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Mayoral race: Economic development the only way to take bite out of taxes, says Huska

Candidate wants to work with developers to bring prosperity and growth back
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Jeff Huska, biomedical technologist at HSN in Sudbury and 2018 municipal election mayoral candidate. (Facebook.com)

Mayoral candidate Jeff Huska will target development charges if elected.

“Development in Greater Sudbury is essential for this community to succeed and is imperative for the prosperity of our municipality,” Huska said in a news release. 

He said he would begin by freezing the ever-increasing development charges that continue to slow down the much-needed progress needed in this city. 

Below is the full text of the media release from Huska:

You can always tell when election time comes around because inevitably everyone wants to know how big their piece of the pie, “the funding pie” is going to be. 

Whether it be the arts, social programs, recreational facilities or community wish lists, everybody is expecting some type of promise from candidates. 

Honestly, it’s almost impossible to put a dollar amount on any of these wishes.

At the same time, all of you know we need to work on our existing infrastructure because we have a large network of roads in Greater Sudbury that are badly in need of repair and a water/wastewater system that will cost the city approximately $1.3 billion over the next decade. 

Also, the city is moving ahead (without full approval) on a project of $100 million or more for a new arena and a library/art gallery called the Junction penned in at $125 million and climbing. 

Those are just some of the big ones.

Looking at the total you must agree that there is going to be an incredible amount of spending over the next few years especially after you include everyone’s “ask.” 

Remember, we haven’t even factored into the equation someone’s election promises, required maintenance and upkeep of these projects and most of all, inflation.

Each candidate is going to tell you their pitch on how Greater Sudbury is going to move all this forward while keeping your taxes at a minimum, unless, of course, we have a rogue mayoral candidate who wants to set us further back by offering something like a tax freeze next year.

There is only one way to realistically take a bite out of taxes and that is through economic development. 

Development in Greater Sudbury is essential for this community to succeed and is imperative for the prosperity of our municipality. I want you to know that when you see businesses expanding, new commercial buildings being constructed, it signifies a growing community. 

All of this has a compound effect and new neighbourhoods start being built and existing homes are getting renovated. Commercial and residential construction stimulates growth in retail, real estate, equipment, manufacturing plants, schools, and tourism.

As your next mayor, I want to cut the bureaucracy at City Hall and work with developers to bring prosperity and growth back to this city. I want a City Hall that is working with every aspect of development — not against it. 

Tom Davies Square is “the” public service headquarters of Greater Sudbury and should be managed as such. If independent business operators didn’t return calls promptly, didn’t provide you with adequate services in a timely fashion, they’d no longer exist.

I will begin by freezing the ever-increasing development charges that continues to slow down the much-needed progress needed in this city. 

I will further work towards changing when development fees are being collected at the onset of obtaining a building permit to when occupancy permits are granted. This change will stay in place until there is an opportunity to overhaul the entire development fee process. 

The maintenance and upkeep of our city’s infrastructure has been ignored for far too long by previous councils and costs to restore and upgrade everything shouldn’t fall entirely on the shoulders of developers.

I want our economic development arm of Tom Davies Square to work harder at expanding and diversifying our city's tax base by recruiting new businesses, retaining existing ones and assisting businesses when they are ready to expand operations locally. 

We need to look past our municipal boundaries and start recruiting more industries to Greater Sudbury. I want to see the day that mining in Greater Sudbury takes a back seat to being this city’s leading employer. 

As tax-paying residents, we must continue to ask for more economic, social and cultural changes to our city. It’s how we grow as a community. Just make sure whomever you vote for as mayor doesn’t allow council to take the easy road, the “Band-aid fix” to cover the costs, and simply raise your taxes.

Jeff Huska
2018 mayoral candidate


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