JamesMurchison

Background

Successive councils have neglected maintenance of existing infrastructure. Delaying a project is far easier for a politician to do than asking residents for the money to pay for it — just kick the can down the road for the next council to deal with. The problem is that these deferred projects have piled up into a $10.6 billion backlog. That road resurfacing or park renewal project that affects your life is now at the end of a very, very long list and councillors are forced to fight over scraps to get projects done in their wards.

We saw very clearly in the July 1st flooding events exactly what that looks like: outdated infrastructure and no plan from the city to address it. Councillor Curry voted to defer $2 billion in water infrastructure upgrades. I would have voted against that plan. We need to fund these necessary upgrades now.

I want tax increases to be as low as possible, but it's not as simple as just setting an arbitrarily low number every year. We need to build the city in a way that makes low taxes possible or we just end up paying high taxes for bad services. We need to look at how much it costs to provide services to neighbourhoods, and make sure what we build can cover those costs without needing high property tax increases. We need to stop cutting corners for short term savings on things that end up costing more in the long run.

Background

Kanata North is quite unique as a suburb in that it has a fairly large commercial taxbase in the tech park. Unlike other suburbs that are primarily focused around commuting to downtown for work, Kanata residents who work in the tech park can benefit from much shorter commute times by having their place of work much closer to home.

But if we want to attract the young talent needed to grow the tech park it needs to be more exciting than office towers and surface parking lots. We need to work closely with property owners and reform our zoning to allow for more lively mixed use development within the space available. We need more opportunities for the small businesses that make a place somewhere people want to be.

I'm a big proponent of having the things residents need (employment, shopping, recreation) nearer to where they live. We spend far too much time simply getting to places. If you have shops and restaurants within walking or biking distance of your home, you don't even need to drive there. I would also like to see the city allow more mixed use development in residential areas rather than the very rigid separation we now see.

Background

We shouldn't be expanding the urban boundary any further. We are eating into forests, wetlands, and productive farmland with endless suburban sprawl. We need to stop expanding and instead grow inward. We have a very spread-out city with plenty of already-serviced land to build new homes where it makes sense, without eating into greenspace.

The Kanata Lakes golf course is not greenspace worth protecting and we should stop wasting money trying to block the redevelopment. By Cathy Curry's own words, "the mercury poisoning that's in the lands from the pesticides, from the fertilizers, from the insecticides, the fungicides that are put on golf courses was all embedded in all of the land." This is not what we should be putting our efforts into. By blocking housing construction on this golf course, we are losing real greenspace elsewhere as homes are built further afield.

The city needs to work with the developer to ensure as much real public greenspace is incorporated into the development as possible. Large public parks open year round, and trails and pathways for residents to get around linking the old and new communities as one. The outcome will be much better by residents and the city working with the developer than by letting the OLT decide what can be built there.

Background

People need viable alternatives to driving. If we keep spending our money widening roads, it just leads to more people driving and even worse traffic. And people need to be allowed to work from home if they're able to, not forced into offices downtown. They need to be able to rely on transit to get them where they need to go, and to safely walk or bike around their neighbourhoods.

The traffic issues in this city are a direct result of the failures in our transit system. People need a reliable transit system that they can count on to get them where they need to be on time. Traffic will only improve when fewer people are choosing to drive.

Background

Young families are being priced out of neighbourhoods by protectionist, exclusionary policies. Strict zoning rules restricting what can be built and where have failed to meet the market demand and driven up prices. We need to allow more options for what can be built so people can afford to live in the neighbourhoods they want to live in.

Seniors looking to downsize are finding out that they would need to leave the neighbourhoods they've lived in their whole lives because we only ever permitted large single family homes to be built there. Many are choosing to remain in their homes rather than leave their neighbourhood, meaning new families that need a larger home often need to look for somewhere else to live.

As our city's population grows we are actually seeing many older neighbourhoods decrease in population as kids grow up and move out. The building forms in these neighbourhoods need to be able to change to keep the family orientated character of the neighbourhood intact.

We are in a housing affordability crisis, we need to give residents more options to find homes they can afford.