Neil Ellis’ 2022 municipal election priorities

Promised a 0% tax increase in first budget.

I apologize that we didn’t get to zero.  Obviously that’s what I’d like to have done but as we all know with inflation and some other issues that were handed to this council we got through it and I think we got a respectable amount especially to comparable municipalities like Brockville, Quinte West, or the County.

Source

• Spend money like it’s yours. Focus on needs and not wants.
• Affordable housing and homelessness – Need to build housing for homelessness, working poor, housing in general. “We need a wrap-around system that will deal with mental illness, that will deal with health, deal with dietary and all those issues.”
• Doctor recruitment – “It’s a priority right now. I thank council for recruiting two doctors this week, but two doctors take about 600 to 700 patients over a course of a couple of years. We’re 15,000 short, the math just doesn’t add up,” said Ellis. “We need to put our foot down on the gas pedal and hire a full-time physician recruiter as Quinte West and Prince Edward County have already done.”
• Would bring paper ballots back as a voting option to make voting easier, not harder.

Regarding guiding by-law officers to support businesses

Ellis said they had a shortage of actual by-law inspectors, relying mainly on enforcing by-laws after someone complains rather than proactively inspecting. He said that the city needs more by-law officers and to be more proactive with inspections and enforcing compliance. Ellis specifically pointed out residential properties with unmaintained lawns and exteriors, or which were housing well over the legal limit of tenants as problems.

Regarding rising crime rates in the city

Ellis remarked on how quickly the population of Belleville has grown, and pointed out how the size of the police force has not grown with it. He said there needs to be more officers out on the ground doing police work, making themselves seen and preventing crime.