Responses are grouped by topic. Click a topic to open.
- Question: How would you describe your leadership style?
- By: Peter M.
- Jamie’s Answer:
- I’ve been a person-manager for more than 15 years; it’s been perhaps the best part of my professional career. I believe the role of leaders is to support and enable team members with everything they need to be successful in their roles – not to dictate to them how to do their jobs. I believe democracy extends even to the workplace. With that said, I also believe the leader’s job includes influencing and educating peers, such as city and regional councilors and city staff.
Unfortunately, the role of Mayor has been intentionally disempowered by provincial legislation in Ontario, especially by the new law that makes Regional Chairs appointed positions and gives them absolute veto powers over elected Mayors. This greatly diminishes ALL mayors’ ability to make impactful changes. I will push back hard against Doug Ford’s undemocratic changes!
- I’ve been a person-manager for more than 15 years; it’s been perhaps the best part of my professional career. I believe the role of leaders is to support and enable team members with everything they need to be successful in their roles – not to dictate to them how to do their jobs. I believe democracy extends even to the workplace. With that said, I also believe the leader’s job includes influencing and educating peers, such as city and regional councilors and city staff.
- Question: What are the most important issues facing the City of Waterloo and how would you plan to deal with them?
- By: Peter M.
- Jamie’s Answer:
- There is no singular issue facing the City of Waterloo or Canada as a whole; instead, I believe we face several crises simultaneously. While many politicians are distracted by ‘identity politics’ and similar topics-du-jour, I believe the focus of government in general should remain on the essentials: food, water, shelter, healthcare, education, transit, and a livable environment.
I believe the municipal government should get directly involved in the areas where they have the most impact: food, water, shelter, and transit. Specifically, this includes creating and operating city-owned organizations that reliably provide these services at no-cost or low-cost. Please see my full platform for more specific details.
- There is no singular issue facing the City of Waterloo or Canada as a whole; instead, I believe we face several crises simultaneously. While many politicians are distracted by ‘identity politics’ and similar topics-du-jour, I believe the focus of government in general should remain on the essentials: food, water, shelter, healthcare, education, transit, and a livable environment.
- Question: Property taxes have increased 27% in the last three years. Your platform would cost an additional $80 M per year to implement and another $2 Billion to $3 Billion for infrastructure. Obviously property taxpayers can not afford this burden. Would there be a citizen tax on all Waterluvians ($661 per citizen) or would this burden be handled by corporations?
- By: Mike Milovick (Team Milovick, Royal LePage Wolle Realty)
- Jamie’s Answer:
- I completely agree with you: residents and local businesses of Waterloo already struggling should not to have to pay even more! The massive property tax hikes of the last several years have been completely squandered.
A taxation approach I propose to better ensure financial fairness is the idea of scaled (aka means-tested) pricing. Using residential property taxes as an example, if your home is valued exactly at the median for the City of Waterloo, then you should expect to pay about the same property tax as last year, plus a nominal increase that matches the consumer price index (CPI) rate increase. If your home value is under the median you should actually expect a decrease next year, while if your home is way above the median you would pay significantly more than before. This also de-incentivizes new construction of luxury houses and condos that just sit unsold and artificially drive up housing prices and city infrastructure costs even further.
Using fees and fines as a different example, we would set fines (e.g., parking tickets) and fees (e.g., permits, activities and programs, and parking) as a % of household income, rather than a flat price. This approach has the side benefit of ensuring things like parking tickets remain an equally effective deterrent for everyone!
I see taxes on businesses similarly: small, local, employee-owned companies need more help, not more taxes. I believe the very largest corporations (e.g., Walmart, Sobeys, Metro, Zehrs) should bear the full brunt of rising costs. These behemoths drive down our wages, stifle local competition with anti-competitive real estate practices, and gouge us as customers at the same time! Despite what their national marketing teams might say, they don’t care about Waterloo or Waterluvians. Everything these conglomerates do for our community is just a tax write-off to them.
Did you know that the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) budget actually grew even faster than the tax rate? That means other programs were either cut or held flat so the police could buy new those AI cameras they just announced! WRPS is the single largest tax-supported service at $298 million, ahead of children’s services at only $245 million, and public transit at $231 million [source]. Rampant police overspending is a major part of the oversized municipal tax increases.
(NB: By my estimate, the cost to implement my housing, food, and transit plans might actually be even higher than what you’ve suggested, although savings elsewhere (e.g., healthcare, police, prisons) would offset a very significant portion.)
- I completely agree with you: residents and local businesses of Waterloo already struggling should not to have to pay even more! The massive property tax hikes of the last several years have been completely squandered.
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