Profiled Members

Ian Murdoch

Who are you and what do you do?

I first moved to Kingston in 1989 as a military child from West Germany. After completion of high school in Kingston’s west-end, I achieved my diploma in Civil Engineering Technology at St. Lawrence College. I was fortunate enough to enter the workforce in Kingston right away as a building inspector for DND’s Canadian Forces Housing Agency (CFHA). Subsequent to this, I was given the opportunity of assisting the growth of a national environmental and building science firm with a local footprint. After 14 years in private consulting, I most recently moved into the role as Business Development Officer for Kingston Economic Development. My recent role in support of economic growth has enabled me to work more closely with the businesses that make Kingston what it is. Being tied to the local economy more closely has also allowed me to participate in my free time as a Director for the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation (CFDC).

Why did you join SPEAKingston?

As someone who has worked closely over the years with several developments in Kingston, I wanted to work with SPEAKingston to provide a voice and support to a different part of the usual story. What is often left out when proposing/achieving SMART GROWTH for Kingston, is the discussion of environmental impacts that our development scenarios help to overcome. The everyday tax-payer is often unaware of the time and large expense that developers absorb to remediate legacy impacts attributed to the operations of a historical City. Without this necessary step, the province and regulators would otherwise not have the funds to deal with the complex issues that lie beneath our feet. Everyone wants a clean place to build and live but few are willing to take on the risks.

What do you believe is Kingston's biggest challenge right now?

Moving from an environmental perspective to a window into economic development, our biggest challenge is creating a canvas that fully leverages our local assets while staying competitive to our surrounding municipalities. We need to do the best possible job supporting our local businesses who choose to continually invest in our City. By creating a hospitable ecosystem for growth, we can only then attract high growth companies, high growth talent and create high value jobs to retain more support for our tax base.

What would you like to see happen in 2020?

We need to commit to the dialogue we have started in and beyond 2020. We need to create housing opportunities that new comers, retirees, students and professionals will boast about to their diverse networks. We need to move at or faster than the speed of industry to treat new development opportunities, residential and commercial, as if their investment in our City is an integral vertebra for our future. We should celebrate and support our citizens that assist in attraction efforts to keep Kingston growing.

What is your favourite thing to do in Kingston?

This is an easy one…..I love “selling” Kingston. I love telling people during my travels outside of our town how great of a place Kingston is. A great place to grow a business, grow a family, enjoy a refreshing beverage on a beautiful downtown patio, feel the breeze on the lake in the freshwater sailing capital of the world or simply being able to be a part of a community that you can have a positive impact in.

Peter Kingston

Who are you and what do you do?

I am a lifelong resident of Kingston. My Dad ran a successful business downtown and I got the entrepreneurial spirit from him. I retired 5.5 years ago from a 20 year career in the investment business with CIBC Wood Gundy. I started getting involved in my community when I was getting my Commerce degree at Queen’s. Once I graduated I continued to be active with organizations such as the St Lawrence College Foundation, Rotary, Junior Achievement, the Kingston Family YMCA, the Boys and Girls Club of Kingston and Area and heading up the capital campaign for Hospice Kingston.

Why did you join SPEAKingston?

I have always had an interest in helping make our community a vibrant place to live and work in and to retire to. We have so many natural assets as well as great education and health care organizations that we can never take for granted. We are competing with the rest of the world so we must be nimble and responsive to the changes that are happening at a very rapid pace. Joining SPEAKingston will give me an opportunity to work with a motivated Board and membership who are committed to, and focusing on SMART GROWTH for Kingston. I am a big believer that if we aren’t moving forward then we risk getting stagnant and uncompetitive and going backwards.

What do you believe is Kingston's biggest challenge right now?

Our biggest challenge now is making our community attractive to investors and potential employees. We do a very good job of attracting retirees and that group can’t be ignored ( after all I am in that category!) but to keep our taxes affordable and be able to keep renewing our aging infrastructure, we need to aggressively attract new businesses.

What would you like to see happen in 2020?

2020 is a critical year for Kingston. We need to get approvals for more apartments in our city core. This will help deal with our low vacancy rate while at the same time provide a boost to the businesses in our great downtown. I am so proud of our downtown and feel it is one of the best in Canada but with the increasing pressure from people shopping on the internet, we need to have SMART GROWTH to ensure our downtown continues to thrive and not get hollowed out like many other communities.

What's your favourite thing to do in Kingston?

I love to come downtown and enjoy all of the great events that happen, whether they be at Springer Market Square, the Bader Centre or the Grand. I also love boating on the lake and the river and biking around our town and on the many trails that are available now.

John Bakker

“I recently moved into Kingston with my wife Wendy, from the east GTA and joined SPEAKingston to develop connections with leaders in the city and to understand and participate in conversations about smart growth, particularly as it relates to thoughtful use of technology to enable that growth.   

Wendy and I have friendships and ties to Kingston that extend back to the early 80's when I attended Queen's and continued as our daughters attended the university and through periodic visits to enjoy the restaurants, culture, scenery and many great things Kingston has to offer.  Our goal was always to return to the city when the opportunity presented itself; grandchildren just sealed the deal!  

Professionally, I enjoyed 25 years in the auto industry as a leader in engineering, manufacturing operations and product launches. In 2009, I made a leap of faith and became an entrepreneur and founded Bakker Tailored Staffing, a niche recruiting and staffing firm that has earned a strong reputation for service, professionalism and reliability.   I'm privileged to have a strong team at BTS which provides me with the opportunity to pursue my passion of contributing to healthy cultures, developing leaders and providing leadership to Leader Impact and HopeStory, non-profits that are active locally and globally.  

In regard to Kingston's biggest challenge right now, it's difficult to say since we're new to the city, but I expect many of the challenges will be no different than the city we moved from.  Namely, finding and retaining talent as Boomers exit the workforce,  and maintaining an appropriate supply of rental properties in the face of the disruption caused by tech companies like Air BnB.”