Pro-Parkway councillor voted against pitch to premier
Coun. Don Vassiliadis says he’s firmly pro-Parkway even though he voted against a plan to have the mayor ask the premier’s permission to start extending the road.
Vassiliadis said it’s not the road construction he’s against – he’s all for that.
“But this approach of bypassing the process – I doubt it will work,” he said.
This week, council voted a final time to send Mayor Daryl Bennett to ask Premier Kathleen Wynne to set aside an order for more study and allow the city to start extending The Parkway to the north and south.
Bennett’s pitch won’t include a bridge taking traffic over Jackson Park, though: council removed it from the plan, just before the vote at a meeting on Monday.
Vassiliadis said on Friday it’s about time construction on The Parkway gets started – particularly along the southern corridor, which he says should have been built by now.
But he doesn’t like the approach that the city is taking.
The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change has already said it expects the city to provide a more-detailed environmental study on the Parkway, and Vassiliadis thinks the city should listen rather than ask Wynne for special permission to sidestep the process.
He likens it to a citizen being denied a building permit at City Hall and then taking his case to the mayor, looking for special permission.
Governments don’t like it when you try to bypass their rules, Vassiliadis said.
“We expect people to follow processes too, within our community,” he said. “What message are we sending, here?”
On Monday, the vote was 6-5 in favour of sending the mayor to Queen’s Park.
Voting in favour of the plan were Bennett along with Coun. Lesley Parnell, Coun. Dan McWilliams, Coun. Andrew Beamer, Coun. Dave Haacke and Coun. Henry Clarke.
Voting against the plan were Coun. Diane Therrien, with Coun. Dean Pappas, Coun. Gary Baldwin, Coun. Keith Riel and Coun. Don Vassiliadis.
This week, it was still unclear when Bennett might be going to speak with Wynne and who might be going along with him. He wrote in an email to The Examiner on Tuesday that details about the meeting have yet to be settled.
“I’ll report in due course,” he wrote.
Allan Seabrooke, city CAO, wrote in an email Tuesday that no date had been arranged but that more details may be available in a week or so.
Council voted to extend The Parkway on Monday after hearing from several citizens who firmly oppose the idea of paving over a ribbon of greenspace across the city.
The plan to extend The Parkway has been on the books since 1947, and some citizens told council on Monday it should be shelved for good.
Even though electors voted against extending The Parkway in a referendum in 2003, council voted a decade later to do it as a way of reducing traffic congestion.
Some citizens who oppose The Parkway posted Wynne’s office phone number to Facebook this week, encouraging people to call and voice their objections.
The number for Wynne’s office at Queen’s Park is 416-325-1941.