Denis Pirollo is presenting himself as a political outsider who can fix Hawkesbury.
Pirollo is running for mayor in this year’s municipal election and wants to show voters he is a businessman and not a politician.
“What I bring is forty years of working life pricing jobs, presenting them and earning the yes,” he said. Pirollo added that he is the son of Italian immigrants, grew up poor, and studied business at Concordia University. He said he spent 15 years in senior management at truck manufacturer PACCAR, fixing problems in money-losing divisions. For 10 years, Pirollo owned a licensed construction company in Montreal. Now, he manages residential and commercial buildings in Hawkesbury.
Pirollo has a five-point plan for issues he has identified as needing the most attention in Hawkesbury. The Review asked him about his five-point plan and its feasibility.
Fix the worst roads first.
Pirollo acknowledged that the Town of Hawkesbury’s Asset Management Plan already says the worst roads should be repaired first, with the road surface and other infrastructure such as water and sewer mains being replaced at the same time. Pirollo said he would do three things differently as a response to that plan.
“Mine, the 2027 budget, gets written straight from that plan: worst streets first, each with a price and a year. Second, the list gets published, street by street, with a report card every year on what got done and what it cost. Third, every big job gets a second opinion on the price before the Town signs. Pricing jobs was my living,” he said.
Pirollo said he will not promise to freeze taxes, but the money to fund road improvements should come from “outside the tax bill,” through a more aggressive pursuit of grants from other levels of government.
- Revitalize Main Street, waterfront, festivals.
“They are one job because they are one loop,” is how Pirollo described those three things. “A festival fills Main Street, the crowd spends in the shops, the shops sponsor the next festival, and the river is why half the visitors came. Break it anywhere and all three weaken,” he added.
“A street is busy when people walk it and live on it, so my plan pairs Main Street with homes above the shops, where almost nothing is vacant. On the waterfront, the Town’s own new parks plan already lists what residents asked for: a beach, a canoe launch, boardwalks, food stands and patios with music,” continued Pirollo.
He supports continuing all existing community events, including the Multicultural Festival, Auto Expo, Halloween on Main, Santa Claus Parade, and Canada Day.
“You will not hear me attack a dollar spent on an event. The events stay,” Pirollo said. What he would change is how events are supported. Pirollo said there should be one person at the Town who answers for visitors, grants and the calendar; an events policy on the Champlain Township model, where the Town carries the insurance and paperwork instead of the volunteers; one sponsorship menu for the whole year, and have someone watching for the deadlines of grants that could be used to fund events.
- Keep our young people and jobs.
Pirollo said the average age of a Hawkesbury resident was 42 in 2001 and is now 55 today. “A mayor cannot make anyone hire,” he remarked, but said lasting jobs could be made available by following three things: training close to home, a place to live, and a main street with life in it.
Pirollo noted practical nurses are already trained at Hawkesbury and District General Hospital (HGH), but previous trades-based college courses are no longer offered in Hawkesbury.
“So, I have put one idea in front of the town, as an idea and not a promise: a bilingual campus for the trades and health care, with its own front door. What a mayor can do is call the meeting: the college, the hospital, the school boards, the employers and the Counties, at one table,” Pirollo said. As mayor, he would also during the first year, establish a municipal student employment program, establish a youth committee which would report to council, and publish a yearly report of employment positions posted and filled.
- Build somewhere to live.
Pirollo said his past business and experience and connections are something he will put to use in attracting more investment for housing in Hawkesbury.
“I have spent thirty years building businesses between Montreal and Ottawa, and I will put that network to work on Hawkesbury’s file,” he said.
Pirollo would take steps to make the approval process more efficient for new housing development in Hawkesbury.
“Today a builder must provide nearly two parking spaces per apartment, a bachelor unit as much as a family one, and a zoning change can require up to 14 studies. Those are our rules, and council can change them tomorrow,” he said.
During the first year of the term, Pirollo would cut the parking rule for residential development in the downtown area, publish which studies a small project actually needs, give every housing file one Town staff contact and a published timeline for approval, let staff approve the simple files, and get Hawkesbury involved with securing support from every federal or provincial housing grant program available.
Pirollo is in the property management business. He promised to always declare a conflict of interest if necessary.
“And because I manage buildings here: anything touching a property connected to my work, I declare in writing and leave the room,” he said.
- Open the books.
Pirollo agrees that yearly audits of the Town’s financial situation are required and are always done, but said more information is required for citizens.
It does not tell a resident where the money went or how their councillor voted,” he said.
Pirollo is proposing more transparency by making council meeting minutes available to the public more quickly with greater detail of how council members voted on various financial measures, to make all budget information more available, to include information about how councillors voted on large, expensive projects, a public list every three months of contracts given without bids and of changes after signing; a second opinion on every big price; and a written review.
For more information about Denis Pirollo’s campaign for mayor of Hawkesbury, go to https://denispirollo2026.ca.
