LeasideLife issue 47_LeasideLifev1 16-02-18 2:02 PM Page 1
No. 47 • March 2016
Leaside Life leasidelifenews.com
Refugee support ʻoverwhelmingʼ Page 24
Decision coming soon for our political future LeasideLife issue 41 final use this_LeasideLifev1 15-08-21 9:03 AM Page 1
Carol Burtin Fripp
No. 41 • September 2015 leasidelifenews.com
The fun Moose on Moore Page 17
Co-president, LPOA
Almost three years ago, City Council hired consultants to study and re-draw the city’s 44 municipal boundaries. Some wards have over 90,000 residents, while others have as few as 47,000. Our ward, Ward 26, is somewhere in the middle with just over 60,000. The consultants submitted their report in mid-August last year, offering five design options. None of them look good from a Leaside perspective. Proposed changes range from reducing the current number of 44 wards to 38 large wards of about 75,000 residents each, to increasing the number of wards to 50 smaller ones, with about 50,000 residents each. Four of the five options offered for consideration to City Council would split Leaside into two parts, with North Leaside in one ward and South Leaside in another. This means that, for any local matter, Leasiders would have to deal with two councillors, and possibly
NOW WHAT?
Will Leaside be split up? FIVE CITY PROPOSALS WOULD DO JUST THAT
Jon Burnside Councillor, Toronto Ward 26 Don Valley West
By ALLAN WILLIAMS Leaside is in danger of being split apart by ward boundary changes. In August the Toronto Ward Boundary Review, set up by City Council in 2014, came out with its first report outlining five options for redrawing Toronto’s ward boundaries in time for the next municipal election in 2018. The proposed options vary from as few as 38 “large” wards of about 75,000 people each to as many as 58 “small” wards of about 50 000 people each but all
DANGER AHEAD
Can we trust Metrolinx?
two separate community councils. The fifth option keeps Leaside together, but attaches us to Lawrence Park, which has its own distinct priorities, and detaches us from Bennington Heights. Our present ward boundaries were set by the city, dividing electoral districts drawn by a boundaries commission for Elections Canada. My son, commission secretary of the 2002 federal boundaries commission, tells me that their instructions stressed maintaining, not dividing, “communities of interest,” even if population numbers were unbalanced. Voter parity (equal numbers of voters in each ward) should not be the only – or even the most important – consideration. In fact, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized that other factors such as geography, community interests, community history, and minority representation justify variation in district sizes, in order to provide “effective representation”. Why is this report bad news for Leaside? The consultants ignore Leaside’s historical, geographic, and social connections. Their report, regarding “communities of interest,” refers to the Annex, Malvern, Mount Dennis, DECISION, Page 18
The city’s consultants wrote: “...there is no comprehensive list or map of Toronto’s communities of interest or neighbourhoods with precise boundaries.”