Sudbury Ward 11: Shawn Ouimette on Taxes, Safer Streets and a Six-Pad Arena

(...) The election's coming up soon. Here we are in Sudbury in the studio with Sean LeMette. He's in Ward 11. Sean, good to see you. Good to see you. Thank you for having me. Yeah, no problem. Let's dive down right into it. So(...) the event center funding. Yep.(...) Do you support the money that was allocated for the center? Or where are you on this whole thing? Well, I'll be straight up because I've been telling everybody since the beginning, I'm transparent on everything. If you kind of read on me, you'll see that I supported-- I wanted the arena to be downtown.

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The location that it has, that's not where I wanted it.(...) Where would you put it? I would have put it-- No where the Frontenac Hotel, Pizza Pizza, that back parking lot. I have(...) connections with business companies. So way back when I spoke with Ellis Don and they had some surveyors and stuff, and they measured it out. And they said as long as there's stairway and air conditioning system on the building, you'd have to remove that and it would bumper right up to the Grand, bumper right up to that end, and the Frontenac and so on. It would fit perfectly right in that square. And then one amazing thing we could do too, that the downtown hasn't had in I think 40 years, is use that Frontenac and merge it with a new hotel. Because I don't remember the architecture term,

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but you merge old and new together and we build a new hotel that has never happened. And like I said, we haven't had a new hotel downtown in four years. So that would be something that could be done. And then you'd have an event center right there attached to the mall. Because we all-- there's not one Subarian that isn't-- that's we'll say in the gen-- are we gen X? I always mess that up too. XYZ, whatever it is. Yeah. We're all upset with the downtown and the downtown mall. Because we all remember as kids, the Eaton's, the Zeller's, all the great stores. Sam the record room was in there. I remember going up there on second floor without water fountain. It was packed. It was packed in there and nothing-- the city has not(...) done anything to bring anything back to the downtown. Downtown is-- I look at it as a mall, a big mall, an outdoor mall. And you have anchor businesses that draw(...) people to downtown. Well, we lost Canadian Tire, we lost Eaton's, and all that rest of that stuff. And the downtown counts-- like council itself has not thought of, hey, you know what? I just throw out a name here, Old Navy. If you build a store downtown or take up this space downtown, you know what? We'll take away your development fees. We'll take your taxes. If you stay here for 10 years, we'll go half 50% taxes for the first five years, full tax the next 10 years, or something like that. And just show creative investment and drawing businesses in. Because then(...) we wouldn't be where we are right now. And that downtown mall-- or excuse me, the events that are going downtown into the mall, you could then get restaurants and everything else going in there. If anyone has gone to the Scotiabank Centre in Toronto-- I'm not a Leafs fan by any means, but I've gone to Raptors games and stuff. And they're attached to the downtown or the underground mall and everything else. And there's the mall, and that's open. It's thriving because people are going there. You got the parking up on the downtown mall. And you could use all of that. And then if we had to close it off, when the Wolves(...) win the championship-- like Dario Sanai, I believe them as well. When they win it this year,(...) we're going to have to close off an area. You could have closed off an area from where the old national bank is. I don't recall the street name. I'm horrible with the downtown streets outside of the trees. We'll say Lizger. We'll say Lizger, I believe you. And then on the other half of it where the TD Bank is--(...) which again, the east-west ones, I don't know, the tree streets I can rhyme off to. But anyways, that whole section will be closed off, detour around. And you have a great event area for all the crowd. And then I remember as a kid when the Jays won. That was the area myself and friends. We all drove our cars around that whole area, winning that championship. And we'd be doing the same thing over when the Wolves win it this year. That's an interesting idea about the arena. Yeah, unfortunately, it's in a different spot. So(...) what does that mean for taxpayers? Where are you when(...) it comes to keeping the tax increases affordable for people? I know you touched on taxes briefly. Well, I know right now, and this is talking to people with the Chamber of Commerce, and they explained to me that(...) we're going to have 1.5% is guaranteed. 1.5% what? 1.5% is guaranteed because we've used-- I say we, but the city has used-- Council has approved using some of the reserve funds. We have to fill them back in. Yeah, so 1.5% on top of what? On top of roughly 4% or 5%. So right now, it's between 6.3% and 6.8% is what I've been told, is that we're looking at. So obviously, the new council that gets in there, we're going to have to go and talk to them and-- or not talk, but(...) research and try and figure out what cuts we can do, what additions we can do. Because obviously, I've talked to many people, and even at 2% right now, things are getting tough because there's a lot of retirees in this town, and they're having a hard time living with $5,000, and $6,000, and $7,000(...) property tax. And now, we're jumping it up, and that $7,000 becomes $9,000. Well, I don't know the math on it, but if it comes to $9,000, well, that's a lot more money taken out of those(...) residents' pensions. How are we going to-- how are they going to buy food? Yeah, it keeps on-- it's definitely going up, and then it--(...) it's not that easy. No. No, and apartments and that are the same thing. I was talking to a lady a few days ago in Minnow Lake, and she said that her landlord is evicting(...) the-- I think it was a four-plex. They're evicting everyone. They're giving them the year notice. They're evicting them all because they want to renovate the apartment. So everything is legal from what I understand. And I think it's a whole load of malarkey, really, but-- And then they get to have the first right to move back in. Move back in, yeah. At the new rate. At the new rate, yeah. So she was paying, I think, $1,000 a month right now. Her and her husband had been there for a long time. Her husband passed away a couple years ago. His pensions now stopped. So it's just her pension paying for her apartment and food and such. She said once she goes back and that--(...) excuse me. The cough is because I've been talking to so many residents. My esophagus, the doctor's told me that it's-- I got to ease up on talking, but I just enjoy talking to everybody and learning so much about each street. But with this lady, she said(...) for her moving back, if it's $2,000 or $3,000 and she has to pay first and last month's rent, how can she do that? She just won't be able to do it. So we're in a position in the city that we need to figure out housing, not just we have the homeless going right now. And not every-- I know many people look at it and the homeless people that are there are all drug-addicted and everything else. I can guarantee you they're not. Some of them are going to be like this lady that they just can't afford rent because of the jobs that they have. So now they're on the streets and trying to make ends meet to be able to afford an apartment. But again, you got to pay first and last month. And if it's between $2,000 and $3,000 rent-- That's a lot to conjure up for all at once. Yeah. Yeah.

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I(...) see Thunder Bay has introduced some tiny homes.

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Would that work?

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I like the idea of tiny homes. I do.(...) To where we put them is the question because I know-- Energy core? I was going to say, I know the downtown businesses would like to see not that being in downtown-- in energy court. So then we'd have to find a new area.(...) Should we get a past president to just build it and they will come?

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That one there is the one that the Achilles heel of me with the arena, with pretty much anything when you say, oh, we're going to-- we'll build it and then we're going to get hotels. We're going to get this. It doesn't work that way. I sure don't look like Kevin Costner. The mayor doesn't look like Kevin Costner. And there's no one that looks like Kevin Costner because nobody can build something and then hope and dream that everything's going to come here. So it doesn't work that way. And it's unfortunate that we keep thinking and saying, oh, we're going to build this venue and all these other things are going to come here. It doesn't work that way. Those companies want to see what's going on, see the investment that the city is making, see how much the other businesses around that investment are doing. And then they go, OK, we'll move in. But that could be five. That could be 10. That could be 20 years later. Well, Laurentian tried it. How did that work out?(...) Yeah.

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Let's move on.

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Roads and infrastructure. Are we keeping up? Are we falling behind? Where are we with that?

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I think--(...) honestly, I think we're kind of--

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if we go further, because--

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excuse me.

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We're kind of stuck in a spot right now, I think, with infrastructure because there's so many roads. Yeah, the Sudbury's got a lot of miles. If I think one of the Sudbury advertisements I saw, you can have from here and you can make Vancouver. And I think back. Or it's one way. Maybe one way. I'm not 100%. But I know it's up to Vancouver. So in that, if you look at the tax base that we have, we don't have enough people build-- enough people to pay for all the infrastructure and everything else that needs to get going. The water, the sewers, and the roads on top.

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I think when we amalgamated in that, the city needs to actually change things around and look at--(...) we need to-- when you blow up a balloon, we'll put it this way. When you blow up a balloon, it blows up around. Instead, what the city's been doing, we've been building stuff, continuing to build houses and buildings in the valley, continuing in the lively, continuing in the transfer. Instead of growing from Sudbury and blowing outwards, because then those homes, those apartments, those businesses are now paying the property tax to kind of fit that. If it's 20 feet of road, that property tax covers that. Another business, that property tax covers that. You kind of map it out that way. Right now, it's(...) all over the place. And we're(...) really spaced out, so it makes it a lot more difficult to-- So we've got a lot of urban sprawl. Yes.

so when it comes to accountability, how can we make sure that the staff that do have lateral movement within a budget that they can spend within their own department, how can we make sure that they're spending the monies wisely?

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Where do(...) you want the accountability for that specific thing that's in your platform?(...) Well, as many have talked about, they want to use-- have an auditor general to be accountable to checking on every department and the spending and so on. I think, really, we could police ourselves, just like many other cities around.

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We don't have to have spend-- I don't know the exact dollars, but I've read that it was the-- that account-- the auditor general was making about $500,000. Well, the department was allocated about half a billion. OK. So-- and there was two individuals that worked in there. OK. But it was about half a million. So you're saying,(...) are there some cities that you looked at that don't have an AG? Yeah, yeah. Barry doesn't have one. London doesn't have one. A lot of cities in the province do not have one. And they're spending correctly, and there's no losses of funds. There's no, hey, there's a surprise. We have $80 million that we didn't know of last week. If this was Walmart or if this was a Costco-- Private enterprise? Yeah, any kind of private enterprise. Yeah, and their accountants and their staff just all of a sudden went, hey, what's this bank over here? Oh, it's $40 million. We didn't know we had this in the company. You wouldn't be with the company very long. Someone will get fired? Absolutely. And here, we don't-- staff isn't accountable for errors or mistakes that they made. And yes, everyone makes mistakes in a job and so on like that. And I believe in the(...) one-two strike policy as well. You screw up once, okay? But we found in two different points,(...) $18 million and $22 million in the last few months. Like how much more money is sitting in the clouds right now that is taxpayers' dollars? It's not(...) the city's money. It's your money, money that we've given to the city to use it in the best way possible. It's the mom and dad that are working their butts off to support their family. And then they know they have to give a percentage back to the city to do better for the city. And what's happening is we're losing money and we're not being accountable for the jobs that we're doing. We're going and finding businesses to build roads that are not quality asphalt. We're doing infrastructure that-- not the proper piping or whatever. I'm just throwing examples right now. But(...) it's those hardworking sub-barians, the miners, the ditch digger all the way to the(...) CEO of whatever company here in town. And we're not using your tax dollars to the best of the city's abilities. We're not being accountable. And I say we're, but the city right now is not being accountable for that. It's very upsetting and that's something I really want to push to make sure that, you know, if a dollar is being spent, we're getting a dollar work out of that. Can the residents help in any way to make sure that debt dollars are being spent properly?

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I don't know. I think if they have a voice and if they're coming to me and I'm their Councillor, you're saying, you know, we spent $5,000, we're giving you $5,000 of our taxes. Yes, we want these services. We want this.

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It's, again, not my money. It's their money that they're paying me to do a job and be their voice for them. So absolutely they have a voice to... How about easing up on the freedom of information?

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It's very tight right now. Yeah, well, I'm a very transparent person. So even if it was very tight in City Hall, I have no problem unless they force me into some kind of, I guess, NDA or something like that. I don't know how that all, how it all works. Obviously, I'm not in Council, so I don't know. I know some things are, you know,(...) prevy that(...) they don't want out in the public, but some other things that I believe we should be(...) more... It's your tax dollars. You should be able to... So when on your platform, you have lower department spending. Yes.(...) So each department has allocated a certain amount, but you want to lower it? Yeah, right now, I joke about it, but I don't know how any other way to say it, that each department has a credit card, essentially for $120,000. And they can go out and spend up to that dollar amount. And it doesn't matter what it is. They can go out and spend on mailboxes. They can go out and spend on, I don't know, whatever. They have that credit card. They can go and spend it. Yeah, there's no repercussions as long as they don't go over that. If they go over that, then it's supposed to go to a bid proposal, which then they have to ask businesses, "Hey, we want, I don't know, a bowl. We want to buy all these mailboxes. And(...) how much are you guys going to sell them for?" Some will say we can sell one mailbox each at $10. Some will say $9 and so on. And the city gets the best dollar at that point. Right now at $120,000, the city can pretty much go out and get whatever they want. It's as if you're going to the grocery store and picking up chicken. And they're just going in going, "Yeah, Mr. Butcher, I want chicken. Here's a piece of chicken, $50."(...) And they just take it and go without looking at anything. Compared to you and I and every other resident in the city, you're going in and you're picking up that chicken, but you're looking for how much fat, how much meat, how many bones. You know, and then you're comparing, okay, well, the $50 piece, the $20 piece and the $5 piece, you're looking at it all and thinking, "Okay, well, where are we spending(...) and are we spending that money correctly?" Basically want to have value. Yes. So I'd like to drop that back down to $15,000 real quick to you. When I was, I worked for a printer company job.(...) This is going back probably about 15 years because the threshold at that time was $25,000. And I distinctly remember this and I worked for that company for about three months because I'm like, "I don't like the way that they operate. I couldn't keep it in my stomach that we lost that or(...) taking that much money from the city and so on."

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So yeah, they come in, they were like, "Okay, we want(...) a new printer.(...) Give us that same thing. No extra bells and whistles. Okay, no problem." So we go back downstairs, talk with the manager, he opens up the laptop, he goes, "Yeah, this printer costs $17,000. We sell it for $20,000. We're going to sell it to the city for $24,000. It's still under the $25,000 range, but we're going to make more money." And with that, how many other businesses are doing that? They bought two, the city bought two at that time. So that's $8,000. How many other $8,000 spendings have we gone and we're losing snow plowing on sidewalks? We're losing... You're irresponsible to be spending stuff like that. No, exactly. Like that's, I believe we... What does this printer do?

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Yeah, I don't even remember anymore. I know it was a printer. I know it was color printer. That's honestly, I can't remember that much. Like I said, I only stayed there for three months because I didn't like the morals of the way that this company ran and I couldn't do it anymore. That's a big pay off for something.

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You've been knocking doors. What are you hearing from the people in Ward 11? A lot, a lot actually. Are they concerned with the rats? There are in different... It's kind of funny. Like there's certain sections. You'll go five houses and there'll be those five houses, have rats. You get to the next five houses and nobody has any rats and they don't know... Is there a difference in the yard or anything?

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Yes and no. You're at the front. You can't see what's going on. I don't see what's in the backyard at all. Like I've Autumnwood Street, just for example, no one had rats. And then I get to one house and she's like, "Is that a rat hole?" I'm like, "Yeah, that's a rat hole." And the way you can tell from a rat hole versus a squirrel. And I didn't know that until I went to the rat meeting that was put on by residents in the city. And a rat hole is a hole, but it's flanged out all around. Okay. A squirrel hole. Like a crater? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like a crater and then it goes down. Yeah. Yeah. A squirrel hole is just round and there's nothing else. It just looks like a tube, if you will. And so, yeah. So one resident brought me around and she has a big garden in her front yard and everything else and shows me and she goes, "Is that a rat hole?" I said, "It is." She goes, "How do you know?" And I explained her that and she's like, "None of my food has been eaten." She goes, "None of her garden or anything has been touched." But... Did she use pestil scents? Did she spray? (Laughter)

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I didn't get that detailed over there, so...

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Probably not. But the neighbors on either side and so on, all the homes are great in that(...) area and none of them had any rats, but then I went on the backyards of them to another street and plenty of rats. But the thing too is that they're connected to Junction Creek. So when rats travel, travel the waterways a lot. A neighbor of mine that I used to... When I lived on 3rd Avenue,(...) a neighbor just up the road, she told me she had me in the backyard. We were chatting for a while and she showed me 23 rats she had killed. Really? Yeah. And that was like three weeks ago, so I don't know how many more she's caught. No. That's a lot.

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Are they concerned with... What else are the residents concerned with that you're going to talk to them? I know in certain areas, so like for example, 2nd Avenue. Yeah.(...) Sidewalks. It doesn't make any sense when you actually think about it when you look down 2nd Avenue, the far end of 2nd Avenue after Bancroft. There's new development back there as well. I say new development, but... Over the tracks? Yeah. So you go over the tracks and like even that, from Bancroft all the way over the tracks and all, you should have a sidewalk. It's the roads twisty and turny.

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When I was... Are we still on 2nd Avenue or are we on Bancroft now? No, no. So you got Bancroft and then 2nd Avenue goes where Rexall, and Holyweedeemer Church, so that intersection. The Rexall side, that's still 2nd Avenue. It goes all the way up and then 2nd Avenue turns into Greenwood. You're talking past the fire hall over the tracks? Yeah. So that whole section.

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There's no sidewalk at all and it's(...) many people. That was their biggest concern and they even talked to the(...) incumbent and nothing was done. Is there room for a sidewalk there? Yeah. Oh yeah. There is? Yeah, you can...

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The thing is that in the planning, because I know for my house, when I built my house 17 years ago, it was in the planning that any new developments had to have a sidewalk. So it was on paper? Yeah. I don't understand how that development, which is roughly developed in the same time frame as mine, doesn't have any sidewalks at all. And every neighbour in there has said that they're concerned for the kids' safety and everything else and they also look at a lot of... Which speed? Because there's a lot of speed and that's prevalent everywhere as well. New Subree, Menno Lake, everyone is concerned with the speeds because we don't have... Well, we have the King's Way, but then when that's getting packed up, people go on to a fight... Want an alternative route and that becomes Bancroft and they want to hurry up and get home, get to their loved ones and so on. Not thinking of the loved ones that are playing in the front yard and a ball rolls across the street or something like that. We got to think of everyone. So there's a lot of safety concerns that we need to look out. Sidewalks being one, speed humps.(...) I'm not a big fan of those pylon things. They don't really do anything. Pylon things, what's that?(...) Those boulders, I guess, there's in the centre lane, you have this white one saying slow and then you have another one on the side and it's just... Oh, those things that... Yeah, those pylon things. You have to drive through them. Yeah.

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Like really, if you look at it, school buses go through there. Have you ever hit one? No. No.(...) Are you saying you have? No, I have. Oh, okay.

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I don't want to wreck the paint. Yeah, yeah, no. And the thing is that, like I was mentioning, a school bus has to go through that. So a school bus is a much wider vehicle than a Honda Civic. Well, what slows down that Honda Civic, once they know they can make it through and they can stretch their arms out and they're still not touching. Okay. I thought, what makes them slow down? They're just going to keep on flying right through and it becomes kind of a game or a challenge.(...) The only thing I can think of with doing with those things is having one and then stagger the other one. So you have to do a little S to get through. They'll slow down for sure because if they don't hit the first one, they'll hit the second one. Yeah, it'd be like slalom if you had an X ski hill. Yeah, yeah, exactly. The only thing with that is buses. How can a big vehicle get through that? And I think that's why they haven't tried those slaloms yet. Right, right.(...) Street safety and the drugs that are happening out there, what would(...) you aim to... Where would you go with that?

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That one's(...) a tough one. My wife is a social worker, so she explains a lot to me on that because I'm not going to lie. I don't know everything and I'm not going to have every answer. I've spoken to different people that(...) work within the homeless community and that as I was knocking on doors, I didn't go to any group specific in that and just talking to those residents that work in that area, in that field. They(...) came back and said, gave suggestions. I'm like, "You know what? That's a great suggestion." I wrote them all down and anyone that has seen me knows and had my binder. I have bruises on my arms from holding that binder so tight to you to me, I don't lose anything.

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But to say what to do for the drug use and that, I don't know how to go about it. We can get policing, but(...) how many police officers are we going to do? And then what are we going to do with them? Are we going to arrest them all? And then our jails are full. And then the cost of our jails,(...) what happens when there's another bad guy, an axe murderer running down the streets and the police catch them. Well, the jails are full. Where will we put this guy or girl?

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So(...) it's a tough situation and some want to get caught because it's getting cold outside. So they want the police to catch so they'll have somewhere warm to sleep because there's not enough rooms for them to sleep now. The tents aren't that warm and you could see it if you go through tent city and I've kind of taken a tour around there and you'll see them in the wintertime. They have insulation. I don't know where they're getting all this stuff. Well, I can kind of guess, but they have insulation. Yes. Yes. Very resourceful. But they,(...) and the thing is that there's a lot of smart men and women in there because(...) they're able to do things with hydro and everything else. They have lighting it and it's unfortunate. Yeah. And unfortunately, like I said, not all of them are drug addicted in that. So(...) one of my proposals I want to do is I want to change Cambrian Arena. So I don't know. I'll go step back and just go through the whole process. I'd like to make a six pad arena at the Menlo Lake dog park.(...) So, and we're not, it's not coming out of our taxes. We're going to use the municipal accommodation tax. I always call it the tourism tax. Yes. From the hotel tax. Yes. And use that revenue and put it towards building this venue. Right now they take out $800,000 and that goes to the event center.(...) And then there's, yes. And then the rest of that money right now, it looks like it just goes in the coffers. I haven't been able to find out what they're doing with the rest. Greater Subbri Development Corporation, they get a percentage as well to use towards tourism initiatives. How(...) much actually makes it to where it's got to go?

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I don't know exactly where the additional funds are going because I haven't seen any tourism initiatives and tourism ventures(...) in the city right now. So I don't know where this additional money is being used and going to right at the moment. Like I said, 800,000(...) from my research is going towards the event center. And then the rest of it is,(...) it's Subbri Tourism, Greater Subbri Development Corporation. They get the rest and they're divvying it out to wherever it doesn't. That's kind of like we were talking about before. Things are kept quiet. So you would want to have a multi-pad arena in?(...) Yeah, so the Minnow Lake Dog Park. I removed the dog park. I would put the(...) six-pad arena right there. And the thought of that is that we have all these businesses around that are supporting our community by paying property taxes, the Home Depots, the Boston Pizzas, the cities and everything else are paying all these taxes and so on. And why can't the city go back and say, "Hey, you know what? You guys invested in us and you hired the men and women, local men and women here,

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and supported them to buy houses and pay taxes and so on. Why can't we give an investment back and say, "Here's an investment which will increase your property value, but it also increase tax revenue coming in for the city." Because now their values or their properties go up, we get better property tax. So that's why I want that venue right there. It's going to look something similar to what the Ottawa Semplex. I just love that thing when I coached 13 years in hockey without my kids on the team. So I adopted 15 kids, brought them there every year, brought them to a Sends game at the same time. And I'm sure the Wolves would set something up that, you know, tournaments and stuff at the same time, go watch a Wolves game. There's added(...) revenue for two venues right there.

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Sorry, I keep sidetracking, but take that dog park. We'd move it over to Carmichael Arena.(...) Carmichael Arena would be torn down because right now,

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if you read from the two big hockey tournaments right now,(...) Silver Stick is one. The Big Nickel is the other one. The Big Nickel? Yeah, it's a triple-A tournament. And(...) they are saying that the accommodations of the

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venues(...) are the arena.

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Yes, because the rooms, the dressing rooms are too small. It's just not accommodating for these big tournaments anymore. So we lose that. There's a lot of tax revenue. There's a lot of business in general.(...) No, no. From what I understand, they're kind of looking at North Bay. They just built a multi-patarina in North Bay. Yeah, they got that done, I think it was $63 million. Yeah, yeah. And that's a big venue. Like, I haven't honestly gone to check it out.

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But I think we can do(...) five or six for roughly the same price as what the Ottawa Semplex one is. Like I said, they just have a brick wall. You have a hundred seats, more or less like bleachers, like Cambrian and Carmichael already. You have a proper ice surface and larger dressing rooms, larger facilities for the players. And it's not just for hockey. It's also for dance competitions. It's also for Ring-Gat.(...) There's many other events that(...) tournaments and so on, figure skating and so on that can go on in there. So it's not just one thing. And these venues, they bring in tournaments every weekend. So with that, now you have more at the hotels, we're getting that accommodation tax, and that's paying for that venue. So it(...) just keeps on going full circle. Is that(...) going to cost the taxpayer? No, no, I don't want it to cost the taxpayer or anything. I want to use, want it 100% fully by tourism tax and have that venue paid that way. And then with that, like I said, we have, if you want to say, people coming in town are paying for our tourism attraction and building more tourism venues for us in this city, which then again, keeps on creating. That's the whole reason for this municipal accommodation tax is to use that money towards tourism ventures to gain more, gain more money without hurting the taxpayer, having to build all these things. So if we want more tourism here, how can we actually spur(...) local economy and attract more businesses?

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Well, spurring more businesses, kind of what I was mentioning before with downtown, you could(...) waive a development fee and tell the company, hey, you know what?

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Taxes. If you're staying here for 10 years, we'll go half, half taxes, property tax for first year, full property tax for next five years. And, you know, kind of support the business out way, the businesses around like, and that's going to draw in some, I know that there are certain rules that you can't just(...) like, if it's a car manufacturing plant, whatever, you can't do stuff like that. For that, it has to, you have to have a kind of fair, even playing ground for all the, for those kinds of manufacturing companies. But I don't, I haven't read anywhere that says that for retail stores or any other kind of businesses, that that,(...) that rule applies to that as well. So okay. Yeah. Wrapping up, what do you want your, your perspective constituents to know? Well,(...) just to add on to my arena thing, Cambridge Arena would be closing. Cambridge, I wanted to flip that into a homeless shelter. So it'd have a communal kitchen. And then it would also have an address. Leave the arena as is. Retrofit. Retrofit. Exactly. Okay. Exactly. So, and then with that, you might be able to get 100 rooms in there. I don't want it to look like a jail or anything, but you know, maybe it's a 10 by 20 kind of thing, a bed on one side, a chair and a TV or on the other side kind of thing, but at least something for them. And then with that, those homeless men and women now have an address because you need an address to get a job. Now they have an address. Yeah. But Cambrian's not in your ward. No.(...) And(...) it's, that's, that's the whole part of being on council. You'll know that when you're voting, when there's votes being done for any project in the city, it's all 12 people. So there's not just one person. I can't, I can't go in tomorrow and say, all right, I'm voted. I'm elected in. Let's get the shovels going. It still has to go through the process. So I just want to, want to make sure everyone knows that as well. Like it, there's, it's not me saying, this is what I want. This is what's going to happen. It's,(...) it's the full council that has to look at everything. Staff will look at the dollars and dollars and cents to get everything figured out. And then we kind of work from there. I'm bringing the ideas forward and kind of as well with that idea, the Carmichael, as it'd be torn down for the dog park, neighbors and that that I talked to, they all, they were all concerned and which fully concerned. And as I sat there a couple of days ago, I saw it myself, all the traffic from the school buses and the kids getting off the school buses. And you could see some drivers just, you know, wanting to go home and angry that the school buses, cause almost water view apartments has, I don't know how many apartments it, it, it took me. Yeah. It took a while knocking at doors and everything else over there and all the amount of kids. So parents and myself and neighbor, the neighbors and that around said, well, with the dog park being here, why can't we use Carmichael playground, like Carmichael parking lot and make it a roundabout. So now all the kids are getting off their bus in a safe area and getting back on their bus in the mornings and the bus is off the road. And then we put a street light there and they just go off and, you know, turn left, turn right. And it's nice and safe for everybody. And that didn't come from me. That was, that was the idea is talking to the neighbors. Cause that's, I believe what a counselor is supposed to be. You're not going in there and just saying, these are my, my ideas and you're following everything I have. It's you get the ideas from the people. You, they pay my tax, they pay my wages, not there's, and it's not big wages as a counselor, but they pay them. I'm just a voice for them. So if that's the idea and that's what they want, I'm going to, I'm going to push and go hard on that. And that's why I, I championed that and be the leader for every, uh, every constituent to make sure that happens. Well, that's pretty good. That's not bad. Sean, I want

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