East Gwillimbury, ON, September 28, 2026 — Brian Johns, candidate for Mayor of East Gwillimbury, today announced a plan to make municipal government more effective and accountable, built around multi-year financial planning, shared services with neighbouring municipalities, and regular consultation with residents on how their tax dollars are spent.
"Residents deserve a Town that plans ahead, spends carefully, and can show its work," said Johns. "Budgeting one year at a time is how you end up reacting instead of planning. Multi-year capital budgets give residents stability, give staff direction, and let us find real savings by planning ahead with projects rather than scrambling."
Johns committed to establishing a multi-year capital budget, giving the Town long-term direction on infrastructure projects and investment while opening opportunities for cost savings through early procurement and forward planning.
On service delivery, Johns committed to working with the northern six municipalities in York Region on joint procurement of services and contracts to leverage cost savings, to expanding asset management planning beyond the ten year minimum horizon, and to pursuing shared services and intermunicipal partnerships that deliver better value for taxpayers.
Johns also committed to putting residents at the centre of the Town's planning. He committed to annual spring surveys ahead of business plan and budget preparation so resident priorities actually inform operational municipal decisions, and to bi-annual customer service and community surveys to measure how well the Town is serving the people who pay for it.
To ensure results are starting from a new baseline, Johns committed to a third party audit of existing staffing and current and past capital project management immediately upon the new term of Council commencing. Further, Johns committed to a third party organizational staff structure, core-service delivery, and efficiency/cost savings review. All of this, to deliver respect for the taxpayer.
To ensure results going forward are measurable, he committed to strengthening internal performance reporting, investing in process improvement, staff training, modern technology, and building a resident, service-focused culture at Town Hall centred on responsiveness and accountability.
"This is the how behind every what," said Johns. "Every commitment I've made in this campaign depends on a Town that can actually deliver. That means doing the work, getting results, and making sure those results are for the people."
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