Below is a news release regarding the success of foodpoll 2010′s challenge to all City Council candidates. I was proud to participate and wish the others running in Ward 43 had gotten involved to make it more interesting. I want to thank everyone who dropped by to donate non parishable food to the foodbank and have to say I was personally amazed by the amount of food donated.

240 Pounds of Help For Scarborough’s Food Bank Collected in Ward 43

 
SCARBOROUGH, Mon. Sept 20, 2010 – Residents of Ward 43 donated 240 pounds of soup, flour, pasta and other non-perishable food items to local food banks this past weekend as part of the city-wide Toronto Food Poll 2010. This food drive was organized as a challenge to all city councillor candidates in the upcoming October 25th municipal election.
 
The motto for this year’s Food Poll was “Politics doesn’t matter if you’re hungry…. Everyone needs to eat.” John Laforet was the only councillor candidate in Scarborough’s Ward 43 to participate in this community food drive.
 
“Helping out our neighbours is a tradition in Scarborough. I want to thank all the Ward 43 residents who dropped off groceries this weekend. I was amazed by residents’ generosity in just two days,” said Laforet.
 
He congratulated the food drive organizers for taking a creative approach to link urban poverty with the current municipal election. Laforet said food drives are important to many people in Ward 43. The ward includes some of Scarborough’s poorest neighbourhoods. He added that city officials estimate about 3,000 families in the ward’s area depend on local food banks.
 
“In addition to its low-income residents, Ward 43 continues to lack many of the city services that other parts of Toronto take for granted,” Laforet said. “We have no subway service. Some of the worst roads in Ontario are in this ward. And only one library is now operating in this whole ward.”
 
All the food collected by the John Laforet campaign in Ward 43 will be delivered to Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank, which supplies food to Scarborough’s volunteer-run food banks. About 40 councillor candidates across Toronto took part in the Food Poll. The final city-wide results of this drive will be announced by the Toronto Food Poll 2010 later this week. More information about this initiative is available at  www.foodpoll2010.com

The more you examine Premier Dalton McGuinty’s “green” energy strategy, the more you come to the conclusion his government is faking it.

Making it up as it goes along, often for the sake of political expediency, complete with blatant double standards for urban versus rural Ontario.

The latest example is Ontario’s proposed minimum 5-km setback for offshore wind farms. That compares to a minimum of 550 metres and a maximum of 1.5 km away from any dwelling for land-based wind farms.

A skeptic might suggest the 5-km minimum offshore setback is intended to calm public concerns in the four urban, Liberal-held ridings, centred around Scarborough Guildwood, most directly impacted by Toronto Hydro’s proposal to build a 60-turbine wind farm in Lake Ontario off the Bluffs.

This by putting the project largely out of sight and out of mind.

In addition, Energy Minister Brad Duguid who oversees the green energy file, represents a fifth Liberal-held riding, Scarborough Centre, adjacent to Scarborough Guildwood. In that context, a comment by Duguid when the environment ministry last month proposed the 5-km minimum offshore setback, was shocking.

He told the Toronto Star: “I think it sets to rest the concerns of some moderate people, who were concerned if they go to the beach, they could be looking up at a huge wind turbine.” Huh?

A spokesman for Duguid said he was explaining opponents of the project have been citing worst case-scenarios in the absence of any setback announced by the province, and this proposal helped bring certainty to the issue.

But that doesn’t change what Duguid said. He clearly said public concerns (at least urban ones) about the aesthetics of wind turbines, specifically how they look, given that they are massive structures, are legitimate. After all, it worries even “moderate people.”

There are two problems with Duguid’s statement.

First, it flies in the face of what McGuinty has said — that the only legitimate opposition to wind farms is for environmental and safety reasons and people who object over anything else — including aesthetics — are “NIMBYS” who just don’t want the things anywhere near them for irrational reasons.

This argument has been constantly leveled at rural residents who, among many other reasons, oppose wind factories towering over their homes for aesthetic reasons and their negative impact on property values.

Funny, I don’t recall McGuinty and the Liberals ever going to war against residential neighbourhoods in Toronto, who constantly fight over the height of proposed apartment buildings for aesthetic reasons, and because of fears tall buildings will lower surrounding residential property values.

Ironically, the Liberals are supported in their selective assault on rural Ontarians by Toronto-based environmentalists and media, all from a city with one industrial wind turbine at Exhibition Place, nowhere near any homes, because wind farms aren’t practical in cities. Thus, urban self-righteousness comes easily.

The second problem with Duguid’s remark is aesthetics isn’t one of the reasons the environment ministry gives for its recommended 5-km offshore setback.

The reasons are to: (a) keep turbines clear of drinking water intakes; (b) protect sensitive ecological areas close to shore; (c) provide a sufficient buffer from noise, since it travels further over water and (d) safeguard boaters and swimmers.

Duguid and the environment ministry say Ontario’s recommended offshore setback is in line with those proposed by several U.S. states.

But objecting to wind turbines over aesthetics is legitimate or it isn’t. You can’t suggest, as the Liberals are, it’s legitimate for “moderate” urban residents, illegitimate for “NIMBY” rural ones.

Toronto Hydro is re-assessing its proposed Lake Ontario project in light of the recommended 5-km setback, which could be modified during an upcoming provincial review process.

John Laforet, president of Wind Concerns Ontario, ironically a former Liberal and acting executive assistant to Duguid, now a municipal candidate in Toronto’s ward 43, says if the Liberals hope community opposition will end with their proposed 5-km offshore setback, they’re dreaming.

Opponents don’t believe it will stop the Toronto Hydro project, and, in any event, the community is opposed to the project, period, because of pollution, noise, safety and other concerns.

In other words, the size of the setback is irrelevant.

There are many months ahead, and for Guildwood residents the choice is clear. Our community needs someone who isn’t afraid to stand up to this bully and I am the only candidate that has demonstrated that not only am I able to, but I will stand up for our best interests even to George Smitherman.

Here is the link to the piece.

Toronto Star: Smitherman’s Words Come Home to Roost

Wind farm foes have lawn signs stolen

Guildwood Village

Meghan Housley, National Post Published: Saturday, March 20, 2010

Residents of Guildwood Village along the Scarborough Bluffs have no idea who is stealing their signs.

The residents have been using 12-by-24-inch lawn signs reading “Save our Shoreline” to voice their opposition to the planned windmill farm two kilometres off the Bluffs. According to John Laforet, who lives in the Guildwood neighbourhood, at least 40 signs have vanished in the middle of the night. Mr. Laforet said the Toronto Wind Action group has not had any luck in convincing the city, the province and Toronto Hydro that a wind farm would harm the community.

“We’ve been very aggressively fighting the city on it,” he said. “But we have no idea who would actually go to this length to co-ordinate taking down signs going street by street overnight.”

On South Marine Drive, where signs were up in front of a third of all the houses on the street, only a couple are left standing.

Mr. Laforet said Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Green Energy Act was designed to take away the rights of such communities as Guildwood to oppose these projects. “Instead of having an informed discussion about the pros and cons, we have been stripped of our rights to oppose. We have some real concerns about potential environmental damage done through the construction, and real concerns about whether Toronto Hydro’s even in a position to borrow the billion dollars that it’s going to take the build it.”

As Lt. Governor, Simcoe moved the capital of Upper Canada to York, later Toronto and ordered the establishment of Fort York to defend it from possible invasion from the United States, whose army he’d known well from his time as a British Officer during the Revolutionary War. As Lt. Governor, Simcoe made Upper Canada the first jurisdiction in the British Empire to outlaw slavery. He also brought Upper Canada it’s courts, modern trials, english common law, and laid plans to develop much of our early infrastructure.

His establishment of Fort York was essential to Upper Canada’s naval defense during the War of 1812. The fall of Fort York in 1813 and the looting and burning of York undertaken by American troops was deemed justification for Britain’s burning of Washington DC in 1814.

Simcoe sent surveyors to survey the lands of other townships, including Glasgow, the settlement that would later be known as Scarborough after his wife, Lady Simcoe set eyes on the mighty cliffs that mark Scarborough’s shores. They reminded her of Scarborough England, she recorded in her diary, and later pressured her husband into changing it’s name. Those diary entries kept by Lady Simcoe have given scores of Ontarians that followed a window into life in colonial York and Upper Canada.

The Scarborough Bluffs are something I’ve often written about, and yesterday afternoon I took advantage of the beautiful weather and the long weekend by taking a walk from approximately Jack Miner School just East of Galloway Road to the Bellamy ravine – where I climbed back up. Along the way I took many pictures of the cliffs, whose image has changed much in my lifetime, and I suspect would not be recognizable to Lady Simcoe, but are nonetheless a truly magical gem we’re so lucky to have in our City.

I took over 100 pictures of various things I saw along my way, and will share others in due time. Today’s pictures are of the beauty of the cliffs, and the realities of erosion along the bluffs.

I hope everyone enjoys Simcoe Day, and takes a moment to imagine what life would have been like when all of our City was as natural and overgrown as the Scarborough Bluffs remain today. I know I can’t help but do this when surrounded by the beauty of the Scarborough Bluffs, a natural environment I will continue to fight with residents of Guildwood to preserve.

Video of Sight and Sound of the Scarborough Bluffs from the foot of Sylvan Park
 

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood – By Galloway

Scarborough Bluffs - Guildwood – By Galloway

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood: Erosion’s Impact on a Tree

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood – Facing East

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood – Erosion 

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood – Mud Slide from Erosion

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood – Bluff Clay Drying after Erosion

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood – Bigfoot Lives!

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood – Water runoff from Erosion

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood – Sylvan Park Beach

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood – Erosion

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood – Erosion

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood – Water runoff

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood – Impact of water

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood – More Erosion water runoff 

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood – More Erosion water runoff 

.

Scarborough Bluffs – Cathedral Bluffs

Scarborough Bluffs – Guildwood – From Sylvan Park

Gloria had seen the photos Jeanette Mahon had allowed me to share of the Guild Inn Studio and kindly offered to share with me photos she had taken over the course of a number of visits to the site during it’s demolition. 

The Guild Inn holds a very special place for me. When I ran for City Council in 2006, I did so because I opposed the demolition of the original Guild Inn building, the privatization of 7.5 acres of parkland, which included most of the gardens, the parking lot and access to the path to the water. Raising my concerns about these issues to the Councillor at the time and of the lack of information I believed residents had been given was met with a simple response:

‘If you think I am doing a bad job, you should throw down you’re hundred bucks and run against me.’

So I did.

My position was very unpopular because in my defense of heritage preservation and parkland conservation, I found myself opposing the only plan on the table, and largely on the outside of the debate. Then Councillor Soknacki and current Councillor Ainslie each supported demolishing the heritage buildings. Councillor Soknacki even had the Bickford Inn delisted as a heritage building and sought Council permission for it’s demolition, while Councillor Ainslie was still his Executive Assistant. 

I argued from early 2005 that the proposal brought forth by Windmill development (this is somewhat ironic I know) was not economically viable, would harm our park space and would destroy a beautiful heritage site in the process. The response was a thorough mocking. The Toronto Star called me ‘one voice of dissent’ while the Globe and Mail referred to me as the ‘long detractor’ citing my belief that Windmill development’s proposal was not economically viable and would surely not meet the economic objectives they sought. 

After a campaign that saw Councillor Soknacki and candidate Ainslie strongly support demolishing the heritage buildings, privatizing 7.5 acres of parkland and building a condoized hotel project twice the size of the current building, in January 2007, Windmill development announced a lack of economic viability to their plan, and it fell through. Thank god it did. 

The failure of Windmill Development’s plan has allowed for Centennial College to come up with a more palatable proposal. 

My view of supportable parameters for a project was simple, public retainment of parkland, preservation of heritage architecture, a purpose that serves our community. It seems many aspects of Centennial College’s proposal meet those requirements, which pleases me. 

As a citizen, I am pleased to see Centennial College acting smartly, and demonstrating that in 2009 as in 2005 the heritage buildings did not need to be demolished for structural reasons as both Councillor Soknacki and Ainslie falsely stated to Guildwood residents repeatedly while selling Windmill Development’s plan on the developer’s behalf. I am glad to see the hotel tower coming down, and hopeful Centennial College will protect the remaining heritage component in their plan. 

Below are Gloria Valeriote ’s pictures.

Money for community recreation infrastructure is important because it will allow for either the expansion of physical space or improvement of existing space, which in turn will allow for enhanced community use and a greater capacity for recipients to enhance their positive impact on the community they serve.

I look forward to seeing the good work that the community organizations and facilities do be expanding will have on the Scarborough Guildwood community and think both the Ontario Liberals and Federal Conservatives each found themselves on the right track by allocating funding to support community based organizations like these.

I especially look forward to seeing the East Scarborough Boys and Girls expansion. It’s hard for people I think who aren’t from Scarborough to truly appreciate the impact that the East Scarborough Boys and Girls has on the Galloway and Kingston road community especially. In many ways the East Scarborough Boys and Girls is the very example of community based, supportive programming that is required in at-risk and lower income communities.

With the funding that Cedar Ridge will receive, it is my hope it will assist the City in ensuring that that beautiful structure which serves so many great community purposes is better preserved than the Guild Inn has been.

Below is the link to Minister Best’s Press Release on the funding.
Scarborough-Guildwood Organizations to Receive Funding For Recreational Upgrades

Below is the link to the Scarborough Mirror’s story on the annoucement. Government funding to help create more recreation space in East Scarborough

The first meeting Toronto Hydro scheduled was sited in a church well outside of Guildwood on a rainy night, against the advice of the local Councillor. When twice capacity showed up they were turned away and the meeting was re-scheduled. 

The second meeting was held in Guildwood but was stacked with bussed in paid organizers from organizations that not only had received grants, but also organizations that Toronto Hydro’s project page encourages individuals who are interesting in knowing more about the project and wind power to visit. Those paid organizers hogged the mics and gave impassioned speeches in favour of wind energy, while their diesel school buses idled outside (buses that literally mirrored a popular bus route from Kennedy Subway station). Guildwood residents who could not stand in line for over two hours, weren’t heard because of these individuals and Peter Tabuns who thought it was a campaign event for those interested in being the leader of the third party blocked them.

This third meeting is intended for Guildwood residents. It is being held on January 20th 2009 at Sir Wilfrid Laurier CI. The same site as before. The difference this time is residents need to pre-register five days before the meeting to attend. Easy enough right? Except Guildwood residents also need to supply a pin number they were to receive as unaddressed admail from Toronto Hydro. As of January 16th – a day after the last day to register some residents confirmed to me they still have not received their notices. Even those who did receieve a notice will only be allowed to register two attendees. This is problematic for multi generational families, families with adult children at home and homes with multiple families living at one address. Those who have not registered will not be allowed to enter, regardless of residency. 

Toronto Hydro has said they will extend the time for residents to register, and that is fantastic, but they have not conveyed that message through the media, no press release has been issued to recognize their error and any residents who did not receive a notice by Friday likely won’t until Monday, making it still realistically too late for them to register to attend even if they knew to call and try anyway.

Some will defend Toronto Hydro’s decision to restrict access to the meeting only to residents of Guildwood. This is not a position I would defend. I would defend Toronto Hydro if they chose to allow an open meeting, but only allowed Guildwood residents with valid ID to put questions on the floor. The City of Toronto Act, appears to like my position better than Toronto Hydro’s too. 

On the City’s website “Open and closed meetings of City Council, its Committees and local boards” the City states: “Generally, the City and its local boards are required by law to give notice and hold all meetings in public.” It goes on to recognize Toronto Hydro as a local board, provides an investigation process and then goes on to say the investigation process does not apply to boards like Toronto Hydro.  Toronto Hydro’s reason for closing the meeting does not meet any of the provisions provided on the City of Toronto website.

Is a meeting public if notices are never received and people are barred from entry if they do not follow a process they were not empowered to follow?  

I will be covering the January 20th meeting on a day when I hoped I would be able to celebrate the acheivement of President Elect Obama and the ability his campaign had to give a breath of fresh air to American grassroots democracy. But instead, I will be at Sir Wilfrid Laurier, with hundreds of Guildwood residents, hoping to see the community given the opportunity to share their questions, opinions and comments on placing an anemometer off the Bluffs. Toronto Hydro has said the meeting can and will only be just about placing an anemometer in the lake for two years worth of study at a cost of $1 million dollars, but the intent of Toronto Hydro is considerably more than just testing the wind. 

If you are a Guildwood resident, you can still register, and need to call Toronto Hydro using the information on the notice you should have received in the mail. If you have not received the notice, you can call Toronto Hydro directly at 416-204-0153 to register. If unable to register, I would encourage you to show up to speak to officials directly about being allowed to attend the meeting.

Like many Guildwood residents, as the gate blocking access to the site came down, I began to wonder and speak to others about what should the future of the Guild Inn Studio be. Like many, I am considerably more worried about heritage as it relates to the Guild Inn than I am to monetary considerations. I believe that a very serious, thorough, unbiased review needs to be done to determine if the building can be restored using the original plans to bring it back to it’s former glory. 

It is a disgrace that the City has allowed the whole site to fall into such a state of disrepair and this fire needs to serve as a warning that Guildwood could risk more of it’s history of the City of Toronto does not get on with the job of protecting the Guild Inn now. 

Guild Inn Studio Before and after the Christmas Day 2008 fire.

Bench beside Guild Inn Studio 

Guild Inn Studio window before and after the fire.

Chimneys after the fire.

A view inside

Burned exterior 

As a Riding President who was present and watching this play out on the floor, the biggest loser is Rae. Ignatieff and LeBlanc had a good exchange for a couple of hours with a great response from the crowd. It would be easy to forget that Bob Rae was even running this afternoon because after he stormed out, the adults in the room moved on and listened to the two candidates who were prepared to speak to party members. Sorry the crowd wasn’t big enough Bob, but former candidates and Riding Presidents are important nonetheless. I was impressed by the strength of LeBlanc’s support in the room. I did not expect it, this early, to be totally honest. You would not have assumed this event was held literally in Ignatieff and Rae’s backyard. I think the maturity he showed in dealing with the Ignatieff and Rae spat probably helped him with party members who are sick of these two fighting. Seriously guys, if this is what it is going to be about, take it outside and save yourselves the money. 

It is too bad Bob Rae did not deem making an appearance at a meeting designed for Riding Presidents in Ontario and members of the Liberal Party worth doing. Tickets were available at the door, and the meeting was open to those who wanted to hear. Frankly, it seems to me like Bob Rae wanted a media event and just wasn’t that interested in rolling up his sleeves and taking questions from the floor in a room of Riding Presidents who want to know what the party is going to do to win back government. 

I am happy that both Ignatieff and LeBlanc decided to participate notwithstanding Rae’s performance for the cameras. It would have been better if both Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff could put beside whatever bizarre issue these two have between each other. If the two of them truly want to convince Liberals each of these men, who Ignatieff himself said both come with “suit cases of baggage” is worthy to lead our party forward they will need to. 

Once again Michael Ignatieff hit the right points when he spoke, and turned a blind eye when the guys around him stoked the flames of a bizarre and unnecessary fight with Bob Rae and his camp. He told the room he was not in the race to divide the party, and that is a good thing to say, but actions speak louder than words, and today there was a whole lot of unnecessary division. His people frankly are good at division. LeBlanc – regardless of my support for him was the only one who was able to rise above the fray, once again and in doing so and putting on such a strong performance today made me feel a hell of a lot better about coming out early for him earlier today.