High cost of living, economic recovery and climate change top Vaughan-Woodbridge residents' concerns

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 20, 2021

When former prime minister Pierre Trudeau was in charge during the 1980s, “life was so much simpler,” said Frank Lupo, a Vaughan-Woodbridge riding resident.

Lupo, who has a 27-year-old daughter at York University, recalled how his father was able to sustain a household of five children with only one income.

But today’s reality is markedly different, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Everybody's out of a job," he lamented, “People from 25 ... to 45.”

The cost of living is also increasingly unpalatable.

“People are getting together and sharing a room because rent and housing are so expensive,” he added.

Jobs, housing and education are what Lupo wants the government to immediately address.

“How about trades? We're losing that. How about bricklayers, welders or mechanics?”

After all, Vaughan has the lion’s share of York Region’s manufacturing jobs -- in 2019 there were 48,100 jobs in this sector, or 58 per cent of the 82,500 manufacturing jobs regionwide.

On behalf of business leaders, Brian Shifman, president and CEO of the Vaughan Chamber of Commerce, validated some of Lupo’s concerns.

Here is what Vaughan-Woodbridge candidates have to say about combating climate change

“In Canada and York Region, there's a longstanding skills and labour shortage, and a digital infrastructure gap. Businesses continue to have challenges addressing gaps in high-speed broadband in York Region and broadly across Canada,” Shifman said.

“Nine in 10 businesses will broadly tell you there is a skill and labour shortage, and COVID-19 has exacerbated these challenges,” he added.

The threat of climate change is another worry for residents.

This has created the demand for a need to balance between clamping down on greenhouse gas emissions and ensuring a sustainable transition toward the future economy, said Shifman.

“This includes helping Canadian companies in the natural resources sector to utilize innovations such as carbon capture technology to achieve its targets on emissions. This is a very important opportunity, and if the government of Canada does not invest in innovation and clean tech, we will fall behind other nations.”

One of the organizers of a Sept. 8 demonstration, Newmarket's Art Lightstone, said investing in green renewable energy would create an economic boom.

This sentiment is shared by Robert Kenedy, a Vaughan citizen and a professor of sociology at York University.

Kenedy considers climate change and preserving what’s left in terms of greenspace as his No. 1 priority.

The professor said the federal Liberals could have done better when tackling climate change.

“It’s been, generally, not as bad as it could have been,” the professor said, adding, “But I think they fell short.”

But Kenedy was “impressed” after the Liberals took over the environment assessment study following a public uproar when the province's conservatives proposed, once again, that Hwy. 413 would chip away at Vaughan’s greenbelt.

“A lot of people want the green economy, they want greenspace preserved. They don't want to see the whitebelt, the greenbelt or the Oak Ridges Moraine disappear.”

He sounded the alarm that these environmentally sensitive areas, especially in Vaughan, are “disappearing very quickly at a regional level.”

Also, proposals for green transportation and technologies are key for him.

Kenedy also described how revamping the economy post-COVID-19 is another major demand amid the need for affordable daycare, housing and seniors’ concerns such as long-term care. These are all posing some serious issues for a lot of people, he added.

Re-energizing the economy must also be done in an inclusive way, argued Charline Grant, a Black education activist and a business owner.

“I think the management of the pandemic for small business owners has been a big thing,” Grant said. “Not only for small business owners, but also as Black residents this has affected us. There was no support and there was no outreach.”

“We didn’t hear from anyone,” she added.