Oakville Ward 2

We sent this candidate our survey. We did not receive a response. If one arrives, we’ll add it here.

We sent this candidate our survey. We did not receive a response. If one arrives, we’ll add it here.

We sent this candidate our survey. We did not receive a response. If one arrives, we’ll add it here.

1. Q1. What do you use to get around?

   Mostly by car, like most families here. But I see our transit system every day through my daughter. She takes the bus home from Trafalgar to Speers, less than 8 km, and it takes her an hour and 45 minutes. She could walk it in about the same time. That isn't a transit system a family can rely on. It's why so many Oakville households feel they have no choice but to drive. Across Oakville, cars carry 85% of peak-hour trips, with transit at 8% and walking or cycling at 7%.

2. Q2. Transit ridership is increasing, and is going to play a key role in how we move around Oakville and Halton Region. How do you envision transit expanding in the future, and what specifically would you look to improve? What will you do to improve transit rider experience and accessibility?

   My daughter's trip home is not unusual. She takes one bus down to Oakville GO, then waits to transfer to a second bus west to Speers, and the transfer is where the time disappears. The average transit commute in Oakville takes 55 minutes, about double the 27 minutes by car. Speers–Cornwall, the route serving the Speers corridor, runs every 30 minutes midday and only hourly in the evening. That's when students and shift workers are travelling. Ridership is growing anyway. Oakville Transit recorded 4.88 million boardings in 2024, with about 5.01 million projected for 2025. Riders' top complaints in 2025 were reliability, frequency and access to bus stops. In Ward 2, Route 14/14A Lakeshore West carries about 2,040 riders every weekday, but runs only every 30 minutes midday and in the evening, and customers have flagged it for crowding.

   I will push for 15-minute all-day service on Lakeshore and Speers, so a missed transfer costs minutes, not an hour. I'll press Metrolinx and the Region to advance the Harvester/Speers/Cornwall priority bus in the regional transportation plan. I'll protect free fares for youth and seniors. Ridership jumped 24% after they launched, and these riders now make up 37.7% of the total. On accessibility, only 82% of Oakville's 1,151 bus stops are accessible today. I'll publish every Ward 2 stop that isn't, with a completion date, in my quarterly Ward 2 Spending Scorecard.

3. Q3. Vision zero sets to eliminate all traffic-related deaths and serious injuries. How much progress do you believe that Oakville has made towards achieving vision zero, and if elected, what type of action or measures would you implement to achieve vision zero? Feel free to provide any places that have implemented things successfully.

   At Kerr and Rebecca, the walk signal doesn't give people enough time to cross. Seniors, parents with strollers and kids from the neighbourhood are often still in the road when the light changes. That's the kind of fix Vision Zero is built on, and it's cheap: longer crossing times, and a leading walk signal that gives people a few seconds' head start before cars can turn.

   Oakville's progress is real but thin. Our plans say the Town recognizes the Vision Zero philosophy, but there is no dedicated plan with a target year and a public dashboard of deaths and serious injuries. Between 2014 and 2022, there were 4,972 collisions on Town roads, clustered in Kerr Village, Downtown, Bronte Village, and along Third Line, Speers and Trafalgar. Much of that is Ward 2.

   Signs alone don't work. Oakville's own 40 km/h pilot didn't reduce actual driving speeds. Our speed cameras launched in January 2025 and were shut off in November after Bill 56 banned them. The Province has since given the Town $891,274 in interim funding for safety measures at the former camera sites. I want that money spent on physical measures: raised crossings, speed cushions, leading walk signals and clear sightlines at corners. I'll also push for a formal Vision Zero plan with annual public results. It works elsewhere. Toronto estimates a 24% drop in serious-injury collisions since adopting its plan in 2016. Sweden cut traffic deaths per capita by 68% between 2000 and 2019.

4. Q4. Historically, we have prioritized investment on the movement of cars. If elected, how will you vote on future transportation investments? Are you prepared to vote in favour of spending that will improve the safety of those travelling within the town?

   Yes, I will vote for safety spending. My background is in government audits, where the first question is always simple: did the money deliver what was promised? Applied to Oakville, the answer is sobering. Our own plan admits that 62% of the improvements promised in the 2013–2018 transportation plans have not started. The same plan concedes that widening roads eases traffic only briefly, before new demand fills them again. My priorities are safety and connections first, with before-and-after results for every project reported in my Spending Scorecard. That includes restarting the Kerr Street underpass. Its cost rose from $130 million to $234 million and Metrolinx deferred it indefinitely. Any restart must keep the sidewalks and bike lanes in the design.

5. Q5. Providing a comfortable and accessible experience for street users is important for getting people to walk and cycle more. How will you improve the experience of those walking and cycling on our streets and trails? How will you address barriers such as provincial highways?

   I walk Kerr Village often, and it shows what works: shops, cafés and services close together on a real main street. The trouble is getting there. Many streets south of the QEW have no sidewalk at all, and crossings over the QEW/403 and Sixteen Mile Creek are typically 1.2 to 3.5 km apart. Lakeshore Road West has been in the Town's plans since 2009, yet the section from Bronte Athletic Park to Dorval Drive was dropped from the redesign indefinitely. Kerr Village should be walkable from the whole ward, not just the few blocks around it. I will publish a Ward 2 sidewalk-gap list with funding dates and put Lakeshore Road West back on the capital plan. I'll press for a walking and cycling crossing over Sixteen Mile Creek near Speers and the QEW. And whenever the Province rebuilds a QEW structure in our ward, I'll insist it includes safe crossings for people on foot and on bikes.

6. Q6. Bicycle infrastructure (e.g. protected bike lanes, slower roads, protected intersections) has been shown to improve the safety of cyclists, pedestrians, and drivers. Do you support the expansion of this infrastructure?

   Yes. My own family would cycle more if they felt safe doing it, and I hear the same from neighbours.

   The smartest first step is protecting lanes we already have. The Kerr Village and Bronte streetscape plans call for protecting the existing bike lanes on Lakeshore Road West from Forsythe Street to Dorval Drive, and the 2026 budget includes $8.1 million to begin streetscape work in Bronte and Lower Kerr Village. I'll see phase one through. One honest note: under Bill 212, a bike lane that removes a traffic lane now needs provincial approval. So I'll focus on separation that doesn't remove lanes, protected intersections whenever roads are rebuilt, and routes that connect to our GO stations.

7. Q7. How do you see transportation’s effect on people’s health and the environment (local and global)?

   Through my medical training I have learned that the environment we build shapes our health more than any clinic visit. A street that's safe to walk is preventive medicine. Only 53% of Halton adults and 44% of older adults meet Canada's physical activity guidelines, and about 22% of Oakville residents live with a disability. Streets designed only for cars leave both groups behind.

   On climate, transportation produces almost half of Oakville's community-wide greenhouse gas emissions, and more than 70% of that comes from personal vehicles. Electric buses help. Every replacement bus since 2021 has been battery electric, with a fully electric fleet planned by 2033–37. The bigger gain is giving people real choices for the short trips they make every day.

8. Q8. Historically, our land-use patterns have made it more difficult for people to get around without a car. Are there any land-use policy changes that you would make to remedy this issue?

   I've knocked on more than 5,000 doors in Ward 2, and Midtown has come up at almost every one. Residents are worried about traffic, and the numbers say they're right. Midtown covers about 103 hectares and is expected to hold about a third of Oakville's 33,000-home pledge. The Town's conservative forecast is 29,900 residents and jobs by 2051. Its western edge is Sixteen Mile Creek, our ward's doorstep.

   The roads crossing that creek already carry the most traffic relative to their capacity of any in town. The Town's own forecasts show demand across the creek exceeding what the roads can handle by 2051. Meanwhile, the Kerr Street underpass that would ease pressure at the rail crossing sits deferred. Council voted yes on Midtown's growth before the transit and crossings to carry it were funded. I would not have.

   The deeper problem is how we've built. Most of Oakville's land is single detached homes, which makes walking or cycling to daily needs harder. Yet two-thirds of trips that stay inside Oakville are 5 km or less, and short car trips are especially common in Kerr Village and Downtown. My answer is not towers. New homes should fit the neighbourhood, with height stepping down toward existing streets. Transit, sidewalks and safe crossings should be funded before people move in, not after. And everyday services should be within walking distance.