Race features rematch between political foes incumbent Adrian Heaps and Michelle Berardinetti

There was a time not so very long ago that Ward 35 was considered a sleepy, quiet ward. In 2006, when long-time local councillor Gerry Altobello retired from politics to become a justice of the peace, that all changed.

The race to replace him turned into a close and at times bitter fight between Michelle Berardinetti, married to local Liberal MPP Lorenzo Berardinetti, and Adrian Heaps — who eventually won the race by a scant 89 votes.That narrow win led to more fighting in the courts. Berardinetti sued Heaps for libel over a newspaper article he distributed near the election date, and Heaps also faced a compliance audit of his election expenses, filed by Berardinetti’s campaign manager.

Toronto Council voted to cover court costs for both the compliance audit, in which Heaps prevailed, and the libel suit, which Heaps settled out of court. Heaps refused to take any city money to cover the cost of the libel suit — but accepted compensation for the compliance audit.

The issue blew up in the press, and when Berardinetti registered for another run at the seat in 2010, it seemed a good bet that the question of court costs and political favouritism would become a major issue in the Ward 35 race.

Perhaps it has. But the court-cost scandal has to share the road with transit, fiscal issues and bike lanes. There are other things on the minds of Ward 35 residents.

Dan Glazier, chair of the Crossroads of the Danforth Business Improvement Area, purposefully stayed clear of the issue.

“I know he’s had bad press but as far as the Danforth and this area — our part of the Danforth has been neglected for 20 years,” he said. “Since we’ve been a BIA, we got a lot of support from that office. I can only go by what experiences we had — any time we had an issue they dealt with us in a professional way.”

And even talking with Berardinetti, the first issue she raised was not court costs — but bike lanes: specifically, the painted bike lanes along Pharmacy Avenue, connecting Eglinton Avenue with Victoria Park subway station.

“Number one is the bike lanes,” she said, “both on Pharmacy and Birchmount. There are so many reasons — about 10 reasons they’re not fit for the community. There wasn’t community consultation before they went in.”

The lanes are something that even Heaps is having second thoughts about. In an open letter to his community posted on his city council website, he said that while the lanes have had the effect of reducing speeds to a safer level along the stretch of road, they’ve caused problems.

“When that bike lane came in the plan was that it should join up the existing network,” said Heaps, who’s been a vocal cycling advocate as chair of Toronto’s Cycling Committee. “I became chair two months after those lanes came in — and two months later there still wasn’t another suburban bike lane. It should be based on a network. I have no problem removing a bike lane but it can’t be done with the sweep of a pen.”

Heaps said he’d support any staff recommendation to remove the Pharmacy bike lane along with two others in the city that don’t currently link up to the city’s cycling network. But he’s not running on that promise, any more than he was willing to speak about the effect his legal issues might be having on the campaign.

Rather, he pointed to a number of accomplishments since 2006.

“I would say for a long time nothing good, nothing bad, nothing ugly happened in the ward,” he said. “When I came in I promised nothing except that we would make sure the ward received its fair share of resources.”

Heaps pointed to a number of improvements. He pointed out that Victoria Park subway station’s $45-million renovation is nearly complete and he pointed to the connection to Kennedy Station and the planned Eglinton Crosstown LRT, and an ongoing project to redevelop the north commuter lot at Warden Station. He cited the soon-to-be-completed Warden Hilltop Community Centre, which increased in size from 15,000 square feet to 26,000 square feet under Heaps’ watch.

And he said that while he wears the mantle of being a progressive councillor proudly, he has worked to find savings as a member of Toronto’s budget committee.

“I’m the one who found $7 million in lost interest payments as a result of being on the budget committee — found $30 million owed by private golf clubs — as a result of being on the budget committee,” he said. “I think I still have a great deal of work to do on budget.”

Berardinetti, meanwhile, is telling constituents that the city needs to get tougher with its finances — and suggested that in fact the ward is not getting its fair share of tax dollars.

“Across the board the big issue is the tax increases, the land transfer tax, the car tax and the five cent bag tax (a fee mandated by the city but collected by retailers),” said Berardinetti.

“The property taxes have gone up every single year and coupled with that we’re not seeing that money coming back into this area here. We’re not seeing it coming in programming and services. We’re subsidizing the downtown core.”

Berardinetti is supporting a one or two year property tax freeze, a continued city hiring freeze, and a refocusing of spending on transportation infrastructure.

She’s also hoping to work to bring green industry into industrial lands in the ward.

“A lot of people I speak to, hear from, they want to know about jobs. They don’t want to see these strip malls here. So what can we do to change that?”

Long-time Scarborough resident and former Cliffside Community Association President Ed Green is hoping to help get city spending under control.

“I feel they have misspent the taxpayers’ money on several projects and it’s time to get new councillors to straighten out the financial problems we have in our city currently,” he said.

Green said he wants to improve community involvement in city hall — expanding the size of the notification areas. And he said he supports subway extensions rather than light rail in Scarborough.

Retired firefighter John Lewis is another candidate who wants to see bike lanes removed on Pharmacy Avenue.

“The whole of Pharmacy Avenue has become a very dangerous and illegal street — for example, if you try to pass a bus on Pharmacy you can’t do it legally. At any point you have to cross a solid line.”

He favours off-road bike lanes, and also would like to establish “some sort of assistance type of lift” to help weary cyclists get up steeper hills.

He also wants to establish and maintain a help line for tenants “frustrated when they can’t get ahold of someone and the water’s dripping down their back.”

Malik Ahmad, an IT professional, wants to do more to promote small and medium businesses, and will pay more attention to condominium dwellers, which he maintains have been neglected.

“I want to basically involve myself with all the residents and reach out to everyone — not just the people who live in houses,” he said.

Peter Tijiri could not reached by The Scarborough Mirror. According to his campaign website, Tijiri wants to bring more investment to the ward, help integrate minorities and immigrants into the economy, improve access to affordable housing, help young people find work, and improve customer service for seniors on the Toronto Transit Commission.

Also registered in the ward are Jay Burnett, Victoria Doyle, John Morawietz and Jason Woychesko. None of them could be reached by insidetorontovotes.ca

- David Nickle

Posted in News, Scarborough