Comment 321 – comments and feedback

Daven Siu

I am writing to express my concerns of the proposed riding redistributions planned to affect the communities of Scarborough. As a lifelong resident, born and raised in Scarborough, Scarborough has always been the forgotten community in the city of Toronto. This has been a consistent trend whether it is for plans to close and amalgamate the Birchmount hospital reducing the health care access in Scarborough, the lack of priority to repair roads and infrastructure in Scarborough, or failure to expand and introduce public transit solutions in Scarborough (ie; Sheppard subway extension).

As Scarborough is one of the most rapidly growing and diverse communities in the country, it is even more critical to increase the amount of representation in the community as opposed to reducing it. With thousands of new immigrants calling Scarborough their new home every year, the resources needed to help them settle in Canada should be increased as opposed to less.

As the provincial and municipal ridings and ward boundaries have traditionally followed the federal electoral boundaries, my other concern is that we would lose a ward in the community which would reduce the availability of police, fire fighting, and paramedics in a rapidly growing community. In an area that has not received the best opinion from the public and media, it is especially important that our vulnerable groups receive the care and support they urgently need. Furthermore, the community of Chester Le and the Western portion of Scarborough planned to join North York would very likely be neglected as the North York equivalent support groups would not be equipped to handle an increase in capacity. This could lead to an increase in gang violence due to the vacuum of services provided to help prevent vulnerable youth from going down the dark path of gang violence.

To conclude, the reduction of the 6 ridings in Scarborough to 5 ridings would drastically impact our community from the perspective of representation, public safety, health care, transit, infrastructure, and many more. Due to the following reasons, I strongly urge the committee to oppose the proposed boundary changes. I hope that you will consider my concerns and I thank you for the opportunity to voice my concerns. Thank you!

Sincerely,

Daven Siu