Dan Rodrigues, Candidate for Ward 6 in Hamilton Municipal Election 2014 - Raise the Hammer Elections

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Candidate Details
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Candidate Details (top)

Name	Rodrigues, Dan
Election	Hamilton Municipal Election 2014
Area	Ward 06
Party	N/A
Votes	0
Email	voterodrigues@gmail.com
Website	http://www.voterodrigues.ca
Home	905-966-0508
Business
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Bio	Beginnings Born into a large family of eight children in London, Ontario, Dan was raised in humble surroundings. Money was something to be valued, as was developing strategies to ensure everyone had the opportunity to prosper. Dan's start in politics Dan has always been an active community member. At the age of 18, he began coaching the sport he loves the most: soccer. From these humble beginnings, Dan quickly became entrenched in local politics, when the Soccer Association he was now co-Chairing wanted to sell their location to the City of London for $1. Dan worked tirelessly with his local representatives, presenting to the (then) Board of Control and other Committees. A new energy had emerged as a result. The move to Hamilton In 1996, Dan moved to Hamilton with his wife and two children to work at The Hamilton Spectator. They took root in Ward Six. Renting the first year here, they fell in love with all of Hamilton's offerings, which led to purchasing their first house, staying within the Ward. Both children attended Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, St. Cecelia, and finally St. Margaret Mary (following the closing of St. Cecelia). From there, they attended and graduated from St. Jean de Brebeuf. Today, their son works with adults with physical and mental disabilities, and their daughter is completing her final year at Western University. Developing roots Over the last 18-years, Dan continued on his path of working with and for the community he loves. From coaching soccer with the Mount Hamilton Youth Soccer Club, to creating policy papers for the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, to providing support to those who need it most through the Hamilton Police Service. Dan's diversification in his volunteer roles has made him an invaluable resource for businesses and community partners alike. Understanding the political system at work Dan's career path followed in a similar vein to his role within the community. Working predominantly within the restaurant industry, Dan provides his resources to restaurateurs across Southwestern Ontario. His knowledge of Federal, Provincial and Municipal laws, coupled with his extensive purchasing experience, has enabled many restaurant owners to increase revenue, while maximizing profits. Vision Dan believes in community engagement and accountability; while practicing strong work ethics to get the job done. Accomplishments Chair, City of Hamilton Property Standards Chair, City of Hamilton Clean City Liaison Committee Chair, Hamilton Chamber of Commerce Transportation Committee President, Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario Hamilton Chapter Chair, Disabled and Aged Rapid Transit Service (DARTS) Chair, City of Hamilton Waste Reduction Task Force Hamilton Chamber of Commerce Board of Director Hamilton Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee member Hamilton Police Service Victim Services Suicide Prevention Community Council of Hamilton Board Director Mount Hamilton Youth Soccer Club Board Director Paul Harris Fellow Recipient Two-time Hamilton Police Service Level One Commendation Recipient

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Responses to Questions (top)

Question	Brief Response	Full Response
Do you support an expanded role for Hamilton to provide more affordable housing? If so, what should Hamilton do?	Yes	Hamilton requires additional affordable housing to support our growing low and working-class citizenry. Hamilton’s City Planners should be allocating portions of land development to ensure that developers are portioning some of their projects towards affordable housing initiatives. We must ensure that we are integrating those who are our working, or lower-class citizens with those who are more fortunate. This initiative will minimize the “ghetto” optics often seen by many clustered Ontario works housing projects.
The Province has shelved a proposal to build a mid-peninsula highway from Niagara Falls or Fort Erie around Hamilton to connect with Hwy 401 or 407 north of Burlington. Do you agree with the Province's decision to put its development on hold?	No	Failing to have an alternate roadway from Fort Erie to Toronto is costing our City millions of dollars in infrastructure costs due to increased local road use from Provincial traffic. This was most prevalent during the closure of the Skyway Bridge. While Hamilton should continue to properly allocate and categorize our roadways, we should not be burdened with traffic destined for other locations other than Hamilton. Our City also requires a proper ‘through-way’ map, to eliminate unnecessary traffic on our City streets. New York City has done a great job of allocating road use maps, which allows for proper distribution of the variety of transportation modems. There is no reason why Hamilton cannot reach similar road mapping.
The City's Cycling Master Plan is up for review. Do you support improving the plan to speed the installation of cycling facilities and provide more high-quality protected infrastructure like the new Cannon Street cycle track?	Yes	I fully support the need to ensure all of our cycling lanes are connected and have the appropriate infrastructure in place to ensure that safety is the number one priority. We cannot continue to piece-meal the implementation of a cycling plan.
The Province plans to allow municipalities to use ranked ballots in future elections. If so, will you vote to adopt ranked ballots in Hamilton?	Yes	Since the Province changed the number of years our elected officials serve per term, we need to move forward and introduce voting reform, which can include ranked ballots and term limits. It is important to address these issues now, as changes to the Municipal Act/Municipal Elections Act are taking place during the upcoming term.
Do you believe City Hall should be more accessible to Hamilton residents? If so, what steps would you take to achieve this?	Yes	If we are speaking to ‘physical’ accessibility, then yes, we should be ensuring that we are at AODA standards. If we are referring to transparency and accountability, the answer would remain “yes”. There are many formats in which our citizenry can be engaged without compromising the integrity of the operations of our City’s business. From my perspective, when elected, I fully intend on engaging the residents of Ward Six, and any other citizen, to ascertain their concerns, opinions and comments regarding the various aspects of City Hall items.
Do you believe Hamilton should do more to protect and enhance its built heritage?	Yes	Hamilton’s history and architecture needs to be recognized and protected. We need to ensure that this is done through an expanded Heritage Properties application which would capture a wider spectrum of our creative built structures. I will work with folks like Jason Thorne to create a policy paper aimed at broadening our protection and enhancement of our heritage buildings.
Do you support converting more of Hamilton's one-way thoroughfares into complete, two-way streets that support walking, cycling and transit?	Maybe	I am absolutely supportive of converting our roadways into complete streets which support walking, cycling and transit. I am less supportive of converting one-way streets into two-way streets, primarily because there is a real need to ensure automobile/truck movement has an ability to move efficiently through our City, as do pedestrians, cyclists and transit. Hamiltonians are not the only users of our roadways, and I’ve yet to visit a major City that does not have a mix of one-way and two-way streets within its transportation master plan.
Do you support implementing a Vision Zero for Hamilton, with a goal of eliminating all pedestrian and cyclist deaths on our streets? If so, what specific actions would you take to implement this policy, and if not, why?	Yes	Ideally, we should be seeing no vehicular, pedestrian, nor cycling deaths. Our City currently has a Complete Streets policy, and we need to ensure that we are not politicizing this policy. We must ensure that any new roadway (re)developments follow the Complete Streets policy. To ensure that the Policy is followed and through civic engagement, we can and should offer a broad spectrum of options to attain the mandate of the Policy. An example could include variable formats of walkways versus the tried-and-true basic concrete slabs.
Do you support the use of participatory budgeting to allow ward residents to propose and vote on local capital projects?	Yes	100%. One of the first initiatives that I will be working on once elected, is the creation of a Ward Community Council. Part of the Terms of Reference of this Community Council will be to review the budget and provide feedback on both Capital and Operational budget items.
Do you support the city's plan to build an east-west light rail transit (LRT) line with full capital funding from the Province?	Maybe	While I am supportive of the Rapid Ready Report, there remains some unanswered questions surrounding support from the Province on the capital funding requirement. Hamilton will most likely be required to provide some capital support for the Report, including, but not limited to: land acquisition, sewer and waste water/water line infrastructure. I believe we need to see a clearer capital and operational cost component to the proposed LRT plan. At this point in time, I am very disappointed in the fact that we currently have a Rapid Ready Report, which is absent of how and when these items will become actionable items.