Rob Ford, however, said it’s up to neighbourhoods to say they want rooming houses or don’t.

“I’m going to do what the community wants, I don’t think one hat fits all,” the candidate told a crowd of more than 200 that packed the council chamber Monday, Sept. 27, at the Scarborough Civic Centre.

Licensed rooming houses are legal in the old city of Toronto, York and Etobicoke, but Ford, an Etobicoke councillor, said there have been “serious problems” with rooming houses and many people in his area don’t want them. “Is there a need for them? I’m sure there is,” he added.

The issue is highly charged in Scarborough, where many single-family homes have been turned into rooming houses illegally.

George Smitherman said such housing is for many people a step away from living on the street, and refusing to regulate rooming houses will keep them underground as well as increase the number of homeless people.

“Affordability (of housing) is a big challenge in our city; these are part of the answer to it,” said Smitherman.

Cabbagetown, a Toronto neighbourhood where property values are steadily climbing, has many licensed rooming houses, he added. “I think this tells us that when we work properly, we can find a balance in neighbourhoods.”

Joe Pantalone, another candidate, said Scarborough’s community councillors have addressed the rooming house issue, “and their inclination, though this hasn’t been approved (by the city), is that they should be allowed on the main streets.”

Pantalone added he agrees with that approach.

In fact, Scarborough councillors did not vote to approve a city proposal to allow licensed rooming houses in high-density areas. Many remain steadfastly against the idea, despite the fact that two Scarborough council incumbents, Raymond Cho and Chin Lee, were once rooming house tenants themselves.

The city’s planning committee voted early this year to defer the proposal, which would also allow licensing in North York and East York, until 2011.

Rocco Rossi, another candidate, suggested the current Scarborough ban on rooming houses puts vulnerable tenants further at risk. “Bring it out of the underground; make it legitimate,” said Rossi, who also spoke in favour of reconsidering a new city-wide distance requirement between group homes to “make sure that we’re not disadvantaging groups” he said “care for those who need the most care in our society,” including autistic children and people with disabilities.

Advocates for the disabled objected to the 250-metre distance in the city’s new zoning bylaw, though it was in some cases shorter than in the former area bylaws it replaced.

Sarah Thomson, who has dropped out of the mayoral race the morning after the Scarborough debate (though her name will appear on the ballot), said hidden homelessness in Scarborough – such as “three or four families living in a three-bedroom house” must be acknowledged. She said that pre-zoning neighbourhoods could allow rooming houses in mixed-use buffer zones between commercial and residential areas.

The event, hosted by the Scarborough Civic Action Network (SCAN) which is also organizing debates for council candidates in area wards, provided a rare chance for lesser-known mayoral candidates to be heard.

Howard Gomberg began by saying the top mayoral contenders seem to have lost all vision and creativity – “Please do not vote for me, unless you have to – and I’m afraid you may have to,” he told the audience – before stating his case for legalization of illegal drugs. “We can’t take our vulnerable ones, our sick and confused ones, and turn them into criminals,” Gomberg said.

Candidate Kevin Clarke, who often reminds people he is a former substance abuser, said Torontonians need to feed the hungry, house the homeless and stop police abuse. “You don’t need a white mayor, you need the right mayor,” he added.

Also running for mayor, Colin Magee said he has heard people say voting for the so-called fringe candidates is a waste. “The only vote that is wasted is one that is not cast,” he said.
George Baboula, Diane Devenyi, Michael Flie, Vijay Sarma and Mark State also spoke.

~ Mike Adler

Berardinetti filed her nomination papers for the councillor’s job this week, mere days before Toronto City Council, at its Tuesday, Jan. 26 meeting, is slated to possibly revisit a decision to help Heaps out with $65,000 in fees and other costs he incurred in settling a libel suit with Berardinetti.

In the suit, Berardinetti said a newspaper column Heaps had circulated had been enough to turn the tide in the closely-fought election, and cost her the seat. Heaps settled the suit, paying out $20,000 in damages and writing an apology in which he admitted the letter “may have had an impact on the outcome of the election”.

Berardinetti and others have called for the money to be returned to the taxpayer, noting legal fees she incurred weren’t covered in the settlement.

Earlier in the term, Toronto City Council also reimbursed Heaps for money he’d spent successfully defending against accusations that he’d misspent in the 2006 election. Those accusations, in the form of a request for a compliance audit, came from John Lyras, then an executive assistant to Berardinetti’s husband, Scarborough Southwest MPP Lorenzo Berardinetti.

Reached by telephone Friday, Berardinetti said she would be running on a platform similar to the one that got her 89 votes shy of victory in 2006.

“I feel that what I’m focusing on now is pretty much the same as I did the last time,” she said. “Jobs are very important. My top issues on this election are jobs and transportation and property taxes.”

Berardinetti said she wouldn’t make bike lanes a priority, saying they fail to deal with the transportation needs of constituents.

“They don’t help the cyclists either,” she said. “It’s not an opposition for bike lanes – it’s saying they’re not a priority for the area.”

She said that the controversy arising from her legal battles with Heaps will add a wrinkle to the campaign.

“It’s about integrity,” she said. “When you’re running in an election, that’s what you’re running for. You’re nothing without your integrity – it goes to show that with Heaps going to council and asking to be reimbursed for that.”

Heaps is keeping silent on the lawsuit until it goes to Toronto City Council this week. In the past, however, he’s maintained that he made no request to council for the money – it came forward in a notice of motion from a colleague, Toronto Danforth Councillor Paula Fletcher and he absented himself from any discussion on the matter.

– David Nickle