| Councillor's Message
It has been a pleasure serving as Ward 5 – Thornhill Councillor since I was first elected in a by-election November 2004. I am most appreciative of the continuing support I have received from the Thornhill community on being re-elected in 2006 and 2010. I truly appreciate the opportunity to represent the residents of the Ward and the City at large.
A First Achievement – Still Going Strong
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 had the effect of increasing the items allowed in our program and changing collection from every two weeks to weekly. This was in fulfilment of a promise I made in the election campaign. Today, Vaughan’s recycling program is one of the most effective in the province of Ontario.
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.
Initiatives
While I have a very 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 many areas, from dealing with the litter on our streets to global warming where a city government can have a major impact on sustainability. Our new City Hall, built to a LEED Gold standard, one of the highest levels of environmental sustainability, is an extraordinary example of what can be done in this area.
Since 2009 I have Chaired the City’s Budget Committee (now called the Finance and Administration Committee). In that position I am dedicated to working with my Council colleagues to provide a budget that finds an appropriate balance between the quality of our services and the tax levy. I take great pride in helping to lead an extremely well managed (our taxes are consistently amongst the lowest in the GTA) municipality.
My current focus is on securing the funding required to begin the construction of the Yonge Street Subway extension. As well I am very interested in developing a formula for the long-term development of rapid transit throughout the GTA.
Communications and Events
One of the most difficult tasks for any municipal official is to find effective 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. For a number of years now we have published a print version of our newsletter, W5 Update. This newsletter is delivered to all homes in the Ward. Regrettably, our budget only allows us one newsletter a year.
One the other hand we do reach well over 1000 homes in Thornhill on an ongoing basis through the electronic version of W5. If you don’t get it, subscribe today!! If you want to keep current on issues in the Ward and across the City, you will find the Update a very helpful source of information.
Our major annual community event is “The Event in the Park.” This enjoyable, fun evening is held in conjunction with the Concert in the Park organized by the City. Residents are invited to enjoy free ice cream, corn on the cob and watermelon during the program. Look for the next date in the early Spring.
A Growing City – Ward Boundaries Continue to Change
In each of the last two elections the boundaries for Ward 5 were expanded. As a mature community with slower growth than many other parts of the City, our boundaries have continued to capture various parts of the adjoining Ward 4. Ironically, as of the 2010 election Ward 5 had the largest population in the City with 60,000 people.
The current boundaries are: Steeles and Yonge north to the 407, west on the 407 to Dufferin Street, south on Dufferin to Centre Street, west on Centre Street to roughly the 407 and then south along the railway tracks to the west of the Glen Shields community.
I look forward to continuing to work with the residents, staff and members of Council to ensure that we all have in Vaughan a great place to live, work and play.
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