City Councillors have a tough job. They have conflicting obligations: to work together to make the city run as a whole, and to make their own ward a better place to be.
Frances Nunziata knows her retail politics; call her, and she’ll call you back. Email her, and she’ll answer your question. She fights for the little guys and the little things.
But she’s putting the needs of Toronto above the needs of her community. She’s voting to save the city money when that money would benefit Weston—Mount Dennis.
In the City Council meeting of January 28, Nunziata voted
- In favour of charging children and youth to swim at city pools
- Against community grants
- Against taking free money from the province money from the provincial reserve fund to fund daycare spaces
- Against improving TCHC security with money from the reserve fund
- Against planting trees
It’s hard to imagine why, apart from ideology, Nunziata would vote against taking free money. It’s less difficult to imagine why she wouldn’t vote to beggar Wychwood to pay Weston: she’s putting the city above her riding.
As children in poor parts of the city are dying at the hands of their neighbours, she may yet regret not taking money to improve the futures of youth in her own riding—two young men have been shot in Weston–Mt Dennis so far this year, one near Jane and Lawrence, another near Jane and Eglinton.
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An update: I’ve been trying to find out more about the provincial fund from which Nunziata did not vote to draw. It’s complicated. The linked article, and an article the article links to do not make it clear that it is a reserve fund, and not replenished by the province. Her vote against drawing from the reserve makes much more sense in the context. I apologize for the error.
