Elections
Basia Krzyzanowski, Candidate for Niagara West-Glanbrook in Ontario Provincial Election 2014
Details page for this candidate.
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Candidate Details (top)
| Name | Basia Krzyzanowski |
|---|---|
| Election | Ontario Provincial Election 2014 |
| Area | Niagara West-Glanbrook |
| Party | Green Party of Ontario |
| Votes | 0 |
| basiakrzyzanowski@gpo.ca | |
| Website | http://www.gpo.ca/riding/55/candidate-0 |
| Home | |
| Business | 905-563-9293 |
| Fax | |
| Bio | Basia takes a holistic approach to her life and is an ardent believer in walking the talk. The home she shares with her partner Art and their two teenage sons Adrian and Spencer, has a solar hot water tank, a geothermal heating system and a solar micro fit system – all in support of renewable energy and preserving our planet.
“I don’t want to leave a ruined world for my kids without trying to be the change I want to see,” says the 56-year-old. “The issues of social justice, water rights, and security of our food have always paramount for me. I don’t know how to sit back and not set an example for my kids when I am worried about their future on this earth.” Basia is a well matched fit for the Green Party. Raised by hardworking immigrant parents on a tender fruit farm in Niagara, she learned respect for sustainability and the land. Basia’s father taught her to read food labels and would always take her to political candidates’ meetings planting seeds for her later political interests. Her mother, who survived Siberia during World War Two, passed on her practical money sense and taught Basia to recycle and reuse just about anything. Basia graduated from Brock University with a degree in politics and psychology. While living in Toronto, Basia worked for an employment program that placed professionals into facilities to promote waste reduction and waste diversion programs. Her job included placing university graduates into municipalities when they began hiring recycling coordinators en masse in the early 1990s. Subsequently, Basia decided to return to her roots, taking a position as the Public Consultation Coordinator of the Waste Management Master Plan, for the City of Welland and the Township of Wainfleet. Over the years, Basia has been an enthusiastic supporter of various causes. Starting an environmental grassroots group in Parkdale, volunteering her time and energy to a community centre in Vancouver, sitting on Parent counsel at Vineland Public school, planting gardens at Maple Grove school and speaking out about the genetic manipulation of our foods. An avid gardener, Basia has also advanced her interest in alternative health issues most recently becoming certified as an affiliate with Brain State, a technology that helps balance brains for optimal health. Basia believes that by her involvement with the Green Party, she can help to bring honesty and integrity back to government. - See more at: http://www.gpo.ca/riding/55/candidate-0#sthash.G0AhiKlj.dpuf |
Responses to Questions (top)
| Question | Brief Response | Full Response |
|---|---|---|
| Should the province play a role in encouraging safer streets that promote more active transportation like walking and cycling? | Yes | The province can be providing funds for Ontario cities to develop active transport infrastructure. Imagine the city with a network of walking, hiking and biking paths. In Ottawa, Colonel Bye drive is closed every Sunday morning and is packed with cyclists. Hamilton can follow suit easily.
Hamilton has Open Streets, and the Super Crawl. When I was a child we used to close Spruceside Ave for street dances. It's time to make these simple community-building activities more accessible. And speaking of accessible, mass transit will be a wonderful mechanism to get seniors, families and those with special needs to move efficiently from A to B. Plus it will remove vehicles from the roads and make access by active transport safer and more available to others. |
| Do you support the proposal to build a new mid-Peninsula highway? | No | Of course NOT! Paving farmland doesn't make sense. We have enough roads already, and mass transit infrastructure within cities and between cities inevitable in the future. We're in the 21st century folks, so let's get with the times. No new highways anymore. The focus has to be mass transit. |
| Do you support allowing Ontario residents to appeal to the Ontario Ombudsman with respect to municipalities, universities, school boards, hospitals, nursing homes and long-term care facilities, police and children's aid societies (the MUSH sector)? | Yes | I do think that we do need an independent Ombudsman to appeal to just to ensure that our institutions stay on track when delivering their programs.
However, there should be a mechanism to ensure that report results do have some teeth. The Green Party is based on values that include social justice, integrity, respect for diversity, sustainability and ecological wisdom. These values are in the interest of every living creature now and into the future. Vote Green for you and your grandchildren's future. |
| Do you support maintaining or expanding the protection of farmland and rural natural land from urban boundary expansions? | Yes | If we don't have food to eat, the politeness disappears. Riots result. Farmland that produces food should be our top priority. We have urban farming emerging as an exciting option that our grandparent's took for granted. Plus I'd like to see medians and green spaces planted with perennial food-producing plants and pollinators rather than manicured grass or flowerbeds that are replanted every two weeks and watered every day.
Right now, Hamilton's airport expansion is a case study on what not what to do. At the OMB hearing, concerned citizens proved that the data used by the City of Hamilton was outdated. However, the Ontario Municipal Board ruled that this data was irrelevant. Seriously! The brownfields on Hamilton's abandoned industrial sites are already serviced as well. Therefore, upwards of a billion dollars could be spent on airport lands expansion and servicing. Basically, we're paying to pave over prime farmland. This is silently ignored by the mainstream media. Meanwhile, citizens flock around the table to debate the allocation of riding-specific parliamentary budgeting tasks, with net budgets in the order of 0.1% of the resources allocated to the airport. On a positive note, the process does build community. The Greens will dismantle the OMB. We'll also start speaking out about some of the local issues that our local MP's and MPP's ignore over and over again. Hamilton's Airport is a classic example of greed of a few local 'heroes' trumping the needs of the community. We can continue as is, or start a new direction. If we want different results, then it's time to start voting for them. Vote for the new path that Green offers. |
| Do you support regional GO transit expansion, including all-day two-way GO train service to Hamilton? | Yes | Definitely, of course. The new James North station is being constructed now. When I visit downtown TO, I always take the GO bus. GO transit will be transformative for the City of Hamilton. |
| Do you accept the evidence of human-caused global warming? If so, what policy measures do you support to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? If not, why not? | Yes | I do believe in climate change, and the anthropogenic impacts of man. I've attended several of United Nations conferences on Climate Change as a delegate of the Climate Action Network and also as a media person.
We know the measures. Live locally. Invest in local business. Simplify. Go low-tech. Eat less meat. Eat lower on the food chain. Buy less stuff. Buy local. Fly less or not at all. Don't drive. They're all simple. However, the key is to understand the cumulative impact of small measures by many. We know all of this stuff, but just have to start acting on it. Kinda like voting Green. As fuel prices rise, efficiency is necessary for companies to stay open. Mass transit, more efficient homes, distributed energy throughout our communities and a deep rethink and revitalization of our energy system are required. The transformation is inevitable. The question really is: "how long do we want to resist it"? I'd be embracing Green with both arms. And with my vote. |
| The Ontario School Funding Formula currently incentivizes local school boards to neglect and close neighbourhood schools. Do you support keeping neighbourhood schools open? If so, how? | Yes | The fact that Hamilton's Board of Trustees voted to demolish beautiful old schools and the historic school board building should not be forgotten. Look at the successful Eva Rothwell Centre, now running out of the historic Robert Land School building. Schools are hubs. The buildings should be preserved as community hubs at least.
Urban sprawl has to stop as well. There is some intensification happening within the city boundaries. As the intensification continues and the mass transit is built, the inner core and central hubs will again be the desired place to be. This also points to the Green Party policy indicating that the school boards should be merged. It begins with a discussion to determine what opportunities there are for sharing resources. Society is interested in efficiency when comes to electricity and our vehicles. Naturally, then a review of our independent school boards makes sense. Again, it all begins with a discussion. |
| Do you support Hamilton's plan to build an east-west light rail transit line with full provincial capital funding? If so, how will you ensure the project is funded? | Yes | Of course!!! Who doesn't? 99% do. We've been talking about Hamilton's LRT system for decades! Time to act on it, and now. This will relieve traffic congestion, slow us down, save us lots of $$$, build neighbourhoods, get cars off our roads, and allow the City of Hamilton to develop at the grassroots level, community by community. Plus we have a few things like climate change, urban sprawl and peak oil that can't be ignored any longer.
The project will be funded in a variety of ways. A conversation is required to generate the exact numbers, but at this point, we can't afford to pass the need for a mass transit system onto the next generation. Mechanisms to generate funds include a gas tax, parking fees, congestion fees, tolls, etc. Let's face it; people understand that these systems cost money. They also understand the benefits, including an improved quality of life, environment and reduced road maintenance expenses that will be involved. The savings for users will dwarf the cumulative expenses of continuing with the system as it. Reducing the number of vehicles on the road is going to reduce the mounting costs of paving and repaving roads. It's time to rethink the system! Imagine a city with fewer paves surfaces? It's inevitable. We can continue to choose the outdated 'pave-everything' habits, or use our ability to rethink and revitalize our communities through fresh approaches. With the LRT comes calmer traffic, and the ability to integrate with other active modes of transport including walking, cycling and biking. Ironically, the City of Hamilton just approved the largest urban boundary expansion in Hamilton history to develop farmland around the airport. Notice the irony? The airport, on city land, is privately operated and does NOT pay any tax on the city land used. The airport is focused on the external market, and supports the most inefficient mode of transportation - air flight. We need some of the greedy individuals in town to develop some wisdom and to start realizing that life is about what you give, not what you get. Imagine if we shifted our priorities to projects in the community that benefit the citizens? That's why we need to start voting a new Green direction. The Greens would also like to develop local RRSP bonds that can be used to invest in local infrastructure. |
