Meeting Minutes - Sep. 10, 2007

Minutes of the monthly meeting held at City Hall on September 10, 2007 Present: Thomas Saras Sremal Abeyawardene Clyde McNeil Hassan Zerehi Neel Nanda Sima Zerehi Maryam Aghvami Dr. B. Lamba Ahmed Shah Hotaki Irene Keroglides Kostas Varlokostas William Doyle Marshall Mona Feng Emmanuel Ayiku Teshom Worldeamanuel Danielle Zhu Cindy Gu Aaron Behrane Dirk Tissera Luba Cherny Trifon Haitas Kanaka Arasaratnam Sukumar Balasubramaniam John Saraidaris Hasni Adnam Hermie Garcia Ojivaldo Rodriguez Mohammad Tajdolati Massood  Massadi Ned Blair Regrets:   Agenda: 1. Opening Remarks by the Chair 2. Minutes of the Previous Meeting. 3. Presentation by Hon: David Caplan (Minister of Public Infrastructure, Government of Ontario) 4. President's Report. 5. New Business/Discussions 6. End of meeting Opening Remarks by the Chair: The chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Minutes of the previous meeting: Masood Mashadi moved a motion and Mohammed Tajdolati seconded it to approve the minutes of the monthly meeting held on August 13, 2007. The motion was carried.   Matters arising out of the minutes: The chair of the meeting, Clyde McNeil mentioned that he observed that in last few minutes, the remarks of the Chair are getting increasingly diminished. The Council made a note of this and in future minutes, remarks and comments of the Chair would me made more visible. Presentation by Hon: David Caplan: The Chair welcomed David Caplan to the meeting and invited him to make a presentation to the Council. Following his remarks there was a question and answer period. Thomas Saras, Clyde McNeil, Ned Blair, Seema Zerehi, Irene Keroglidis and others participated in the discussions. The following is the highlights of the presentation and discussions: ·        David Caplan mentioned that he was honoured to be invited in the meeting of NEPCC and make a presentation to the members. ·        Today, graduation rates are up, class sizes are down and student test scores are up clear across Don Valley East. There is stability back in our schools and our young people have not lost one day of learning to strikes and unrest; their experiences are markedly different now compared to four years ago. ·        Climate change is one of the defining issues of our generation. ·        For more than a decade Ontario lagged behind in the fight against climate change as first the NDP scrapped Ontario's conservation and renewable energy programs and then the Conservatives slashed environmental protection, leveled greenspace and more than double coal burning for electricity. ·        In an effort to protect Don Valley East families from unfair rental increases, David has always been a strong advocate of tenant reform legislation.  The Residential Tenancies Act, introduced in 2006, ensures that rent increases will be based on the CPI inflation rate.  In fact, this year’s rent increase guideline of 2.6% is one of the lowest in history. ·        Today, instead of closing hospitals and firing nurses, we are building hospitals and hiring thousands of nurses.  Wait times are down by over a month at North York General hospital for key surgeries and more than half a million more Ontarians have access to a family doctor. Ontario and its partners are investing more than $5.3 million in health care facilities and equipment by 2010. These investments support the government’s goal to reduce wait times, improve treatment and upgrade equipment. ·        With an eye to the future, strategies have also been implemented to help protect our children. ·        Today, graduation rates are up, class sizes are down and student test scores are up clear across Don Valley East. ·        David Caplan has been strong advocate of education and his continued partnership in building a stronger and better education system in our community is second to none ·        As a former trustee himself he deeply understands the issues facing education today. ·        ReNew Ontario, introduced in May 2005, is a $30-billion plus, five-year plan to upgrade Ontario’s infrastructure. This is the first long-term infrastructure strategy in the province’s history. By the end of the fiscal year 2007-08, the Province’s ReNew Ontario investment will be more than $18 billion. ·        In the 2006 Ontario budget, the government introduced Move Ontario, a $1.2 billion investment in public transit, roads and bridges. The Chair, Clyde McNeil thanked David Kaplan for sharing his ideas and vision on Ontario with the members of the council. Thomas Saras, President of NEPMCC wished him all the success in his future endeavors.