Battle over voting record shapes up in Ward 3 Etobicoke-Lakeshore

Thestar.com
October 17, 2018
Francine Kopun

Mark Grimes has been a city councillor for 15 years, and his opponents in Ward 3 Etobicoke Lakeshore say his time is up.

“In the past term of office, our councillor missed 1,002 city council votes,” according to candidate Iain Davis, who has had that number printed on the back of an oversized postcard he hands out as part of his campaign literature. “Going door to door, we’re hearing people asking for change.”

Candidate Pamela Gough, a TDSB trustee, said residents have expressed concerns about Grimes when she is campaigning.

“I am running a campaign based on positive change, but people need to know positive change from what. And the facts are pretty clear in terms of the incumbent’s poor attendance record,” said Gough.

In response to emailed questions from the Star, Grimes said he missed only four days in four years, mainly due to illness.

“I chair Etobicoke York community council, which deals with the issues that affect our community directly, and I’ve never missed a full session of community council in four years,” Grimes wrote. “I have dedicated myself day and night to serving constituents.”

A review of councillor voting, undertaken by the Star this summer, found that Grimes was absent for 33 per cent of council votes in 2018 and for 22.1 per cent of votes over the course of his most recent four-year term. (The Star counts votes instead of days absent, because a councillor may be at city hall but not in his or her seat.)

WARD WATCH
Ward 3 Etobicoke Lakeshore

BOUNDARIES
Bloor St. W., Kipling Ave. and Mimico Creek to the north, Humber River to the east, the waterfront to the south and Etobicoke Creek to the west.

DEMOGRAPHICS
There are 129,081 people with an average age of 42. The average household size is 2 people with a median household income of $71,894. The percentage of visible minorities in the ward is 27 per cent.

OTHER REPRESENTATIVES
MPP Christine Hogarth (PC) and MP James Maloney (Liberal).

He also came under fire in 2016 after integrity commissioner Valerie Jepson found he had engaged in “improper” dealings with two different developers. While she found no evidence that Grimes gained financially from the interactions, she chastised him for not following the rules.

Grimes said his track record includes: pushing city hall to declare Park Lawn GO Station a priority project; working to add more buses to crowded routes, including a new Kipling express bus; lobbying the TTC board to keep the 145 Downtown Express bus; requesting a Transportation Master Plan for the Park Lawn and Lake Shore area; and helping introduce shuttle bus service to the Mimico GO station.

“I have helped bring new jobs, new parks, new recreation spaces and new businesses to this ward,” he said.

If re-elected, Grimes said he will make sure that a Park Lawn GO station gets built on the former Mr. Christie’s factory site; that any applications put forward for the Campbell’s Soup property will bring as many jobs as possible; and that traffic calming features are installed around every local school . He said he will defend the Queensway Ave. study, fight to limit development to eight stories, and work for a new city library and public space at Holy Angels.

His opponents in the upcoming election ask why the ward is experiencing so many problems if Grimes has been an effective councillor.

Rapid development in the ward has snarled traffic. The 10-kilometre commute to downtown Toronto from the community of Humber Bay Shores in south Etobicoke can take as long as 40 minutes in rush hour, because public transportation has not kept up with rapid residential development.

Despite numerous studies and plans, a $2-billion proposal to build a continuous LRT across the waterfront remains unfunded. The idea of adding a Park Lawn GO station remains stuck in limbo after Metrolinx ruled it out as too costly.

“There is a real lack of infrastructure in place,” said candidate Amber Morley, who believes the LRT should have been at the top of city hall’s agenda. “We knew we had all this development coming.”

Morley spent 10 years working at LAMP Community Health Centre, and has worked at city hall since 2013. She spent the last three years as the constituency assistant in Ward 4, Etobicoke Centre, which she says has taught her about the issues, how city hall works, and how to help residents.

Davis is the son of former Toronto District School Board trustee and chair Bruce Davis. He is running on a detailed platform that includes decreasing property taxes and shifting to an income-based municipal tax, set at one to two per cent of family income. He would also fight lot-splitting.

Gough has been a school trustee for 17 years, at the former Etobicoke Board of Education and now at the TDSB. She says traffic and safety are top of mind amount residents in the ward, and so is transit. “As a trustee I can only do so much. As a councillor I can do much more,” she said.

Candidate Peggy Moulder, who also ran in 2014, wants to see 25 legislated resident community boards to ensure that the views of residents are put before council. “Democracy is not just voting every four years,” she said.

Candidate Patrizia Nigro said residents of the ward are concerned with crime and the emergency response rate to crime, which she feels could be improved. She has a special interest in elder care and wants to encourage volunteers to provide transportation for elderly people who are not fully served by Wheel-Trans.

Nigro said she has wide volunteer experience, and is promising follow-through at city hall. “I’m not going to make you a promise if I’m not going to be able to deliver,” she said. “I don’t want to be just a name on the ballot. I want to be a solution for the community.”

Candidate Michael Julihen said crime is a concern among residents in the riding. He said he would support the return of the controversial Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Stragtegy (TAVIS), which was disbanded over concerns that officers were targeting racialized communities. He also supports safety barriers on subway platforms that would prevent people from falling or being pushed onto the tracks.

Robert Gunnyon wants to address issues in the riding including crime, housing, communications with constituents, gender and sexual equality in social services and job creation.