Ward 8: Karan Wants to Make Sudbury More Affordable, Accessible & Safe

so karan you're running for luck for the uh... in the upcoming election this october in the municipality of sudbury for ward eight(...) where is ward eight what part of uh... just so everyone can know where it is

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so in simple words uh... ward eight uh... the borders are buried down

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falcon bridge falcon bridge is the town no falcon bridge road

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on the other hand uh... mely drive yeah and just to make it easy it's king's way it's not only goes towards uh... king's way it's still uh... barrington drive which is just like a hundred meters away from uh...(...) so you know where m_i_c_ is so m_i_c_ is not a part of our ward but shavarley is the g_m_c_ leadership is okay so that's kind of bottom so buried down(...) falcon bridge road and

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so geographically it's not very big it's like the heart it's the heart of new sudbury the way i the way i see it okay(...) good to know we'll put it up on the maps where everyone can see and then uh... they know exactly where

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yeah but very(...) popular ninety(...) five

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you're running in uh... in ward eight(...) what why what's driving you to run in the election to become a counselor

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multiple reasons uh...(...) but uh...

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outing has unf event so it(...) was always trying to put you know give back to the community I was trying my best to do as much as I can through different(...) charities I was a part of or different over profits I was a part of even individually we have started couple of charities so you know I was trying to do my best as much as I can(...) and(...) most of our documentaries and critical figures I had a chance to work with them on different issues for the Black and white African community(...) so Al Sizer who was a(...) front counselor and deputy mayor(...) and he decided he's not going to be you know pursuing his career as a counselor he's getting retired because of the age and you know and he just wanted to have his Is he worried? He's worried. Okay. Yeah he's worried and I highly regard him I had a chance to work with him(...) for a long time because I was living in that war I'm living in that war and you know(...) it was like I was always you know there was any issues I was like he was on my speed dial about different things yeah you know(...) we need this you know everything we had encountered an issue of safer neighborhoods couple of years ago about two years ago and(...) then I was able to go door to door with Al just to try to see if we can connect to the communities and build that relationship(...) he see my leadership I think and then we talked back in last September or October 2 bright day(...) so I talked to him(...) and then he said(...) he's not going to be living anymore I was trying to push him for another four years because I like him the way he represented war aid(...) it was a great(...) after Mr. Fabio it was a great legacy you know he was a hero of people and then he encouraged me like if you want to go for it why not so it took me three to four months before I make my mind because definitely you know(...) after only a year now I'm building my life but(...) public life is always a passion(...) it was something that came as I feel I want to say thanks to(...) one God and obviously I want to thank to my parents who put those series in me of public service and I just want to you know carry it forward and I feel like if you have a small authority you can even do better you know if you have a somewhat your responsibility someone has to be accountable and I'm fully for that you know for the people so in in war eight for the canvas thing the door knocking that you've done so far what are some of the issues that that people have been talking about(...) so there are three big issues that we are getting over and over again the first is safer neighborhood is a big issue you know so in our world I cannot say this like we have(...) houses I say residents(...) which are owned by ghost landlords(...) okay you know so what happens to landlord is not there while you know they're renting out(...) those houses and you know(...) with that it comes more like extensively populated area so sometimes we have more number of cars on the driveway than required and we end up parking so that's one of the issues that I'm getting a lot

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it could just be students or is it it's hard to say it is to be honest it's hard to say(...) it's hard to say to be honest with you right now because I haven't had a chance to go knock on those doors yet(...) I'm trying to like(...) there was like issues with some UK deans but definitely you know it comes with education and you know they are part of the society and then we're trying to like see like I had a you know(...) I say experience when nobody were a door knocking and helping people out so all it takes is just like a small education and it's alright so that's a one of the biggest issue that I'm facing a lot(...) the second one is obviously accessible and better infrastructure.

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So we live on(...) Lansing and Madison. So you know the road condition is spot-code, sidewalks, that's bigger issue in worried. On top of it,(...) it's about accessibility, our parks, and I'm big time for that. So our parks and our transit system. So right now, some of the main roads are pretty accessible. They have things, but the inside streets, they are not accessible. There is,(...) even with the transit system or with the(...) parks are made for like twin folks is one of the biggest part of South BN. It is in the heart of about eight, you know.

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Millions of dollars, and I want to thank El Cizer and our mayor, like they put a lot of money towards that park. But I feel like it needs more accessible for our seniors. You know, it still needs to be, you know, there is still room to do better. Same goes with our park on Hamden and in Lamothe, India. Same goes with our restaurants. Overall, I feel like our parks and our public places needs to be more accessible. Most of our constituents and members of our ward are seniors. Either they are,(...) you know, about 40 to 45% of them are seniors, or they are turning to be seniors of these 10 years. And I feel like we are not ready for them properly. I want my seniors to live with dignity. They don't have to ask for it. And then in our culture, where I come from, so in our culture, everybody lives together. So seniors and grandparents are the integral part of our family. Three generations in one house. One hundred percent. This is how it is. So we always look up to our seniors and our grandparents, like we idolize them. We want to be like them, you know. They are like, in our culture, we,(...) when we(...) wake up, the first thing we do is we go to our grandparents to touch their feet. So touching someone's feet is the utmost respect. You can, like, it's like going down to them for their knowledge and their wisdom.

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But when I feel like, when I go down, I feel like most of the houses, you know, there is either one or just mostly like a couple or just a single senior is living in the whole house. You know, I want to make sure they live with dignity. You know, they deserve it. They have contributed their lives(...) for the(...) whole economy. Everybody have evolved their, you know, what they have. They've put in the time. Yeah, one hundred percent. You know, they were paying taxes. They(...) deserve this. That's the least we can do as a community to respect them, to show that, you know, rising matter.

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So what's the third issue that you had mentioned that you see from your constituents? You mentioned the safety, access... Accessibility and battery infrastructure. Infrastructure.(...) And these are the three big things I'm pushing for. I'm also pushing for, like, a sustainable environment. We just seen, like, just a couple of days ago, we had fires and then the whole thing was not, you know, ready for it.(...) People had issues with breathing and stuff. In Sudbury?

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Like, when we had fires outside, something like that, in fact, was(...) in Sudbury as well.(...) Yeah. Not just that. We just had,(...) you know, issues with,(...) you know, the water when we were cut out for a day and there was advisory out there for the water thing. Oh, yeah. Earlier this year when the health unit said that there was... And then actually I was also helping out. We had, through one of my, you know, for profit, health side, we were, like, helping people out from our temple. And then we were giving the water out. But anyways, that's(...) not a part of discussion. The part of discussion is we wanna make sure(...) for it, not just for it, but Sudbury as a whole,

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it is(...) friendly and livable. And people live here with dignity, with love, and we respect each other.(...) And, you know, I wanna make sure whosoever lives in Sudbury have a good lifetime.(...) And if we can do that, I think that's the best thing anybody can give me. I'm gonna throw one more thing out there.(...) Taxes. Sudbury taxes keep on going up every year. Let's say a conservative 4%.

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Someone can check the numbers on that. My taxes go up.(...) Even people that might be renting that don't have a house.

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The tax goes up on the building, so that means their rent is also going up. Indirectly, all renters are paying for this as well.

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What's your stance on the tax situation? And I really want to thank you for this question.(...) Thank you for that question because I'm talking about affordability.

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I was talking to one of the(...) pioneer developers of Sudbury.(...) Actually, if I say the name, I was talking to Mr. Nanaf.

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He lives on Lansing.(...) He's one of our resident of our world. I was talking to him, he has developed, he was in a big role in developing Sudbury.

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And I was talking to Mr. Nanaf and his wife was there. And he mentioned that their son moved back from Ottawa.(...) He's working in one of the best companies in Sudbury now,(...) but he yet have issues with affordability. Of a house? Yes,(...) he's living with them. And trying to figure out the house in Sudbury.(...) Tax is a big part of it, especially the property taxes.

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So my stance is pretty clear. I(...) already have mentioned on my website as well.

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Gradually increase is somewhat justified, but we need to freeze those taxes until the situation is not better.(...) What situation are you talking about? I'm talking about the new business. I'm talking about the, you know, the affordability crisis that we have.(...) Tax is, you know, the first thing that matters most is how we're gonna make sure(...) our people meet three basic needs. And those basic needs are food, shelter and growth.

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If we are not even,(...) you know,(...) able to provide shelter,(...) do a big chunk of our(...) population, how we can talk about different other things that are on the top of it.(...) It's about necessities and wants.

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Yeah, you have to have your basic needs met before you can get to(...) the other(...) needs. You know, if you look at,(...) not gonna get too philosophical, but Maslow's hierarchy of the needs, there's five of them.

you need the basics in order to build. So you have to have, like you said, a good foundation.

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So-- And one more thing I wanna add on to this is,

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so there's a municipality,(...) so I was reading through like the different ideas of the municipality's who, those who are doing better or in different stance, like said we can be better in different zone.(...) Also, I was reading about one of the municipality I would not say a name here because it would be kind of, you know, but anyways,(...) so what they do is, they do a survey(...) every year.

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Every year they do a survey(...) within their municipality.

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And(...) whose server is(...) above 65,(...) become senior,

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they make sure they don't have to pay taxes on their properties. Aha. Yeah. Okay. They make sure, you know, and they also, somewhat I heard that they also put in charge or property manager towards their household, at least their basics are covered. Someone can come and move their lawn.(...) So they don't, they live their dignity.

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The whole thing is, see, if someone had paid for a house and you know, the rest of their whole life, they were paying taxes, at least they deserve(...) to, you know, when they retire, I wanted them to retire from the basic things too, like, retire from paying taxes. This is a simple thing. So it sounds good, however,(...) where, so let's just say, Well, it's just an example. Yeah. You know, like, this is one of the municipalities who's doing this. In Canada?

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Around the world. Around the world, okay. Yeah. The only way I can see that working here. And I really, I really like that idea. I like the idea too, but we gotta be realistic. And the thing is,(...) that could work here, but you need a lot of other buy-in, and the only thing that I can think of is,

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it could be subsidized by the mining royalties, maybe from Northern Ontario, because otherwise,(...) you know,(...) my dad's over 90, he still lives on his own, does everything by himself, and yeah, he still pays a property tax, and everything else that you gotta do in a daily life. It sounds good, but(...) most of your award, like you said, is seniors, or becoming seniors. Could you imagine if the whole award stopped paying taxes? I totally agree with that. But again, as I said, that was just merely an example. I don't want them to stop paying taxes, or you know, it is also a necessity, because also by the end of the day, Sarpy is pretty big, but yet we are not even 200,000. No, we're still small in the grand scheme. So to move the city forward, we definitely need taxes, but as you have mentioned, we have to create different ways. Yeah. When someone says,(...) you sit on a gold mine, so that is not a metaphor, it is a realistic thing for Sarpy. We live on mines, you know? We still have about 100 years of mine life left in some mines, and there is more and more discoveries coming in. It's not just about mines, we have to find a ways to be more sustainable,(...) and try to lessen the burden on not only even our seniors, but on our working class, for like, we have to make it more affordable in any way possible. And we, and(...) someone has to, you know, take this possibility,(...) you know? So with the northern, the biggest issue with the northern Ontario, not the issue, actually I hate the word issues, I(...) like the word challenges. We have our own challenges,

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but we have our own advantages too.(...) So we have to rely on our advantages, what we have, rather than, and we can overcome through the challenges as a whole community. And we have a working plan, I feel, and I believe, that Sarpy is self sustainable city.(...) Oh, definitely. And we have resources. Most of other(...) municipalities and different other cities it doesn't have in Canada,(...) and we have to just find ways to make sure our residents,(...) you know, our kids prosper, our working class families have, you know, proper meals, proper life, and our seniors live in dignity, and the whole type of what we call a life

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is more affordable and more livable.(...) We only get one shot at that. 100%. That's it. 100%.

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If someone is choosing Sarpy, you know, the factor,(...) we have to make sure they(...) feel proud on being a Sarpy.(...) Yeah, definitely.(...) We have to make sure as a community, as a leaders,(...) that they will not regret that, oh, why I spent my whole life in Sarpy where I can go out and do something else. And that is a factual thing in Sarpy. Most of people came here and they just take a trip and they just move out to a different city. We have to make sure they stay, they live, they prosper, they grow,(...) they invest in Sarpy, and we have to make sure Sarpy is the best city if you can make(...) in Canada.(...) And if(...) God is listening,

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He's listening. I want to make sure how can we make Sarpy's best city in the world,(...) and we have resources. So between now and the election, you're going for the leadership position here in Ward 8.

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What(...) are you gonna do? Because you've only got,(...) you know, you have maybe 50 days until the election. Yeah, about that, yeah. Every day is like, you know. So are you out there every day? I try to, yes, every day. Every evening I'm going for door knocking. Mornings, my mornings are more like cold calling.

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Getting my team together, you know, signs. So in evenings I go out with my team for door knocking.

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And I try to connect to more people and want to listen to their concerns and want to make a plan. And I feel, I talk on the world, I feel fortunate enough that a(...) lot of(...) political figures or a lot of heroes of people, which we call politicians, are my friends too. And whenever I hear any challenges, or I say, again, I have mentioned earlier, like I like the word leadership or leaders, who actually had made an impact in a long-lasting. So I make sure like when I listen to them, I have my own plan, but I(...) do not even take a second to ask for help, like how are we gonna do this in the best possible way. And I try to do that all day. In the evenings I usually do a door knocking and I write down the issues. I put my platform up there. I will see if people like it and go from there.

Hey, Karan, one more thing. I know you said safer communities.(...) What would you propose for safer communities? What are you thinking?

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Actually, we already have, you know, greatest of people is already have a beautiful initiative of citizen patrol going on. You know, it was before COVID, I have seen like it was pretty active within our closer communities.(...) Now it's more towards the outer communities. I really want to push for the citizens of patrol to be more active within the closed network of the city. So we can at least have, you know, when someone has a non-emergency situations, at least we have people from their neighborhood who can show up and help them out. Also, it's more about, you know, neighborhood watch was a beautiful program, you know, so we really want to push towards that if we can take care of each other as neighbors and have less burden on the active police so they can, you know, go out and control more other more important issues. So that is something I really want to push even just on a new sub-bit is we had a booth from the citizens of patrol. I was talking to one of the, you know, veteran volunteer with the same initiative. She lives in a Zelda.(...) And then we had a good talk about it and it is possible the resources are out there and all it needs a will of our people who can sign up as a it's a totally volunteer led program. All it needs a training and a cruiser and that's pretty much it. So it sounds like a good way of team bonding for the neighborhood. Exactly. Yeah. And especially let's say we assign one cop for an area and let's say we assign one volunteer or two or three volunteers under their direction. Imagine we can just, you know, not just like reduce the crime rate, but we can also put trust back into our, you know, residents and they will feel more safe if they know someone is out there watching for them and they know them personally as well. They can open up and talk more about it. So that's one thing I really want to push if I get on board. Yeah, it sounds like a good,(...) a good community. 100%, 100%. And when I'm doing okay, I'm actively saying this, like, you know, I had a experience of the same initiative and then I really want to make sure like it's a beautiful thing led by our leaders, our people, our services funded by our city. And why can't we just like increase it and, you know, get it done?

So Karan, last question. What is your background in the sense of work? Like what have you done before? Like(...) work, business, nonprofits? Like what do you do on a daily basis? Or what have you done? Like what have you been doing for the last 10 years? All right, here we go. Actually, so I came as a international student in 2015. Okay. I came at Cambridge. I did my motor power technician, so automotive mechanic diploma. Okay.(...) From Cambridge, graduated in 2017. Yeah.

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And after that,(...) I perceived my career,

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but I was working as a part time(...) manager at one of the hotels in Sudbury. Yeah. And then that thing was hospitality and customer service and that was like something which was like-- This is where the people skills come. Yes. Yeah. So(...) I pursued that career and become the manager of one of the hotel for like four years. Yeah. And after that, during the COVID,(...) I started, before COVID, I was, and during this whole time, I was active and together with different charities within city, whenever I find time I go out. So going out with a charity and it's like my hobby.

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It's like someone I wanna do fishing. I just go out and spend my time with-- With the people? Different people and different charities. This is what I was doing. In 2020, we started, not started, I brought one of the international, now for proper organization, Mediterranean Narrow Leaf Organization, called Sudbury.(...) So we did(...) food(...) drives, toy drives, different other charities we were involved with. It's currently a northern radio rep for it. It's a totally volunteer based(...) organization. It's a volunteer led organization. So through that, I was able to help a lot of people. Within Sudbury, I have a proper core team and a whole team in place.(...) After 2020, I started my own(...) business. Initially,(...) I tried different businesses. I was selling on Amazon, was one of them. And then I started(...) my own career company because a lot of people were just on(...) online stuff. They were ordering during COVID. So I started my career services. So I started that company. It's still up and running.(...) Since Sudbury, just recently before, I want to commit myself to reductions. So I decided(...) to fully dedicate myself to the public life. So we(...) got into,(...) we have managers in place now.(...) So I have operations in Pembroke, I have operations in many PEG, Sudbury. For the delivery? For the delivery PEG.(...) We are into furniture deliveries now.(...) Rather than Korea, we got into furniture in Sudbury. And now we got into, we just started with the dump trucks as well. We are hauling for some different companies in Sudbury.(...) It's just a small company. This is where my bread and butter comes in. You know what? It doesn't matter. It starts with the seed. Big tree starts with the little seed. Thank you very much. No, this is where my bread and butter comes from.

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But on top of it, like on my public life, I was a part of different organizations. If I start naming, I know I'm gonna skip one or two. Don't name them, but just, yeah. Yeah, because it will be a long list of my public life. You guys can go check it out on my website as well as, you know.

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So through call site, we were able to connect with a lot of people,(...) a lot of charities locally. YWCA,(...) back to school buddies,

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native friendship center, different other organizations. If I start naming, as I said, it will be a long list. So we are continuously donating.

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And now we just centered where the GoGave Project, it's one of the charities. So we help them out with the hot meals every day. From last three years almost. Every day there is about 250 hot meals go out for one of our, you know. One of the locations? One of the locations. Yeah. So I was a part of, I'm a director at,(...) I was a director, so when I decided to run, so I tried to take my time off. I'm an advisory panel now, but actively I was a director at Goodwater, our Sikh-Tampano region for four years. And through that we are sending out about 250 hot meals to our homeless community through GoGave Project.

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We are involved with different winter drives, winter growth drives, toy drives for kids. Christmas is coming in. We just had(...) our school supplies winter-related to Native Friendship Center. And it's been continuously been doing from last four years.(...) So those kind of things.

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Was a part of a grocery club. Through that I got my,(...) those, serving others. This is a part of my life ever since. So yeah, and apart from that, through that humanitarian organization, I was able to go around in other parts of the world. I was in Bolivia for the flood-affected thing. I was in India for the flood relief. And different other countries I was a part of in a different situation. I was trying to do as much as I can.

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My motto of life is pretty much, come from the learning or we call it (Speaking in foreign language)

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saying recognize the whole humor is as one.

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And you know,(...) and we wanna make sure I serve as best as I can. And that's my whole plan. Well, Karan, I think you're off to a great start. And I wish you success in to the end of the finish line. No, thank you very much. And I really want to thank all my friends, our residents, and especially all the people of South Creek(...) who(...) took me as their own character. When I(...) came here, I didn't know anyone. I didn't even know who was gonna pick me up from the airport. Really? Yes. So I had zero connections in Sudbury back then. When I came here, I was 17, I'm 29 now.

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So it was just merely a fall of trust. And I really want to thank all the Sudburyians out there,(...) my seniors.

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And I mean it when I'm saying this, that they have showed so much love. They have showered me with love. They showed me the right path, the right direction. And I want to, you know, there are a lot of people that have helped me(...) to shape the human that I became. You know, obviously I want to thank God for, you know, he never let me down, you know. And my people of Sudbury, you know, they're always pushing me up there. You know, they're teaching me every single day. There's a lot of people I don't want to name them. Because if I start naming them, if I, if I really name a single person, it'll be bad for me. But I owe my life to you guys,(...) you know. And this is where I am doing it. And I will try to do my best. Congratulations,

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