Pembroke City Council · Election Day October 26, 2026

Safe community. Transparent City Hall. Fair share of costs.

Pembroke can be a place to live, work, and play with confidence again. That starts with a council that does its real job well — safe streets, clean neighbourhoods, a welcoming downtown — and holds the province and Ottawa to account for the rest.

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37 years
in financial services, compliance, and regulatory oversight
Accountable
a compliance professional's eye on every line of the city budget
Rooted here
a Pembroke resident who shows up — at the meetings, at the doors

In her own words

Under two minutes on why I’m running.

Krista on the Pembroke waterfront — on holding City Hall to account, and on going after the federal money being spent right up the highway.

1:50 · Captions on screen

Featured · Economic development

Pembroke’s industrial opportunity.

The money is already here. Pembroke needs to go get it.

Two of the largest federal spending programs in Eastern Ontario are happening within half an hour of this city — and far too little of the work attached to them lands here.

That spending doesn’t stay inside the fence line. It moves through suppliers, contractors, engineering firms, fabricators, logistics companies and trades. Pembroke should be capturing far more of that activity than it does.

$2.2B
committed by the Government of Canada in May 2026 to revitalize Chalk River Laboratories over ten years — the largest nuclear research complex in the country.
25 minutes up Highway 17
$1.2B
projected at Garrison Petawawa over the next decade, excluding roads and housing — with more than $100 million in projects in 2026 alone.
Right next door
~$600M
directed to Petawawa under the federal military housing plan announced in February 2026, for more than 1,100 new units.
Housing build-out
139
suppliers within 100 kilometres of the Chalk River site, plus hundreds of contractors who regularly augment its permanent workforce.
CNL supply chain

What Pembroke owns

The City owns serviced industrial land in the TransCan Corporate Park, zoned M2 — Economic Enterprise Zone. The strongest piece is a fully serviced parcel of roughly 28 acres at the Highway 17 and Highway 41 intersection, designated by the Province an Investment Ready: Certified Site — one of only nine sites in Ontario to hold that designation.

Certification is not a formality. It means the due diligence a company would normally spend months and significant money completing — environmental assessment, servicing confirmation, geotechnical work, planning approvals — has already been done and verified by the Province. For an investor deciding between locations, that removes risk and time from the decision.

Serviced. Certified. Priced well below urban comparables. Sitting between two multi-billion-dollar federal programs. That is a serious asset, and we should be selling it hard.

Why it isn’t selling

Owning a good site is not a strategy. Sites don’t market themselves, and companies don’t stumble onto Pembroke while comparing options in Ottawa, Kingston or North Bay.

Right now Pembroke largely waits for inquiries. Meanwhile the supply chains attached to Chalk River and Petawawa are making location decisions — and those decisions are being made somewhere.

What I’ll push for on council

I

Go to the buyers directly.

The suppliers and contractors working with CNL and DND are identifiable. Council should direct staff to build a target list and approach those firms, alongside the Ottawa Valley’s economic development partners and Invest Ontario. Attend the supplier days. Be in the room where those contracts get discussed.

II

Give investors an answer, fast.

A company evaluating a site wants to know servicing capacity, timelines, permitting steps and total cost. Every one of those answers should be documented and available before anyone asks. Slow answers lose deals.

III

Sell the certification.

Being one of nine certified sites in a province of fifteen million people is a genuine competitive advantage. It should be on the front page of the City’s economic development material, not buried in a subsection.

IV

Publish the results.

Council should see, at least twice a year, how many inquiries came in, how many turned into site visits, how many acres sold, and what the assessment and employment impact was. Numbers on the table, in public. If the approach isn’t working, we should be able to see that and change it.

V

Coordinate with Petawawa and the County instead of competing.

Growth at the Garrison and at Chalk River creates demand for housing, services and industrial space across the whole Upper Ottawa Valley. Pembroke’s advantage is being the urban centre with serviced land, existing infrastructure and a downtown. That case is stronger made jointly than made alone.

Pembroke’s tax base has been carried too long by residential ratepayers. Industrial and commercial assessment is how a city funds its services without going back to homeowners every budget cycle.

We have the land. The Province has certified it. The federal money is being spent right now. I want Pembroke competing for it.

Where these numbers come from
  • Government of Canada / AECL — $2.2 billion capital commitment for Chalk River Laboratories, announced May 21, 2026 (cnl.ca; aecl.ca), and the Nuclear Energy Strategy announcement at CNA2026 (ans.org, April 30, 2026).
  • Garrison Petawawa 2026 Business Luncheon — $100M+ in 2026 projects, $6M for Highway 17 access, roughly $1.2B over the next decade excluding roads and housing (104.9 Pembroke Today, June 16, 2026; Petawawa Post).
  • CBC News, June 11, 2026 — nearly $600M of a $3.7B federal military housing plan directed to Petawawa; 1,100+ units.
  • Town of Petawawa Economic Profile — CNL supplier counts (139 within 100 km; 300 within 200 km), citing CNL Corporate Communications, March 2025 and the CNL Economic Impact Presentation, June 2023.
  • City of Pembroke — City-Owned Industrial Land, TransCan Corporate Park: M2 zoning, acreage and pricing.
  • Invest Ontario — Investment Ready: Certified Site profile, 127 International Drive, Pembroke.
Why I'm running

I'm running because Pembroke deserves a council that puts safety, honesty, and good stewardship ahead of everything else.

For too long, big decisions have been made without enough consultation, without enough accountability, and without enough regard for the people who live with the consequences. Residents have watched costs rise and answers get harder to come by. That's not the Pembroke I know, and it's not the one we have to settle for.

City government has a defined job: keep the roads repaired, the bylaws enforced, the streets safe, and the city clean and welcoming. Health care, addiction services, and housing belong to the province and to Ottawa — and I'll be relentless in holding them to it. But the things that are ours to fix, we should fix well.

I've spent my career holding institutions to the rules — making sure the numbers add up and the decisions can stand up to scrutiny. I want to bring that same discipline to City Hall: ask the hard questions, insist on real consultation, and make sure the basics — safe streets, sound finances, open decisions — come first.

This is about restoring confidence. A safe place to live, work, and play — again.

Krista ZingelCandidate for Pembroke City Council

How I'll decide

Everything runs through one filter first: is this good for our children and our future?

Our children and our seniors are the most vulnerable among us — and the truest test of whether a city is safe, clean, and welcoming. A decision that protects them protects everyone, and it's the decision the next generation will live with.

The platform

An account I'll keep for Pembroke.

Five commitments, stated plainly — each measured against that same test, and built so you can hold me to every one.

Public Safety
I

A safe, clean, welcoming city

Safe enough for a child to walk and a senior to linger
  • Stronger bylaws backed by real enforcement — rules that mean something.
  • Clean, well-kept public spaces: streets, parks, and a downtown that feels cared for and welcoming.
  • A clear accountability framework for social-service facilities: proper siting and zoning, operating standards, good-neighbour agreements, and consultation before decisions are made.
  • The resources our bylaw and policing services need to address property crime, open drug use, and neighbourhood disorder.
  • Services that people need, delivered the right way, in the right place, with accountability to the neighbours who live alongside them.
Budget Scrutiny
II

Responsible spending of your tax dollars

Every dollar accounted for
  • Line-by-line scrutiny of the city budget — value for money, not blank cheques.
  • A compliance professional's eye on contracts, costs, and long-term commitments.
  • Spending priorities set by what residents actually need, with the trade-offs spelled out honestly.
Transparent City Hall
III

A transparent City Hall

Decisions made in the open
  • Genuine public consultation before major decisions — especially the controversial ones.
  • Plain-language reporting to residents: what's being decided, what it costs, and why.
  • Staff reports and advice disclosed wherever the law allows — and straight answers when they don't.
Fair Partnership
IV

A fair share of regional costs

Everyone who benefits helps pay
  • Pembroke carries real regional costs — in policing, bylaw enforcement, parks, and recreation — that serve far more than Pembroke residents.
  • Those costs should be shared by everyone who benefits from them, the same way long-term care costs already are.
  • A council that makes the case plainly at the county table, with the numbers to back it up.
Growth
V

Economic growth that lasts

A downtown worth building on

Pembroke’s downtown already has fabulous businesses, a riverfront most cities would envy, and heritage murals people stop to photograph. The work is adding to that, hand in hand with the entrepreneurs that are the backbone of our community.

  • A safe, welcoming main street. Safety and street-level comfort are what bring shoppers back and what any new business looks at first. Getting that right protects the businesses already here as much as it attracts the next ones.
  • Practical support and sensible approvals. Faster, clearer approvals for good development, and a City Hall that’s easier for a small business owner to deal with.
  • A waterfront that draws people in. Treating the waterfront as the asset it is — a marina, tourism, spas, reasons to spend a weekend here. A destination brings visitors, visitors bring commercial growth, and commercial growth brings jobs for our young people.
  • An industrial park ready to sell. Pembroke owns more than 50 acres of serviced industrial land at $12,000 an acre, at the Highway 17 and 41 junction, including a 28-acre parcel that’s one of only nine Ontario Certified Sites. That’s a serious pitch — to the nuclear supply chain around Chalk River, to mass timber, to anyone who needs space and skilled workers. Land sitting empty earns nothing and pays no taxes. Read the full plan →
  • Housing that lets people stay. Seniors who built this community shouldn’t have to leave it to downsize to the homes they desire. The kind of housing they want barely exists here. Creating that supply frees up family homes and keeps people, and their spending, in Pembroke.
  • Reasons for young people to stay. Show up for Algonquin College students and for our own kids: work outside school hours, things to do, and services that make this feel like a city with a future rather than a stopover.
The city's job

Do the city's job well. Demand the rest from those responsible.

A municipality has a defined role: roads and water, waste and parks, bylaws and zoning, and keeping the streets safe, clean, and welcoming. Get those right and the whole city feels different.

Health care, mental-health and addiction services, social assistance, and housing are the responsibility of the province and the federal government. When those systems fail, our neighbourhoods absorb it — and the answer isn't to look away. It's to hold the right governments to account.

We'll do our part excellently — and press Queen's Park and Ottawa relentlessly for theirs.

Where the city does hold the levers — how land is zoned, where facilities are sited, whether bylaws are enforced, whether residents are consulted before decisions are made — I'll use them. That's where past decisions went wrong, and that's exactly where I'll set a higher standard.

First responders & health workers

They put their lives on the line for us. Supporting them comes first.

Our firefighters, paramedics, OPP officers, and the staff at Pembroke Regional Hospital answer the call when it matters most — and they're doing it with resources stretched far too thin. Honouring that service means more than words at a ceremony.

Fund our share
Pay our fair part
Properly fund our OPP contract, paramedic services, and fire department — and never balance the budget on the backs of the people we call in an emergency.
Demand provincial support

Take our case to Queen's Park — and to the County table

Pembroke taxpayers owe $400,000 on our OPP bill. A share of the calls behind that number come from county-funded services located here, serving people from across Renfrew County — but as a separated city, Pembroke has no seat at County council and no say in how those costs are shared.

The townships that benefit from services hosted in Pembroke should be part of paying for what they generate. That's a conversation worth starting in good faith, and council should be the one to start it.

And give the people on the front lines a real voice at the council table — because the best decisions about safety come from listening to those who deliver it.

About Krista
Krista Zingel on the Pembroke Street bridge, with City Hall behind her

Krista Zingel has spent more than 37 years in Canadian financial services — in major banks, regulatory bodies, and the mortgage industry — building a career on a simple principle: the rules exist for a reason, and the numbers have to add up.

As a senior compliance and finance professional, she has spent her career holding organizations accountable to regulators, to the law, and to the people they serve. She has managed teams, untangled complex problems, and built the paper trails that stand up to scrutiny.

A Pembroke resident and active community advocate, Krista has shown up — at council meetings, at the doors, and on the issues that affect everyday life in this city. She's running to bring that same diligence to City Hall.

Banking & financial services Compliance & Regulatory Affairs 37+ years in financial services Pembroke resident & advocate
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