Hi Neighbour!
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! The moon has been beautiful this week. I hope everyone has gotten a chance to look outside. When my mom was terminally ill, she would call me to remind me to look at the beauty of the moon. Now, whenever I see the moon, I remember her love and reminder to slow down and admire the beauty around me.
We are excited that the Common Ground Dance Festival launches TONIGHT at Lee Lifeson Art Park beginning at 6:15pm. There will be a wide variety of performances and workshops. Click Here to see a roster and RSVP. There will even be performances in the Atrium at North York Centre tomorrow at 11:30am, 12pm and 12:30pm!
September hit us with a wall of activity which is why my Weekly Update hasn’t resumed until this week - though we folded the updates into the Connected Community email. Here are some recaps from this past week:
Private vs. Public Garbage Collection
This week at General Government Committee we approved a 5-year extension with an additional 2-year optional extension of our contract with GFL which is the private company that runs garbage collection on the west side of Yonge across our city.
When the city privatized a portion of our garbage removal, it seemed like a good idea. It created some competition, and the hope was that this would result in better service and cost savings. An auditor-general reported that $10-11 million were saved in that initial year.
This week at GGC, a renewal of the contract with the private portion of our waste collection, done by GFL (Green for Life) was passed. This extends their work for 5 years with an option of going to 7 years. Here are a few of the questions I asked:
What is the current cost difference between private and public waste connection for the coming year? I was disappointed to find out the price is pretty much the same. There are no more meaningful cost savings for the private side of our waste collection.
What are the wage differences between the two sides? While those on the east side of Yonge get $31/hour, the only requirement for the west side is a minimum of $24/hour.
I later found out that the CEO of GFL makes $68 million! He is the highest-paid CEO in Canada, more than any financial institution. The city is currently examining if we should bring waste collection back into city operations along with a pathway to do so. However, it is likely to be costly given it would require acquiring new trucks and dumping stations, infrastructure now owned by GFL.
Additionally, it is interesting to note that city wide recycling will now be done by GFL. The province changed some rules over the past year which made it unaffordable for the city to bid on the contract resulting in privatized recycling which will be implemented city wide.
Over the course of my time on GGC I feel our current approach for hiring companies to take care of large parts of our city can inadvertently help to create monopolies, making it hard for us to diversify vendor sources. One of the reasons for this is due to the scale of our projects. Very few companies have the finances, infrastructure and staff capacity to deliver service across all of Toronto or large areas of the city. Therefore, those that are chosen and build that capacity are able to expand even further because this means they can boast they are serving Toronto, giving them credibility in other municipalities. This makes it hard for smaller business owners to bid on city contracts.
Did amalgamation actually save us money? The larger a system gets the more layers of bureaucracy that are created and I’m not convinced it makes us more efficient. It certainly makes us far less agile and responsive because of the size and scale of our operations. Perhaps we should consider decentralization of certain contracts which could help give opportunities to smaller business owners. This would require more oversight to ensure equitable service levels across the city, but it would also mean more businesses could participate in delivering services in our city - thus spreading the wealth and knowledge.
This is not final until it is passed at City Council. Perhaps we should shorten the contract to 3 years giving us some time to figure out if we can take the operations back into the city.
Some of my comments were captured in a CBC news article about this issue:
But committee member Coun. Lily Cheng questioned why the city would continue contracting out the service when promised cost-savings are no longer being realized by the city.
"I think we corner ourselves into creating some kind of monopoly (by contracting out), because the company builds that capacity, and then it's very hard for us to negotiate, and we are now in that situation," Cheng said. "There's no longer a cost benefit to this contracting out, and here we are committing to five more years."
Click Here to read the full article.
ARAP - New Co-Chair: Ayderus Alawi
I am grateful to welcome our new co-chair who will be leading the Anti-Racism Advisory Panel of the Toronto Police Service Board alongside me. Co-chairing this committee has been a humbling experience with so many seasoned advocates; I have so much to learn from them. My goal is to strengthen the relationship between the panel and the board and have a more robust process for the panel to bring change to policing.
Our next steps include:
Booking a panel meeting to review our mandate and design a work plan
Work with board staff to hold a community consultation hosted by ARAP for the Toronto Police Service Board Strategic Plan
Because there are several lawyers on the panel, the group is also examining what constitutes a conflict of interest because we often discuss issues which intersect with the cases some of them are working on.
The Future of Mel Lastman Square
At General Government Committee, a motion was passed to look into some issues at Nathan Phillips Square including electricity, seating and public realm. See GG16.15 - Improving the Public Spaces around Nathan Phillips Square and Toronto City Hall
Etobicoke is getting a new civic centre and square, Nathan Phillips Square last had a refresh in 2014 and Albert Campbell Square had a refresh in 2018. I asked if any work has been done on Mel Lastman Square and was told - nothing since it opened in 1989.
Unfortunately, Mel Lastman Square is looking tired these days: a sink hole emerged during a recent festival; there are lots of areas with chipped paint; the wind chimes and LED above the fountain are broken; there are plenty of areas of cracked concrete and the electricity is unstable requiring event organizers to patch in electricity at a cost of minimum $13K per event.
Prior to COVID, some initial consultations were held to refresh Mel Lastman Square, including making it more accessible. Unfortunately, it fell off the Capital Budget during COVID. Now, I am fighting to bring it back into the Capital Budget. We know the fixes made this year to the fountain are time-limited and similar work will be required in a few years. There is a great opportunity before us to refresh Mel Lastman Square alongside the implementation of Transform Yonge. This will mean advocating for the money which is currently on the State of Good Repair backlog to be moved above the line to a funded State of Good Repair project.
Given the amount of density we are approving for our community, it is frustrating when our tax dollars do not return to our neighbourhood equitably. As I fight for things like Luminato and Nuit Blanche to include us in their programming (Nuit Blanche said they could not include us this year), it is disheartening to hear that other civic squares have received investment over the years. This is not unlike my fight for fireworks on Canada Day to return as well (which I’m still working on).
Toronto is a city of cities. Every cluster of density needs to have cultural and economic development initiatives in order to create complete communities where people can live, work and play.
Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Sector Consultation
On Monday, Sep 16th, I participated in an important sector-wide consultation to identify next steps now that the City has declared intimate partner (IPV) violence and GBV an epidemic. Over 60 participants and organizations gathered at the YWCA to collaborate in interactive sessions. We want to be a city that prioritizes the prevention and eradication of GBV wherever it is happening.
The numbers are staggering and must lead us to urgent and collective action.
In Canada, one woman or girl is killed every 48 hours.
Indigenous women are 4 times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be victims of violence.
30% of all women aged 15 or older report having experienced sexual assault at least once since turning 15.
44% of women reported experiencing psychological, physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime.
6000+ women and children sleep in emergency shelters each night because it’s not safe at home.
Following the city’s declaration of the epidemic in July 2023, as the mayor’s IPV champion, I created a working group of passionate IPV sector leads to collaborate with me to chart a path forward for the City. Beginning in September 2023, seven organizations leads from:
Aura Freedom
Women’s Habitat of Etobicoke
WomenACT
YWCA
Native Women’s Resource Centre of Toronto
Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, and
White Ribbon
met with me regularly to listen and to create next steps together.
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