explore jesse’s platform in more detail

Accountability – Transparent budgets, no waste, and responsible investments. In four years we have given over $500M (grants, land, bailouts) to organizations with little to no oversight and have the highest debt to service level in history ($400M+ annually), equivalent to the transit budget and resulting in a 25% tax increase.

What I’d champion:

  • Loans over bailouts to mitigate impacts to the tax levy;

  • Validate organization financial viability for net new funding requests. Is the organization financially sustainable?;

  • Better reporting on outcomes (i.e affordable housing);

  • Improve transparency on city project overspends such as removing ambiguous online reporting and make project spends easy to understand;

  • Follow through on by-law infractions through automation and swift enforcement; and

  • Cancel the upcoming change to the “other residential subclass” to maintain over $120+ million in tax revenue to improve basic city services such as snow removal.

Communication – Honest updates and real community engagement. Community isn’t one size fits all, such as “complete streets”, it is about actually engaging residents and adapting accordingly - Calder isn’t Bonnie Doon.

What I’d champion:

  • Overhaul the complete streets policy to ensure community is heard;

  • Redo the consultation process so citizens have a voice;

  • Cut redundant policy that creates bureaucratic burdens to change; and

  • Ensure all city funded organizations remain non-partisan.

Heritage Conservation – Growth that honors our past, not defunds or demolishes it. We demolish, not deconstruct; we leave our iconic structures vacant, do not invest and we permit city building without context and with the poorest construction material.

What I’d champion:

  • Protect heritage assets at demolition permit stage using city policy tools;

  • Create heritage conservation districts with related permit structure;

  • Revitalize Rossdale Power Plant;

  • Animate the rivervalley;

  • Ensure context is a factor in the zoning bylaw including necessary changes to reduce loss of identity.

Infrastructure – Think Volkswagen, not Rolls-Royce—smart, durable, efficient. Build what works, not just what looks good. In four years, we have a project overrun of almost $700M (not including contingency), are building the most expensive infrastructure in history (more than anywhere in Canada).

What I’d champion:

  • Overhaul of the infrastructure department and the project management model to reduce rolls-royce spending;

  • Remove virtue signally related to environmental projects to reduce costs;

  • Bring in reforms to infill such as new development landscape protection to preserve our biodiversity and flood mitigation;

  • Ensure Epcor plans according to the city, not the other way around to reduce duplication; and

  • Champion the Housing First approach.

Local Business - bring it back through better tax and creative national commercial campaigns. Over the last four years we have established the highest commercial vacancy with little to no municipal support.

What I’d champion:

  • A national small/medium business relocation plan;

  • A vacancy tax for corporate landlords and vacant land;

  • Reduction to market rate for city properties that sit idle;

  • Stop the sale of generation assets for short term gain.