Commentaire 372 – commentaires et rétroaction

Elizabeth Hoyle

My name is Elizabeth Hoyle and I am the President of the CPC Etobicoke-Lakeshore EDA. I am here on behalf of the CPC Etobicoke-Lakeshore EDA, which is an active and ongoing conservative political group in the riding that knows the riding, its polls, and citizens very well.

We recognize that Etobicoke-Lakeshore requires boundary adjustments and you have rubrics cube-type challenge. We have three brief recommendations that retain the integrity of our Etobicoke communities and that are workable ideas to help with your difficult task.

Our three recommendations are based on a main principle:

• Etobicoke neighbourhood communities, with long-term common interests, should stay together within Etobicoke. Etobicoke was originally a city in its own right, prior to amalgamation. Etobicoke neighbourhoods identify as Etobicoke and, by and large, we have done a good job incorporating incredible growth, while retaining long-term, strong community identities. It's remarkably difficult to do in dense urban areas. Voting boundaries help reinforce community identities.

Three Recommendations:

1. Keep existing Etobicoke neighbourhood communities of interest, such as the Kingsway BIA north and south of Bloor together in the same ED.
2. If numbers must be reduced in Etobicoke-Lakeshore, we ask the Commission to consider aligning Humber Bay with other urban waterfront EDs due to its orientation to downtown Toronto and specific and common interests.
3. Consider a fourth ED within Etobicoke to ensure an Etobicoke vote is equal to other votes.

Here are Etobicoke-Lakeshore's CPC EDA's three recommendations:

1. Keep existing Etobicoke neighbourhood communities -- such as the Kingsway BIA including north and south of Bloor -- together in the same electoral district.
   The Commission's Proposal recommends splitting the Kingsway area into three electoral districts.

   The Kingsway area around Bloor Street is a long-term central hub of commercial and community life in Etobicoke.

   We cannot stress how keeping this area under one voting district is critical. People from north and south of Bloor – to the east and west consider this area as our "local downtown." Everyone meets on Bloor. People from north and south of Bloor go back and forth in this areas to stores, services, sports facilities, schools, community groups, religions centres, restaurants, business, clubs, and cultural groups in the area. Members of the same family live both north and south of Bloor. It's one community with shared concerns.

   There will be no political continuity conversation when three different electoral districts operate within this one community.

   If people need to mobilize around an issue, we will require three sets of federal representatives, which will make it difficult to address concerns and run the community fairly and in a timely manner. It's not practical and we won't be able to get anything down.

   It is absolutely necessary to keep the Kingsway community of interest together otherwise the social fabric of one of key heartbeats in Etobicoke community will break down.

   I will point out that the electoral district directly to the east has a similar situation with Bloor Street serving as the centre of the surrounding neighbourhoods. The Commission has recommended to keep that community around Bloor St. together in one electoral district. We are asking the same consideration.

   This is by no means a political advantage for our EDA. The Kingsway doesn't always vote conservative -- in our favour. But keeping this area in the same electoral district is promotes community cohesiveness and is in the best interest of all of the neighbourhoods around Bloor Street.

   Please note that the Commission recommends keeping the Bloor Street commercial area (north and south residential areas) together in the electoral district directly to the east of the current Etobicoke-Lakeshore in the community of interest area known as Bloor West Village. We are asking for the same.

2. If numbers must be reduced in Etobicoke-Lakeshore, we ask the Commission to consider aligning Humber Bay with electoral districts that have downtown orientations and common waterfront and density concerns.

   We make this recommendation reluctantly, but we think Humber Bay residents have specific needs and concerns that are more similar to the electoral districts to the east. The influx of population into Etobicoke over the past 10 years has mainly been from the condominiums in the Lakeshore and Humber Bay area with between 20,000 and 25,000 people. We have canvassed the area and have talked to many residents in the condominiums.

   We can share that the Humber Bay area is contained neighbourhood has its own community and activities. There is a natural orientation east to Toronto more so than to the northwest Etobicoke (they literally look across the bay to the Toronto skyline). And the Gardiner Expressway forms a psychological barrier between the Humber Bay area and Etobicoke.

   We wonder if this area is not better served by being connected to other waterfront electoral districts that share similar and unique transportation, environmental, conservation, infrastructure, government services' needs?

   Etobicoke-Lakeshore needs to reduce by 25,000 to 30,000 to be within the Commission's ED limit. That is almost exactly the number of people living in the Humber Bay area south of the Gardiner, east of Park Lawn. If Humber Bay were to join the Taiaiako'n High Park ED to the east, the rest of Etobicoke-Lakeshore ED could remain intact.

   We believe this recommendation is a creative path forward that has many merits; however, it would not be necessary if Etobicoke were to get a fourth electoral district. And that is our final recommendation.

3. Consider a fourth ED within Etobicoke

   At Etobicoke's current population, four EDs would be slightly under the minus 10% of the target 116,000 population. however:

   • Major development projects currently in the pipeline throughout Etobicoke at Lakeshore, Queensway, Kipling, Islington, East Mall, Humber Town – thousands of units in the pipeline
   • Available land and City of Toronto policy emphasis on urban intensification and housing infill
   • Our fortunate transit and access routes that can service population increases:
     • TTC
     • Two Go lines
     • Access to the airport
     • Gardiner Expressway/Lakeshore combo

   We can appreciation that your recommendation only deals with Ontario, but it's important to point out that Prince Edward Island has 40% of Etobicoke's population – less than half and Prince Edward Island already has four federal representatives to our current three.

   Finally, If Etobicoke had a fourth ED, all current neighbourhoods could remain within Etobicoke and internal electoral boundaries could be established that could keep our communities and neighbourhoods intact within same electoral district.

   We understand that this is currently beyond the scope of this Commission; however, in interests of ensuring that a vote in Etobicoke is worth the same as in other jurisdictions, we would like to go on record requesting that vote equality – country wide -- be a consideration for any boundary changes in the future. We are aware that other Toronto electoral district also have a concern that GTA vote is not worth as much as other votes from other jurisdictions.