Platform
Preamble
Below is my platform (list of goals); however, if you think that I should also include other objectives, I would like to hear from you. I am a very open-minded and approachable guy and I'm here for you.
UNAFFORDABILITY
The skyrocketing prices on the Housing market drive unaffordability, rent hikes, poverty, mental illness, and homelessness. Because of unaffordability, more and more millennials live at home with their parents and will probably never be able to own a home of their own.
As a city councillor, I will use all of my powers and authority to:
- Push hard for harsh penalties for speculators on the housing market and taxes on foreign investors pursuing easy and fast money who made owning a home in Toronto impossible for the ordinary working class and rents unaffordable.
- Force taxes on all NON-resident foreign home owners whose condo apartments or houses are empty (i.e., unoccupied for more than 6 months of the year).
- Force a tax on each empty unit (i.e., unoccupied for more than 6 months of the year) on all investor-owned condos (owned by corporations).
CITY HALL's OVERSPENDING: Abuse, Incompetence, Corruption
Millions of taxpayers' money are over paid to companies for projects that could be done for much less. In 2016, City Hall spent $104 million of your tax money on city workers with habitual failure to appear at work. In the last year alone, 99.7% (4,400) of all (4,414) city managers received performance bonuses (reward for performance above expectations).
As a city councillor, I will use all of my powers and authority to:
- Stop the administration of City Hall from misusing and abusing taxpayers' money - and when necessary,urge authorities or the police to investigate.
- Make sure that for-profit organizations pay penalties proportionate to what individual taxpayers pay for violations.
- Fight for an open bidding process for City projects and penalties for non-compliance with contracts.
- Find a mechanism that ensures that studies of prospective public projects are made by an independent third party and in good faith.
- Get the best value for your tax dollars.
POVERTY
Toronto is officially the poverty capital of Canada. Toronto councillors and the mayor are part of the problem. The skyrocketing prices of homes and rent have severely increased poverty. Poverty is suffering. Poverty is like a painful disease. Poverty throws people on the street. Poverty is cause for suicide. Poverty is something that despicable politicians of all levels are entirely responsible for.
As a city councillor, I will use all of my powers and authority to reduce poverty by:
- Urging city council to cut the discriminatory property tax paid by tenants and makes it equal to the property tax homeowners pay.
- Supporting programs that help families, elderly and single people, mentally ill and homeless people who live in poverty or hardship.
- Pushing for a dental clinic - based on ability to pay - for low income residents and young people who do not have dental coverage.
- Fighting for the items outlined in the "Unaffordability" section above.
ROAD SAFETY
Many people lose their livies or suffer serious injuries as a result of road rage or incidents caused by aggressive drivers.
As a city councillor
- I will push for the creation of a "Drop Box" where video footage can be uploaded from dashboard cameras on which aggressive drivers or drivers involved in road rage are caught and will provided it to the police for investigation.
AUTO INSURANCE
Ontario drivers pay the highest premiums for auto insurance coverage although the province has the lowest rates of fatalities. A driver with excellent driving history, who, the insurer admitted, was not at fault when he was rear ended, saw an increase of $500 in his insurance policy renewal. There are many indications suggesting that Toronto drivers are being scammed by the auto insurance industry with the approval of its regulator, the government's Financial Services Commission of Ontario.
As a city councillor
- Although I would have no power over the auto insurance industry, I would have a loud and powerful voice, and will use it, to trigger investigation by the Ontario Ombudsman and the Auditor General into the insurers' regulator for its friendly approval of insurers' request to raise on a drivers' premium.
POLLUTION AND CHEMICALS IN THE FOOD: LEADING CAUSE FOR CANCER
As a city councillor
- I will use my powers to reduce air pollution and the use of chemicals in the food by imposing hefty fines on the biggest corporate polluters of the air and users of carcinogenic chemicals in the food. I will heavily push for labeling foods that contain GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms).
MISCELLANEOUS
As a city councillor, I WILL:
- Work on the implementation of synchronization of traffic lights on major roads allowing traffic to move faster and without interruption.
- Push for more funding for a Toronto youth strategy that engages our youth, provides employment skills training and promotes education.
- Insist on more investment in community and recreation centres, child care centres, libraries, and community space in our ward.
- Support new investment that guarantees reduction in traffic congestions and air pollution.
- Strive to (1) cut unnecessary official procedures and red tape, and (2) boost efficiency at City Hall.
- Advocate for the elimination of the Toronto land transfer tax for Canadian residents.
TENANTS in MULTI-RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
Tenants are Overtaxed
For more than a decade, Toronto City Hall has been collecting discriminatory property tax from tenants that was approved by the city councillors now seeking re-election. The tax a tenant pays for an apartment is about $130 (per month and $1,560 per year) more than what the owner of a detached house worth the same amount pays.
As a city councillor, I will use all of my powers and authorities to:
- Cut the discriminatory property tax paid by tenants and makes it equal to the property tax homeowners pay.
- Make sure that tenants who have been overtaxed get compensated.
- Challenge (if necessary) in the court of law the unjust property tax passed onto tenants if the city councillors refuse to make it equal to the tax homeowners pay.
Bad Rental Property Managers
There are property managers from hell who make the life of tenants miserable and are accountable to no one.
As a city councillor, I will use all of my powers and authority to:
- Make all property managers of more than seven rental apartments licenced.
- Make sure that property managers from hell face effective severe penalties.
- Make sure that bad property managers are held accountable or lose their licence.
Law Created by the Ontario Government to Favour Landlords
As a city councillor, I will use all of my powers and authority to:
- To put pressure on the Attorney General of Ontario to remove from the Residential Tenancies Act the one-year time limitation for tenants who want to sue a landlord and make it "unlimited" (as it is for landlords who want to sue tenants).
Court that Favours Landlords
The Landlord and Tenant Board (the "LTB" or the "Board") functions as a court of law. It makes legal decisions on complaints (applications) filed either by a landlord against a tenant or a tenant against a landlord. This Board, also known as the "landlord's eviction machine," grossly favours landlords and many of its decisions against tenants are perversion of justice.
As a city councillor
- While I would not have power over the Landlord and Tenant Board, I will have a loud and powerful voice and will use it to convince the Ontario Provincial Government to take such actions as to ensure that tenants are no longer treated as second-class citizens.
- I will do my best to:
- Initiate the creation of an independent panel, not part of the so-called "Social Justice Tribunal", that will decide (on a complaint) whether a Board Member (adjudicator of the Board) has shown bias against a tenant and whether the decision of the Member accords with the law and is made on the merits of the case.
- Initiate the creation of an independent and impartial committee that will decide whether an adjudicator found to be biased against a tenant or lacks the ability to decide legal disputes, should be removed from the Landlord and Tenant Board.
- Protect the rights of all vulnerable and unprotected tenants whose helplessness despicable politicians and public servants take advantage of.
Tenants Rights and Obligations
Very often, tenants are in trouble and even evicted because they do not understand their obligations, do not know their rights, or do not know where and how to seek help.
As a city councillor, I will use all of my powers and authority to:
- Create and make available to tenants a Tenant User Guide explaining the rights and obligations of tenants, how to avoid trouble with landlords, how and where to complain against landlords, where to seek help when landlords refuse to make timely repairs or deal with insects or pests (bed bugs, mice, cockroaches).
Vote POPOV on Monday, October 24!