Vision, Experience, Leadership
A realistic platform needs to based on a vision combined with experience inside and outside the political world: this platform comes from all the above.
Housing Affordability
We will immediately create a strategy to guide the use of municipal lands for affordable housing – a motion I introduced in this term but the current Council kicked down the road.
We will develop a property acquisition and management plan to work with non-market partners for the creation and provision of non-profit housing in perpetuity – a practice well-used in other cities.
And we will establish Oshawa’s first Community Land Trust as part of this plan, set up at arms-length to ensure future sustainability.
Downtown Transformation
Downtown Oshawa’s biggest challenge for over a half-century – and long before homelessness levels increased – has been the prioritizing of motor vehicle traffic flow over the human experience: we have two highways blowing through our downtown, and no urban centre can ever achieve vibrancy with this reality. At the centre of my plan for Downtown Transformation is to convert the one-way roads back to slower, friendlier two-way streets and focus on the pedestrian environment. We have already successfully changed Brock and Colborne Streets to two-way flow with Celina and Albert Streets underway right now, so we have built up the experience to execute this measure at this scale.
And I’ll continue to do the things I have been doing over the years to make the environment more pedestrian-friendly: I brought downtown sidewalk snow clearing and increased street furniture and beautification along King Street. I’ve supported and ensured ongoing funding in the face of headwinds for downtown events and productions. We will keep that momentum up with more and better – which will only be amplified exponentially with the return of two-way streets and a more human-centric urban core.
Financial Accountability
Financial accountability starts with communication: we will change the way we communicate the City’s finances – your money – into ways that people can understand, so that they can also participate in the conversations and decisions.
We will improve our financial impact analysis and increase transparency with major decisions – and no more big spending choices behind closed doors, as has happened in this term of Council with over $100 million in taxpayer dollars committed in closed meetings.
During the last Council term I repeatedly attempted to move the Public Input budget meetings each year from a Friday morning to a weeknight, which current Council members opposed. I will initiate a Citizens’ Budget process that is participatory and inclusive in the development of annual budgets, and this type of community-based practice will also be used for other major spending and land use decisions.
Democratic Renewal
Democratic renewal is one of my top priorities. During the last Council term I repeatedly attempted to move the Public Input budget meetings each year from a Friday morning to a weeknight, which current Council members opposed. I will initiate a Citizens’ Budget process that is participatory and inclusive in the development of annual budgets, and this type of community-based practice will also be used for other major spending, service, and land use decisions.
We will also re-energize our citizen advisory bodies with new models of engagement and inclusion in decision-making, so that their voices are not marginalized by a Council that doesn’t need to listen to their advice.
Homelessness, Mental Health, Addictions
We know that supportive housing, which includes social supports and addictions treatment, is the solution to the crisis of homelessness, mental health, and addictions – and it is the most cost-efficient by a wide margin when compared to the alternatives like emergency services, enforcement, incarceration, and crisis services. At both City Council and Regional Council, one of my highest priorities will be to turn our resources towards what works and save on the higher crisis costs, while advocating loudly and tirelessly to provincial and federal governments to step up and follow our lead with further resources.