A candidate for mayor of Windsor has laid out his plans to address affordability issues in the city.
Chris Holt, the current Ward 4 City Councillor, wants to let seniors ride Transit Windsor for free.
Along with the free transit fares, Holt is pledging that all seniors programming at City of Windsor community centres be free of charge to the seniors who use them.
"We need to make sure that seniors not only have healthy, affordable, accessible options to get out, but also the ability to stay active, engaged and connected. So today I am also pledging all senior programming at City of Windsor facilities and centres will also be free," he says.
Holt says the replacement value of the free seniors transit tickets would be an estimated $1.2-million a year.
"We anticipate that usage will go up, so that cost might go up a little bit, so it's around $1.2-million. The free senior programming is fairly inexpensive, it's around $150,000 to $200,000 at all our facilities," he says.
Holt says he's also pledging to ease the burden on small businesses across the nine BIAs in Windsor as part of a four-part plan that includes freezing all small business license fees until 2026.
"Small businesses will take years to recover from the impacts of the pandemic and the subsequent inflationary period. We need to support and protect small businesses in any way we can. By partnering with them and the help of attracting back customers, and freezing fees until 2026, we will reduce the burdens businesses feel on a daily basis," he says.
The plan includes:
1. Hiring a Busniness Improvement Association coordinator to work in a new Economic Development Department. Partnering with the Tourism board, bringing BIAs together to collaborate on event programming, wayfinding, shared promotion, co-op'd tourism advertising, and more.
2. Creation of a BIA support program. Features of this program will include printing and hanging banners on the BIA’s behalf, holding and lending of street closure barriers for no fee, proactively working with BIAs on districting projects and placemaking initiatives supporting arts and culture investments in our neighbourhoods.
3. Making permanent the Patio Fee structure adopted during the pandemic.
4. Freezing all small Business License fees until 2026.
Chris Holt is running for mayor against current mayor Drew Dilkens, Benjamin Danyluk, Aaron Day, Matthew Giancola, Ernie Lamont, and Louis Vaupotic.
The municipal election is Oct. 24.
With files from Rob Hindi