Working together for a more effective Council

John Sewell and five other candidates for Toronto City Council today announced their ideas for a financial plan for Toronto. Their plan addresses methods of fixing the property tax system, securing new sources of revenue and doing a study on tax shifting.

“The property tax system is unfair, not only to people in Willowdale which I hope to represent, but also to people in the downtown,” says Ed Shiller of Ward 24 (Willowdale).

“Some of the city’s revenue sources actually encourage things like sprawl,” says David White, Ward 14 (Parkdale-High Park). “A study of tax shifting can help to ensure that the ways the city gets its revenues actually encourage desirable activity and discourage the things we do not want to see happen.”

”We definitely need new services in places like Jane Finch. I do not see any way of getting them except by the city getting some new sources of revenue,” says Garry Green of Ward 8 (Jane-Finch).

“Young candidates like myself do not often talk about financial issues,” says Amarjeet Chhabra, Ward 43 (Scarborough East), “but I am happy to join with these other candidates. Of all people youth need to be concerned about money and financial issues in the city.”

“I think the study of the property tax system that we’re proposing is a good example of leading change,” says Adam Vaughan, Ward 20 (Trinity Spadina). “This issue has been avoided by city council too long.”

“We might differ in our political backgrounds and in the people we are hoping to represent, says John Sewell, Ward 21 (St. Paul’s), “but we’ve been able to come to some pretty interesting agreements about what should happen around financial issues about the city.”

The full report can be found on the Issues section of this web site as well as oon the web sits of the other five candidates: www.amarjeet.to; www.greenforcouncil.ca ; www.electshiller.com ; www.adamvaughan.ca ; www.davidwhite.to .