Canadians are facing higher prices at the grocery store and the pump, often because of circumstances far beyond our control - but Burlington’s cost of living is well above the average for Canada. We can do better, and the city and region will need to consider new ideas if we’re going to help residents make ends meet.

As Ward 3 Councillor, I will propose we:

• Remodel the Halton Region Community Investment Fund (HRCIF) or create a new grant program based on the Niagara Prosperity Initiative, which has a specific mandate to focus on poverty reduction and addressing community needs, with a large project approach versus smaller grants to individual groups..

• Keep down user costs for Burlington Transit, protect the subsidized fare programs and free ride options for seniors and children, and look to improve the service model similar to Brampton Transit’s recent overhaul to get more for every dollar spent.

• Advocate for innovative programs at Regional Council, such as Toronto’s city-owned grocery stores pilot, to see if they can address chronic problems like food insecurity or lack of access to fresh product in some neighbourhoods.

• Defend the progress we’ve made on protecting renters from renovictions and increased tenant support, and going further by addressing the backlog of Landlord and Tenant Board cases via a municipally-run mediation service (or dedicated funding for CCRS Halton) and community legal clinics that will take conflicts out of limbo waiting for tribunals.

• Pressure the provincial and federal governments for greater funding of their support programs, particularly for the disabled community, and expanding supports for agencies like CMHA Halton.

• Lobbying the federal and provincial government to increase the number of available spots in Halton Region for the $10-a-day childcare program, and looking to other municipalities for novel low-premium community day programs.

• Look to whether a separate stormwater fee would have significant cost reductions for residents, as considered and approved in Hamilton.

• Oppose the building of any large-scale AI data centres in Halton Region, which are proven to cause an uptick in electricity costs with very little local economic benefit.

While housing and rental costs are starting to come down some in Canada, we are still facing an unprecedented crisis where having a full-time job in most GTHA communities isn’t close to a guarantee you can afford to live in a safe home. More supply will mean lower costs, but we need to ensure that supply is affordable, not more luxury homes.

As Ward 3 Councillor, I will propose we:

• Implement an Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) policy framework focused on affordability and more wrap-around supportive housing units, and expand it beyond GO Station transit corridors to the entire city, so we mandate affordable builds across our community when the province lifts its restrictions.

• Protect the progress made in the recent update to the Zoning Bylaws, particularly the expansion of “Missing Middle” housing bylaws approving new fourplexes and other diverse housing stock, and the elimination of the ‘Old Character Areas’ neighbourhood designation which was too often used to block new housing.

• Incentivize developers to build the affordable homes we need via municipal cost reductions, clearer timetables, red tape reduction, and Council support so long as they meet affordability needs and quotas.

• Accelerate permits of deeply affordable developments, such as the recently approved Indwell build at Waterdown Rd.

• Push the province to allow municipalities to or themselves implement pro-renter policies, including vacancy control (disallowing rent increases after a tenant moves out), selected rent control, and other affordability measures.

• Focus on addressing the serious backlog of emergency shelter requests, including looking at building new shelters to service the Burlington community directly.

• Look at the solutions proposed by Generation Squeeze and other advocacy groups on how to fix the generational wealth gap affecting young Canadians, particularly around housing policy.

Safety underpins the health of our community. Families deserve a community where they feel safe to walk down the street and their kids can play. Neighbourhoods want to know law enforcement is ready and able to assist when they call, and residents in crisis deserve a safe and appropriate response. This should all be a top priority for Council.

As Ward 3 Councillor, I will propose we:

• Address the serious problem of speeding in Kilbride, Lowville, and other north Burlington roads with new direct traffic calming measures following the removal of the speed cameras by the provincial government.

• Recognize that paint is not infrastructure and cyclists and drivers are safer when we invest properly in protected bike lanes and pathways during street and sidewalk upgrades, like what’s being done in the Upper Middle & Guelph area next year.

• Look into building a Youth Wellness Hub in Burlington, a one-stop shop for under-25s and their families to access a range of services from primary care, mental health and addictions support, employment advice, health services, and much more, with the goal of integrating existing community programs (i.e. Halton ROCK, ADAPT, etc.) and making them more accessible.

• Improve and roll out a better model for the Community Watch partnership programs currently piloted in Ward 6 and in Oakville - valid criticisms around delayed and lack of useful information raised by Oakville Town Council must be addressed first before allocating further funds.

• Take the next step in crisis response and adopt a community team model in Halton Region, following the lead of Toronto and other municipalities by dispatching trained teams of dedicated crisis support workers (mental health, addiction, housing, youth, etc.) over police response for low-risk scenarios. The COAST support worker + police co-response model has been a big improvement over prior years, let’s simply follow the idea to its conclusion.

• Consider more strategies to off-load non-core policing tasks, such as dedicated public order staff for small events and other civilian roles for low-risk duties, so HRPS can dedicate more resources to preventing and investigating crimes.

• Introduce a Maximum or Adequate Temperature By-law modeled after other successful implementations in Mississauga and other Canadian cities, where property owners are required to ensure rental units don’t exceed 26 C during summer months, and that no municipal by-laws prevent the installation of portable or window A/Cs by tenants.

The cornerstone of good governance is good finances. Burlington, like many municipalities, has faced tough choices over the years on its budget, but there remains a large gap between the priorities of Council and what taxpayers are willing to accept.

As Ward 3 Councillor, I will propose we:

• Use all available pressures on our Mayor to ensure they stick by a collaborative budget process over ramming through their priorities with ‘Strong Mayor’ powers.

• Address the lack of transparency around the budget process by advocating for moving to a continuous reporting model, with regular interim report cards on fiscal performance and budget targets provided through a dedicated online portal.

• Refocus our budget priorities away from unnecessarily bloated administrative costs, such as the $148,000/year SEO position in the most recent budget, or funding the creation of a custom-built CRM for the city despite a multitude of available premade options, and redirect that money back into shoring up frontline services.

• Adopt a ‘People First’ approach to city and regional budgets: protect basic services and affordability supports, then rank spending proposals by the direct benefits they provide to households and families, then trim back on costs like outside consultants and other non-essential spending before considering a tax rise.

• Work with small business owners and Canadian retailers to focus our economic growth on local providers and services first over bringing in new big box stores.

Councillors are meant to be the voice of residents and set the political direction of staff. However, too often it feels like elected politicians are happy to pass off their responsibilities and excuse inaction. That culture at City Hall needs to change.

As Ward 3 Councillor I will propose we:

• Work from the basic principle that your Councillor should not be hard to get a hold of. Hold far more informational and feedback sessions, following the model of city councillors in Hamilton who have held hundreds of such meetings in a single term. This includes virtual meetings, resident-hosted meet and greets, apartment and condominium drop-ins and so on, all recorded and available online.

• Have less in-camera Council meetings, and provide transparent transcripts or summaries of those that do occur within legal and confidentiality bounds.

• End the culture of shifting the burden of decision-making to the province or Ottawa. There are constitutional and legislative limits to municipal powers, but elected councillors still have influence and shouldn’t be timid in wielding it. We need to focus on building coalitions with other stakeholders, and not be afraid to call out the government with more than a sternly-worded letter.

• Study redoing the 2025 Ward Composition and Boundary Review, with the goal of implementing a truly independent review where incumbents no longer get to choose their voters, and the possibility of increasing Council size to 8 Councillors plus Mayor for better local representation, as was originally proposed.

Burlington City Council declared a Climate Emergency in 2019, and while some of the goals set were ambitious with strong follow-up, our Climate Action Plan could be much more serious in its scope. I believe we can - and must - do better.

As Ward 3 Councillor, I will propose we:

• Update the Climate Action Plan by using the TransformTO Net Zero Strategy as a guide, with clear structure around operational timelines, organizational and community roadmaps, stricter performance rules and bylaw recommendations, and far more aggressive standards which treat our climate commitments as a core strategy for economic growth in our community. Specifically, I would advocate for an updated CAP to include:

  • Commitments to net-zero by 2040 for the community, pushing the target ahead by a decade;

  • Moving the progress reports from every five years to every four years;

  • Setting specific sectoral goals, such as 30% of new registered vehicles in Burlington being electric by 2030, as specific pathways to take toward net-zero;

  • No longer putting the burden on community organizations as the prime movers of climate action, and studying ways the regulatory powers of the City and Region can be used to push forward our net-zero strategy in tandem with community work;

  • A far more user-friendly site, where any resident can see on a single page what our commitments are, how we’re implementing programs to reach them, and what the status is so far.

• Create a Biodiversity Action Plan similar to Hamilton’s, focused on specific measures for protecting our strained and unique environments particular to Ward 3, laid out in their own plan rather than tied up in other initiatives.

• Keep up progress on the adaptation programme laid out in the Climate Resilient Burlington Plan, but ensure we pair adaptation with a serious plan to curb emissions.

• Step up the fight against the provincial government’s destruction of our environmental protection agencies and laws, many of which have a direct impact on Burlington, including opposing the gutting of the Endangered Species Act, Niagara Escarpment Plan, and other critical protections.