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"For a few years, I have seen Windsor go through difficult times. Commodity manufacturing jobs from Windsor are moving to low cost countries such as Mexico, China, Vietnam. GM has closed the Windsor plant and Ford has significantly reduced the manufacturing functions in Windsor.

 

The population of Windsor is not growing because of lack of well-paying & good jobs and opportunities in Windsor. Hence the young people are leaving Windsor to work in Toronto or USA. I can tell a personal story about it. My sister successfully completed her BS and MS in Computer Science at University of Windsor. She tried getting a good job in Windsor for a couple of months. She wanted to stay close to our parents and us. But when she could not get an appropriate job, she moved to Toronto, where she works for IBM as a manager. As I meet the residents in Ward 9, I hear the same story in many homes.

 That doesn’t mean high end manufacturing and design facilities are moving to low cost countries. In reality, it is the opposite – jobs related to high-end skills are moving to even higher-cost regions. For example, Tesla and other car manufacturers are opening plants in California.

 

To be successful, the City needs to be managed with a clear vision about the state of technologies, in which Windsor has a strength or in which it has an interest for its future. It needs to develop the vision collaboratively with local entrepreneurs, innovators, university and businesses. To illustrate the idea, I can relate a personal story about it. In 2012, I visited the Mayor's office, along with a Professor from University of Windsor. I had developed a Mobile Parking App and I told the officers that I wanted to give it free to the City. The idea was that if it becomes a standard in Windsor as a reference account, it could be sold to other cities. Then it would have started creating jobs in Windsor for continuous developments and customization for other cities. I have a US patent on the unique design of the application. The officers showed no interest in it at all and discouraged me by saying that it would take two years for them to review. Now the City has bought a parking app software from a company in USA. Obviously the purchase contributes to creation of jobs in USA. Will it not be beneficial for the City to pro-actively seize opportunities, brought up by local entrepreneurs and innovators?

I am worried about the lack of a coherent vision and a focussed policy regime at the City Hall. For example, Windsor city is marketing itself as the retirement destination for Canada. But there are no coherent policies for supporting seniors through facilities by public transport or through medical facilities of  super-specialists for seniors at local hospitals etc.

Another example is the Mega Hospital project:  Why did we not think of a University Teaching hospital by converting the Medical College at University of Windsor from the satellite of London medical school to a full-fledged Medical School? This would have brought super-specialist research professors to Windsor.

 

Now for auto industry, we should try to help the local industries stay at the frontiers of technologies. If we had changed our bylaws faster to accommodate testing of autonomous vehicles, Windsor might have attracted a few out of the development units of Google, GM, Ford, Fiat-Chrysler and others to Windsor. (Now all of them have congregated in Phoenix, Arizona.) There are many small steps, we can take in the city to help improve business & economy.  But the city has to become agile to seize such opportunities.

 

The reason I am standing for the Council is because the City requires a younger generation, aware of and conversant with technology and its trends. It is the only way for Windsor to survive and become prosperous, to have well-paying good jobs, to support strong communities and to be able to have lower crimes, homelessness, drugs and family-breakdowns”  

                                                                                                                                                                              Alex

Contacts.GIF

1. Attract High-Tech Businesses for High Paying Jobs through Agile & Targeted Support

 

Alex has exactly the kind of experience, that is required to help the Council develop and execute the policies, required to bring high-paying new jobs to Windsor.

Windsor considers itself the Car manufacturing capital of Canada. To keep city competitive, Windsor need to lead in self-driving vehicles and in electric vehicles which are considered as future of the Auto industry. Alex will work to ensure that happens by doing some of the following things, which may require no or very low investments:

  1. Changing city By-laws so that self -driving vehicles can be tested on roads of the Windsor.

  2. Declare an open award for buying 100 self-driving snow plow/ pickup trucks for side streets from companies who develop and manufacture the products in Windsor.

  3. Work with the University to institute a Chair in University of Windsor to get one of the best professor/researchers in Self driving technology in the world.

 

Encourage Local businesses, especially high-tech providers, by giving preference to them in City purchasing.

 

FOR MORE INFO ON ATTRACTING HIGH-TECH BUSINESSES

 

Question: Do you think the City should work for attracting High-tech Businesses so that more High-Paying jobs become available in Windsor? PLEASE RESPOND BY E-MAIL OR BY A TWEET.

Alex is an innovator, who has a patent to his credit. He can contribute  to developing Windsor as a city, which is innovator friendly, where new enterprises can be set up easily and are supported in every way and where the City Hall is agile in creating bye-laws and new policies for new technologies.

 

FOR MORE on MAKING WINDSOR a CITY of INNOVATION

Question: What can be done to make Windsor a City of Innovation and to make it StartUp-friendly? PLEASE RESPOND BY E-MAIL OR BY A TWEET.

2. Reduce Property Taxes 

Tax rates in Windsor are second highest in Ontario, it is higher than all  the neighboring smaller towns - Lakeshore, Lasalle, Tecumseh and higher bigger towns like Brampton and similar towns like Kitchener 

PLEASE NOTE: Even without any increase in Property Tax Rate (% or nil) the dollar amount of Property Tax is going to  increase substantially due to increase in property prices in the last two years.

Statement by Alex Aggarwal

I want that city should be run efficiently like auto suppliers run the business in Windsor city by reducing cost by process optimization. Then only it is possible to reduce the taxes and then to hold the line on subsequent increases.  Some of the steps that I would recommend to the City Council would be as follows:

  1. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION: Design and Implement performance evaluation of the city administration so the it is aligned with the Windsor City goals of lower taxes and better services, compared with the lowest property tax and best services cities in the world besides Ontario.

    • The performance of every administrator in every department in the City Hall will be measured on the basis of their success in reducing costs through process of optimization year over year while improving the quality of service

  2. AUDITOR GENERAL: Appointment of Auditor General to identify areas of waste and improper use of taxpayers money.

  3. CONSULTANTS: Significantly reduce the use of outside consultants – instead of using outside consultants Professors of University of Windsor and St Clair College along with their students will be asked to provide expert advice and consultation:

    • This will reduce costs of consulting work

    • The professors would provide more independent opinions compared with private consultants

    • It will improve the quality of education as it would provide practical and real world experience to the students

 

FOR MORE INFO ON PROPERTY TAXES

Question: Is Windsor able to provide as good services to the residents as  other cities in the region are able to do? PLEASE VOICE YOUR OPINION BY E-MAIL OR BY A TWEET.

3. Improve Infrastructure

Ward 9 requires a Library and Community Center and facilities for families at walking distance. Our City requires improvements and investments in Sewage systems, Roads and highways for smooth flow of internal traffic, lighting in streets for safe neighborhoods, Public Transport with wide reach and high frequency and with convenience for seniors and persons with dis-abilities.

Our campaign Windsor Transit stands for

1. Significant reduction of bus fares is needed so that ridership increases. Also it helps the people who cannot afford to own a vehicle to go to work and grocery shopping.

2. Demand Based Routing: Use Mobile apps to identify the riders waiting at the bus stop and do demand based routing of the buses.

3. For routes with low rider traffic - much cheaper vehicle like vans/minivans be used .

4. Increase dependence on Windsor transit, in coordination with universities, colleges and large employers, by providing a bus pass to every person in a large organization at a subsidized rate. This can make it possible for the transit system to have a wider reach and a higher frequency, while generating a higher surplus.

5. Provide real time and accurate information of the bus arrival and departure time at each bus stand, using mobile app.

6. Seniors, with handicaps, do not use the public facility since the staff is not trained to provide help, when other citizens are not around to help them. If adequate training and facilities are provided to the staff, seniors may start using the public system in larger numbers.

7. Consider integrating yellow school buses with the Windsor transit system so that equipment and drivers can be leveraged between both the systems.

Alex is the right person to have on the Council so that innovative changes, like demand-based routing, can be brought about and the city can implement new initiatives in management and in use of new technologies.

FOR MORE ON the PLATFORM for Public Transit System & IMPROVING INFRASTRUCTURE 

Question: Do you feel that the Platform has left out some important need and do you think that there are new technologies, which can help? PLEASE RESPOND BY E-MAIL OR BY A TWEET.

4. Make City Hall Agile and Responsive to Residents' Concerns.

Bring greater coherence to city’s policies and removing friction, of long delays and expensive toll charges, in cross-border movement. 

FOR MORE on MAKING CITY HALL RESPONSIVE TO RESIDENTS' CONCERNS

To make City Administration more responsive  I will work with city council to  Design and Implement performance evaluation of city officers based on the responsiveness  and agility of the  city officers to address resident concerns which will be measured and tracked (eg how fast the issue is resolved) and also customer survey results will also be used in the performance evaluation of city officers. In short Windsor City Administration should be customer focus where customers are the tax payers who pay their salaries.

Question: Do you have any concerns about your inter-actions with the City Hall? PLEASE RESPOND BY E-MAIL OR BY A TWEET.

5. Provide Facilities for Families in every community

Alex is committed to building strong and vibrant communities by improving green spaces and safe and convenient bike paths and through continuous inter-actions with the voters. 

FOR MORE on PROVIDING FACILITIES for FAMILIES

Question: Do you have any concerns about facilities for families in your community? PLEASE RESPOND BY E-MAIL OR BY A TWEET.

6. Control Electricity, Water and Sewage charges

Electricity, water, and sewage are basic facilities that should be made available to every Windsorite at reasonable rates.

FOR MORE on CONTROL of ELECTRICITY, WATER & SEWAGE CHARGES

Question: Do you have any concerns about the rates of the essential supplies and do you think that there are new technologies, which can help? PLEASE RESPOND BY E-MAIL OR BY A TWEET.

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