PHILIP MILLS – Ward 20 Scarborough Southwest candidate for Council
As a resident of Toronto, I’ve felt the deterioration of our quality of life, where everything just seems so much more expensive and inaccessible.
Our current Council is comprised of people who live very comfortable lives, and so do not directly feel the crushing nature of our financial reality. If they do not feel it, how will they feel the urgency to fix it? I want to be your Councillor because I feel that urgency. My focus would be to do whatever we can do to make this city more affordable for the lowest-income individuals.
A minimum wage that is tied to a proper, living wage; We want all these services to be available to us, baristas, fast food workers, and grocers, 24/7, but somehow we don’t expect that they should be able to live a dignified life working 40 hours at these jobs. I fundamentally disagree.
Creating a municipal broadband internet service that is treated like a public utility, to keep costs low and to bring some competition to Bell and Rogers, who at the moment have little incentive to offer cheaper services.
Building out Toronto’s cycling infrastructure comes with a few easy wins; naturally, on affordability, bikes are cheaper than cars. Encouraging more people to ditch their cars will then have a cascading effect on the climate, as well as simply reducing traffic (in short, cycling infrastructure is a win for motorists as well).
Housing needs to get built, and rentals need to be in reach of everyone. What good is “Affordable Housing” if the stat they’re using to determine that is market rate, which seems to have exploded beyond wages and support incomes?
Services that work, term limits, accountability for Line 3 shutting down are just some of my thoughts.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Beach Metro Community News asked the local municipal election candidates that we could find contact information for to send us in profiles of themselves and why they are running for office. We present this information to help voters make an informed decision. Please note that among the eight Council candidates in Ward 20 Scarborough Southwest, we received the profiles and information sent to us from Gary Crawford, Corey David, Parthi Kandavel, Philip Mills and Kevin Rupasinghe. Also running for Councillor in Ward 20 are Malik Ahmad, Sharif Ahmed and Lorenzo Berardinetti.
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