Bevilacqua, Del Duca to address Economic Club of Canada
Yorkregion.com
April 14, 2016
By Adam Martin-Robbins
Two of Vaughan’s biggest boosters plan to talk up the city to a group of movers and shakers in Toronto next week.
Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca, MPP for Vaughan, and Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua will speak to the Economic Club of Canada at noon Monday, April 18 at the Toronto Marriott Downtown Eaton Centre Hotel.
“It is a great opportunity for both the mayor and myself to be in sort of the heart of the GTA, downtown, to showcase all of the phenomenal progress that we’ve made here in Vaughan over the last number of years with a lot more progress still to come, which is awfully exciting,” Del Duca said. “Having that chance to do it downtown, as opposed to up here in York Region, helps us deliver the message that this community is thriving; that both levels of government are working very closely together to deliver some of the signature achievements that we’ve been talking about for quite some time.”
Among the “achievements” they expect to discuss are: the Spadina subway extension; the city’s emerging downtown area known as the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre; the expanding rapid transit network; Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital and the Hwy. 427 extension.
The Economic Club of Canada is a non-partisan speaker’s forum that markets itself as an organization for the country’s business elite with members drawn from the commercial, industrial and financial sectors.
While it routinely hosts speeches by national leaders from Canada and abroad, provincial premiers and ministers, as well as the heads of major cities, it’s not often a mayor from a suburban community in the 905-region gets a chance to address the Economic Club of Canada.
“To have a conversation with the minister in a Toronto setting just highlights how this city has grown in stature in the eyes of people,” Bevilacqua said. “That, to me, is a testament to the citizens that reside in the city and a governance style that has produced positive results for out city.”
