New councillor will continue work of Vaughan, Marchese

Dennis Hanagan –

The new but temporary councillor for Ward 20 held an informal “meet and greet” with constituents July 21 at The Rivoli on Queen St. W. and she’s got things she wants to tackle.

“I think we’re going to be putting forward a lot of motions,” Ceta Ramkhalawansingh told The Bulletin in a short interview at her Rivoli reception. “We need to deal with the issue around the Waverley and the Silver Dollar. They both have heritage value,” said Ramkhalawansingh. The council appointee is a former Toronto civil servant who worked in the city manager’s office.

There’s the matter of more park space she feels is needed in the King and Spadina neighbourhood. “It’s short of park space and with the Mirvish-Gehry project having been approved we need to see what we can do about that.”

She also notes there’s a lot of concern about front yard parking. But she’s only in office—having taken over from Adam Vaughan who’s now a Liberal MP—for a five-month term ending Nov. 30 “so it really doesn’t leave time for any new initiatives. I’m going to be building on what’s already in place and trying to keep that going.”

One of Vaughan’s biggest gripes was with the Ontario Municipal Board and its overriding of Toronto’s planning decisions. “I agree with him totally,” said Ramkhalawansingh. “I don’t know what I can do about getting rid of the OMB, but I think that’s a question that should be put to Han Dong.”

Dong is the new Liberal MPP for Trinity-Spadina which until recently was held by NDP MPP Rosario Masrchese who introduced a bill in the legislature to rid Toronto from the OMB’s purview. It was defeated.

Ramkhalawansingh hopes to talk with the Toronto District School Board about the contaminated sports field at Central Tech High School and about the board’s attempts to let a private company put a dome over it and rent out the field.

“I’m very concerned that the field is completely fenced off because of contamination and the kids won’t have a place to play come September,” she said.

As for the dome Ramkhalawansingh says “all school yards, in my view, are public space, and I’m really concerned about privatization, particularly for commercial uses and in this particular instance where the residents will have limited access to the space.”