The Standard's question about job creation

Again, here is the e-mail that Matthew Van Dongen sent to all of the candidates on Tuesday morning. The transit story ran in Wednesday's paper, and the job creation story will run in Thursday's paper. Below the e-mail from Matthew, I have included my full response.

On Oct 19, 2010, at 10:25 AM, Matthew VanDongen wrote:

Hi candidates! If you'd like to comment for a story on city transit, please respond by 4:30 p.m. today. The question: Does city transit, particularly routes and frequency, need to improve? If so, what should council do to improve it?

I'm also working on a Hot Topics story for Thursday on job creation. I'll need your responses by 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The question is simple: what can you, as a city councillor, actually do to help bring jobs to St. Catharines?

Second question: what can you, as a city councillor, actually do to help bring jobs to St. Catharines?

As we all know, the City cannot create jobs; however, we must work together (as a Council and with the Region) to eliminate (not just reduce) duplication in services, licensing, etc., and streamline policies to make it easier for businesses to go through the process of opening or re-locating here. We need to find a way to implement tax policies that make St. Catharines a desirable location for businesses without penalizing our residential taxpayers. Finally, we need to be more aggressive as a city about implementing policies and projects that will not only make St. Catharines a desirable location for current businesses and residents to stay, but also to attract new residents and businesses.

Laura Ip