Changing the Game

NRU
February 5, 2014
By Sarah Ratchford

Frank Miele says he’s definitely not a politician. But that could be about to change. Miele will run for regional council in Vaughan in October’s municipal election. He says he’s running because he is sick of the current (and previous) government’s track record of inefficiencies. What separates him from others who make the same criticism, though, is that he has some definite ideas about how to correct some of those inefficiencies.

Going into the election, Miele has a wealth of experience to inform his arguments about what the city - and region - really needs. He was Vaughan’s commissioner of economic development and corporate communications, and before that, he was the planning commissioner.

He’s been thinking about and working on the shape of the city, from a built and economic perspective, for 25 years.

“I’d like to take some leadership on a number of issues that haven’t really been focused on for a time,” Miele tells NRU. “I want to make some great things happen in our community. It’s been stagnant, and I want to move it forward.”

One of the biggest issues Miele sees as needing attention is gridlock and transit in general.

“Traffic congestion has been around for many years. The question is, what have the leaders done about it? It’s gotten worse, rather than better.”

Miele has cooked up a three-point plan to bring more money into Vaughan, some of which could help tackle the problem. He says new revenue can be generated by changing Vaughan’s 25,288 street lights to LED lights. Currently, it costs the city about $7- to $8-million to keep those lights on, but he says if the city collaborated with the private sector to replace them, that cost could go down to $4-million per year. He says municipal waste could also be leveraged into something more useful by turning it into energy.

“Municipal waste as a resource - isn’t that a brilliant idea, finally?”

Miele’s third suggestion for saving money is by heating the city’s pools with solar panels.

“Is it innovative and creative? Maybe not. Maybe it’s just using common sense, but that’s what I bring to the table.”

He admits they’re not a solution for everything, but his suggestions, at least, are options worth some serious consideration.

As of right now, Miele does bring a refreshing perspective to the world of politics - he knows he doesn’t have all the answers, and doesn’t pretend to. This comes through when NRU asks how, as a regional councillor, he plans to combat the affordable housing shortage in the region.

“How do we achieve that affordable housing balance? I’m not so sure we can. Something’s got to give, but there’s no magic answer.”

Though he’s realistic about this, Miele’s planning experience does give him an edge when it comes to figuring out a solution.

As York Region, and Vaughan, grows and attracts more and more residents, the focus is on intensification, affordable housing and transit, all of which are woven together in an inextricable web because one doesn’t work without the others. But Miele is in the process of forming a plan for this, too. He recites the fact that you can’t have affordable housing without density, and that density should only occur where there is suitable transit. But that hasn’t always been the way in the past, and Miele is looking to correct that.