken into four separate jurisdictions. This might mean that we don’t build a new +$4 million public works garage in a Source Water Hazard Protection Zone 10 and maybe we don’t build one at all.
And on that subject, my risk management hat will have me recommending to a new council that we forthwith investigate and commission a secondary supply of Source Water.

I am going to be like a dog with a bone pressing for Responsible Decision Making.
I’m asking for your vote for Deputy Mayor.
Together, we can fix our governance and secure the Perth Community’s future.

REPRESENTATION
ON VITAL ISSUES

As Deputy Mayor, I would gain a seat at
County Council to represent key community wide issues:

Public Health Services
Paramedic Services
Affordable Housing
Child Daycare
Adult Long-term care
Environmental Policies
Social Services and Income Support
Protection for people and property
Community Transportation
Growth Planning and Subdivision Control
Economic Development

I commit to presenting consistent, rational and comprehensive action plans
that outline the Perth Community’s needs and
requests for resources that
will guarantee the best sustainability and viability
for future growth.

RICHARD

RICHARD'S EXPERIENCE

Municipal Experience

Past, Town of Perth Councillor, Chair Building and Planning Committee
Member of Finance and Police Committees
Member of Town of Perth, Planning Advisory Committee
40 + Years providing Risk Management and Insurance Counsel to the municipal and county levels of government in Lanark, Leeds, Grenville, and Frontenac Counties
Current Member of Tay Valley Township Committee of Adjustment

Community Building

Founding Chair of Downtown Heritage Perth Business Improvement Area (BIA)
Founding President Perth Tay Tennis Club
Founding Director Perth and District Community Foundation
Founding Board Member Perth Daycare Centre
Co-Chair of Perth and District Community Strategic Plan
V.P. Perth and District Chamber of Commerce
Citizen member of the 2018 Lanark County Economic Development Strategic Plan
Past Chair & Board Member of the Perth & Smith Falls District Hospital
Founding Co-Chair of Health Links: a consortium of Health Care Service Providers with a mandate to improve patient healthcare experience through services navigation and integration, in support of the chronically ill in PSFDH catchment area.
Past Board Member and Vice Chair of
Connectwell Community Health
Past Chair, Perth Campus Community
Committee for Algonquin College
Board and executive committee member of Friends of the Tay Watershed Association