Meet Your New Saint John City Councillor: Greg Stewart Of AJ’s Lounge
This article is part of series of profiles of entrepreneurs who’ve been elected to city councils in New Brunswick.
SAINT JOHN — Tax reform and making sure Saint John gets its fair share is a key priority for business owner and new city councillor Greg Stewart.
Stewart, who owns AJ’s Lounge, Shooters and co-owns Lancaster Plaza in west Saint John, was elected last month as a councillor for Ward 4. He got into municipal politics because he wanted to make a difference — and if he didn’t do it now, he wasn’t sure he ever would.
“I want to make a difference and now’s the time for me. I’m not going to say I wish I had done something or wish I tried,” says Stewart.
“The businesses are running well. I have great staff and I have great staff and people around me, so if I’m going to be able to make a difference, now is the time for me to try and do that.
As a councillor, Stewarts says he will be pushing for municipal tax reform.
“We’ve been talking about it with the province now for quite a while and there are green papers and white papers that have been written. I want something to happen,” he says.
“People are fed up. We’re paying a lot of taxes and maybe not getting our money’s worth out of it, so it’s time for that to change. Big industry has to pay their share for sure. I’m tired of seeing budgets just strictly being cut … We can’t be cutting budgets all the time. We need to regroup and refocus.”
Stewart is one of four new Saint John councillors that are small business owners. He will be joined by Joanna Killen (co-owner of Slocum & Ferris), Paula Radwan (owner of Taste of Eygpt) and Brent Harris (Saint John Tool Library). He says having entrepreneurs at the council table will bring a different perspective.
“We’re all very familiar with what it’s like to run business day-to-day and through the decades, and adhering to budgets and working with people. I find we’ve kind of got away from the fact that this is still a business,” he says.
“It can’t just be about cutting back … If we got to find more money, then let’s go find more money. We got to draw some business into town. We’ve got to create development, so let’s do it. The business perspective, I can’t say enough about it, I think we bring along to the table.”
Stewart says the outgoing council and mayor did a great job and is looking forward to working with the new council to build on what they’ve done.
“With this new group, we’ve got this new business perspective we want to bring to the table. Push through some of these doors that maybe have been open for us, and make some things happen,” he says.
“I’m very excited that with the conversations I’ve had now with the new council that’s coming on board and with the returning councillors. There’s a very good, energetic dynamic and I’m really looking forward to being a part of a winning team.”
More in this series:
- Meet Your New Saint John City Councillor: Brent Harris Of The Tool Library
- Meet Your New Saint John City Councillor: Joanna Killen Of Slocum & Ferris
To read more stories like this in Huddle, sign up to receive our free daily newsletter.