THE WINDFIELD FARM PARADOX

By Ahmad Formuly Ward 1 City Councillor Candidate for Oshawa I like to begin this column by thanking The Central for inviting me to write a weekly column to all readers. This I believe is a great service to the community at large. Most voters when faced with an election know very little about those running. Specially the new candidates. From now until the election I hope to take advantage of this feature and address many of the issues that matter to Oshawa and the ward I will be representing. Municipal elections are upon us. As such we must weight our choices wisely. The future of our city is on the line. As a young man in Oshawa living in Ward 1. I have first hand recollection on what matters to those living in our ward. It appears that election after election the same faces sit in council. Taxes keep going up and quality of life appears to slowly slipping. For these and many other reasons I decided to put my name in and with your help make a difference. I want to bring municipal government back to the people. I have heard from many of you the hardships of getting anything done or even a phone call from the current councillors. My heart goes out to all of you that are left waiting. I can assure you that when I am elected to office. Your phone calls will be priority one. Your concerns will be at the top of my agenda. If I can’t find an answer or solution I will assure to consult with my colleagues and get the result you require. Recently, It has been brought to my attention the concern over the development wave coming from the south. Primarily the wave of town homes and cookie cutter developments. As your ward representative I will fight hard to assure you that development plans will assure that our farm lands are protected. That our privacy as homeowners are at the forefront of any consideration of future developments. Traditionally, poor planning and the political desperation for statistical gains has rapped our farm lands. Look at the fiasco with the Windfield farm lands alone. A property with significant historical value. Tored down. Plowed over and a mega city erected. I think this was a huge mistake. I would have opted for a more beneficial outcome. I would have kept Windfields farm property as a major tourist attraction. Maintain the integrity of the historical importance. Bring in tourist and allow them to race on actual horses. To build a hotel facility in order to accommodate tourist. I would have had a track built on the property in order for people in the industry to come and enjoy the splendor of a great historical asset. No, instead our municipal government has allowed for some petty developers to come in and build developments that will only become a liability to the city. A liability, due to the fact that we the people will have to pay for fire trucks, equipment to cater to these close developments. Not to mention the cost of policing. Close proximity housing has proven to become heavens for crime. Not to mention the ongoing battle with rodents. In the last five years the rodent problems has hit a fever pitch. The sighting of coyotes. These are not a problem that will go away. These are signs of the poor planning by the city we call home. I as your new councillor will assure you that can count on me to find solutions to these and many other problems. I will listen to your concerns and addressed them accordingly. My phone will always be open. We can’t function as a municipality if we can’t work together. Problems are only problems if we fail to find solutions. We need change in Oshawa. We need change in our ward. With your help, I will bring the right change to our ward and our city. Thank You.