TORONTO, ON: Starting today, Canadians will have a new way to hold politicians accountable between elections. Municipal Watch is a grassroots watchdog organization that will fight back against wasteful or bad policies that only cost more and reduce quality of life in cities and towns across the country.
“We’re seeing an increasing amount of waste, inefficiency and nonsensical policies coming from municipal governments across Canada. Our goal will be to persuade cities and towns to focus on efficient service, to deliver better quality of life for everyday working taxpayers,” says Stella Ambler, President of Municipal Watch.
There are over 3,500 municipalities across Canada with more than 10,000 municipal councillors. This massive level of governance makes significant policy decisions every day that have a direct impact on the lives of all Canadians. Municipal Watch will work to amplify the voices of taxpayers across the country and hold these local governments to account.
Municipal Watch will be speaking out on issues affecting citizens at the local level such as the increasing municipal tax burden, the growing number of government employees, and costly municipal policies that simply don’t work.
“It’s time to push back on municipal governments who overtax, overspend and overregulate Canadian citizens. Municipal Watch is going to stand up and make sure that the voices of concerned citizens are heard loudly and clearly,” added Ambler.
Municipal Watch encourages Canadians to highlight examples of “municipal madness” occurring in their cities and towns across the country. The organization is already engaging citizens through its website, municipalwatch.ca. Municipal Watch will be led by Stella Ambler, a former Member of Parliament from 2011-2015.
“It will take a joint effort for this initiative to succeed,” explained Ambler. “Municipal Watch will identify examples of “municipal madness” and highlight them, while Canadians will tell us what they’re seeing on the ground, where they live. We need watchdogs everywhere to call out waste, inefficiency and nonsense so that we can work to change it.”