Q & A with Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua

YorkRegion.com
Dec. 31, 2014
Adam Martin-Robbins

Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua was re-elected to the city’s top political post for his second mandate in October.

A week after being officially sworn in, Bevilacqua sat down with The Citizen for a wide-ranging interview covering topics from his leadership style to tackling traffic congestion and from overseas trade missions to his new significant other.

Q - We’ve often heard you refer to yourself as a servant leader. Can you explain to us what that means to you and give us an example of a recent file in Vaughan where you demonstrated servant leadership.

A - Servant leadership is a way to lead that is people-centred, where people are first. There hasn’t been one file, there’s been many files that speak to that. Whether you’re looking at the issue of establishing governance in the city that has worked well; whether you’re looking at respect for the taxpayers’ dollars or the type of image and civic pride that has been re-instilled in the city, these are all examples. But it’s also the way that you live every single day where you make, really, people the centre of your focus. So every decision you make, you ask yourself the fundamental question: How can I, personally, serve people better? And how can these issues be better addressed to reflect the needs and aspirations of people.

Q – Beyond the transit and transportation initiatives that are already under way – such as the subway extension, VIVA rapidways and the Hwy 427 extension — what, if anything can be done to relieve the traffic congestion in Vaughan, within a four year term?

A – I’m very fortunate that you’re asking me this question now because within four years you’ll have a subway here and you’ll have the rapidways and all these measures will be instrumental in dealing with the traffic congestion and transit challenges we face. Having said that there has to be an attitudinal shift by people to recognize that we need to use alternative ways of moving ourselves around the city.

Now, the Places to Grow legislation intensification that’s going to allow us to make a very strong case to the province and the region for even greater investment in transit. You need the population to sustain that. The major arteries of the transit have been established already by the region, but there’s still some work we can do with Metrolinx to even improve on what we already have.  

Q - How do you convince people to get out (of their cars) and on to transit?

A – North America, generally speaking, is a culture that first and foremost for economic reasons going back to Ford early car days, where owning a car was probably the second most important investment after owning a home. … Do people understand that we need to change? I think, generationally, we do. My view of a car is very different than that of my children. As a matter of fact, my children use transit all the time and my children are in their twenties. So it’s not like we’re talking about five-year-olds or 10-year-olds, we’re talking about people in their twenties with a different outlook.

The other day when I was driving around, I also see there is a major industry that is absent in the transit debate and that is the auto industry. And what I mean by that is autos today have incredible technology inside that if you were to hook up this technology onto a major net technology you can alleviate traffic by controlling traffic flows a lot better. I find it fascinating that car manufacturers are not part of the public debate. … You have this dome over major cities like the Greater Toronto Area that actually flows traffic on its own. So, if I’m going downtown and I key in my GPS going to 101 Bloor St., it shouldn’t be me driving the car, it should be the dome that drives the car. So I think that the absence of the auto manufacturers in this debate about how to improve traffic, to me, doesn’t make sense because I think they hold the key to how technology can be better used.

Q - When do you think we’ll have roads that flow all the way through to Richmond Hill such as Langstaff and Kirby Road?

A - It could be within the next decade. Sometimes, in the past, the City of Vaughan has made some errors in the sense of not allowing certain traffic flow for whatever reason. But now, I think, people recognize that everybody’s in this together. On the Langstaff thing, I’ve had conversation with CN (Rail.) It’s very costly whether you go up (over the tracks) or whether you go down. But that would be, really , a lot of help. You’re talking about millions and millions of dollars.

Q – Often in your speeches, including at the inaugural meeting of council, you talk about building a world-class city where no one is left behind. Tell us the key point of how you plan on achieving that in the next four years?

A - It starts with an awareness of what people’s needs are. At the end of day, what is politics? Politics is about serving people and using the role that you play to benefit people.

In a practical way, we have this discussion about, just to cite as an example, the Mayor’s Gala. How does my role help people there? I’ve been given this responsibility but how am I using it? Well, I’m a conduit for bringing the business community to a place where I can re-distribute social wealth. It has raised $2.7 million towards helping people help themselves. 

It goes beyond that too. Moving the city forward without leaving anyone behind is also an attitude that has to permeate your administration as a mayor. So the fact that we’re talking about secondary suites gives a very strong signal to people that perhaps don’t necessarily have the means to live in a city, like Vaughan, that they are part of my consciousness. 

… There are many examples. As you know, I visit a lot of these centres, whether its kids with autism or challenged individuals who, through no fault of their own, are in situations that are not ideal.

Even the sheer presence and recognition of people’s existence, to me is very important to say that I’m not just having meetings with people that have to invest in businesses. I’m also meeting with people that have challenges that they face every day.

Also, even little things like this, whether you’re a multimillionaire developer coming to the City of Vaughan or you’re an individual with very few means, you both have to sign in and you’re both welcomed. So there’s no differentiation between people. 

Q – Beyond memoranda of understanding and friendship agreements, which tend to be full of promise, what is the real tangible value of overseas trips?

A – There are jobs that are created as a result of overseas trips and there are investments that come into the city. The role of cities has changed quite dramatically. One of the first things I did as mayor was make sure that Vaughan joined the Global Cities Initiative where we benchmark ourselves against other cities on a number of determinants for effective, efficient, healthy, productive cities. And why did I do that? Because, I think, that because of the changing role of cities you can’t be inward looking, you have to be outward looking. But it has to be tied to some effective and accountable results. So, for example, Sungrow, they do solar panels and they come from China, created 50 jobs when they opened here. And more dialogue is taking place with other companies as well.

The reality is you can’t go in, go plant a seed and expect immediate returns – it doesn’t happen like that. It takes time, but sometimes the gains can be quite noticeable. So whether it’s Italy or China – and we’re now looking at some partnerships with the U.S. — in some areas it’s jobs, but there isn’t a problem with having an agreement that relates also to the social and cultural growth of the city as well. You may create a partnership with another city that is motivated by our willingness to enhance the cultural essence of our city, the arts or whatever it is. I’ve tended, in the past four years, to focus on the economic side. That’s why my accords with Milan and Rome. As you notice, Vaughan is not exactly the same population or scale as those cities, but always punch above your weight and connect with cities that have the kind of critical mass to be beneficial to us.

But I think it’s a good program and the investments, relatively speaking, are not that high. We don’t go with large, large delegations. We go with delegations that may be large, but they’re funded by the private sector.

Q –Do you have any coming up in the next year or so that you’re particularly excited about?

A – China and Italy are going to be for sure and Israel, as well. But I want to open up some lines of communication with the U.S. and that’s in keeping with my view of North American economic space. When there’s internal trade between Canada and the U.S. that is the largest trading relationship in the world, you should be interested in that. Not to mention, that you’ don’t have to go overseas, you can be in the same continent and get immediate gains.

Q - Given that the casino is no longer on the table, how long do you think it will be before we have a major convention centre, hotel and performing arts centre in Vaughan?

A - I know that on the performing arts centre, the past council had been working on it for over a decade, it’s a question of economics. We are, as a city, vis-à-vis our ability to make such large investments, it’s very difficult to come up with that amount of money. But we could facilitate it, if the private sector wants to be the lead investor. If there is government funding, you can rest assured that I’m going to be aware of it. If there is a portion that we can get we will, but with any investment like that you have to make sure that it’s sustainable. In other words, that the community can sustain a large convention centre, a large performing arts centre because the last thing I want to do is to build an infrastructure that future taxpayers will be paying for many, many years. … At the end of the day, I’m not so sure people would welcome a tax hike, and I’m about a fairly large tax hike. It has to be, with the support of the city and the region,  and it would have to be largely driven by the private sector. There’s no question about the fact that we’re interested, but it has to be balanced.

Q - What do you think is ideal for the new downtown? If you could have your wish tomorrow, or for Christmas, for the VMC (Vaughan Metropolitan Centre)?

A – Right now what the City of Vaughan needs is to develop certain anchors. We have it in the religious sphere – we have synagogues, we have churches, we have mosques, we have temples. We have a very strong economic base, so we’re anchored in that sense. What are we lacking? We’re lacking a downtown core and an educational institution. An educational institution is important. The question you asked about the conference centre, performing arts centre and all that, it will come with time. There are people already thinking about that.    

Q – You were seen as one of Vaughan’s most eligible bachelors, but now people are wondering how much longer before you tie the knot with the lovely Victoria?

A – The universe is unfolding as it should. My relationship with her is going exceptionally well. … I’m not going to scoop myself.