What the mayoral candidates say about their visions for Richmond Hill

Visit yorkregion.com for results following the Jan. 24 mayoral byelection

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 21, 2022
Yoyo Yan

Eight of the nine candidates running in the Jan. 24 Richmond Hill mayoral byelection participated in an all-candidate virtual event Jan. 18 hosted by Richmond Hill Board of Trade.

Here are the visions and initiatives they offered for the city.

Juni Yeung: Richmond Hill has an excellent population base. Our population density is arguably the same, if not more, than our neighbouring communities of Markham and Vaughan, and I would like to promote that idea with more local employment and more local creativity, as some other candidates also have proposed that we should become a centre of creativity for York Region. I believe that the focus of my plan is to centralize that creative energy into a commercial and cultural revival of Richmond Hill. And that would mean continued development of commercial and creative areas in the Highway 7 and Yonge Corridor, as well as creating an online and off-line community of businessmen, as well as artists collaborating together in a good ideas fund. So I think that should be revived along with commercial pursuits.

Michael Zambakkides: Two of my priorities are what is actually attracting businesses, high tech businesses that will create high-paying jobs to Richmond Hill, businesses in markets and in technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, financial technologies, medical technologies, that will be No. 1. And No. 2 would be to actually create and foster innovation through innovation hubs. Exactly what Markham is doing, what Toronto is doing, what the Waterloo area is doing, what a number of municipalities and cities are doing throughout Ontario, throughout Canada. If they're attracting high tech companies, they're essentially creating more high-paying jobs. And at the same time, they're creating internal local companies that are high tech that are doing the same. So my vision within five to 10 years is a more prosperous Richmond Hill, starting with those two main priorities because it can help fund everything; everything from youth services to more amenities to better infrastructure in some ways to a number of different things.

Susan Korman: My vision for our city, as I see it, is to grow Richmond Hill into a place that has a beautiful downtown core where our businesses are thriving, parks are filled with family, pets and visitors and our protected farms, green space and moraine and the trails remain intact. The vision of a better transit system should be a reality. Monies have been set aside for the past 10 years to improve our transit system. The federal and provincial governments have already paid our municipality for this plan. Richmond Hill should have already been connected to all of York Region and downtown Toronto. My vision for increased availability for affordable housing will bring much-needed jobs and increased taxes generated by these jobs and new homes. Richmond Hill's property taxes are funding most of the infrastructure and are making it hard for the average family. We all need some relief.

Rona Wang: I hope you all agree that we are blessed to live in such a great community. Richmond Hill has over 200,000 people that speak 126 languages, so my vision is to have a better community. Richmond Hill creates more than 73,000 jobs within our community. I want to tell our children that you don't have to be a city official to create changes in our community. In fact, by thinking locally, you are able to take immediate and significant actions, big or small, that benefit you and the people around you. We can all start to be good to the neighbours. Give your time to clean up a park, or volunteer at your library. Shop local. With all these people can create a lasting, positive change in our community.

Carmine Perrelli: The first one is pandemic related. As we know, outdoor exercise has been very much encouraged during this pandemic and as a sitting member of council, I'm very well aware of the need for more outdoor recreation, more soccer fields, more covered fields for soccer in the winter, more skating availability. Recently, we heard of people skating on stormwater ponds. Please don't do that. That's very dangerous, but we need to have more ice skating rinks. We need to have more pickleball. It's an up and growing sport in our community, and we need more of that. And secondly, we need to preserve our green space for future generations.

David West: My vision would be for us to have a really dynamic community. Lots of interesting places for people to go. Lots of interesting things for people to do, to be entertained. Restaurants, cafes, great places to shop. Lots and lots of dynamic businesses that are providing the kinds of jobs that we need here in Richmond Hill that match the education that we have in our highly educated community. A great place for arts and culture. And a really dynamic arts and culture scene. Probably still the epicentre of that would be the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts, and I think we really need to support that facility. The public has told us, and I've always agreed with this, that having lots and lots of great parks and open spaces, we have a great natural heritage in Richmond Hill. It is our obligation to preserve it and restore it. And the way that we get there has to be through the Official Plan process that we're undergoing right now. A great Official Plan and sticking to it is the road map to the future in so many ways, and we are in that process now.

Joe DiPaola: I'm really the only candidate who has clearly elucidated a plan and a vision and a go-forward basis and one of the biggest planks of that plan is my Environmental Action Plan, which I've outlined on my website as a 16-point plan. And essentially, we're going to categorize our natural assets the same way we did a sustainability exercise for our physical assets. The city is in great financial health. We have the largest reserves per capita in the municipality and we have a long-term sustainability for repair and replacement of our physical assets. But I'm going to do the same for our tree canopy, our lakes, rivers and parks. All of the things that contribute to helping to combat climate change. My environmental plan is the key to my vision going forward. But it's all summarized in the Official Plan and the Official Plan process with the corporation and the input from our residents, that has been excellent. We have a great plan going forward to make sure we protect our neighbourhoods and our green spaces.

Godwin Chan: Whenever we plan out a policy or strategy, think about for what purpose, how are we going to achieve it? My primary objective in five years from now or 10 years from now is to regain what we used to be -- a Class A community by the Conference Board of Canada two times 2010 and 2014 -- and remain a place that provides exceptional public service to all residents and businesses. How are we going to do it? I'm going to implement, as a future mayor, a service charter. So, clearly how the city is going to provide services and also what to expect as a turnaround time. As for businesses, I'm going to really focus on developing innovation with an innovation centre such as the Richmond Hill Centre to help incubate startups and help scale up to really make Richmond Hill a place to attract investment and create good jobs, to be a smarter place for business.