As of October 22, 2018

I’ve lived in Richmond Hill since 1987. It has grown to become an exciting community with the most educated residents in Canada, dozens of languages spoken and successful local and international entrepreneurs. This growth has made Richmond Hill more fun, more interesting and more successful. With growth, though, comes growing pains.

As Regional and Local Councillor, I want to use my experience in business, knowledge of municipal government and passion for our community to build on our strengths and work on our weaknesses so that Richmond Hill can both grow and retain its community spirit.

On the bright side, we have a beautiful new trail and splash pad at Lake Wilcox, with a new park coming at the David Dunlap Observatory. Public transit is improving and all levels of government have put money into bringing the subway to Richmond Hill. Richmond Hill has a world-renowned high-tech sector and the Town organizes exciting conferences for inventors and investors. There are good reasons to be proud of Richmond Hill.

But there are also areas that need improvement. Traffic clogs our roads and construction during busy hours often make the problem worse. The historic downtown needs to be a nicer place to walk and shop again. Meanwhile, our tax rates get pushed upward as governments work to fix these problems. There are reasons to be concerned, but I know that these problems can be fixed.

If you elect me as Regional and Local Councillor, I am committed to:

• Work on making your commute faster
• Use business experience to bring new ideas and find savings
• Oppose unnecessary tax increases
• Improve downtown Richmond Hill & Oak Ridges
• Support Police to ensure safe neighbourhoods
• Ensure value and quality municipal services
• Support better public transit
• Ensure that growth is sustainable

Taxes

Richmond Hill has one of the lowest tax rates in the GTA, but the tax payment for an average house is higher than our neighbours in Markham and Vaughan.  This is because Richmond Hill house prices are higher than theirs.  I will use my business experience to ensure that we get value for our money and stop unnecessary tax increases by:

• Asking tough questions of staff when new spending is proposed
• Ensuring that new developments pay their fair share for roads, sewers, water and other infrastructure
• Asking staff to compare our programs and spending to other municipalities to find areas where we can learn and do better
• Looking into ways that the Town can provide fair value to condominium owners who pay for many services such as garbage pickup that they cannot use
• Saving our Town’s reserves for when we need them
• Advocating for town and regional departments to keep spending increases at or below inflation

Services

We all pay property taxes. Even those who rent are paying it through their landlord. Many Town services are excellent and provide good value, but some of them need improvement. I am committed to ensuring that Richmond Hill residents get good services across the entire Town, including:

• Ensure that windrow removal (the snow left at the bottom of your driveway by the snow plow) is timely for seniors.
• Ensure that contractors who repair roads and sidewalks, plant trees and plow roads are not only the lowest price, but also good quality.
• Allowing, only if the local residents want them, 40 km/h speed humps on major roads where people are speeding and/or ignoring stop signs.
• Reviewing the 3 hour residential street parking limits across the Town and allowing different rules in different neighbourhoods where warranted, instead of the current one-size-fits-all policy.
• Create drop-in programs for seniors and stop charging existing seniors’ groups to use town space that already provide such a service.

Environment

Richmond Hill has some of the best parks and natural spaces in the GTA. We have also succeeded in diverting a high percentage of our waste from garbage dumps. In the Rotary Club, I have been the lead on planting trees on the Oak Ridges Moraine. As a lawyer, I helped the David Dunlap Observatory Defenders protect a large percentage of the observatory lands from development. In addition to the good work already being done by our Town, I am committed to:

• Maintain our existing parks and natural spaces for future generations and ensure that new developments include sufficient green space
• Encourage more recycling for local businesses
• Support incentives for industrial buildings to improve insulation
• Support inexpensive paved bike lanes off the roads beside sidewalks on regional roads where there is space, such as 16th Avenue and Major MacKenzie, including a link to Markham
• Support improved public transit so that people have less reasons to drive
• Ensure that trees removed by the Town on residential roads are replaced at the earliest opportunity

Community Building

Richmond Hill’s population has doubled in the last 20 years.  We are projected to add another 42,000 people by 2031.  As our population grows, we need to ensure that our local community remains vibrant and friendly.  I am committed to:

• Proposing free seniors drop-in times at community centres where they can socialize.  Existing seniors’ groups should not have to pay to provide similar programs during low-use times
• Ending the new practice of charging community organizations rent for old, historic buildings that would otherwise be empty
• Ensuring that our cultural events include those working on mental health strategies
• Supporting the creation of a mixed-use arts and cultural hub in York Region
• Involving more community groups in our town events
• Simplifying the process of renting community centre spaces
• Making it easier to book a last-minute rental at a community centre
• Ensuring that people in the Town’s volunteer database who do not show up without warning are removed

Development and Planning

In the next term of Council, by 2022, York Region is required to adopt a new official plan. The process will take place under new planning rules, with no Ontario Municipal Board (“OMB”) to overrule municipalities. The province requires us to prepare a plan where York Region as a whole will grow by over half a million people by 2041, increasing our population by about 50%. Richmond Hill must add about 40,000 in the next 12 years. We need to ensure that our Regional and Local Councillor understands planning issues and can speak with knowledge and authority on behalf of Richmond Hill. Otherwise, we may lose out compared to other municipalities. I am committed to:

• Ensure that we plan for growth that is supported by sufficient roads, sewers, water and other infrastructure
• Support planning that is based on evidence and facts
• Require that new developments pay their fair share for roads, sewers, water and other infrastructure
• Call on regional staff to respond to approved applications in a timely manner. If approved development is delayed, the collection of development charges that we need to fund infrastructure investments will also be delayed
• Recommend a triage system for building permits and other applications to the Region and Town, where simple applications can be reviewed first
• Support more affordable housing, including legalizing basement apartments that comply with the Building Code, fire safety regulations and have enough parking.  This would also help seniors who could use the rental income to stay in their homes.
• Advocate to keep major growth out of mature neighbourhoods.  It should, instead, be along major roads and near transit hubs where we have the infrastructure to support it
• Protect parks, forests and the Oak Ridges Moraine from development

Transit

York Region needs to provide an integrated, efficient and timely public transit system.  I am committed to:

• Speak out loudly and firmly for Yonge Street subway extension funding to Richmond Hill as a priority
• Support a change in Mobility Plus so that those with a physical or functional disability are not required to make unreasonable transfers, wait extended times for buses or be dropped off at the Toronto border without assistance
• Find ways to save money by integrating VIVA and York Region Transit
• Insist that York University students travelling from York Region to campus should not have to transfer or pay a TTC fare
• Ensure that VIVA construction plans take the new Go Train electrification into account
• Ensure that if transit is uploaded to a GTA-wide body or the province, York Region and Richmond Hill do not lose control to Toronto politicians
• Support allowing low-income seniors to ride public transit for free during off-peak hours

Traffic

I will not accept that the worst commute time in North America is the best that we can do in the GTA.  As Regional and Local Councillor, I am committed to:

• Speak out loudly and firmly for Yonge Street subway extension funding to Richmond Hill as a priority
• Fight to keep right turn lanes and right turns on Yonge Street where VIVA Next is being built
• Encourage York Region Police to redirect resources from speed traps on major regional roads to traffic enforcement on residential roads where too many people speed and ignore stop signs
• Propose and vote for state-of-the-art smart traffic signals that know where backup is and work to correct it, like those currently being tested in the City of Toronto
• Advocate for the provincial government to widen the 404 north of 16th Avenue and fix the bottleneck over the 401 where the 404 meets the DVP
• Support inexpensive paved bike lanes beside sidewalks on regional roads where there is space, such as 16th Avenue and Major MacKenzie, including links over the highway to Markham. They would replace grass, not traffic lanes, and get bikes off the road.
• Support large, 40km/h speed humps on major residential roads, but only when the residents living on the road want them
• Richmond Hill is already planning to build a bridge over the railroad tracks on Elgin Mills; I will advocate to speed up the timeline as much as possible