Commentaire 176 – commentaires et rétroaction

Submission to the Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario

Introduction

My name is Daniel Nowoselski. I am a politically active citizen who currently resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (XXX XXX), in the great riding currently known as Spadina-Fort York. I am writing this submission because I have had the privilege to work on a number of election campaigns in several communities across the province, and I wanted to share my experience as is my right in the hope it would add value to the final decisions made by the Electoral Boundaries Commission. I want to express my gratitude to those who administer elections and the Commissioners and their staff for their hard work ensuring that communities across Ontario are represented fairly and equitably. I appreciate the time taken to consider the feedback I have provided.

Proposed boundaries: Spadina-Harbourfront

As a resident of this community, I wanted to express my support for the proposed new boundaries for Spadina-Harbourfront. I think the proposed boundaries better reflect the communities of interest in the riding.

Firstly, I strongly support the proposal to unite the portion of the current riding boundary lying east of Yonge St, north of Lakeshore Blvd E, and south of The Esplanade with the rest of the St. Lawrence and Distillery District neighbourhoods. Keeping these neighbourhoods whole would allow for better representation, particularly given the historic significance of these communities.

Secondly, I support the proposal to move the Liberty Village neighbourhood, the Canadian National Exhibition grounds, and Ontario Place to the proposed riding of Taiaiako'n-High Park. As a volunteer in election campaigns in this riding, I have heard voters in those neighbourhoods complain about being able to access advance polling locations often located on the north side of the CPR railway tracks. I feel like the new riding will have voting options that will likely be more accessible to those residents.

Thirdly, I support the proposed changes along Queen St W and shifting the western boundary from Dovercourt to Ossington would align the riding boundary with the boundaries of the Beaconsfield Village Community Association, so it adheres better to the communities of interest in that neighbourhood.

Finally, while I know this is not an explicit consideration of the Commission, the current riding of Spadina-Fort York is home to a number of newcomers who are not yet citizens of Canada and therefore not eligible to vote as well as a highly transitory population and a high population of unhoused residents. While these challenges are not unique to other ridings in downtown Toronto, this creates additional challenges for representatives to adequately serve this community, including additional casework, a high concentration of service providers, and low rates of community engagement in terms of community associations and civic participation, but also higher office rents, difficulties paying staff a living wage to reside in or near the riding, higher costs for mailouts and other communications promoting available services, etc. The riding will also experience significant changes and further intensification as a result of the construction of the new Ontario line. The effort the Commission has made to bring the population of the proposed Spadina-Harbourfront much closer to the 2022 Electoral District quota will go a long way to address these considerations, and I encourage the Commission to keep this in mind as it evaluates any additional changes to the proposals based on the feedback they receive.

Proposed boundaries: Ottawa West-Nepean

While I never was a resident of Ottawa West-Nepean, I have had the great privilege to work on a number of election campaigns in leadership roles in Ottawa West-Nepean as a volunteer, and the opportunity to work with and for local representatives at multiple levels of government who served this community, so I reviewed with great interest the Commission's proposed changes to this riding.

While I would defer to actual residents of the Carlington community, as someone who spent a lot of time working with stakeholders and residents in the Carlington community, I strongly support the decision to unite the Carlington neighbourhood into one riding. Despite the efforts of the elected representatives of this neighbourhood and the great work of community organizations such as the Carlington Community Health Centre and the Caldwell Family Centre, the neighbourhood consistently scores poorly on the Ottawa Neighbourhood Equity Index and generally remains underserved and underresourced. According to the Ottawa Neighbourhood Study, 8.8% of residents live in unsuitable housing (almost double Ottawa's overall rate of 4.6%), 35.2% of tenants in the neighbourhood live in subsidized housing (more than double Ottawa's overall rate of 15.9%), and there is a low income prevalence among young children 05 of 46.5% (as opposed to Ottawa's rate of 16.3%). I would certainly argue that one of the reasons the community continues to face these challenges is that adequately serving this community requires coordinating between multiple representatives at the federal and provincial levels of government. I would also certainly argue that its challenges are not helped by being a community with low voter participation that is isolated from the rest of its municipal ward by the Experimental Farm. While it will not guarantee better representation, I feel as someone who has worked with a number of service providers and volunteers from that community, I do feel it would be easier to facilitate coordination and better reflect the community of interest in order to address the needs of that community.

That said, in my opinion I am agnostic as to whether this occurs in Ottawa Centre or in Ottawa West-Nepean. Given the population of Ottawa Centre, I would understand why this has been placed in Ottawa West-Nepean in this proposal. If Carlington were to be placed in the Ottawa Centre riding instead, I think there could be a case to be made to revert to the original barriers of Ottawa West-Nepean north of Highway 417, and add the McKellar Heights, McKellar Park, and Highland Park neighbourhoods to Ottawa West-Nepean.

I strongly support the changes made to the western boundary of Ottawa West-Nepean. While the former Nortel campus has a community of interest with the Nortel retirees living in Crystal Beach, I think its current iteration as the headquarters for the Department of National Defence aligns better with a number of the defence technology businesses located in Kanata. Similarly, Wesley Clover Parks is named after a company of great significance to Kanata. Furthermore, if Bells Corners is to be added to the proposed riding of Kanata, the Greenbelt stretch in between should likely be served by one representative. Lastly, the area near Shirley's Bay is likely more accessible to residents of Kanata than Ottawa West-Nepean.

Proposed boundaries: Etobicoke Centre/Etobicoke-Lakeshore/Humber

The final boundary change I would like to address is the proposed changes to Etobicoke Centre, Etobicoke-Lakeshore, and Humber. I was born and have retained a number of family connections to the Islington-City Centre West neighbourhood. Considering where that neighbourhood is located in relation to the Six Points Interchange and Tom Riley Park, I strongly support the proposed change to move this neighbourhood to Etobicoke Centre. For instance, as a child, all of the schools I attended for which we were in the catchment area were located in Etobicoke Centre. However, I would propose that rather than drawing the boundary between Etobicoke-Lakeshore and Etobicoke Centre along Dundas St W, the boundary should be drawn along the Canada Pacific railway corridor. There are residential developments being built on the south side of Dundas St W, which would be isolated from the rest of Etobicoke-Lakeshore by the rail corridor. Similarly, the residents who live at the apartment building located at 90 Cordova Ave on the west side of Islington Ave would be isolated from the rest of Cordova Ave, including the school located down the street many children of the families who live there would attend. I feel using the rail corridor from Etobicoke Creek until it crosses Mimico Creek as the boundary between Etobicoke Centre and Etobicoke-Lakeshore better reflects the experiences of residents in the community and could help address the future growth expected in Etobicoke-Lakeshore.

I think the proposal to relocate the Kingsway neighbourhood into the Humber riding is misguided alongside communities like Weston is misguided. It is a community that is economically privileged and not especially diverse, whereas Weston has traditionally been neglected and underserved, which has hurt the diverse community that lives there. I would be concerned that these communities do not share common interests. I would suggest the Commission consider a more east-west alignment to the proposed boundaries, such as Eglinton Ave W to Scarlett Rd to the Humber River, rather than a north-south boundary, between Etobicoke Centre and Humber.

Conclusion

I thank you once more for your commitment to democracy and your time and consideration in reviewing my submission. I hope these comments will aid you in making your final decisions. I can be reached at XXX-XXX-XXXX or XXXXXXX should there be any questions regarding my comments.