I remember my Mom asking me how will a 50 new jobs help the economy in Brantford. I said, on it’s own, not much, but when you have 10 new employers with an average 50 employees, you have 500 jobs. Now if one or two go out of business or leave town, you only lost 50 to 100 jobs, not 500. The benefits of diversification take time. Today, Brantford is running out of serviced industrial land and is in discussions with Brant County to annex land. Imagine running out of serviced land?

Businesses, especially retail, follows residential development. How much new residential development has occurred in and our the Windsor’s downtown? Not much.

The City didn’t help by changing industrial land in the Rhodes/Central area to business park and by allowing office uses in the Twin Oaks Industrial Park. But they say dollar signs in terms of increased property tax revenue. Meanwhile lots sit empty downtown. Green Shield moved their head office out to Twin Oaks – why wasn’t the City trying to convince them to move downtown? I’d rather have Green Shield downtown than Chrysler.

Small businesses will always weather a recession but I guess it doens’t grab headlines like a big announcement for another buliding downtown that will suck out other tenants. Why play the shuffle game? Give a decent tax incentive and people will locate here. As it is most businesses are fleeing to LaSalle and Tecumseh.

There are no such provisions available to residents in Ontario (or any other province for that matter) regarding recall rights.

Any such legislation would have to be crafted very carefully and find a balance.

I wouldn’t want to see a situation whereby a councillor is recalled every 6 months.

But I don’t believe we’ll see recall legislation any time soon for any level of government.

Our only tools – consistently speak out and increase our very dismal voter turnout. 29% of Ward Two for example, voted in the last municipal election.

Considering I have a friend who is opening up a new business in Walkerville he stated the city has done NOTHING to help him get started or to give hime a break while he tries and makes the building a heritage building for Windsor. On top of that his taxes for the building were astronomical! He compared it to other people who have a business about the same size and was astonished to see that others do in fact, pay LESS!

No wonder people are not opening up businesses in Windsor. But I did notice they are opening up shops all over the suburbs.

Quick! Someone tell the mayor and council that it is THEY who are impeding Windsor’s progress. Don’t these people know that small business is what diversification is all about?
For a city that SHOULD be awash in money why are we paying somuch for sewer and infrastructure while have massive amounts of debt?
Since we have been paying a 1% levy for infrastructure since about 2002 why is it that the city built two buildings with that money instead of using it for it was intended? Doesn’t it sound eerily similar to the WUC watermain levy?
Hmmm….I can’t get any answers out of my coucnillors maybe you can?

* The 2006 and 2007 assessment updates of properties in Ontario were cancelled. As a result, assessments continue to be based on current value as of January 1, 2005. Municipalities are using the January 1, 2005 values to calculate property taxes for 2006, 2007 and 2008. Education tax rates, which are set by the Provincial Government, are also being applied to the January 1, 2005 assessed value.

http://www.assessmentontario.com/pages_english/about_mpac/overview.asp#2

So on the municipal level its the ‘tax rate’ ,that effects how that percent increase will actually end up .

You have the province stepping in at their level for business

http://www.ontariobudget.ca/english/chpt1b.html

With spending all over the map in this town ,it just pushes people to want to find another place to live as they get older.With less dollars, that we have to play with and no signs of any turnaround in the recession we have
entered choices have to be made .This just helps enforce for many the lack of confidence in our local elected officials.It seems resources are the only long term areas to be in this country as a whole .The local
municipal coutinues to squeeze the stone that has no more water to give.