Councillor Record and Achievements 2014 - 2026

City Council Experience

Virtually 100% attendance at Council, Special Council, Budget, and on every Standing Committee appointed to over my 12 years in office, including frequent participation as a Visiting Councillor on the other Standing Committees; lowest annual expenses of any Councillor over my 12 years in office.

City Council Committee Appointments:

Vice-Chair, Safety and Facilities Services Committee (2022-2026)

Member, Economic Development Services Committee (2018-2026)
Chair, Community Services Committee (2018-2022)
Chair, Corporate Services Committee (2017-2018)
Member, Corporate Services Committee (2014-2018)
Member, Community Services Committee (2014-2018)

Mayor's Appointee on the Board of Governors, Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame (2014-2026)
Council Appointee, Multicultural Council of Oshawa/Durham (2018-2026)
Council Appointee, Business Improvement Area Board (2018-2020)
Council Appointee on the Oshawa Senior Citizen's Centers Board of Directors (2014 - 2018)
Council Appointee, Heritage Oshawa Advisory Committee (2014 - 2018)

Regional Council Experience

Virtually 100% attendance at Council, Special Council, Committee of the Whole, Special Committee of the Whole, Budget, and on every Standing Committee appointed to over my 8 years in office, including frequent participation as a visiting Councillor on the other Standing Committees; one of lowest annual expenses of any Councillor over my 12 years in office. The difference is that I attend every meeting - except during COVID - in person, so my budgeted travel expense to meetings was higher than those who choose to only attend virtually.

Regional Council Committee Appointments
Member, Community Growth and Economic Development Committee (2018-2026)
Member, Durham Active Transportation Committee (2018-2026)
Member, Transit Executive Committee (2018-2026)

Since being a Regional and City Councillor, I have had the pleasure of spearheading and helping the following community initiatives in addition to my stated duties as "Councillor":

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.

2016 to the present - Artistic Director and co-creator of Scenes From The Cemetery, a fund-raising production for our Oshawa Museum. It brought together the Museum with the Oshawa Little Theatre as costumers to create a unique historical tour of Union Cemetery to give our citizens an understanding of significant people of our historical past.

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.

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!

Prima Ballet School

2015 to 2018 - Oshawa Animal Care Committee, Originator (before the creation of the Oshawa Animal Care Advisory Committee by Council in 2018) - 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.

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.

2017 - Art In The Garden. A community sharing event I initiated which saw the neighbours of the Albert Street Community Garden come together along with Dulux Paints (who donated the primer and finish paint) and three of our Urban Street Artists 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.

2017 - Gallery 67 at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites. The Oshawa Art Association 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 Branch 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.

The Cycle Courage

Glenn Rabjohn as Rev. Robert Thornton

2019 - present - Co-Founder and Co-Chair (until 2024) of The Gap Committee, a non-funded, community-driven committee comprised of our homeless, perilously-housed, and reps from pertinent social service agencies, as well as Durham Regional Police. The purpose is to proactively work with the related service agencies to arrive at solutions to fill the gaps in service levels. This is to enable those in need to transition out of homelessness into a safe place to live and sustainable employment. In conjunction with this committee,

2022 - present - The Productivity Hub has developed as a non-tax-payer-funded multi-stage training and self-realization program of seminars using trainers and guest presenters to provide opportunities for motivated individuals to transition into employment and a sustainable future for themselves. I have been proud to be a guest presenter on several occasions, and I have arranged for a direct connection with the Durham Unemployed Help Centre to have them present and to provide counsellors for each individual Hub participant to assist them in transitioning into gainful employment.

2020 - 2022 - Relocation and Support for Community Assisted Meal Program (CAMP) - I successfully negotiated the relocation of CAMP from Memorial Park to the Midtown Drive location, found CAMP their Commercial Insurer to qualify for their Road Occupancy Permit, and both personally donated funds, Christmas presents, and volunteered my time serving meals in support of their efforts. These terrific community volunteers provided outdoor food and clothing supply 7 days per week, 365 days per year. Amazing.

2020 - The Troubadour Series - I assisted the two event organizers by me obtaining the sponsorship funding, helping the organizers to obtain the 4 other performance sites, and by me working with Oshawa Power to obtain the electrical supply at each of the 5 sites. This series was organized to provide much-needed business during COVID for our beleaguered downtown restaurants by scheduling outdoor performances by local musical talent in socially-distanced environments. The two organizers did a fine job of obtaining and scheduling the musical performers at the 5 sites over the 6-week period.

2021 - 2022 - Producer, The Troubadour Concert Series - featuring virtually all local musical talent (including Durham Region), I produced this 6-week, every Saturday series of sponsored concerts first in 2021 outdoors on Victoria Street in cooperation with the Regent Theatre and then, in 2022, indoors at the Biltmore Theatre. With the support of the Oshawa Music Awards team who provided access to many OMA-Nominated artists, excellent 50-minute showcase concerts were performed by terrific artists and bands - and ALL local. If we don't support our local artists, who will? The Troubadour Concert Series 2021 at Victoria Street outdoors was first designed to bring business to our downtown restaurants and the Regent Theatre during the COVID pandemic when no indoor events were possible. The Concert Series 2022 indoors at the Biltmore Theatre was immediately after the pandemic ended and was designed to help stimulate the return of business to our downtown.

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.

2021 - Albert Street Re-alignment - I created the plan and the Motion to eliminate the left-turn lane at Athol and Celina and replace it with an advance green. By taking out that space-consuming left-turn, this has provided 6 new parking spaces, a loading and pick-up zone for area businesses, and it keeps the cycling lanes clear and safe at all times.

2022 - Downtown EV Charging Stations - I worked with Councillor Giberson, City Staff, and Oshawa Power and then moved the Motion to find suitable locations for 4, dual EV stations to bracket our downtown west/east and north/south. All are operational.

2022 - BMX Bike Park and MUP- a successful cooperative effort between the cycling community, City Staff and me to create a safe, accessible, multi-level-of-difficulty cycling track facility for all ages of cycling enthusiasts from Beginner to Intermediate to Advanced. The BMX jumps were Stage 1 of a two-stage cycling facility, and the first stage of a multi-stage, multi-facility Community Park. The MUP (Multi-Use Path) was originally slated for the west side of Thornton, but I successfully lobbied to move it to the east side in order to directly connect it to the Taunton MUP to provide safe access for all ages of cyclists from the north and northeast of our city to the BMX Bike Park. Next was the plan to extend the Thornton MUP down to Gibb Street to connect with the upcoming MUP on the south side of Gibb from Thornton to Ritson to further connect to the two upcoming GO stations. Cyclists in the southwest and southeast of the city were then able to safely ride to the BMX Bike Park and back.

2022 - AtHome Incentive Grant Program - At my first Regional Council meeting, I asked why all of the Affordable Housing had to come from the Region. I suggested we develop an incentive program for private developers to build such units which would take some of the cost, staff time, and future maintenance costs off of the Region and, therefore, the taxpayer. Staff took this as direction and created the now-successful AtHome Incentive Program. This program has resulted in more Affordable Housing units being built than if the Region had tried to do by itself. Without this Program, the upcoming 0 Athol West multi-residential building in our downtown with @35% Affordable units (@100) would very likely not have come to fruition.

2023 to the present - More Parking, more Affordable Housing, and a Medical Clinic downtown - in early 2023, I worked on a plan to bring more parking to our downtown. My first effort was for a 7-story parking structure on Lot 4 with 710 parking spaces (a great many EV-compatible). This would have been privately built and funded, costing the taxpayers nothing. Council decided on a multi-residential building, but I received approval to work with the builder to create a Stage 1/Stage 2 approach to incorporate my ideas for downtown improvement: more parking in Stage 2, Stage 1 to include a medical clinic, a daycare with secure outdoor play area, a Homeward Bound residential and training/education program for abused women and their children, and at least 35% Affordable (@100) units. This project is in the final stages of funding and development. Details may be available in June 2026. Stage 2 details to follow once that project is finalized.

2024 - Regional Revitalization Program (RRP) Grant for the Bond/St Event Centre - I did not take "No" for an answer and, after 5 month's work, finally found a way to gain approval for a large RRP for Bond/St, as I firmly believed it will be the cornerstone of the revitalization of Bond Street from Mary Street to Centre Street. The Bond/St Main Stage has been deemed one of the best mid-sized concert venues in Canada.

2023-2025 - Rose Valley Community Park - As Vice-Chair of the Safety and Facilities Services Committee, the staff of that Committee have New Park Development as one of their responsibilities. Along with the Chair, Commissioner, and Director of Parks Development, we stewarded the completion of what began as the BMX Park (which I initiated as Chair of the Community Services Committee from 2018-2022).

2026 and onward - Tax Subclass Adjustment, Arts Sector and especially Live Music Venues - A Durham-wide initiative I brought forward, with full support and input from the Music Industry Professionals, at the Region of Durham to enhance and develop our arts and entertainment economy. This initiative to proceed to a fulsome staff report gained unanimous approval at Regional Council in May 2026 for the report to be brought back in Q1 2027 for potential approval and implementation.