Here's where I stand on the issues
Over the past 15 years, I've worked in public service, served on the Oshawa Public Library Board, owned a small business, and supported businesses and organizations in tackling some of Durham Region's biggest workforce challenges.
These experiences have shaped the practical, collaborative approach I'll bring to City Hall if elected to serve as Ward 4's new City Councillor.
My priorities are guided by four principles: listening first, fiscal responsibility, evidence-based decision-making, and collaboration.
Throughout my time in public service, I've learned that lasting solutions come from listening to residents, studying the facts, and working together, not chasing headlines or making promises that can't be kept.
I'm running in this election because I believe Ward 4 deserves practical leadership that puts residents ahead of politics, spends public money responsibly, and prepares Oshawa for the opportunities ahead.
1. Guarding Your Tax Dollars: Line-by-Line Fiscal Accountability
Oshawa families are feeling the squeeze, and City Hall needs to find ways to do more with the tax dollars and development charges it already takes in.
Several new candidates are making promises to slash or freeze property taxes.
While those ideas may appeal to some voters, their proposals also raise real concerns about how they would be implemented within the reality of a municipal budget and, further, raise serious questions about their understanding of the division of responsibilities between the City of Oshawa and the Region of Durham.
Could City Council minimize or reduce the percentage of future tax increases and turn up more efficiencies in its day-to-day operations? Absolutely.
As one of 11 votes on Council, I will work with my colleagues to keep taxes to the level required to deliver core services, reduce the bloat in our city's back-office management, and find efficiencies, rather than cutting the front-line workers and essential services that our neighbourhoods rely upon.
I have a proven record of responsible financial stewardship: I've spent eight years providing governance oversight for one of Oshawa's largest publicly funded organizations, the Oshawa Public Library, including serving as Chair since 2023. During that time, the Library's operating grant increased from $9.05 million in 2018 to $9.55 million in 2026, an increase of just over 5.5% across eight years, well below the rate of inflation over the same period.
By comparison, cumulative inflation over the same period was approximately 23%, meaning the library's operating funding grew at roughly one-quarter the rate of inflation.
Despite those modest funding increases, the library has continued delivering high-quality services by carefully managing resources, improving operational efficiency, and making thoughtful, evidence-based decisions.
That is the approach I'll bring to City Council: scrutinizing every budget line, asking tough questions before asking taxpayers for more, protecting front-line services, and ensuring residents receive the greatest possible value for every tax dollar.
2. Revitalizing Downtown Safety: Smarter, Targeted Community Enforcement
Ward 4 residents and business owners have grown exhausted, even despondent, about the dangerous situation across our downtown. They deserve a neighbourhood where families and seniors feel safe walking, working, and shopping at any time of the day.
- I will work with my colleagues, regional councillors and stakeholders to bolster visible public safety and bylaw enforcement presence to directly address property crime, graffiti, open drug use, and public disorder in the downtown along with specific high-needs and at-risk neighbourhoods.
- I will advocate for the expansion of specialized collaborative enforcement teams, pairing municipal By-law Enforcement and/or Durham Regional Police with dedicated social service and mental health outreach workers.
- We must work harder to ensure that vulnerable populations are actively routed to the appropriate regional, provincial or federally-provided support services, including Oshawa's new Homelessness, Addiction, Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub, launched earlier this year at 78 Richmond St W.
- We must get those struggling with addictions off our streets and into treatment if we're going to make our downtown vibrant again.
- To be clear, I do not support drug consumption sites.
3. Preparing Oshawa for Tomorrow's Economy: Building Opportunities Through Partnerships
Oshawa is entering one of the most significant periods of economic transformation in its history. With unprecedented investment in the nuclear sector, advanced manufacturing, health care, post-secondary education, and housing, City Hall must be a proactive partner in creating jobs and preparing residents for the opportunities ahead.
Through my work in workforce development and labour market research, I collaborate every day with employers, educators, municipalities, and community organizations to understand the opportunities and challenges facing Oshawa's economy. I'll bring that evidence-based perspective to Council to support long-term economic growth.
- The next Council should position Oshawa as the best place in Ontario to invest, innovate, and build a business. I’ll work with my colleagues to streamline municipal processes, support key growth sectors, and promote our community's skilled workforce.
- I will champion economic development initiatives that create well-paying local jobs, expand our commercial and industrial tax base, and reduce the long-term tax burden on homeowners by attracting more business investment.
- Economic growth doesn't happen by accident. It requires collaboration, planning, and informed decision-making. I will work with all levels of government, educational institutions, businesses, and community partners to ensure Oshawa is prepared to seize the opportunities of tomorrow's economy.
4. Fostering Economic Growth: Cutting Red Tape for Small Businesses
Several areas in or near our downtown are about to undergo a historic transition. The City must make it easier for small businesses to invest, open, and service thousands of incoming new residents. Every new business means new jobs, a stronger commercial tax base, and less pressure on homeowners to shoulder the growing cost of municipal services.
- I will advocate to improve the City’s Community Improvement Plan (CIP) application process, eliminating the seasonal deadlines and administrative bottlenecks that can block local small businesses and entrepreneurs from accessing building upgrades, accessibility, or crime-prevention grants.
- We must take concrete steps to encourage the repurposing of vacant commercial spaces and brownfields sites into thriving local housing, shops, services or restaurants. In this way, we will finally expand our city's commercial tax base so that residential property owners, homeowners and renters aren't saddled with a disproportionate share of our full municipal financial burden.
5. Smart Growth & Balanced Housing: Infrastructure First
As downtown Oshawa density targets double over the coming years, rapid residential development cannot come at the expense of our current neighbourhoods.
- I will work to ensure that several planned new high-density housing projects in Ward 4 (e.g., at King St/Mary St, at Bond St/Division St, our former post office, and the new Bruce St corridor) are strictly tied to the necessary concurrent local and regional investments in infrastructure. This includes proper pedestrian safety, transit alignment, and accessible green spaces like the Oshawa Creek corridor and botanical gardens.
- With several planned developments in the works, we expect a significant influx of families into a fresh stock of mixed housing in or near our downtown. We will soon need to address the likely need for new elementary schools given each major school board's closure of many longstanding elementary and secondary schools in Ward 4, a premature and short-sighted effort which began in the late 1990s and continued for 20 years.
- We must welcome new neighbours while also improving and protecting housing affordability without overloading our local roads, parking capacity, and neighbourhood sewers.
6. Fixing the Infrastructure Deficit: Prioritizing Ward 4 Streets and Public Spaces
For far too long, basic neighbourhood maintenance has been deferred, leaving local roads, sidewalks, and public spaces showing visible wear.
- I will work to ensure a greater share of parking revenue, administrative fines, and other revenues generated downtown are reinvested in Ward 4 through the creation of a Downtown Ward 4 Revitalization Fund that dedicates a greater share of locally generated revenues to local infrastructure improvements.
- By prioritizing these local revenues, we should be able to speed up or fast-track long-deferred neighbourhood maintenance, improve sidewalk snow clearing, fix several worn-out local streets, and keep our community clean, safe, and accessible year-round.
The Bottom Line
Ward 4 deserves thoughtful, accountable leadership, not slogans, false promises, or ideological battles.
My commitment is simple: listen first, study the evidence, ask difficult questions, spend your tax dollars money responsibly, and work with others to deliver practical solutions that improve our community.
Real progress happens when municipalities work with other orders of government rather than simply demanding more funding.
My experience working across municipal, provincial, and federal partners has taught me how to build those relationships and deliver results.
After two decades of false hope, failed schemes, and many years working our city out of its massive debt pile (which had reached a staggering $135 million by 2010), a reinvigorated Oshawa City Council must focus on cutting red tape and growing businesses if we're going to shift the unreasonable level of tax pressure off the backs of everyday homeowners.