🔭 PLATFORM VIEW: Josh Matlow’s “YouthStart” youth opportunity plan
🔗 LINK: votematlow.ca/youth-opportunity
🔧 DOABLE? Yes.
💰 COSTED? Yes.
✨ OVERALL: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ (3.5 out of five)
Councillor Josh Matlow is struggling a bit to differentiate himself from Olivia Chow. Both are running progressive campaigns with similar lists of promises and plans.
One thing the Matlow campaign might want to highlight more is the value of his recent experience working at City Hall.
The value of that experience comes through in a big way in plans like this one. Whereas outsider candidates — or candidates, like Chow, who have not worked at City Hall in a long time — would likely need time to receive briefings and develop an understanding of all the various programs the city supports and operates to help young people, Matlow is ready to go with a list of priority funding measures.
And it’s a good list. Referencing the Roots of Youth Violence report that’s become foundational to a lot of the work happening at City Hall in these areas, Matlow proposes $26.7 million in new funding for programs like enhanced youth spaces, free walk-in mental health counselling and the TOWards Peace violence intervention program.
It’s a thoughtful and measured approach, though I would have liked to see something in the announcement about progress and accountability measures for these programs. These kinds of initiatives are often criticized by conservatives for just “throwing money” at problems — trackable metrics can help fend off those attacks.
In addition, while I’ve generally been impressed with the funding plans for Matlow’s various promises, I have some concerns about the funding source for this one.
Matlow proposes to take the $26.7 million from his Community Health & Safety Fund, which is a $115 pool of money to be created via a plan to flatline the police budget at the current level of $1.16 billion for three years. But while it’s certainly a safe bet that some candidates would (at least!) increase the police budget by the rate of inflation each year, freezing a budget does not, by itself, generate revenue. It would be very helpful if Matlow would provide a full budget showing how this funding measure is proposed to work in the context of the other property tax measures and revenue increases he’s proposed.
Still, it’s nice to see such a specific, detailed proposal for an important issue that isn’t just about hiring more cops. Referencing the Roots of Youth Violence report is always going to get candidates some stars.
PLATFORM VIEW is a daily(ish) feature by City Hall Watcher on Substack Notes. Got a request for a candidate policy proposal I should review? Let me know.