Ward 6 candidate Brandon Houston

Brandon was born and raised in Chatham-Kent where he spent most of his life. He lived in Oakville for three years before returning to Chatham-Kent over 10 years ago to raise his daughter and start a small business that he still runs today. He works with clients internationally in a wide range of sectors, including agriculture, financial, health care, and small business.

He is on the board for The Ground Floor Centre for Innovation, a local organization that focuses on connecting entrepreneurs with resources to start or grow their businesses and provides affordable workspace for them. He also currently sits on the Chatham-Kent Economic Development Advisory Committee and the board for Junior Achievement.

He has a deep passion for entrepreneurship and the community of Chatham-Kent and believes that changes need to be made in how council operates.

Would you support a tax freeze or rollback if it meant reduced staff or services?

No. We run the risk of cutting services that have already faced cuts in our community. We do need to reign in our taxes but we shouldn’t do it at the expense of our community. Instead I would urge re-evaluating where and how we are spending our money to work towards reducing taxes.

Would you support an OPP costing study?

Yes. As long as there is no significant cost to this. However all of the research I’ve done shows that the OPP, even with the new costing model, are more costly for a community like ours. Many other communities have made the switch and regretted it. By that time it’s too costly to switch back. A few communities are paying nearly 50% of their taxes towards OPP contracts now. I strongly think we need to work at reducing our local police service costs.

Would you support examining a volunteer-only fire service if the provincial arbitration system isn’t overhauled?

Yes. Volunteer services are quite effective in rural areas and I think this could be worth examining as an option.

Do you believe we should continue our ongoing efforts to attract economic investment from China?

No. Much of our attention has been put towards attracting traditional manufacturing. The economy has changed drastically and we need to look at diversifying the type of businesses and jobs we’re attracting. We’ve seen some success in attracting some overseas business and we shouldn’t discount that potential, but we need to look at other areas as well.

Would you support contracting municipal services to the private sector if those services can be delivered more efficiently?

Yes. Many cities throughout North America develop partnerships with the private sector for cost savings. We should welcome more of this.

Would you support investigating amalgamation of fire/ambulance/police services to reduce costs?                                                                                                                                 Yes.
Would you support a municipal tree-cutting bylaw if it contained incentives for woodlot owners to retain/increase tree cover?                                                                   Yes.

Do you believe we need a municipal ombudsman or ethics commissioner such as London and Windsor have added?

Yes.

Would you consider developing a usage benchmark for municipal offices, arena and libraries and closing those that don’t meet the standards?

No. Rather than a set benchmark, I think we need to look at each of these on a case-by-case basis.

Do you support development of a community-wide multipurpose recreation centre?

Yes.

Do you support an adopt-a-park program in which service or volunteer groups assume some maintenance (grass cutting) of some municipal facilities?

Yes. This works great in other cities. It reduces costs and at the same time helps build community.

Do you support investigating a reduction in the number of municipal councilors?

Yes.

Platform

We need strong leadership now more than ever in Chatham-Kent. We are a community that has faced great challenges over the years and action needs to be taken to ensure our wonderful community survives and thrives going forward. More challenges are no doubt on the way and we need people in place to not only face those challenges but also introduce opportunity for growth and prosperity. We are a strong community of people and that demands effective leadership willing to listen to those people and make the right decisions. It is not my voice that you are electing when you vote for me. Your voice is the one that really matters. It is time to elect a new voice to speak for Chatham-Kent. Let me be your voice.

There is a lot of work to be done but there are a few key areas I think we need to focus on in order to succeed.

Jobs

We have faced some great challenges over the last several years and encountered great losses. The economy has changed drastically and in order to ensure that we thrive we need to diversify the areas that we are looking at to bring new jobs to the area. We can’t rely solely on traditional manufacturing as we have in the past. Other sectors are growing much faster and we have yet to tap into those. We need to better support small business and entrepreneurs, and help to foster and environment so that it is easy to start a new business and grow an existing business inside of Chatham-Kent.

Fiscal Responsibility

There has been lengthy discussion about where our money has been spent and what we’re investing our time into. Residents feel the pinch as property taxes continue to increase each year. Rather than the slash and burn tactics that some want to see in order to reduce taxes, we need to take a responsible and serious look at what we’re investing in.

Infrastructure

We need to better support our aging infrastructure in the municipality. Previous cuts have weakened the infrastructure we have and without investment we run the risk of crumbling roads and dangerous conditions. Proper investment needs to be made to ensure that not only do we have safe infrastructure, but also we have appropriate infrastructure to attract jobs and people to the community.

Youth

The face of our youth is changing. Education is evolving. Every year we lose more youth who leave for school and don’t return. We need to take more notice of where our youth are going and what fields they’re entering into. Only then can we start to look at addressing the career gaps that we face locally to provide them with something to come home to. We don’t want to keep them from leaving, but we need to give them a good reason to want to return.