Posts Tagged ‘2010 Municipal Election’
Ward 43 Residents Raise 240 pounds of food for Foodpoll 2010!
John Laforet with Ward 43′s proceeds to Foodpoll 2010
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
Globe and Mail: Scarborough Bluffs residents determined to fight wind turbine project
Some key points about the motion discussed in the article below:
Councillor Ainslie voted for Toronto’s renewable energy targets even though Toronto Hydro said advised Council could only be met with offshore wind. He moved a motion of support for the Green Energy Act even though Dalton McGuinty and George Smitherman cited Scarborough Bluffs residents opposition to Toronto Hydro as the reason to take away citizens rights. I am the only candidate who fought them on their attacks then, and the reason why George Smitherman has attempted to apologize three times for his abusive comments that Ainslie seems to have condoned.
Paul Ainslie’s motion amounts to nothing more than a political deathbed conversion brought on by the fact that Guildwood residents are sick of not being represented and are overwhelmingly supporting my campaign to replace him and stop this project. They are also pretty open about this with him from what I understand.
The City of Toronto owns Toronto Hydro and could instruct them to stop tomorrow. Instead of trying that avenue, Paul Ainslie is literally copying and pasting a motion passed by Clearview Ontario that the Minister of Energy has already stated would have no impact on anything. Ainslie has said for over a year this is a provincial issue (yet he voted to support the City and Toronto Hydro moving forward with the research in December 2009). Folks, Toronto Hydro’s project is municipal as it gets. We own this issue as a City.
We need a Councillor who will address the real issue which is the City of Toronto’s ownership of Toronto Hydro and therefore this Council’s ability to stop the project regardless of what the Green Energy Act, the Minister of Energy or Dalton McGuinty think. Having a Councillor who voted for targets that can only be met with this project going forward and moved a motion of support for the Green Energy Act, praising the City and Toronto Hydro for their expertise in developing renewable energy projects isn’t going to be a winning strategy if we’re serious about stopping this project.
My position: ‘I’d fight like hell to kill the project.’
Paul Ainslie’s position: ‘I’m scared to death, so I’m going to look like I’m trying and hope my electoral defeat can be postponed.’
Residents need action, not excuses. We need success, not failure.
This project must be stopped and I am the only candidate that is serious about doing that.
Keep our message alive. Give us the tools to succeed. Click donate to do what you can to help or visit the ‘Contact’ page to get involved in taking back our community’s seat on Council.
Below is the text from the Globe’s article.
Globe and Mail: Scarborough Bluffs residents determined to fight wind turbine project
Anna Mehler Paperny
From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
Published on Friday, Apr. 16, 2010 11:40PM EDT
Last updated on Friday, Apr. 16, 2010 11:42PM EDT
It’s an ongoing battle worthy of Cervantes, if he’d been an eco-minded urban planner: A furious group of residents, tilting at a hypothetical windmill.
The proposed turbine project, which would set up windmills in Lake Ontario off the Scarborough Bluffs, would be one of the province’s first forays into offshore wind power. Studies into whether such a project is even feasible are still in the nascent stage. It will take at least two years before Toronto Hydro knows whether there’s enough wind to make it work, and provincial regulations governing such a proposition are a ways off.
But the Don Quixotes of the Scarborough Bluffs are dead set against the suggestion. And their vocal opposition is putting local politicians on notice.
A motion going before Monday’s executive committee, put forward by two local councillors, proposes to ask the province for a blanket moratorium on wind-power development in Ontario. Even if the motion does make its way through council, it will have little impact, but it’s symbolic of the sway local opposition can have on such a project.
As Toronto commits to sourcing a quarter of its energy from renewable sources and the Ontario government commits billions of dollars to green-energy projects across the province, local opposition to backyard energy generation is something with which next year’s council will have to contend.
Already in the Guildwood community’s case, the turbine spat has galvanized candidates challenging incumbent councillor Paul Ainslie, arguing he hasn’t been vocal enough in his opposition. Mayoral candidates are being told in no uncertain terms that if they hope to pursue projects like these, they’ll have to find a way to work with angry residents.
Mr. Ainslie, the Scarborough East councillor who put forward Monday’s motion along with Scarborough Southwest councillor Brian Ashton, says he was motivated to do so out of concern for a precious part of the Toronto waterfront and fear that residents’ concerns are being ignored.
“People have a lot of concerns and people want to be listened to,” he said. “We’re asking for a moratorium because there’s health concerns, there’s real estate issues with property values and there’s a lot of things that are unanswered.”
The wind turbine issue is making Mr. Ainslie political enemies in his own ward: It’s the reason John LaForet is gunning for Mr. Ainslie’s council seat in October. “I’d fight like hell to kill the project,” he says.
Ontario Energy Minister Brad Duguid said even if the city’s executive committee passes the motion, it won’t change anything. If the project is deemed feasible and meets whatever provincial rules are put in place, it will likely go forward.
“There’s an 80-fold increase in wind turbines happening across Ontario – it is going to be something that’s going to be part of our landscape,” he said. “I think it would be a little bit hypocritical for Toronto, given its efforts to try to portray itself as a green city, to support this resolution. But that’s something that council will have to deal with. We’re determined to move forward with building green energy.”
Mayor David Miller, who has championed the city’s push towards renewable power, said opposition to the Scarborough Bluffs turbine is the exception, rather than the rule.
“The vast bulk of the green projects we’re doing are not only not controversial, they’re overwhelmingly embraced by people.”
It would be “tragic” if fear of angering residents prevented the city’s politicians from pursuing much-needed renewable energy initiatives, said York University environmental studies professor Mark Winfield.
“I think the potential is enormous and the benefits are enormous,” he said. “The biggest danger in some ways … is, frankly, the derailment of some of these efforts.”
No Comments »Toronto’s Election Agenda Should Be Set By Torontonians
When I read that Dalton McGuinty had an opinion on what the ballot question should be in Toronto’s municipal election I was taken aback. It just seemed inappropriate that the Premier of Ontario would be advising residents what debate should determine the outcome of the race.
Watching the election unfold so far it seems clear there are going to be two camps, the folks who want to take drastic action to fundamentally alter how and what City Hall does and those who think tinkering is the way to go.
The province has used the 2010 municipal budget as an opportunity to use spending power to exert more control over the TTC. This is something Torontonians should approach with caution because it means local control will be shared with the province, likely through Metrolinx. This could create an even more unwieldy governance structure for the TTC.
The Premier’s suggestion that the Toronto Election is a good opportunity to discuss the idea of transit workers being declared an essential service was not only off base, but possibly a sign of what is to come with the permanent funding proposal from the Province, particularly in a race that sees the front runners running against City Hall, not for it.
With the significant decisions the next Council is going to have to make regarding Toronto’s future should be top of mind of all voters when they determine who to send to Council in the fall. I believe our next Mayor and members of Council need to focus the municipal/provincial relationship on building a sustainable and workable framework for Toronto to govern it’s affairs with the resources needed to meet the challenge. We need to make sure, whoever is elected doesn’t sell our city short in these negotiations and ensures the Premier understands providing adequate funding to the City of Toronto and the TTC isn’t optional, its necessary.
How about the province just fund a proportion of the TTC’s operating budget because it’s the right thing to do, and historically a role they played.
If there is to be a ballot question regarding anything to do with the Provincial government it should be, which candidate for Mayor best represents our City’s long term interests in negotiating a sustainable framework with the Ontario Government.
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