Jack Henry
Transportation, economic development and value for tax dollars. These are the top issues this election for Ward 43's Incumbent City Councillor Candidate Paul Ainslie. In our most recent edition of our "A Meeting with..." series we sat down with Councillor Ainslie to discuss top issues in the Guildwood community. We heard his thoughts on Porter bringing jets into the island, and we discussed what exactly would be going into the Guild Inn with Dynamic as well as lots of other topics.
We feel as though Dynamics plans for the Guild Inn have not been thoroughly explained to the residents of Guildwood so we asked what exactly is going into the Guild Inn property with Dynamic’s plans. In response Paul said that there would be a banquet facility and required office space as well as community space. He also stressed on multiple occasions that both the building and grounds will continue to be open to the public, stressing that "...the grounds are going to be completely open." He also mentioned that there would be space available for community organizations such as the GVCA to meet. Porters plans to bring jets into the island airport is a widely debated topic in the city and surprisingly a very hot debate for the residents of Ward 43 and specifically Guildwood with lots of support from both sides. Paul says that there are still more studies to be done by the various parties involved but believes that having Jets at the island airport will bring more business to the city stating that, "...we are trying to create a great business community and I think that having jets at the island airport would help with that." He also says that he hasn’t seen anything that would make him not want to have jets coming into the island airport, he said “If there had been any issues with the studies performed by Waterfront Toronto and the federal air agency then I might be rethinking Porter, and I think a lot of people would be rethinking Porter.” The Ice Storm of December 2013 was an event that we won’t soon forget in the city. Many people in the Guildwood area were without power for 72 hours or longer. We had many politicians come into Guildwood for photo ops, including Rob Ford. The residents of the city as a whole had a hard time getting a hold of city staff to get information about when the power would come back on. When we asked Paul about what would be done differently if an event like this were to happen. The first thing that was mentioned was the need for better communication. According to Paul, city council did a review on the ice storm and the cities protocols, the major issue that came up was the need for better communication, Paul said, “...people want to have some sort of idea or realistic timeline of when the power is going to be back on, where emergency shelters are and information about what's going on...” Paul mentioned that he even had trouble getting coordinated answers from the various organizations, “I’d get one answer from 311, one answer from the emergency centre and another from Hydro.” He even said that on Christmas Day Toronto Hydro’s website said that there were work crews in his ward but when he went out to thank them there was no one to be found. Overall Paul said that communication is the biggest problem that needs to be addressed because “That’s what people want, they don't want politicians coming in for a photo op saying here I am, they want heat in their house, they want the power back on as soon as possible and they want to know when that's going to happen.” Other things Paul mentioned was the possibility of getting the provincial government to change the building codes and some of the provincial regulations to require grocery stores to have backup generators so that food can still be purchased during a blackout event as well as upgrading the cities infrastructure, especially in the Scarborough wards, so that the power lines are buried underground and not vulnerable to the weather, in summary Paul said, “You also have to work on how communication works in this day and age, getting power restored and not having antiquated infrastructure as well as having food security in place as well.” As a side note, Paul mentioned that the city is working to get the power lines in Guildwood buried this summer. More info can be found on his site. Another big issue in this election across the entire city is the issue of transit. We asked Paul about transit as it affects Ward 43 and Guildwood as well as whether he prefers LRT or Subways. Paul believes that you need to have the right transit in place for the community it serves, “...whether it’s LRT, Subways or Buses.” and that there is no one size fits all solution, “The biggest problem I find with the TTC is their mind set is one size fits all and they are not the best in doing community consultations, I find, to determine what works best in the community…” Paul also mentioned that he has been fighting the TTC to get a community bus for Ward 43 that will start at Ellesmere Station, go along Ellesmere Ave to Morningside Ave to Guildwood Parkway and into Kennedy Station along Eglinton Ave. We asked Paul about community engagement and how he would keep the community involved in the Municipal level of Government. According to Paul the city is looking at what determines whether you're allowed to vote in municipal elections “... in terms of whether you are a Canadian citizen or not…” to give more people the ability to vote. This would affect Ward 43 in a huge manner because there are about 60,000 people living in Ward 43 but only half are eligible to vote, whether because of age or citizenship status. Changing what makes people eligible to vote would allow more people to become engaged in the voting process. In terms of the engaging the community of Ward 43, Paul says, “I’m pretty easy to find, I just had a town hall meeting last month, I do hold monthly town hall meetings, I have an email newsletter, I’m out dropping canvas cards this afternoon, I try to get out for a couple of hours per week to knock on doors or drop cards, so I think that I have a pretty good engaged community.” He also mentioned that another problem is that people are so busy that they may not have time to vote so the city is looking for ways to make it easier for everyone to vote including mail in ballots, internet voting and asking if there are enough polling stations. Paul says that it is important that everyone of voting age go out and cast a ballot for municipal election because as he says, “If you look at your day you interact with your municipal government more than any other level of government but when you look at the voter turnout sometimes its pretty low, it depends on the Mayoral campaign, they come out and vote for Mayor and voting for Councillor and Trustee kind of becomes like an after thought.” We also asked how Paul is getting youth involved and how he is connected to the Youth Council of Toronto. Paul said that the Ward 43 Youth Councillor has an open invitation to any of his community events. He also always makes sure he has a student in his office. He did mention though that getting youth involved in politics isn’t easy, he says, “...I’ll go in and talk to a Grade Ten class and half the kids will listen because they have to while others are interested and others are like ‘When is this class going to end.’” If Paul could only do one thing in his next four years, if he is re-elected, he says that it would be to “...continue to make Ward 43 the best community in the city…” by “...improving transportation, working on economic development and working on the streetscape.” Going back over his past 4 years Paul would say his greatest achievement as a Councillor for Ward 43 would be bringing the city into the 21st century as chair of the Government Management Committee, “...when I was chair of the Government Management Committee I joked with the Mayor's Chief of Staff that I would bring the city into the 21st century kicking and screaming.” During his time at City Hall, Paul has hired a new CFO and Information Technology Director as well as replaced many of the members of the Toronto Hydro Board of Directors. As for Guildwood specifically, Paul says that his work to get something into the Guild Inn year round is one thing that sticks out from the last four years as well as helping the founding of groups like Friends of the Guild Park and Gardens.
We also asked Paul some other question more about himself, these questions included, what is one thing that people are surprised to learn about you, who does he support in the mayoral race and what his favourite thing about Ward 43 and Guildwood is? Paul recently completed a certificate program in Local Government: Finance and Administration at Dalhousie University. He says that he thinks that it is important for a city councillor to have some sort of financial background and he says “I did run my own business for 20 years which is a good foundation for that but when it comes to the municipal government there are a lot of intricacies and different things you need to know so I thought that having a certificate in Local Government Administration will come in handy for me.” Paul’s favourite thing about Ward 43 is the diversity of the community and his favourite thing about the Guildwood area walking along the waterfront and through the Guild park, “...we have three kids that are in Beavers and Cubs and we like walking the waterfront and the grounds of the Guild Inn. Even before my wife and I got married, we used to go for walks along the bluffs and plan out our life and where we were going. I have a lot of great memories there.” When it comes to supporting a mayoral candidate, Paul supports David Soknacki because he believes that Soknacki has the best grasp of the issues in the city. Paul says that his parents have had the most impact on his life, “My parents got me involved in Scouting, which has really helped me strongly in my community and getting out there to do things to help the community so I think that what they taught me as a kid going through and getting into politics and giving back to my community and making it a better place. I think that my parents laid that foundation for me and it came through naturally. “ Last but certainly not least, why did Paul run initially for city councillor? Paul says, “I was born and raised in this community, I worked for the former city councillor, he kind of helped me and watched me progress as well and thought I would make a good candidate, I had a lot of people ask me to run and now I have people that when I am out say ‘Have you registered yet? I hope you're running.’” He continues to run because, “...I love my community and I’m doing a good job and I am being a good role model and councillor.”
Thanks to Paul for taking the time to sit down with us and discuss Guildwood! If you want to find out more about the City of Toronto Municipal Elections check out our municipal “Elections in Guildwood” page and for more on Paul's Re-Election Campaign you can check out his campaign site at www.voteainslie.ca.
As always we would love to hear your comments and feedback through email, Twitter @TheGuildwoodian and on Facebook.