The City of Cornwall is 52 million dollars in debt.  We need to stop spending more money than we take in, and raising taxes is NOT the answer.  Over the past 5 years the City of Cornwall has raised property taxes on average 3.1% EACH YEAR.  We as a city need to stop over spending and passing the burden on to the tax payers.  At Budget time we need to make the tough decisions that will allow us to be fiscally responsible.

The City of Cornwall has not really grown in recent memory.  We need to do more to attract and retain talented individuals and create a city where our residents love to live, work and be part of our diverse community.  This will allow us to increase our tax base and increase the city’s revenue.  We also need to do a better job of identifying new revenue streams for the City of Cornwall.

We need BOLD NEW IDEAS that will transform the future of our great city

One area of focus for Cornwall should be to create a closer partnership with our neighbours.  We simply are not doing enough to partner with Akwesasne, or The Counties.  We need to do more to engage with our neighbouring communities to strength our collective economy.  We also need to do a better job of engaging with our Provincial and Federal elected members of parliament to help create further success and prosperity for our region.

The City of Cornwall needs an outdoor multi-sport turf field for our youth sports teams.  Having a turf field will allow youth teams to start practicing outdoors in late March/early April and give them the ability to practice until the snow comes in November.  A turf field would give them 3+ months of extra training time on a full size outdoor field, allowing them to improve their skills, stay physically active and hopefully stay in love with their sport.  I see the turf field being used for soccer, football, lacrosse and potentially even more sports that our community is involved with.

I do not expect the taxpayers of the City to cover the entire cost of the new turf field.  There are Provincial and Federal grants available to help improve facilities for youth sports.  I am confident that we could even get some corporate help with costs.  My plan would see the city of Cornwall operate this on a pay per use basis.  Similar to how they currently run the Benson Centre field house or any of the indoor ice pads.  This would help generate some additional revenue for the city as well and as being as adding another amenity for the community.