The Regional Municipality of Durham - Tax Stabilization Plan:

1. Work with the new, appointed Regional Chair to press for significant organization changes (as below).

2. Core Services Review - now being completed for later this fall, total examination of all Regional departments and services, service levels, and staff functions and responsibilities - apply results during the 2027 Budget development and approval process.

3. Hire an outside Auditor General on an initial 4-year contract basis to apply the results of the Core Services Review in order to recommend potential organizational changes and efficiencies.

4. Recommend uploading formerly Provincial responsibilities which have been downloaded onto the Region and the 444 municipalities in Ontario.

5. Continue to push, with AMO (Association of Municipalities of Ontario), for a new, shared financial formula with both the Province and the Federal governments.

6. There are 7 Regional governments in Ontario all of whom are going through significant changes at present. Now is the time.

7. In my view, the current financial situation and annual budget increases are unsustainable.

Tax Base History - City of Oshawa

Over the last 50 years, the decline of the Industrial/Manufacturing Sector has continually put upward pressure on the Residential Sector as the main supply of property tax revenues to the point where current Residential tax revenues account for 80% of the City's property tax revenues. This needs to be reversed if we are to arrive at property tax relief for the residents of Oshawa. It is not possible to achieve this reversal of the tax balance through staff and service cuts, as Oshawa is a growing city within one of the fastest-growing regions in all of Canada, and staff and service levels must be maintained and increased to keep pace with this growth.

Additional revenue streams must be developed to reduce the tax pressure on the Residential Sector. Increased facility usage fees and water and sewer rates only put more income pressure on our fellow residents. Different, stable revenue sources must be developed. The most stable of these is the development of tax sectors other than Residential hence the need to market and redevelop the Industrial and Manufacturing Sectors, as well as the Commercial Sector.

We are not turning back the clock historically. We are fast-forwarding the clock to a more balanced, broader tax assessment base which will increasingly balance the tax base sectors.

Northwood Business Park New Property Developments

Martin Brower Office Northwood

New Home of Oshawa Power Northwood - opening 2027

Northwood Business Park Sign

Martin Brower Shipping and Receiving Northwood

Geodis Northwood

Lactalis Northwood

Lactalis Plus Northwood

Northwood Commercial Building

Downtown Oshawa New Residential Developments

39 Athol West - opening 2028

115 Colborne West - opening April 2027

40 King West - opening fall 2026

0 Athol West/Athol Green - opening 2029

Medallion Project - The Foundry District - opening 2030

Advocated and supported the following Committee and Council initiatives among many others:
TNRM, Animal Rescue Group registration and cooperation with the City through Oshawa Animal Services.
Human Rights Garden (concept approved, site to be determined)
Cast the deciding vote on the refurbishment of our Memorial Park bandshell
Strong advocate for responsible, cost-effective, debt-reducing budgets which maintain our level of service

ACDR Service Award & Colin Carrie certificate of recognition

Since being a City Councillor, I have had the pleasure of originating, spearheading and helping with the following community initiatives:

2015 - The 3-Part Plan for Youth Employment and Hope - a series of three community meetings I organized which saw over 85 individual citizens and many organizations' representatives meet to discuss a forward plan to enhance the quality of life for our youth. The offshoot of these meetings saw the creation of: 1. the LPEC (Local Planning Employment Council) which brought together Durham College, UOIT, Social Services at the Region of Durham and the Durham Workforce Authority to enhance entrepreneurial opportunities in addition to what we already have, and 2. The Community Innovation Lab centred in Paul Dwyer High School where young entrepreneurs can develop and hone their business ideas, concepts, and business plans.

2015, 2016 - Doors Open - Committee Member, volunteer at the Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame site.

2015 - Race Director for the OshaWOW! fundraising fun run for The Refuge. Worked with overall event organizer, Denise Marek, and a dedicated team of volunteers to raise $980.00.

2017 - The Cycle: Hope, and The Cycle: Courage. My concepts for multi-genre, multicultural art expositions to share and to develop the wonderful artists we have in our community. All funds raised by donations at the door were donated to the UOIT Student Bursary Fund (Hope) and the Denise House Emergency Shelter for Abused Women and their Children (Courage). Each event had a Media Launch which was well supported by our local media, artists, and members of the community. 4 separate events, all told.

2017 - Art In The Garden. A community sharing event I initiated with Sandra Thomas which saw the neighbours of the Albert Street Community Garden come together along with Dulux Paints (who donated the primer and finish paint) and Chad Tyson with two Urban Street Artist colleagues to "colorize" the elevated gardens of The Berry Patch Garden (the other side of Albert is The Pepper Patch). Brew Wizards donated the coffee for both days' activities.

Prima Ballet School

2015 to 2018 - Oshawa Animal Care Committee, Originator - comprised of fellow citizens with a passion for creating a safer environment for our animal companions. This project morphed into the creation of a current high level of trust between the City (Oshawa Animal Services and Municipal Law Enforcement) and all of the various animal welfare groups in the city such as: Team Chelsea, ODAWG, and AVA. The result is the successful passing of the revised Responsible Pet Owners By-law with all of its pertinent sections (Pet re-sale, Rescue Group registration and Oshawa's first-ever TNRM Colony Manager Clinic). Well done all.

2016, 2017 (and September 2018) - Artistic Director and co-creator with Lisa Terech (of the Oshawa Museum) of Scenes From The Cemetery, a fund-raising production for our Oshawa Museum. It has brought together actors who volunteer their time, the Museum historians and costumers, and the Oshawa Little Theatre as primary costumers to create a unique historical tour of Union Cemetery to give our citizens an understanding of significant people of our historical past.

2017 - Gallery 67 at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites. The Oshawa Art Association (OAA) asked me to help them find a "home" since they had operated 50 years without one and wanted to reach out their services to our community more. Kudos to the Holiday Inn for agreeing to be corporate sponsors. Thanks to both the City's Economic Development and Building Inspections Departments for assisting in the necessary approvals to get the space ready. Grateful acknowledgement to the Downtown BIA, Economic Development, and the Holiday Inn for hosting the Grand Opening in June 2017. Thanks to the Home Depot and Dulux Paints for their donations of supplies, and especially to the members of the OAA whose dedicated effort made an art gallery out of completely unfinished commercial space.

The Cycle Courage

Glenn Rabjohn as Rev. Robert Thornton

2017 - The repainting of The United Steelworkers' Hall at John and Albert Streets. Using leftover paint from the Art In The Garden project plus some more purchased, the Albert Street neighbours helped members of the Hall prepare, prime, and paint the Hall's south wall which was a little "careworn". Now it looks great!

2017 - Spirits of the Automobile - similar to Scenes From The Cemetery, this production was a fundraiser for our Canadian Automotive Museum (CAM) where the famous owners of some of the fabulous vehicles in the CAM were brought to life to tell citizens all about their famous vehicle.

2018 - The Keepers Project. A group of citizens asked me to help them bring to fruition a free locker storage installation for the homeless. We did that. They are located at the Simcoe Street United Church. The cool thing is each locker has a "unit number" attached the church's address, and each has a mail slot, so the user can now get mail at a fixed address.

2018 - Suits For Youths. In a working partnership with officers of the Durham Regional Police Service and Staff of the Oshawa Centre, we organized the first event of this kind for our male and trans-gendered youth to have a nice suit not only for Prom Night but also to keep for their first job interview and beyond. This event can now work in step with Gowns For Girls which has now been going for 5 years.

2018 - Flag-raising and Proclamation for the significant contributions by our Chinese community to the development of Oshawa. The Chinese Cultural Heritage Weekend will coincide with our Peony Festival. The peony is the National Flower of China. The Consul General of The Peoples' Republic of China was in attendance and is now committed to assisting with the enhancement of Chinese culture in Oshawa through our Peony Festival.

Received the following awards and certificates:

● Canada 150 Medal - Contribution to Community Arts (2017)
● Oshawa Music Week Award - Industry Leader (2018)
● Colin Carrie Certificate - Contribution to the Arts (2018)
● City of Oshawa Certificate - The Cycle: Hope, Community Arts Development (2017)
● ACDR (AIDS Committee of Durham Region) - Service Award for The Cycle: Hope and The Cycle: Courage (2018)

Canada 150 Medal - Colin Carrie & Rick Kerr