Comment 112 – comments and feedback

Alan Lam

Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto

September 25, 2022

Dear Members of the Ontario Commission for the Federal Electoral Districts Redistribution:

As the Chairman of the Board of Directors, I am writing on behalf of the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto, which is located in and having been in the past 30 plus years serving the community in the former city of Scarborough now an area within the City of Toronto. We are concerned about the proposed changes to the Federal Electoral Districts, particularly the loss of an electoral riding in Scarborough and thereby Toronto.

The proposal takes out a large portion of Scarborough North, and a sizable portion of Scarborough-Agincourt, and collapses areas of these communities into a new riding called Scarborough Northwest. This would not only break up existing communities, but it would redistribute a sizeable portion of Scarborough-Agincourt into North York and delete any reference to the history of Agincourt in the process. Scarborough Village dates back to 1832 and Agincourt emerged in 1858 as a farming town and continues to this present day to have a rich cultural and historical identity. One example is Agincourt Junior Public School, which is designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act and is listed on the Toronto Heritage Property Register.

The western municipal boundary of Scarborough clearly ends at Victoria Park Ave. Taking parts of Scarborough from Warden Ave. and Pharmacy Road to Victoria Park Ave. will break up police services from 42 Division, health care services and social and seniors' community services. Like Scarborough North, Scarborough-Agincourt has large numbers of seniors, newcomers, families, and immigrants. Scarborough-Agincourt's immigrant population is 19% over the Toronto average. Over the decades, our communities have created an interconnected network of services that meet Scarborough's unique needs.

In anticipation of the Sheppard subway line, numerous developments are happening right now all along Sheppard Ave. E., and even more in the near future, including the Agincourt Mall 5,000-unit condominium/retail development, and the current Village Green (Kennedy and 401) condominium expansion. The Agincourt Mall project is the largest residential development application in Scarborough and the 2nd largest residential application in the City of Toronto. The 2021 census does not take into account these developments, which, if factored in will substantially increase the population of Scarborough-Agincourt. Nor does the Census taken in 2021 (a pandemic year) reflect the true number of residents living Scarborough-Agincourt and Scarborough North.

People who do not understand Scarborough are making decisions that will impact our daily lives — we deserve better. The strong representation that six representatives has afforded us has finally gotten us closer to being heard. One less voice from Scarborough is one less voice for health care, subways, seniors, residents, and businesses.

Please take our concerns seriously and keep Scarborough-Agincourt and Scarborough North as distinct ridings. We want fair representation for Scarborough and Toronto as a whole.

Alan S. Lam, M. Eng., P.Eng.
Chairman, Board of Directors

October 18, 2022

Alan Lam

presentation note from alan lam

Your Honour, Professors, I am honoured to be here to provide input on the redistribution of federal boundaries and would like to thank you for accepting my submission.

I am Alan Lam, chairman of the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto, or CCCGT. We are located in 5183 Sheppard Avenue East in Scarborough North District and fully support keeping this district in place. CCCGT is the largest Chinese cultural centre in North America. Our Centre has been in Scarborough North District for over 25 years. Annually, we served over 500,000 visitors and Centre members. Our centre is also home for Citizenship Ceremony, Vaccination centre, voting centre for Federal and Provincial Election. We partner with 20 multi-cultural community organizations in Toronto in many programs to serve Scarborough North regions. During the pandemic, we raised over $300,000 to purchase PPE to distribute to our most vulnerable Seniors, Frontline workers and Scarborough Health Network. Also, we have prepared over 15,000 hot meals in the same period to distribute to seniors in the Scarborough Districts and continues this successful program as I speak to you today. Over 2,000 Scarborough North Seniors benefit from this Hot Meal program.

Our district is the most multicultural in Canada. 91% of the people in Scarborough North are visible minorities. That is the highest percentage in the country. Also, 70% of the people were born outside of Canada.

This diversity has helped define us and give us purpose as an international and multi-cultural community of people who are united as Canadians to support each other.

During the pandemic, we received funding through the Immunization Partnership Fund to do outreach to diverse, disadvantage and marginalized communities.

Scarborough North had one of the lowest vaccine uptakes in Ontario because of the high immigrant population, socioeconomic challenges, and language barrier.

I also believe these challenges also affected our 2021 census population count, more so than other areas, but that is a whole other topic.

Our immunization partnership included partner organizations also based in Scarborough North, including the Canadian Tamil Congress and the South Asian Culture and Health Association.

As you can see, we are a community of identity that is based on our diversity, our multiculturalism, and Scarborough North's unique standing of having the highest percentage of visible minorities in the country.

We need to honour our community of identity, our diversity in representation, because of the uniqueness of Scarborough.

I agree with the proposal from Shaun Chen, our MP, to maintain 6 full seats in Scarborough.

If it is not broken, do not fix it. Make boundary changes within Toronto to rebalance areas if need be.

The issue with Ontario having only one new seat, that can be resolved by adding the one new seat to Brampton/Peel Region.

This concludes my submission, thank you for your time to hearing out my concerns! Thank you Your Honour and Professors.