John Lewis

As a life long resident of Stratford I’ve watched the decisions taken by city council over the years and just asking myself - “Why would they do it that way?” Because of this I felt the need to run for council and help change the direction the city is headed in.

I feel one of the biggest challenges facing Stratford is the lack of affordable housing.. The city is going to have to get more directly involved in building affordable housing. This problem won’t be solved by the market. Private builders are not in business to build affordable housing they’re in business to make profits and they make more profits building large expensive homes and condos. Stratford should be looking to European cities for solutions to this problem. The local United Way is creating a Community Renewal Company to build affordable housing and the city should either partner with them or set up a similar company.

To deal with the increasing effects of climate change the city has do more than just declare a climate emergency. The city should stop all new subdivisions from being hooked up to natural gas. The city could make loans to install electric heat pumps and solar panels to be paid back on utility bills. We also need to create a more walkable city.

Policing is the largest line item in the city’s budget and should be reviewed. The city’s per capita police spending adjusted for inflation has doubled since the 1980's and officer to population ratios have drastically increased. Savings in police spending could be spent instead on social services like affordable housing, drug addiction treatments, and mental health which would probably do more to lower crime rates than being spent on the police budget.

If you feel the same I’d appreciate your vote.

1. What will be your unique contribution to council?

I think I would bring a range of interests including politics, urban planning, sustainable development, and police spending to council. Also, I’m sure plenty of new city councillors will be either rich or have connections to the business community in town and I think I’ll bring a working class perspective to council.

2. How will you tackle urban sprawl and protect prime agricultural land?

I suppose a simple way to slow down urban sprawl would be to stop extending the city limits out into the countryside. We have to fill in the vacant land that already exists within the city. One of the candidates has asked the city for an inventory of vacant city owned land and apparently there isn’t one. The city should make an inventory of all vacant land whether municipally or privately owned that could be used for development. City owned land should be used to build affordable housing though.

3. How will you encourage businesses and individuals to respond to climate change?

One of the largest sources of CO₂ in Stratford is housing. The city should ban new housing and subdivisions from being serviced by natural gas. Several cities in B.C. have already done this. This move would mean private builders would have to build more energy efficient homes probably heated by heat pumps. The city could also provide interest free loans through Festival Hydro so people could install heat pumps and solar panels on existing homes. Both Toronto and Ottawa are doing this. Festival Hydro could also take the lead on installing charge stations for electric vehicles if they were determined...[]

4. What is your idea(s) to attract new industry to Stratford?

New companies aren’t going to come to Stratford if there is nowhere for their workers to live. Affordable housing solutions has to be one of council's top priorities along with tackling climate change. When the city does actively go after companies it would be nice if they could find ones that create jobs young people could use their post secondary education with instead of having to move away to find those types of jobs.

5. How will you address wealth inequality, homelessness and poverty in Stratford?

Again one area that touches on several of these concerns is the lack of affordable housing. The city needs to become directly involved in building more affordable housing. The private sector has shown it won’t solve this problem. Also, more money needs to be spent on mental health and addiction services. Some of the money needed could be diverted from a bloated police budget. We need to start treating the root causes of these concerns and not spending the bulk of of the money treating the symptoms.

6. How will you engage and inform the public about current issues and legislation?

Things like the Engage Stratford site and city emails sent out to people are great but if no one knows about them they aren’t much use. The city has to advertise these things on social media. The Engage Stratford site though can’t be a substitute for in person public meetings which the city needs more of. City councillors should be holding open houses. The citizens need to be more involved right from the beginning on things such as street design, not just asked to comment on designs totally devised by city staff.

7. Would you support term limits? Why/why not?

I'm a big believer of term limits. Two consecutive terms is all you should be able to hold and then you should move aside for someone else. I think when people stay in office too long they loose touch with the people they represent and start to believe they know all the answers and don’t need to consult with the people. Our outgoing mayor is a prime example of this.

8. What is your plan to better engage youth in Stratford?

I think the city could set up regular town hall meetings at the high school to hear comments from students. To be fair though I’ve talked to a current member of council who said the city has a heck of a time getting youth members on municipal committees. Now this could be that those positions aren’t very well advertised. The city should be putting up posters in the high school advertising these positions. The municipal government has no authority to do this but but I’m a supporter of lowering the voting age to sixteen to get people involved in democracy...[]