There are always a lot of ideas put forward during an election. What matters is whether a candidate has thought through how an idea would move through City Hall. A city councillor is only one vote. Working through the City’s processes, knowing where to push, and building support around the Council table are all part of getting things done.
SMARTER FISCAL MANAGEMENT
Good fiscal management means setting clear priorities, investing wisely, and getting real value for public money.
Windsor needs a better approach to budgeting, a closer look at where savings and efficiencies can be found, and stronger scrutiny of how money is managed and invested. That includes moving beyond one-year-at-a-time budgeting and making sure Windsor is getting a strong return on the money it holds and invests.
This is an area I’ve spent years paying close attention to, from City budgets and financial reports to how Windsor compares with other municipalities.
Stop scrambling at budget time.
Modernize Windsor’s budgeting process by moving to multi-year budgeting so Council can see financial pressures coming and start dealing with them earlier, instead of scrambling to make the numbers work at budget time.
Read the full proposal ↓Modernize how City Hall operates.
Take a serious look at how the City is organized, where public money is going, and where things can be done differently to deliver better value.
Read the full proposal ↓EFFICIENT, AFFORDABLE CITY SERVICES
Residents should expect high-quality City services and good value for the money we spend delivering them.
Windsor should be regularly measuring the cost and performance of its services, comparing them with other municipalities, and identifying areas where our costs are significantly higher or where there may be opportunities to improve. The point is not simply to compare for the sake of comparing, but to use that information to make better decisions.
That same approach should apply across City services: measure performance, identify inefficiencies, modernize where it makes sense, and look for better ways to deliver services while keeping them affordable. That also means looking carefully at user fees with an eye to affordability and at whether services are meeting the needs of the people who rely on them.
I’ve spent my career working on exactly these kinds of questions: how public services perform, where they can improve, and how to deliver better value for public money.
Keep City services affordable.
Look at the full cost residents pay, including property taxes, utility bills, transit, recreation, and other City fees and charges. Affordability should be part of every decision about what residents pay.
Read the full proposal ↓Know what we’re getting for the money.
Compare the cost and performance of City services with other municipalities. If we’re spending more, understand why. If someone else is doing it better, learn from them.
Read the full proposal ↓Focus resources where they matter.
Use better information to make sure staff time and public money are going toward the problems that matter most, rather than processes that create unnecessary work.
Read the full proposal ↓AN OPEN, ACCOUNTABLE CITY HALL
Trust isn’t something government can ask for. It has to be earned.
Residents should be able to understand how and why decisions are made, know how their money is being used, and have meaningful opportunities to be heard before important decisions are made. Council should ask tough questions, information should be made public wherever possible, and major decisions should be clearly explained.
Fewer closed-door meetings.
If a Council discussion can happen in public, it should.
Read the full proposal ↓Bring public appointments into the open.
Make appointments to City boards and committees in public and give qualified residents a fair opportunity to serve.
Read the full proposal ↓Make City decisions more transparent.
You shouldn’t need a PhD to understand the City’s budget, figure out what Council decided, or find out how your councillor voted.
Read the full proposal ↓SAFER, STRONGER NEIGHBOURHOODS
A strong city starts with strong neighbourhoods. That means paying attention to the issues residents experience every day and finding practical solutions that make our streets and neighbourhoods safer and better places to live.
From the city budget to the speeding car on your street, the big decisions matter and so do the details. Basement flooding, speeding, school traffic, property crime, and other neighbourhood concerns all affect what it is like to live in a community.
I’ll be knocking on doors across Ward 1 throughout this campaign, listening to what residents are experiencing and using that to help shape the priorities and proposals I put forward.
City Hall needs to pay attention to what is happening on the ground, listen to residents, and act on problems that affect people’s everyday lives.
Use better data to prevent neighbourhood crime.
Identify crime patterns and hot spots, then target enforcement, lighting, design improvements, and other prevention measures where they will have the biggest impact.
Read the full proposal ↓Expand our traffic-calming options.
Build on Vision Zero with more ways to slow traffic, including speed cushions and other tools that can work on streets where current options don’t.
Read the full proposal ↓Strengthen protection against basement sewer backups.
Expand Windsor’s basement flooding protection program to help homeowners understand why existing measures have failed and provide financial assistance for additional solutions, while continuing long-term sewer improvements.
Read the full proposal ↓Target street racing and excessive vehicle noise.
Use enforcement data to identify where and when problems are happening and pursue new tools, including automated noise-enforcement technology.
Read the full proposal ↓Get tougher on repeat property standards violations.
Escalate penalties and enforcement for repeat offenders and absentee landlords, while helping owner-occupants who genuinely need assistance.
Read the full proposal ↓End the transportation inequity facing Windsor high school students.
Bring the City and school boards together to deliver fair transportation for Windsor students that doesn’t leave families paying the bill.
Read the full proposal ↓Help residents get neighbourhood improvements done.
Better follow-through on curbs and gutters and other neighbourhood improvements, so residents aren’t left waiting years for projects to move forward.
Read the full proposal ↓Protect and invest in Ward 1’s parks, trails, and natural areas.
Add lighting along the Grand Marais Trail, fight for Oakwood Natural Area to be included in the proposed national urban park, and keep our parks and natural areas clean and well maintained.
Read the full proposal ↓
THE DETAILS
SMARTER FISCAL MANAGEMENT
Stop scrambling at budget time.
It’s time to modernize the way Windsor sets its budget.
Multi-year budgeting is already used by municipalities across Ontario. Instead of building a budget around a single year, it allows Council to look several years ahead, identify financial pressures earlier, and understand the longer-term impact of decisions being made today.
It also provides greater predictability for residents and businesses by giving them a clearer picture of where municipal finances, taxes, rates, and services are headed.
Windsor’s 2026 budget is a good example of why we need to change the way we budget. Council approved a 0% municipal tax levy increase, but getting there relied on millions of dollars in increased user fees and other charges, as well as millions in one-time funding.
When one-time funding is used to cover ongoing costs, those costs remain in the following year and become another pressure on the next budget.
Balancing one year’s budget isn’t enough if the way we balance it creates a hole in the next one.
With multi-year budgeting, Council would have a clearer picture of those pressures before they arrive. If costs are projected to increase, identify them early. If one-time funding is being used for an ongoing expense, show what that means for future years. And if savings are going to be needed, start looking for them throughout the year rather than waiting until budget time.
We should be dealing with financial pressures when we can see them coming, not waiting until they become the next budget problem.
Modernize how City Hall operates.
Take a serious look at how the City is organized, where public money is going, and where things can be done differently to deliver better value.
Windsor is a large organization delivering dozens of different services. Over time, organizational structures change, new management positions and processes are added, responsibilities shift, and technology changes how work can be done.
It makes sense to periodically step back and ask whether the organization is still structured in the best way to deliver those services.
That should include benchmarking Windsor against comparable municipalities. How many management positions and layers do we have? What are the spans of control within different parts of the organization? How much are we spending to administer particular services compared with other municipalities? Where are our costs higher, and what explains the difference?
Benchmarking isn't about assuming that spending more is automatically a problem. Municipalities organize and deliver services differently. But when Windsor looks significantly different from comparable cities, Council should understand why.
An organizational review should also look across departments for duplication and overlapping responsibilities, processes that require unnecessary steps or approvals, and work that could be streamlined through better use of technology.
And this needs to distinguish between the people delivering services and the structure around them. The goal isn’t to make already stretched frontline staff do more with less. It’s to make sure they aren’t working within an organization that has unnecessary management layers, duplication, or outdated processes getting in their way.
Looking for better ways of doing things should happen throughout the year, not only when Council suddenly needs millions of dollars at budget time.
EFFICIENT, AFFORDABLE CITY SERVICES
Keep City services affordable.
Affordability is about more than the property-tax bill.
Residents also pay water and sewer charges, Transit fares, recreation fees, permit and licensing fees, and other City charges. When Council makes decisions about any of those costs, we need to look at the total impact on residents.
The 2026 budget is a good example. While Council approved a 0% municipal tax levy increase, the proposed budget also included increases to a number of user fees and charges. For families using City services, those increases are part of the cost of municipal government too.
That doesn’t mean every City fee can stay the same forever. The cost of providing services changes. But when a fee is going up, Council should understand why it is increasing, how Windsor compares with other municipalities, and what the increase means for the people who use the service.
That is particularly important for services people rely on regularly. A fee increase that may look relatively small on its own can add up quickly for a family paying for several people or using a service frequently.
Affordability should be part of every decision about what residents pay.
Know what we’re getting for the money.
If Windsor is spending more to deliver a service, Council should understand why.
We should be regularly comparing the cost and performance of City services with other municipalities. How much does it cost us to deliver a particular service? What level of service are residents receiving? How quickly are we responding? And how do those results compare with similar municipalities?
If Windsor’s costs are significantly higher, Council should understand what is driving the difference and whether residents are getting better results for that additional spending.
Windsor has historically participated in municipal benchmarking that allowed us to compare the cost and performance of services with other municipalities. Funding for that work was eliminated in the 2026 budget.
That was the wrong place to look for savings.
If we want to find better ways of delivering services and identify where our costs may be out of line, we need the information that allows us to ask those questions in the first place.
If another municipality is delivering a comparable service at a lower cost or getting better results, we should understand what they are doing differently and whether Windsor can learn from it.
You can’t systematically look for efficiencies if you stop collecting the information that helps you identify them.
Focus resources where they matter.
City staff should be spending their time solving problems, not dealing with unnecessary processes that we have the ability to change.
By-law enforcement is a good example. Windsor spends significantly more per capita on municipal law enforcement than the median among comparable municipalities. That makes it especially important to understand where those resources are going and whether our rules and processes are making the best use of staff time.
Our current rules can require staff to investigate complaints about things like gardens and landscaping on the City right-of-way that could be dealt with through clearer, simpler rules.
That’s why I’m proposing to modernize Windsor’s approach to by-law enforcement: allow low-risk residential landscaping on City rights-of-way without requiring individual permits, establish a policy for frivolous, vexatious, and unreasonably persistent complaints, and improve reporting so Council can see complaint volumes, repeat complaints, response times, outcomes, and where staff resources are being used.
Better information matters here too. If certain types of complaints are consuming significant staff time without producing meaningful results, we should know that. If serious property standards complaints are taking too long to resolve, we should know that too.
The goal is to free up staff time to deal with the problems where enforcement really is needed.
AN OPEN, ACCOUNTABLE CITY HALL
Fewer closed-door meetings.
If a Council discussion can happen in public, it should.
There are legitimate reasons for Council to meet in closed session, and Ontario law sets out the circumstances when that can happen. But the fact that a discussion can legally take place behind closed doors doesn’t always mean that it should.
Wherever possible, Council should conduct its business in public. Residents should be able to hear the discussion, understand the different arguments being made, and know how their elected representatives arrived at a decision.
That also means being careful about what actually needs to remain confidential. If part of an issue needs to be discussed in closed session but other parts can be discussed publicly, Council should make that distinction rather than moving the entire conversation behind closed doors.
Just because a conversation is uncomfortable doesn’t mean it should happen behind closed doors.
Bring public appointments into the open.
Make appointments to City boards and committees in public and give qualified residents a fair opportunity to serve.
Residents who serve on City boards and committees contribute their time, knowledge, and experience to important decisions affecting our community. The process for choosing who serves should be open and accountable.
Other Ontario municipalities have already found ways to make public appointments more transparent by conducting the selection process in public and recording how councillors vote. These approaches demonstrate that greater transparency is possible while still protecting applicants’ personal information.
Windsor should be doing the same.
Council should make appointment decisions in public, with recorded votes so residents can see how their councillors voted. Personal information about applicants can still be protected without making the entire appointment process confidential.
There should also be clear, consistent criteria and a fair opportunity for qualified residents to be considered, without unwritten rules that exclude otherwise eligible applicants.
The people making these appointments are accountable to the public. The decisions about who serves should be made in public too.
Make City decisions more transparent.
You shouldn’t need a PhD to understand the City’s budget, figure out what Council decided, or find out how your councillor voted.
Making information public is important, but putting a document online isn't the same as making that information accessible.
Residents should be able to find out what decisions Council is considering, understand the financial implications, and see what was ultimately decided. That includes knowing how individual councillors voted and why.
The City’s budget is a good example. Residents should be able to see where public money is going, how spending is changing from year to year, and what results are being achieved. That information should be presented in a way that allows people to understand the decisions being made without having to work their way through hundreds of pages of financial documents.
The same principle applies to Council reports, meeting agendas, and decisions. Information should be organized clearly, important details shouldn't be buried, and residents should be able to follow an issue from the original proposal through to the final decision.
Transparency means more than making information available. It means making it possible for residents to understand what their government is doing and hold their elected representatives accountable.
SAFER, STRONGER NEIGHBOURHOODS
Use better data to prevent neighbourhood crime.
Identify crime patterns and hot spots, then target enforcement, lighting, design improvements, and other prevention measures where they will have the biggest impact.
Ward 1 residents are dealing with theft from vehicles, stolen bicycles and packages, garage and shed break-ins, and other opportunistic property crime.
I hear about these incidents at the doors all the time. Someone went through a car overnight. Something disappeared from a porch. A bicycle was stolen. A garage or shed was entered.
And not all of these incidents get reported to police. That makes it harder to understand the extent of the problem, identify recurring patterns, and determine where prevention efforts should be focused.
I'm proposing a Ward 1 Neighbourhood Property Crime Prevention Initiative that would use existing crime data, crime-prevention expertise, and targeted improvements to address recurring property crime in our neighbourhoods.
Research into situational crime prevention and problem-oriented policing shows that targeted interventions can help reduce crime. Rather than applying the same measures everywhere, the approach starts by identifying recurring problems, understanding the circumstances that make particular locations vulnerable, and selecting interventions that address those specific conditions.
That could mean improving lighting and visibility, removing places where someone can conceal themselves, installing secure bicycle parking, making changes to City-owned property, or targeting police enforcement where recurring problems have been identified.
I don't think the answer is putting a camera or streetlight on every corner. We need to understand what is happening, where it is happening, and why, then look at what would actually make a difference.
The initiative would focus on five areas:
1. Identify recurring problems and locations.
Work with Windsor Police to examine patterns in theft from vehicles, bicycle theft, garage and shed break-ins, vandalism, and other opportunistic property crime.
That also means encouraging more residents to report incidents to Windsor Police, including through the existing online reporting system. Even when little or nothing has been stolen, reporting eligible incidents can help police identify where problems are occurring and whether the same locations are being targeted repeatedly.
Better reporting means better information to guide prevention efforts.
2. Assess opportunities for prevention.
Work with Windsor Police and City administration to examine priority locations using Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles.
Windsor Police already has expertise in this area. Assessments could identify opportunities to improve sightlines, lighting, visibility, access, and the design of public spaces to make opportunistic crime more difficult.
The response should depend on the problem identified, rather than assuming the same solution will work everywhere.
3. Invest in targeted improvements.
Dedicate a portion of available Ward Funds to eligible neighbourhood capital improvements where a relatively small investment could help prevent recurring property crime.
That could include improved lighting, secure bicycle parking in appropriate locations, better visibility, or other changes to municipal property identified through the assessment process.
The initiative would build on resources and expertise the City and Windsor Police already have, rather than requiring a new City department or an expensive citywide program.
4. Strengthen neighbourhood-based crime prevention.
Work with Windsor Police and existing Neighbourhood Watch programs to explore opportunities to expand and modernize neighbourhood crime prevention in Ward 1.
That could include better communication about recurring property crime, encouraging residents to report incidents through Windsor Police's existing reporting channels, sharing practical theft-prevention information, and helping neighbours work together to identify and address recurring problems.
People already look out for their neighbours. We should build on that by improving communication, supporting neighbourhood participation, and connecting residents with the crime-prevention resources and expertise that already exist.
5. Measure results.
Review reported incidents and resident feedback after improvements are made to determine whether they are having the intended effect.
If an intervention is working, consider whether a similar approach could help elsewhere. If it isn't, understand why and adjust.
Expand our traffic-calming options.
Build on Vision Zero with more ways to slow traffic, including speed cushions and other tools that can work on streets where current options don’t.
Speeding is one of the concerns I hear most often from Ward 1 residents. People are worried about vehicles travelling too fast on residential streets, drivers ignoring stop signs, and the safety of pedestrians, cyclists, and children.
Windsor has adopted a Vision Zero approach to road safety, but we need to make sure residents have access to practical traffic-calming solutions, particularly on streets where the City's existing policies limit what can be done.
One example is streets used by Transit Windsor. Conventional speed humps aren't permitted on Transit routes, which means residents can be told that one of the most common traffic-calming measures isn't an option for their street.
Having a bus route on your street shouldn't mean you're out of options for dealing with speeding.
Other municipalities use speed cushions, which are designed with gaps that allow wider vehicles, including buses and some emergency vehicles, to pass through with less disruption while still slowing passenger vehicles.
Windsor previously piloted speed cushions but discontinued their use, in part because of winter maintenance concerns. Other Ontario municipalities have continued using them, including in cities that experience similar winter conditions.
I want Windsor to revisit speed cushions, working with Transit Windsor, Fire and Rescue Services and EMS to determine where they could be used safely and effectively.
That should be part of a broader review of our traffic-calming options. Different streets have different problems, and the right solution will depend on traffic volumes, speeds, road design, pedestrian activity, and how the street is used.
We should also review whether Windsor's current criteria for traffic-calming measures adequately reflect safety concerns, particularly for pedestrians and other vulnerable road users.
Vision Zero means taking road safety seriously and being willing to consider different solutions when the existing options aren't enough.
Strengthen protection against basement sewer backups.
Expand Windsor’s basement flooding protection program to help homeowners understand why existing measures have failed and provide financial assistance for additional solutions, while continuing long-term sewer improvements.
Windsor's Sewer Master Plan is an important long-term investment in reducing basement sewer backups and improving our sewer infrastructure. But implementing that plan will take decades, and homeowners need protection in the meantime.
That's particularly important for residents who have already invested in the City's recommended flood-protection measures, including backwater valves and sump pumps, but continue to experience sewage backing up through their basement plumbing fixtures.
Homeowners shouldn't have to keep spending thousands of dollars trying different solutions without understanding why the protection they already installed wasn't enough.
Windsor already has a Basement Flooding Protection Subsidy Program. I want to strengthen it in two important ways.
1. Help homeowners understand why their existing protection failed.
Create a Home Plumbing Assessment Grant to help homeowners obtain a comprehensive professional assessment of their plumbing systems, particularly when they continue to experience sewer backups despite having recommended protection measures in place.
The assessment would examine the home's plumbing configuration, existing protection measures, and potential vulnerabilities to determine why the backup occurred and what additional protection may be needed.
This goes beyond a basic camera inspection or dye test. The goal is to give homeowners professional advice before they invest in more work.
2. Expand financial assistance to include sewage ejector systems.
Backwater valves are an important protection measure, but they may not be sufficient for every home, particularly older homes with more complex plumbing configurations.
In some circumstances, a sewage ejector system may be a more appropriate solution. These systems collect wastewater from below-grade plumbing fixtures and pump it into the building sewer through a protected connection, helping prevent sewage from backing up into those fixtures when the municipal sewer is overloaded.
Windsor should make sewage ejector systems eligible for financial assistance where a qualified professional determines that one is appropriate.
This isn't a new concept for Windsor. Sewage ejector systems have already been considered through the City's Sewer Master Plan work, and other Ontario municipalities provide financial assistance for their installation.
The approach is straightforward: assess the home, determine the right solution, and help the homeowner implement it.
I also want Windsor to make better use of information collected following major sewer backup events. That includes understanding which neighbourhoods were affected, how the sewer system performed, and whether homes with existing protection measures still experienced backups.
That information should help improve homeowner protection programs and inform the ongoing implementation of the Sewer Master Plan.
This isn't about choosing between long-term sewer infrastructure improvements and helping homeowners protect their properties today. Windsor needs both.
Target street racing and excessive vehicle noise.
Use enforcement data to identify where and when problems are happening and pursue new tools, including automated noise-enforcement technology.
Street racing, stunt driving, and vehicles with illegally modified exhaust systems are disrupting neighbourhoods across Windsor, particularly late at night.
I'm talking about those modified mufflers that pop, bang, and roar through our neighbourhoods. Residents should be able to sleep, enjoy their backyards, and put their children to bed without being repeatedly disturbed by excessive vehicle noise.
This isn't about responsible vehicle owners or automotive enthusiasts. It's about drivers who deliberately create excessive noise, sometimes while speeding or racing on residential streets or roads bordering neighbourhoods.
Many of these modifications are already illegal. The challenge is enforcing the laws we have and making sure municipalities have the tools to do it effectively.
I'm proposing a more targeted approach that would:
- Identify recurring hotspots. Use Windsor Police enforcement data and resident complaints to determine where and when street racing, stunt driving, and excessive vehicle noise are occurring.
- Strengthen enforcement of existing laws. Work with Windsor Police to target enforcement in locations and at times when these problems are most frequent.
- Evaluate emerging noise-detection technology. Examine automated noise-enforcement systems, how they are being tested or used in other jurisdictions, and whether they could help Windsor address recurring problems.
- Advocate for provincial changes. Pursue the legislative authority municipalities would need to use automated noise enforcement where appropriate, with clear standards and safeguards.
Automated noise-enforcement technology could provide another way to identify vehicles producing excessive noise, particularly when violations are difficult for police officers to witness directly. Its effectiveness, reliability, costs, and legal requirements would need to be evaluated before implementation.
This isn't about creating new offences. It's about enforcing laws that already exist and giving municipalities modern tools to deal with a problem residents have been raising for years.
Get tougher on repeat property standards violations.
Escalate penalties and enforcement for repeat offenders and absentee landlords, while helping owner-occupants who genuinely need assistance.
Residents shouldn't have to repeatedly call the City about the same chronically neglected property, only to see the problem return a few weeks later.
Overgrown yards, accumulated garbage, and other serious property standards violations can affect entire neighbourhoods. When the same properties are the subject of repeated complaints, our enforcement system needs to respond more effectively.
I've proposed several changes to Windsor's approach:
- Act faster on serious violations. Review existing compliance timelines and move toward shorter deadlines, including 48- or 72-hour requirements for repeat offenders, rather than allowing problems to continue unnecessarily.
- Strengthen penalties for repeat offenders. Introduce significantly higher, escalating administrative penalties for property owners who repeatedly fail to maintain their properties.
- Stop treating every repeat violation like a first offence. Where a property has an established history of violations, allow enforcement to move more quickly without restarting the same lengthy warning process every time.
- Improve how notices are delivered. Use on-site posting where appropriate so enforcement isn't unnecessarily delayed by mailed notices.
Other Ontario municipalities have adopted approaches that distinguish between first-time violations and repeat offenders. Windsor should examine those practices and strengthen its own enforcement tools.
There also needs to be a distinction between property owners who repeatedly neglect their responsibilities and residents who genuinely need help maintaining their homes.
Seniors, people with disabilities, and other owner-occupants facing legitimate barriers should have a pathway to assistance, rather than simply facing escalating penalties.
The objective is faster resolution of serious property standards problems, stronger consequences for those who repeatedly ignore the rules, and a more responsive enforcement system for residents.
Stronger consequences for repeat offenders, and help for residents who genuinely need it.
End the transportation inequity facing Windsor high school students.
Bring the City and school boards together to deliver fair transportation for Windsor students that doesn’t leave families paying the bill.
For high school students, Windsor-Essex Student Transportation Services sets 3.2 kilometres as the distance threshold for transportation eligibility. Elsewhere in Essex County, students who meet that requirement receive school-board-supported transportation to their home school.
But in Windsor, high school students attending their home schools receive no school-board-supported transportation, even when they live beyond 3.2 kilometres.
Their families are on their own. They pay for Transit Windsor, drive their children, or find another way to get them to and from school.
Same distance. Different treatment because they live in Windsor.
We saw the impact earlier this year when Transit Windsor's School Extra buses were eliminated. Families raised concerns about lengthy trips, multiple transfers, overcrowding, and whether the regular transit system provided a reasonable way for students to get to and from school.
Following months of advocacy, City Council temporarily reinstated the remaining Route 1000 School Extra serving Massey and Holy Names through December 2026.
But preserving one bus temporarily was never the long-term solution.
I'm proposing that Windsor's school boards and the City work together on a model already being used in communities across Ontario: school boards pay for Transit Windsor passes for eligible high school students, while the school boards and Transit Windsor work together to make sure students have reasonable service to get to and from school.
A free transit pass alone isn't enough if it takes a student an unreasonable amount of time or multiple buses to get to school. That means looking at routes, travel times, transfers, and whether there is enough service when students are travelling to and from school.
Other Ontario communities have already demonstrated that school boards and municipal transit systems can work together to get students to school. Windsor doesn't need to copy any one program, but we can learn from what's already working elsewhere and develop a model that works here.
For months, families have been asking the City and school boards to work together on a long-term solution. That still needs to happen.
I'm asking trustee candidates to commit to bringing their boards to the table after the election. If I'm elected to represent Ward 1 on City Council, I'll do my part to make sure the City is there too.
Windsor high school students should not receive less transportation support simply because they live in Windsor.
Help residents get neighbourhood improvements done.
Better follow-through on curbs and gutters and other neighbourhood improvements, so residents aren’t left waiting years for projects to move forward.
Residents who want improvements such as curbs and gutters, sidewalks, or streetlights installed on their streets may be required to go through Windsor's local improvement petition process.
That means working with neighbours to gather enough support for the project, including signatures from at least two-thirds of the benefiting property owners representing at least half of the assessed property value. Property owners may also be required to contribute toward the cost of the work.
It's a significant undertaking for residents who are trying to improve their streets.
But even after a petition is successfully completed, the project isn't necessarily funded or scheduled. It goes forward for consideration alongside other projects in the City's capital budget.
I've heard from residents who have gone through this process and have been waiting years for the work to happen.
Windsor's own Council records confirm that outstanding local improvement projects have been an issue. In 2024, Council reviewed a list of outstanding projects and their prioritization for future funding.
We need better follow-through for residents who have already done what the City asked them to do.
That means reviewing outstanding local improvement petitions, understanding how long projects have been waiting, and making sure there are clear criteria for how they are prioritized and funded.
Residents should also know where their project stands, what needs to happen next, and whether there is a realistic timeline for construction. If funding is the obstacle, that should be clear too.
And when getting an improvement started means meeting with neighbours, coming to the street, or knocking on doors to help build support for a petition, I'll be there.
Completing a petition shouldn't mean spending the next several years wondering whether anything is going to happen.
Protect and invest in Ward 1’s parks, trails, and natural areas.
Add lighting along the Grand Marais Trail, fight for Oakwood Natural Area to be included in the proposed national urban park, and keep our parks and natural areas clean and well maintained.
Ward 1 is home to some of Windsor's most important parks, trails, and natural areas. Protecting these spaces means investing in their maintenance, improving how residents can enjoy them, and preserving the natural environments that make them special.
The goal is to make better use of a neighbourhood asset while respecting the people who live alongside it.
Fight for Oakwood Natural Area's inclusion in the national urban park.
Oakwood Natural Area is part of the Ojibway Prairie Complex, one of the most ecologically significant natural areas in southwestern Ontario. It was included in the original study area for Windsor's proposed national urban park, and there are compelling reasons to ensure it is included in the final park boundary.
The Province has already made a major investment in connecting Oakwood to the rest of the Ojibway Prairie Complex. As part of the Herb Gray Parkway project, a substantial wildlife crossing was constructed over the highway, reconnecting Oakwood with Spring Garden Natural Area and allowing wildlife to move between these important habitats.
We've already invested in connecting these natural areas. We should be building on that investment, not leaving Oakwood outside the national urban park.
Inclusion could also create opportunities to access federal funding and expertise for conservation, habitat restoration, trail improvements, interpretive signage, educational programming, and other appropriate improvements.
The federal government has committed $36.1 million over five years and $4.6 million annually thereafter toward the proposed national urban park. That creates opportunities for investments that Windsor might otherwise have to fund on its own.
I want to see Oakwood better maintained and more accessible to residents, with opportunities for low-impact activities and improvements that respect its sensitive natural environment.
That means working with Parks Canada, the City, Indigenous partners, and other organizations involved in the national urban park to make the case for Oakwood's inclusion and identify opportunities for investment.
Improve lighting along the Grand Marais Trail.
The Grand Marais Trail is an important neighbourhood asset, but the lack of lighting limits how much residents can use it, particularly during the fall and winter months when it gets dark earlier.
I want Windsor to explore installing directional, motion-activated solar lighting along appropriate sections of the trail to make it safer and more accessible during evening hours.
Modern lighting technology offers options that could address concerns about light spilling into neighbouring properties. Fixtures can be shielded and directed toward the trail rather than into residents' backyards. Motion sensors could allow lights to brighten when someone approaches and dim when the trail isn't being used, reducing unnecessary illumination and energy consumption.
Better lighting could encourage more people to use the trail for walking, running, and cycling, extending the hours when residents can comfortably enjoy it.
It could also improve visibility and personal safety and potentially help prevent opportunistic crime. Research has found that improved lighting in public spaces can contribute to reductions in property crime.
Keep our parks and natural areas well maintained.
Across Ward 1, our parks, trails, sports fields, and natural areas need ongoing attention. That includes maintaining trails and pathways, addressing litter and illegal dumping, keeping baseball diamonds and other sports facilities in good playing condition, and making sure amenities and public spaces are kept in good condition.
These are places residents use every day to walk, cycle, play sports, exercise, spend time with their families, and enjoy nature. Keeping them clean, accessible, and well maintained is an important part of protecting the quality of life in our neighbourhoods.
Protecting our natural areas and making them better places for residents to enjoy should go hand in hand.