policies I am running on:

I would like to be the last Regional councillor Fort Erie ever has and abolish the position at the end of my term. Regional govt is a useless 4th level of govt that doesn't exist in most municipalities.

I would propose reducing regional council from it's current 32 members to 12. This is easily done by only having the 12 Niagara region mayors sit on council. This will save the region almost $1 million and make decision making more efficient.  

Niagara Region is the most over-governed region in Canada. We currently have 126 councillors and 32 regional councillors. All for a total population of 484,000 people. Compare this to a city like Hamilton, that has over 500,000 people, but only 15 city councillors and a mayor; and no regional council. 

I will lobby to implement term limits for elected officials in Niagara Region. 

• A maximum of three terms for all municipal politicians

Term limits help bring fresh ideas and prevent corruption. If our municipal politicians haven't achieved their goals within three terms, chances are they will never achieve them. 

I would advocate to expand the current on-demand transit system to include subsidized set routes on UBER, providing 24 hour on-demand transit. This has successfully been done in Innisfil, Ontario and received  significant support from the community for its convenience.

Fort Erie and the other municipalities made the right decision when moving to an on-demand transit system, however, instead of subsidizing ride sharing apps like UBER, our region decided to waste tax dollars developing their own app and contracting out or purchasing vehicles. 

We could have been using a significantly superior app (UBER) developed by some of the best engineers in the world, which can be used 24 hours a day. Instead, we got a sub-par app with time restrictions. 

Speed up and lower the cost of permitting (govt must accelerate & guarantee the approval or denial of permits withing a shorter timeframe), implement fines for developers who sit on land without developing it. This will lower costs and assist with increasing housing supply.

Housing affordability is perhaps the best example of how our elected officials have failed from a policy perspective. The cost of housing has been a major political issue since prices started to rise dramatically in about 2002. Successive govt's have made promises to help and all have failed, as prices have continued to go up and have significantly outpaced income gains.  

It's important to note, many factors affecting housing prices are out of the realm of municipal and regional politicians, things such as immigration, interest rates, etc. However, municipal and regional govt have a direct impact on permitting, zoning, local taxes, all of which impact the appeal of a region for developers. 

If I cannot convince our regional councillors to make themselves redundant, I would like to at least incentivize them to save your tax dollars. The regional budget, like our municipal budgets, have had a one way trajectory, and that is up. The continuous budget increases have raised the cost of living for all people living in Niagara Region. 

I would suggest a program that motivates our concillors by giving them a pay bonus if they lower the budget from one year to the next. A one-tenth of a percent (0.10) decrease in the total revenue budget would save Niagara region over $1 million and easily offset a minimal bonus given to our councillors under such a program. This might be the only way to convince elected officials to have some fiscal restraint and assist in lowering taxes in the region.