‘Excited and apprehensive’: New King Township council sworn in to office

Two new faces will be in council chambers along with five returning members

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 9, 2022
Laura Broadley

King officially has a new council.

Elected members of King Township council were sworn in to office for the new four-year term from 2022-2026.

Two new faces will be in council chambers along with five returning members. Jennifer Anstey was elected to represent Ward 3 and Mary Asselstine is the newly elected councillor to represent Ward 4.

Steve Pellegrini will be serving his fourth term as mayor. Jordan Cescolini is returning for a second term representing Ward 1, and David Boyd will be councillor for Ward 2 for his third term. Ward 5 and Ward 6 will be represented on council by Debbie Schaefer and Avia Eek, respectively, both of whom are returning for their fourth terms.

Schaefer is feeling “excited and apprehensive” about the next four years.

“I’m excited because I’m very pleased about the quality of council that I’m going to be working with and I’m very pleased with the quality of our staff,” she said.

But apprehension about Bill 23 is also on Schaefer’s mind.

“The cost implications, the impact on our heritage and I’m very distressed about taking land out of the Greenbelt,” she said.

Premier Doug Ford’s government is set to remove protection on about 7,400 acres of land in the Greenbelt, which is meant to help with the goal of building about 1.5 million homes on the Greenbelt by 2031.

“I didn’t expect this, so when I started thinking about running for council again and I was thinking about what are the things I’m going to work on and what are we going to do, it didn’t include the implications of this,” Schaefer said.

Asselstine said she was proud to be councillor for Ward 4.

“I’m just really proud that people have put their confidence in me. I’m really looking forward to working with council. I think it’s a great council,” she said.