Rob Norris (Full Platform)

At this juncture it is important to thank the Candidate, Rob Norris for releasing his full platform for the upcoming 2020 mayoral election. This is also a good opportunity to go through each one of the platform pledges based upon some very basic research. 

Rob talks about capping the property tax at an increase of 1% a year which seems very appealing as a home owner until the realization that an average basket of goods that cost $100 in 2018 cost $101.94 in 2019, which would generally refer to a rate increase of 1.94% which is almost double of what the candidate is proposing. (Bank of Canada inflation calculator) 

The candidate is proposing to cancel the new Saskatoon Central library project which he values at $134 million but the library itself values at $132 million. The idea behind the library was mooted in 2009 when Don Atchison was the mayor. The Gold plated the candidate is referring to on the platform could be the LEED Gold certification the central library is hoping to achieve. 

There also seems to be a plan around reducing annual fees for businesses. There does not seem to be a dollar figure attached to it and as a result a little difficult to comment on. 

What was not very surprising was his focus on private sector growth, which generally requires a huge amount of tax subsidies and the details were lacking. (This sounded more like a SaskParty generalisation than clear policy) 

Launching Saskatoon's own immigration plan?? How does a city have an immigration plan? Immigration is controlled by the federal government. Is he promoting open borders amid the Corona Virus? 

Thriving farmers market at River Landing: Is he planning on reducing rents for farmers who choose to market their produce there. 

One plan is to appoint a chief medical officer to the mayor and basing assumptions on Ontario's sunshine list the amount paid to Toronto's chief medical officer Eileen P. Devilla in 2019 was $309,594.73 with taxable benefits of $1,878.40. In Saskatchewan the all executives in provincial health seemed to earn around $2,596, 000 combined. 

He claims to support the police and not defunding it, I am not sure if he understands what defunding the police means when he throws fire fighters and protective services into the lump. (Defunding the police; just refers to moving a lot more resources to community policing where the police are seen as part of the community instead of an imposition) There is also talk of support for crisis teams known as PACT and mental health. (He seems to be all over the map when it comes to this) 

Mandatory masks on public transit. (Saskatoon transit has made masks mandatory on buses from September 01 2020) 

Rob Norris may be a seasoned provincial politician, but not a municipal one. You are generally not backed by a political party and as a result have to make sure that your facts add up. The information collected in this post was obtained from the Rob Norris campaign website 2020 on Oct 04 2020.