Interview on behalf of the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association on Don Cherry's firing

Interview with Matt Holmes of CKTB 610 on Don Cherry's firing, I was speaking on behalf of the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association  https://20313.mc.tritondigital.com/OMNY_NEWSTALK610_P/media-session/25f71bf9-5c3f-470b-8e83-87389a54e0aa/d/clips/4809bc8a-e41a-405c-93da-a8cf011df2f4/a9d6d364-a8cb-44f1-b837-aa14010af355/15e8087d-52fc-4910-92fd-ab020185ca5f/audio/direct/t1573515839/Don_Cherry_fired_from_Hockey_Night_in_Canada_-_Niagara_Anti_Racism_Coalition_Rea.mp3?t=1573515839

Speech to St. Catharines City Council Against Reconsideration of Millions in Tax Incentives for Condos for Millionaires

 Speech to St. Catharines City Council Against Reconsideration of Millions in Tax Incentives for Condos for Millionaires

I am Saleh Waziruddin and I am speaking against reconsidering the application for tax incentives.

There is a lot of misinformation by advocates of business who we've seen today are in a full court press to make you break down and repent because your initial decision wasn't according to the wishes of business. The tax incentive is not a prize for filling out the paperwork correctly or meeting the minimum criteria, the application is just a qualifier. If your role is to approve everyone who applies then there is no difference between you and a rubber stamp, which is what business interests want everyone to assume is your role. But we, the residents of St. Catharines, elected you to represent the interests of everyone in making every decision count and pushing your policies forward in our interest in every case.

We are being distracted with the circumstantial similarity in street addresses between this application and the condos next door, forgetting that there is a nearly 25% point difference in the evaluation scores of the applications, not to mention a 400% difference in incentive value. This is not comparing apples to apples.

You are a lucky council because you have a psychic among you. One of you predicted the exact situation you are in at your March 18 council meeting. This councillor asked if a developer fills out the paperwork correctly but is denied and says “well you gave it to the other guy,” would you be obligated to give the incentive? The answer from staff and legal was clear: it is council's decision, “council has no obligation.” The guidelines are only to get your foot in the door. So every developer knew back in March that they could be denied even if they met the qualifying criteria. No one should be acting surprised today.

Instead of threatening that developers will pull money out and housing will suffer, developers should learn a lesson here to stop treating council as a rubber stamp and to pay attention to your proper role and policy priorities, not dismiss them as unreasonable, arbitrary, “against your own rules,” and just “politics”.

If incentives are supposed to help create more affordable housing, which is not in the CIP (Community Improvement Plan - tax incentives) but what some business representatives are suggesting, then the answer is to use the tax money to build public and social housing, not to give it back to profit margins for developers of million dollar condos (not all the condos may be a million dollars but many are).

To paraphrase a Canadian politician from my childhood: you have an option, council. You can say, 'I am not going to do it. This is wrong for St. Catharines, and I am not going to ask residents to pay the price.' You have an option, council — to say 'no' — to the old attitudes. Saying you have no option is not good enough for St. Catharines. It is a confession of non-leadership. And this city needs your leadership. You have an option, council. You can do better than to reconsider.

Question from Councillor Miller: We've heard from the business community, we've been threatened with having a bad reputation among them if we don't reconsider this. As an average citizen what do you think the impact would be on the community if we do reconsider and we give in to these suggestions?

Answer: If you reconsider you will have a terrible reputation from the residents and beyond because it will look like you've just been beaten and you're just a rubber stamp and you're not looking out for the interests of the residents. That when a situation has come up for your vote, that we can't count on you to think of us and that you'll only be thinking of “well, did they fill the paperwork out right” and “what does the business community want.”