Gauri Shankar is running for councillor in Prescott. He says focusing on balancing Prescott’s budget and being fiscally responsible are important to him.
Shankar says he decided to run because he’s lived and worked in the town for 26 years, his family has grown up, went to school and played sports in the town. He is also still on a regulatory board for his profession where he was the President of it. He says there are 5,000 members of the profession and a budget of five million dollars, so he’s learned about budgeting, expenses and how to help out the members of the board and public of Ontario.
He says big priorities for him would be the water tower in town and the rink and figuring out a way to pay for it. He says he doesn’t want to see Prescott paying for the rink in 40 years. Another priority for him is industrial growth on the other side of the 401.
“Which means we’ve got to get water and sewage pipelines through there. To spend money you’ve got to make money. So we’ve got to spend some money to get some big industry there that will create economic development, it will create jobs.”
He says being a business owner makes him qualified to make decisions for the town. Shankar says because of owning a business for over 20 years, he has gained experience in balancing the books, payroll, what to spend money on and what not to spend money. He says holding a mortgage and corporation is useful experience he has as well.
The My Prescott Now newsroom will be interviewing councillor candidates for Prescott over the next two weeks. The 2018 Municipal Election is set for October 22.
