/hprmr2iqoxnyubuuwhyib75ex2pq)
The ACE Plan
Nick's platform is called the ACE Plan, standing for Affordability, Community, and Engagement. These three areas will be his priority if elected to Council.
Affordability
- Create a Public Wealth Fund holding company to manage the city's vacant lots and commercial property, just like how Enwin manages our utilities. The Public Wealth Fund will generate a profit through selling, leasing, developing, or direct management of land when appropriate.
- Improve Windsor's financial transparency measures. Adopt practices from other Canadian (and especially Ontarian) cities that get higher grades on financial transparency.
- Maintain the Auditor General's office with the operational independence they need to properly fulfill their role.
- Targeted spending saves money! Review the city's departmental budgets to see where resources from the existing budgets could be redistributed within the departments for better outcomes.
- Continue to lobby the federal and provincial governments for financial support, grants, uploading of infrastructure such as the EC Row, and collaboration on projects when appropriate.
- A vacant storefront tax on out-of-town landlords similar to our existing vacant home tax. Iconic local businesses should not be forced to relocate only for their previous location to be vacant for months or even years!
Community
- Continue working on existing projects and keep to schedule! Some that are especially relevant to Riverside include: The Riverside Vista Improvement Project, the Reaume Park Peace Fountain replacement, the Sewer and Coastal Flood Protection Master Plan, the Sandpoint Beach Park Master Plan, and the Peche Island Restoration Project.
- Keep our community safe! Proper after-hours lighting for our streets and parks, including repairing the lamplights along Wyandotte.
- Maintain our current city-operated pest control program.
- A new dog park for Riverside, possibly at the northwest corner of Realtor Park.
- Reduce homelessness by supporting wraparound services such as job and addiction counselling, and by working with community partners on cost efficient methods. It will not solve anything to spend tens of millions of dollars on more units when the City Administration claims that there are enough existing units to house the current homeless population. We need to address the root causes of why those existing units are not being occupied and why people are ending up back on the streets.
- Support programs focused on protecting residents such as the new Windsor Police anti-human trafficking campaign.
- Better traffic calming measures in the face of the fatalities and many collisions we've seen this year. Windsor's Vision Zero policy is already underway, which is a program to have all planned traffic calming measures implemented by 2035. Nick has also heard requests for more stop signs, speed traps, curbs, and crosswalks with accessibility features while knocking on doors and will work to include these requests in the Vision Zero policy.
- Implement an official heat strategy for the city in preparation for next summer. We should not be waiting until the next heat wave to plan for the next heat wave!
- Preparedness for dangerous smog from northern forest fires by having surplus face masks at community centres and retirement communities. Investigate implementing an Amber Alert-style warning system for smog and dangerous air conditions.
- Work with the federal government to build a weather station in Essex so that we have advance warning for dangerous storms and tornados. Storm preparation should also include more proactive removal of hollowed out trees at high risk of falling down, as well as working with the owners of older homes to make sure their roofs have hurricane ties.
Engagement
- Our elected officials should keep in touch with residents year round, and residents should know what City Council is doing on their behalf. If elected, Nick will maintain his website and social media with frequent updates on community and council business. Nick will also include a 'suggestion box' on his website for improvements that residents would like to see.
- Beyond the once-a-year councillors' public ward reports, Nick will hold more frequent and casual ward get-togethers open to the public.
- Nick will knock on doors even in non-election years to seek out public opinion with residents who might otherwise not know how to be heard by city officials or who might be too busy to come before council.
- Nick is opposed to how often in-camera (private and behind closed doors) city council meetings have been happening. Unless there is a very specific reason requiring privacy, city council meetings should be in public in the council chambers, open to the public as well as recorded and available online.