Happy City: The Council recently raised its mil rate, which has spurred some public opposition. However, this increase will not be enough to cover the increased costs the City faces from inflation, and major infrastructure expenditures that we know are required in the near future. In addition, many residents want the City to provide more and better services. 

The City has to balance its budget, and there is clearly a tradeoff between the priorities of maintaining affordable tax rates and maintaining and improving public services. What values will guide how you balance taxation and spending? If you would not raise taxes, what existing services would you be willing to reduce or eliminate to support your priorities?

Tom Davis:
Balancing taxation and spending presents a significant challenge. My guiding principles are fiscal prudence, transparency, sustainability, and community well-being. Any taxation or spending decisions will aim to minimize the impact on the most vulnerable while reducing spending and maintaining core services. Before considering tax increases, I would call for a thorough review of current expenditures to identify areas for efficiency and potential savings, ensuring transparent and collective decision-making through community engagement.

As promised when we announced the round table discussion of Ward 4 candidates we are hosting, we sorted through the questions submitted by the public and by our board and selected five for them to answer before the round table discussion. Here are our five questions, with links to each candidate’s answers. We hope these will spur interesting followup discussion both around the candidates’ table and your own!
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The round table will be streamed live via Facebook at 8PM (and the discussion will be archived afterwards) Visit https://fb.me/e/4lRGxsbiI to view. No registration required (and you should be able to view it whether or not you have a Facebook account).

Transit

Consultants hired to study our transit in 2019 found St. John’s provided a worse transit service by most measures than ten other comparable Canadian cities, and it called for improvements like free transit for children and students up to Grade 12, as well as route and frequency improvements that were projected to cost an extra $2 million a year. 

Since then, some of these recommendations have been partially implemented but there is a still  a long way to go in terms of providing an accessible and comprehensive transit service.  Nonetheless, ridership increased to levels not seen for decades. The Metrobus budget for 2024 did not increase as a result of increased fare revenue. Instead, Council chose to reallocate funding they had previously provided to support other priorities. 

Two major Metrobus hubs are located in Ward 4 (Memorial University and the Avalon Mall). As the cost of living crisis has hit, an increasing number of people, especially in this ward, appear to be relying on the bus as their primary form of transportation and more might do so if presented with a better service. As the representative of all Ward 4 residents, would you be willing to provide significant additional funding to Metrobus? If so, how would you want it spent? How would you balance the needs of transit users with those who object to further subsidizing the system? 

Tom Davis
Nicholas Hillier
Myles Russell
Greg Smith (Video)

Relationship with the Provincial Government 

The province sets the rules on what powers cities and other communities have. St John’s is governed by the St John’s Act which is 34 years old. Towns and municipalities recently got their own revised laws and new legislation for cities, including the City of St. John’s, is still in development.  

This is an opportunity for you as a Councillor to have a say in how responsibilities and powers are shared between the City of St. John’s and the provincial government. What powers and responsibilities would you like the City to gain or relinquish as part of this process? How might the City be better able to address the needs of residents as a result of this change? 

Tom Davis
Nicholas Hillier
Myles Russell
Greg Smith (Video)

Tax

The Council recently raised its mil rate, which has spurred some public opposition. However, this increase will not be enough to cover the increased costs the City faces from inflation, and major infrastructure expenditures that we know are required in the near future. In addition, many residents want the City to provide more and better services. 

The City has to balance its budget, and there is clearly a tradeoff between the priorities of maintaining affordable tax rates and maintaining and improving public services. What values will guide how you balance taxation and spending? If you would not raise taxes, what existing services would you be willing to reduce or eliminate to support your priorities?

Tom Davis
Nicholas Hillier
Myles Russell
Greg Smith (Video)

Crime

The city has formed a committee and is currently asking the public for its ideas to help prevent crime and violence. What are some key measures would you like to see implemented, especially in Ward 4, and who do you see as the key people, community groups, and organizations to work with on this issue?

Tom Davis
Nicholas Hillier
Myles Russell
Greg Smith (Video)

Housing

In October (in part, to access federal government funding) the City of St. John’s committed to consider a number of changes to development regulations to allow more housing and more units in existing housing across the city, including in Ward 4. In many cases construction or renovation to add rental units that used to require Council’s approval would be able to go ahead without its review.

Council intends to decide on this issue by June 2024, so you will be asked to vote on it should you be elected. No matter the outcome, some Ward 4 residents will be negatively affected and are likely to call you to complain. How will you respond? All of these people are residents of Ward 4, and as Councillor you are committing to uphold their best interests. 

Media coverage of the announcement: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/stjohns-federal-funding-housing-proposal-1.7014249

Full staff report: https://pub-stjohns.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=31114

Tom Davis
Nicholas Hillier
Myles Russell
Greg Smith (Video)

To help you learn more about the four Ward 4 candidates who we are bringing together for a round table discussion on the evening of March 6th, here is a collection of interviews and other information they have shared about themselves and their visions for the ward. Don’t forget that you have until the evening of Saturday March 2nd to send us the questions you would like to pose to all candidates.

All-candidate profiles:

The Telegram (paywalled)
NTV (video)
CBC (web)

Tom Davis – Candidate site
Ran for At Large Councillor in 2021 – here is the profile he gave us then. Those candidates were asked many questions by different groups and took part in a video “Town Hall” we set up – links to all of that are here.

Nicholas Hillier – Candidate site

Myles Russell – Candidate site

Greg Smith – Candidate site
Ran for At Large Councillor in 2021 – here is the profile he gave us then. Those candidates were asked many questions by different groups and took part in a video “Town Hall” we set up – links to all of that are here. He also ran in the by-election for Ward 2 in 2020 and a roundup of the media coverage and the video town hall we did with those candidates is here.