For Ward 1, my priority is practical, long-overdue improvements across five areas:

• Economic fairness
• Environmental protection
• Safer mobility and service availability
• Improved communication
• Actually getting these initiatives passed

Economic Fairness

We need balanced economic support and ways to tackle high property taxes.

Much of the city’s business focus has been reasonably directed toward downtown Oshawa. While there have been net-new developments up in Northern Oshawa recently, I will advocate to extend resources and support to our existing northern businesses and agricultural community, helping our farmers and northern business owners get the attention they deserve.

I also have tangible ideas such as my community card proposal (https://www.biancaniello4oshawa.ca/oshawa-community-card) to help residents across Oshawa save their after-tax dollars and support local businesses while doing things like buying groceries.

My engineering background has helped me identify other areas to save costs such as stopping the neighbourhood sprawls without infrastructure. Continuously building new neighbourhoods without the proper infrastructure just pushing that cost to the future, meaning the added tax revenue does not support the addition as it is helping pay for the last neighbourhood's infrastructure. We need to allow the city to catch up to what it has already committed to rather than pile on more.

More on this in a later blog post.

Environmental Protection

I want to protect the landscape that makes our ward unique.

Through my four years on the Oshawa Environmental Advisory Committee, I’ve seen how crucial it is to ensure our natural environment and vital agricultural lands aren't needlessly destroyed by unchecked development. We don't need to outright stop development, just be smarter with the growth.

I live rurally and engage with the farmers nearby to learn as much as I can from them and their concerns. With global issues where they are, having agricultural and food sovereignty is more important than ever.

Safer Mobility and Service Availability

I want to make Ward 1 easier and safer to navigate.

Transit shouldn't stop where the suburbs end. Public transit currently bypasses most of our rural areas so even adding a few strategic stops along corridors like Ritson Road North would dramatically improve access.

I have also talked with residents in the newer subdivisions that don't have school bus stops organized yet, requiring them to walk along a regional road with no sidewalk and under construction for almost a kilometer every day to get to the nearest one. I helped them navigate to where student bus stop change requests are made, but it should be more clear to residents and we should pay more attention to new developments if we are having them built so their experience in Oshawa is improved. 

Combined with minor pedestrian safety tweaks during regular road repairs, such as Shoulder Widening & Paved Walkable Shoulders or Lane Narrowing via Restriping, these changes can make moving through all of Ward 1 safer and far more accessible without blowing the budget so pedestrians aren't forced to choose between walking in a sloped, debris-filled ditch or getting clipped by traffic.

Naturally, service availability also includes ensuring long-term care and older adult care is available and provides quality care.

Improved Communication

I plan to bridge the information gap between City Hall, our residents, and our services.

The city and region publish plenty of information, but it’s buried in hundreds of pages of bureaucratic documentation. I want to explore streamlining such updates into clear, digestible formats so residents actually understand why decisions are made, how services work, where tax dollars are spent, and how to engage in meaningful dialogue.

There are also contrasting times where it swings to no available documentation on upcoming city projects or recently completed studies at all that I would like to address.

Additionally, improving the communication with emergency services. I spoke with the DRPS for example who have stated that their $1.1B long term plan is open to negotiation as they have critical items that they would prioritize over others, but with the current communication there are large opportunities for improvement for engaging in discussion with the current regional councillors. Starting even as a candidate, when I met with them they said they reached out to all regional candidates in Ward 1 and I was the only one who responded and met with them. I want to improve these lines of communication because if we can shave millions of dollars off of that budget item then that is another layer of savings that shouldn't be ignored.

Getting a Consensus for Decisions

Great ideas mean nothing if you can’t get them passed.

My entire career has been built on bringing diverse teams, stakeholders, and even city councils together around complex projects, and most of my ideas for this Ward would benefit other Wards in the city intentionally to help gain favour.

That is the exact collaborative leadership required to turn Ward 1's priorities into approved policies while bettering all of Oshawa.