Mayor Brian McMullan Feb 19 2007

Posted by Deborah Garneau 
 

GUEST SPEAKER:  Mayor Brian McMullan

 

Mayor Brian McMullan's municipal and business experience and his desire to seek out and listen to his constituents will help him take on the issues facing St. Catharines today and planning for the challenges of tomorrow.  Our next Council will have a four-year mandate to make the changes necessary to meet the current needs of its residents and prepare our city for the future.  

 

Ed Telenko in the early 1980s was proud to work with Brian McMullan to implement what we know today as the blue box recycling program.  Brain McMullan was a Regional Councilor for two terms and City Councilor for three years. Residents of the City of St. Catharines have provided Council with a strong mandate for change.

 

Mayor Brian McMullan wants to accomplish something for the city of St. Catharines and shared some ideas that he want's to act and follow through.

 

Revitalization of the Downtown

  • Bringing the wine route and a performing arts centre downtown are possibilities.
  • Increased residential development.
  • Consideration of 2 hr free parking.
  • sprucing up different areas in the city, Merriton and Port Dalhousie
  • Develop a city wide strategy to deal with the graffiti
  • If we want to attract new businesses and people to St. Catharines , we have to provide a safe, clean environment for them to live in

 

Budget Process

  • Zero based budgeting, a line-by-line review of city service expenditures
  • Need to balance the books
  • Increase assessment  growth presently its is 1%, inflation is higher
  • Encourage the private sector experts to assist
  • Hold public meetings outside of city hall

 

New Hospital and Cancer Care Centre

  • St Catharines General Hospital is the oldest in Ontario .
  • Expedite the construction of our new hospital and cancer care centre
  • A new hospital will attract and keep physicians and build local expertise
  • City Hall needs to take a leadership role in building our new hospital and ensuring that the services it provides are available to residents
  • Appointment of Paul Chapmen Director of planning who will act as a liaison between the City and the NHS. To ensure all information and resources are shared to prevent any construction delays  

Community Gardens Pilot Project

  • We should all take pride in our community gardens and public spaces and City Hall wants to support members of our community who want to help beautify the city.
  • Make funds and space available to assist in the creation and maintenance of community gardens.
  • Adopt a garden projects will bring communities together

 

Dialogue with both our Federal and Provincial Representatives

  • Address inquiries such as the impact of property tax caps on our business community
  • The drain of social service costs on our city
  • The waste of our property tax dollars which currently go to fund programs that should be addressed by other levels of government
  • Brock university and Niagara college also need our support as they are  seriously under funded

Local incubator for high-tech industries

  • With two institutions of higher learning in St. Catharines , we need to be working to develop more high-tech industries. Ontario is part of a bio-tech corridor that stretches deep into the United States
  • With the construction of a Regional Cancer Centre here in St. Catharines , the research community and the entire bio-tech industry will be looking for resources within our borders
  • Build our current businesses and industry and open the door for the next generation of high quality jobs
  • We have thousands of young minds graduating with knowledge of the newest technology who currently must leave our community to find employment. By creating a centre focused on research and innovation, we can pair their skills with investors

Environment

  • Reducing and cleaning up litter
  • Bikes on city Buses
  • Investigate the feasibility of offering free transit to elementary students during the summer months
  • The replacement over time of city vehicles with more fuel efficient or alternative fuel
  • Upgrade our city transit fleet to accommodate vehicles powered by bio-diesel or other high-efficiency technologies

We can't afford to wait any longer. We must start to diversify our local economy if St. Catharines is going to thrive in the future. Our future will be dictated in part by the environment we create for those who wish to live and work in our city. These measures will improve our image and set us on a course to being recognized as a true Garden City once again.