A Place To Connect

We are big and its hard to connect ... so lets do that here!

Those of us who live in Etobicoke are literally all over the place. From the lake to the northern city border with Vaughan; we are huge and diverse and for the most part very disconnected with the rest of Toronto. After working in the heart of the downtown core for many years I realized that little was known about the west-end and that there were a lot of misconceptions about those of us who live here. As I have gotten older I can say some of those beliefs had merit for sure 15 years ago but things are changing and no one seems to know that about us. Many times those of us in one area of Etobicoke don’t even know what is happening in another part of the area. That is a problem and one that hopefully can be solved with The Etobicoke Voice.

Etobicoke is broken into 3 city wards and therefore has 3 reps on the Toronto City Council; that is 3 voices at a table of 25 to represent over 360,000 residents. Now that being true, it wasn’t much better when there were 45 councillors because then we only had 6 voices. On top of council each of the 3 wards also have a public school Trustee and before the council was shrunk in 2018 our public school trustees had to cover 2 wards! So if you ever wonder why it can take a locally elected official a while to return a call or email these staggering numbers may have something to do with that delay. However, don’t get me wrong, residents should get a reply in a reasonable amount of time as councillors do have staff and they should be able to help.

What I find though is that many times in the downtown core residents are kept up to date with local community events and meetings while many of us in Etobicoke miss out because we find out way too late, many times after they are over. So while I have a habit of watching council meetings, following school board events (both TDSB and TCDSB), look out for community organized events, I will use this platform to help us all stay in the know.

I also ask that those involved in organizations feel free to reach out so that I can give them space to educate us all on what they are doing to help make Etobicoke a better place, many voices are better than one! We are a diverse community and we all need to be heard so lets connect, support one another, and show the entire city how awesome Etobicoke really is right now and where we are headed in the future!

Talk to you soon,

Jen