Message

It has been a pleasure serving as Ward 5 Councillor since I was first elected in the by-election on November 25, 2004 and then re-affirmed in last year's election. I truly appreciate the opportunity to represent the residents of the Ward and the City at large.

A First Achievement
Since becoming a Vaughan City Councillor I have worked on your behalf to do everything possible to improve the quality of life in our great city. Indeed, within weeks of being elected in 2004, even though I was still learning on the job, I brought a motion to the Budget Committee which would have had the effect of increasing recycling collection from every two weeks to weekly. This was in fulfilment of a promise I made in the election campaign. A short time later, in response to my motion, staff presented Council with the Greening Vaughan initiative. As well, at the first meeting of the Greening Vaughan Advisory Committee I was elected Chair of the Committee, which I continue to lead today as we implement the third phase of the program. In the time our Greening Vaughan program has been in place we have gone from less than 19% diversion of waste to our present rate of over 65%. In the next few years, with the support of the residents of the City our plan is to divert as much as 95% of our waste from landfill to a variety of recycling methodologies.

Common Sense Solutions to Resident Concerns
From that first success, I have continued to work tirelessly on your behalf in my job as your city Councillor. The key I have found is to respond quickly and find common sense, practical solutions to the issues that residents alert our office to. It is my experience that every time that I hear from a resident about a concern, I gain more of an understanding of the important issues in our community. While not every problem has a ready solution, my assistant, Debi and I work together to try to be responsive and honest about what we can do to help. Generally, I have found that the great staff of the City work very hard on your behalf to solve problems and deal with issues as they arise.

New Initiatives
While I have a wide range of interests in how our city is run, there are a number of areas where I have taken a leading role. One of them is on environmental matters. Without a doubt we need to take immediate action at the municipal level to address the broad range of environmental issues that are before us today. I firmly believe that there are certain areas where a city government can have a major impact on sustainability. In the last few months, as Vice-Chair of the Environment Committee, I have initiated a range of actions in this area:

- the requirement that all new subdivisions must be energy star compliant
- the requirement that all new high rise developments must include a three stream recycling system
- the requirement that all new and renovated city building be constructed to a LEED standard
- establishment of a Clean Streets Program to place waste/recycling containers throughout the city to deal with the issue of litter

In other areas, I have taken a leadership role as Chair of the City’s Community Equity and Diversity Committee which initiated Council’s approval to join the Coalition of Municipalities Against Racism and Discrimination.

As Chair of one of our newest committees, the Accountability and Transparency Committee, I am looking forward to working with the other members of the committee to develop new policies and procedures to ensure that our citizens are confident that all members of Council are working within a strong ethical framework.

Communications
One of the hardest tasks for any municipal official is to find ways to communicate with residents. While we talk to hundreds of Ward 5 people who call our office, we are always looking at ways to reach out to more people. In the fall we published the first annual hard copy edition of the W5 Update. This newsletter was delivered to all homes in the Ward. At least twice a month over 750 people on our mailing list get the electronic version of the Update – If you don’t get it, subscribe today!! If you want to keep current on issues across the Ward and across the City, you will find the Update a very helpful communication source. Finally, we will be holding the 2nd annual Ward 5 Summer Get-together in August in conjunction with the York Hill Concert in the park.

I look forward to work with the residents of the city to continue to create a great place to live, work and play in.

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