Low taxes, better spending keys for Neal

By Chris Jones/The Oshawa Express

John Neal was elected as regional councillor for the city of Oshawa’s ward one on Oct. 22, and he has already spent 18 years throwing his passion into the city.

For Neal the big issue in Oshawa is taxes. He wants to know, “Why does Oshawa have the highest tax rate in the Durham Region? And the second highest in the entire GTA?”

Neal says, “Oshawa residents and their families need to see value for their hard earned money.”

Neal believes that money that should be earmarked for infrastructure isn’t coming forward. “I don’t see the reason for any property tax increases at the Region in the 2019 budget. Their reserves are high at approximately $250 million.”

Another issue that concerns Neal is the water rate. “Seniors want to know why they’re hiking the water rate when they’re using less water.” He says that this is an issue the Region hasn’t been able to answer, and he wants to know why.

He says that while the last council was able to pay down some of the city’s debt, “there are some things that I wanted to get done. Some of the infrastructure issues, they didn’t put the money into it to do it because they didn’t want to. They wanted to pay down some of the debt. So we’re left with an old infrastructure in the city of Oshawa.”

Neal says that it’s a real problem that Durham Region sued Oshawa. “The region had no business at all to sue the city of Oshawa when they took over transit.”

He says that $3 million was spent, with half of it being in lawyer fees by the region. In the end he says, “We sued ourselves.”

Neal is referring to when Durham began taking over transit in 2011, and Oshawa needed to pay $6.2 million to cover “unfounded liabilities” such as the health care, sick leave and WSIB costs associated with active and retired employees of the now-defunct Oshawa Transit Commission.

Because of how high tax rates are in Oshawa, Neal believes that “We can’t hire any young people that have gone to college for years and years,” he says. “They’re going outside the region – they have to travel to Toronto or wherever – to find a job.”

The biggest issues for Neal are addressing council’s spending priorities and Oshawa’s high tax rates, and he plans to throw everything he can at them.

For Neal being a councillor is a full time job. He says that while that may not be the case for others, he will put his energy into making Oshawa and Durham a more affordable place to live.

The new term begins Dec. 1, and Neal will be returning to council on Dec. 3.