- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Independent
- Spadina—Fort York
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 62%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $144,966.01
- Government Page
- Apr/20/23 5:46:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, with regard to the billions in investments that my colleague is speaking about, there is a difference. Those are investments in capital assets. What is the point of new stations if we do not have money to keep the lights on? To reiterate, capital assets are about investing in the Liberal bus that the City of Toronto has been thrown under, and operating expenses are about not having the money for the Liberals to turn on the bus, ride over us and then reverse and run over our city again.
I would ask the parliamentary secretary to please recognize the serious extent of the situation, or ask his Toronto Liberal colleagues to please identify which homeless shelters should be closed, which other bus routes should be cut and which police cars, fire trucks and ambulances need to be mothballed.
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- Apr/20/23 5:38:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are here this evening because the Liberal Party made an election promise to Torontonians in 2021 to help our city with its COVID-19 shortfall. However, after relying on the voters of Toronto to cling to power, the Liberals have thrown our city under the bus.
Where are those Toronto Liberal MPs? They must have been kidnapped. The silence from them is deafening. Not one has stood up in the House for the very people who put them in office. While they remain silent, 270,000 people, which is the equivalent of five and a half SkyDomes, or Rogers Centres, visited a food bank last month. That figure represents the most ever recorded in the history of the Daily Bread Food Bank.
Before my hon. colleague reaches for their “lower poverty rate” talking points, I would like to point out that local food banks expect visits to increase by 60% from 2022 to 2023. This is a clear indication of the state of Toronto. The city is in a climate of high food prices, inflation, crushing interest rates and rising energy costs. It is a municipality that cannot pay or provide for desperate services, including services such as public transportation, social services, police, fire, ambulance, mental health care, day care and a list of other needs that a large metropolitan area requires, and especially one trying to improve itself.
Let there be no mistake: Toronto and the GTA cannot be the engine of the Canadian economy when there is no oil for that engine. Toronto cannot foster and herald in an economic recovery if it is bankrupt. A vibrant economic renewal out of the ashes of COVID cannot come about just by wishful thinking. It requires the delivery of promised help.
While Toronto's Liberal MPs remain in continuous hibernation, their constituents are dealing with transit service cuts that will have them waiting longer at the bus stop and the subway station. Also, as recent incidents have sadly indicated, these transit riders are placing their lives at risk. It is no surprise that violent crime is rising. That is a direct outcome of the decline in social services when meeting significant needs. The result is desperation, poverty and homelessness.
Scarborough Liberals were quick to wake up when distribution would cost one of them their jobs, but they were fast to scramble back to missing in action when TTC service cuts reduced, or suspended altogether, service for line 2, which ran into Scarborough, for their constituents.
When I first asked the question, the parliamentary secretary responding referenced their municipal councillor experience, but I was very surprised that there was no understanding of the difference between capital expenditures and operating expenses. Capital expenditures, which the member spoke about in response to my initial QP question, are for the acquisition of capital assets, such as the bus that the Liberal government has thrown Toronto under. Operating expenses, as the name suggests, are the monies required to operate that bus. Yes, they are two very distinct things indeed. However, there may be some similarity to the Liberals' election promises in their failure to honour them.
Will the government honour its promise to Toronto and help our city address its budget shortfall, yes or no?
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- Feb/16/23 3:11:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I held a town hall on community safety. I thank police officers of 14 Division for attending.
Hon. members may recall a man being swarmed and killed by eight female assailants. This happened across the street from my constituency office. Parents of children at Jean Lumb Public School were threatened for speaking out about their kids being targets of the legal cannabis shops. One even set up shop next to two schools.
Public transit is becoming a war zone. A woman was knifed on the Spadina streetcar. This is the new normal that my constituents must accept. The government legalized cannabis. It cannot just walk away. Urban centres require urban solutions.
Will the Minister of Public Safety commit to creating an urban public safety strategy?
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- Dec/9/21 3:05:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on December 7, there were 7,344 individuals staying in Toronto shelters. Unfortunately, this figure does not capture all of the people experiencing homelessness in my riding of Spadina—Fort York and across the city of Toronto. These people are desperate for a home. They are desperate to stay safe and stay warm. The concern for community safety is also one that I hear from my constituents on nearly a daily basis.
Could the Minister of Housing inform the House on how the government is addressing homelessness in Spadina—Fort York, Toronto and other urban centres?
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