Closing the Deal

I attended the Saturday September 25/10 grand opening of Supreme Auto Group’s new  Bayley street facility. Congratulations on Supreme’s monumental achievement!

The mayor, councillors and members of the business community were on hand to participate in the event.

And I thought, as much as we need to attract more small and medium-sized businesses to Ajax, why has it taken our Town Council so long to come around to realizing the dire importance of encouraging business to establish here?

For over a decade, the Town of Ajax has been campaigning to entice businesses to come to Ajax. We have spent and plan to continue to spend tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote Ajax.

That’s all well and good. But it’s NOT enough.

The Town of Ajax is a corporation. A business. And we – the taxpayers – are its shareholders.

Like any successful business enterprise, the key to success is closing the deal. How many times have the taxpayers of Ajax been undermined by a Town administration because we can’t close the deal and land new business?

Why can’t we compete with other municipalities? Given the intense competition and rivalry among Ontario municipalities for attracting new business, Ajax isn’t even in the game.

We generate business interest, but we can’t manage to execute contracts with international and national business organizations. Where is our business appetite? What incentives are we offering? Can we learn from the successes of other municipalities?

I know electors in Ward 1 want new business for two main reasons. They are:

1. To ease their current tax burden to keep more money in their wallets, and;
2. To provide an option to the Toronto commute to enable them to spend more time with their families.

Contact me if you feel the way I do.