Jen Chan, assistant to City Councillor Adam Vaughan, has been our friend and unwavering connection to City Hall for more than seven years. She had close connections to the Waterfront long before working with Adam, so we consider her part of the neighbourhood. Over the years, we have relied on Jen to give us the right information about the explosion of developments and challenges in our neighbourhood, and we listened to her discreet advice on what YQNA could do for best results at City Hall. She was invaluable and much liked by all.
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Hal Beck, YQNA member and our expert on matters related to the Island Airport (BBTCA), was recently given a citizens award by MPP Rosario Marchese. Our member of provincial parliament said, “I was proud to recognize 58 wonderful Trinity-Spadina volunteers at my second annual Community Appreciation Event.” Hal is an engineer and project analyst. He applies his outstanding skills with great perseverance and represents YQNA in the airport’s liaison committees. Readers can sample his work in Hal Beck – Health Study – Island Airport 2013-10-16, which points out the need for further health studies around the airport. We have learned a great deal from Hal and congratulate him for receiving this award.
A great lunch was served at the Radisson Admiral Hotel on Queens Quay, where YQNA is very fortunate to hold our by-monthly meetings. Here is the cheerful and well-fed group of YQNA members in the Watermark Restaurant decorated in the holiday spirit. On the far left is Dermot McKeown, general manager of the hotel and generous supporter of YQNA. We would not have succeeded or grown as well as we have without the hospitality of Mr. McKeown and the hotel staff.
Everyone is welcome to our next meeting, January 14, 2014 at 7 pm at the Radisson, with Toronto’s chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat as guest speaker. As usual we will gather for refreshments in the Watermark Lounge after the meeting. It is a great place to socialize and chat about the ideas that were floated at our meeting.
YQNA thanks everyone who worked with us in 2013 to make the Waterfront a better place to live. We have much to look forward to in 2014 — especially the return of streetcars on the newly designed Queens Quay. We wish everyone a great holiday and best wishes for the new year.
Mayor David Miller and City Councillor Pam McConnell were in our
neighbourhood April 24, 2009 to celebrate Earth Day. Dozens of people who live and work on the Waterfront joined in the annual 20 minutes of spring clean up that took place throughout the city.
Here is the Mayor and our popular Councillor (in blue) with YQNA members Ulla Colgrass and Bob Rasmussen, ready with their plastic bags and gloves to get to work. Bags were filled with food containers, cigarette buts, coffee cups, broken glass – even a rusted bicycle wreck was removed!
Proposed Federal Amendments to the Canadian Marine Act Could Rob Toronto of Infrastructure Funds
Now, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has struck a deal with the Federal Liberals to make amendments to the already controversial Canada Marine Act that governs the TPA. The amendment covered under Bill C-23 will give even greater power to arms-length Port Authorities across Canada and allow them to become eligible for public funding that is currently held and controlled by municipal government’s infrastructure funds.
“One of the proposed amendments to the Canada Marine Act will fundamentally change the requirement that Port Authorities are to be self-sustaining. In the case of the Toronto Port Authority, we have an example of a Port Authority that has consistently run substantial operating losses every year – in the millions. We fear that this amendment opens the door to the TPA covering those losses through applications for funds that are essential to other municipal needs such as running community centres or removing snow and garbage” says Bill Freeman of CommunityAIR, a non-profit group representing many Toronto waterfront communities.
Freeman will present a fact sheet to the Standing Committee on Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities which tallies over $110 million in subsidies paid to the TPA, and lists examples of how the federal agency mishandled public funds on ventures like the $9 million spent on the ill-fated Rochester Ferry Terminal.
Joining Freeman, in Ottawa is Brian Iler, past commodore of the Alexandra Yacht Club and Toronto City Councillor, Adam Vaughn, whose ward contains the TPA run Toronto island airport. They will voice their opposition before the committee on Tuesday, February 5 at 11 a.m. Now in its final stages, they hope the Bill will be blocked from passing through the House later this month.
With the recent announcement of another Conservative party loyalist to the Toronto Port Authority’s board there are fears that Bill C-23 will further erode the TPA’s accountability to the Toronto public. Craig Rix, whose appointment to the TPA was made by Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon last week, was an aide to Finance minister Jim Flaherty when he was a member of the Mike Harris government in Ontario. The Canada Marine Act requires that four different classes of port users be represented in the makeup of the TPA’s board, yet none of its current members appear to meet this particular requirement.