Minutes of the Monthly Meeting held on May 14, 2012 at Toronto City Hall, Toronto

Present:

Thomas S. Saras

Aaron Berhane

Ahmed Hotaki

Arif Ahmed

Asha Rajak

Bikram Lamba

C. Senthi

D. Nishantha

Ernesto Donan

Gerald Paul

Irene Keroglidis

Isa melo

John Saraidaris

Joltana Cabaj

Jonathan Annobil

Khan Khoda

Krzysztof Szerszen

Liz Furtado

Liz Philbert

Luba Cherny

Mohammed Tajdolati, Dr.

Muhammed Enad

Mulugeta Zergaben

Muluken Muchie

Ned Blair

Nimal G. Egoda Gedara

P. Vijayaletchumi

Parry Long

Paulraj  Rajapandian

Paulter Mekenzie

Ranjit Wicks

Saeed Soltanpour

Srimal Abeyewardene

Sudershi Kularaman

Suleyman Güven

Sultan Ali Shanbuli

Susana Donan

Teshome Woldeamanuel

Upali Obeyesekere

William Doyle-Marshall

 

Agenda

1.       Welcome Remarks by the chair.

2.       A call to order by the Chair

3.       Minutes of the previous meeting.

4.       Presentations:

a.       His workship Rob Ford, Mayor of Toronto

b.      Ms. Kim McKinnon, Media and Information Liaison, Toronto Emergency Medical Services

5.       Report by the President

a.       July 02, 2012, Canada Day Event

b.      Exhibition at the City Hall, Toronto – May 2012

c.       NEPMCC Awards 2012

6.       New Business

7.       New Members

8.       Adjournment

 

Welcome Remarks by the Chair:

 

Dr. Lamba chaired the meeting and declared the meeting open.  Irene Keroglidis moved a motion to approve the agenda and Suleyman Güven seconded it. The motion was carried.

 

Minutes of the previous meeting:

Upali Obeyesekere moved a motion to approve the minutes of the previous monthly meeting held on July 11, 2011 P. Vijayaletchumi seconded it.  The motion was carried anonymously.

 

Presentation:

 

a.       His workship Rob Ford, Mayor of Toronto

“Thank you for having me here today.

Allow me to update you on the progress here at the City Hall. We have two union bills for the 79 and 416. This is going to save tax payers over 100 million dollars. We will have our expense report come out. Here Accountants are expecting 4.5 million dollars less expense than two years ago.  We spent 20 million dollars two years ago and now we are down to 15.5 million dollars. All the free services like free food, lunches and dinners are eliminated out of City Hall’s expenses. We are deducting unnecessary travel expenses out of our account. Like any other average person, they will have to pay for their personal expenses. We are instead spending that money on other essential services like TTC services and we are moving the city forward. This has happened with the support of all the councillors and team work but not just me.  We are moving forward and proud of what my team has done. Councillors are supporting on what we can’t spend.

This coming December it is going to be my complete two years in the office. People are curious if I am running again. I am letting you know that I am 100% running again. We are changing the mind set and culture down here at the City Hall, and I am excited about it. It is obviously going to take longer than 4 years to change everything. But after 6-7 years we are going to have the city straightened out.

We are creating more jobs as well. There are more cranes in the city of Toronto right now than other 10 major cities in the US combined. This city is booming in the last year and half. I have created an environment here for people feel that it’s a safe and a clean city. If you want to bring your family here then be sure that this is a clean city and a safe city for you to live where crimes are down. It’s proven that it is a safe city to live and a dynamic city. It’s cleaner than it has ever been. Graffiti is being removed. We have created apps for people to take a picture of the graffiti and send a complaint if they see any graffiti. The pot-holes are being fixed. All you have to do is take a picture of the pot hole, tell us where the location is and we will get it fixed. Customer service is better. It is all about customer services. We are returning calls. Councillor and social services are returning their calls immediately. 

We came in to ‘zero percent tax increase’ three years ago, which people thought they cannot do it but we did it. Last year we had to increase 2.5% taxes as it was so tight but it was lower than any other nearest tax increase. And this year ‘maybe’ we will come down to 1.5% or 2% and the next two years we are going to be zero. We are trying to keep the taxes as low as possible. I think things are going great here in the City.”

Question & Answer session

Suleyman Güven – You had mentioned before you were elected that your first priority is going to be ‘the roads.’ Has it changed since then?

Mayor Ford – “Yes, my priority is definitely still the roads. Lot of the roads are getting resurfaced. We are fixing pot holes quicker than anybody could ever fix before, and the roads are much better shape than they were two years ago. I have to compare everything with the previous administration as it is the only way to get a fair comparison. And, I fought for subways. I am still fighting for subways because the subways are the best way to go. I don’t believe in LRTs and streetcars. Look at that St. Clair how it is a disaster now. The next campaign I am going to fought on streetcars or subways. Whoever wants to run against it is fine. I have the subways and we can fund subways regardless of what people say. It might take me 3 or 4 years but we are going to get our subways lets go underground transit and develop over and above.”

 

William Doyle-Marshall – Where do you stand as a Mayor in the true sense of diversity in this diverse City of Toronto and where do your members of administration stand?

Mayor Ford – “You just got to follow me when it comes to diversity. This is what I have lived and represented for the last 10 years. This is probably the most diverse communities in Toronto. If you look at my coaching, we have diverse community. We are multicultural. I reach out to every sort of group that you can think of. I go to places of religion and worship. And, just add on to that, last week I was at a Greek event. I go to temple and everywhere else. So, I try my best to get the diversity on the map as much as I can and reach out to as much as I can as a Mayor.  I personally embrace it 100% even if some people in the administration might shy away a little bit.”

Luba Cherney – The senior members of the Russian community are waiting for over 10 years to get social housing.  What is your plan to fix this issue?

Mayor Ford – “In Etobicoke centre I meet with people and try to get them a house. People have to be flexible with the location and I will try my best to get them housing if they call me at my office. I will do anything under my power and I can claim that I am the only person who meets personally hands-on with the seniors who needs housing.”

 

Gerald Paul - Are you planning to attend Caribana this year? Is any funding being provided by the City for the event?

Mayor Ford – “Yes, I will be joining the celebration and you’ll see me in one of the floats this year. Everything is the same this year but we are going to get the private sector as much involved as possible.”

Nimal G. Egoda Gedara  – What will happens to the Sheppard Line?

Mayor Ford – “The subway base is not over yet. But it’s up to the Provincial Government to make decision at this moment. Over 70% of the people want subway. You have call the Premier’s office and the EPP’s office. We have the money and we have the plan. Let’s get the Eglington and Sheppard line running from Black Creek to Scarborough. People on North also need subway. I will be fighting for subway through next election as well.”

 

b.      Kim McKinnon, our Media and Information Liaison and Dan Cottom, Superintendent, System Operations, City of Toronto - Emergency Medical Services (EMS)

Kim McKinnon: “If you are a member of the media and would like to contact Toronto Emergency Medical Services, please telephone (416) 392-2255 to speak with Kim McKinnon, Media and Information Liaison in Toronto EMS. I am your key point of contact when you need information about the Toronto Emergency Medical Services, Paramedics, and emergency dispatchers in Toronto. We respond to over 300,000 medical emergency calls every year and over 800 calls a day in the City of Toronto. We respond in over 170 languages to the people who call us. We haven’t heard much from the ethnic media therefore I made a special trip so you can meet me and call me for information that you need. I would like you to contact me to find out about the types of services that we can provide so your readers can know how we deal with emergency situations.  Some of the things that we find is they are unsure about how to approach the emergency services and call 911. Therefore, one of the things that I am proposing here today is to invite you at the Toronto Medical Emergency Services during the week of May 21st to 25th. We would like to invite you on the 24th of May because it is the Medical Emergency Services Week and we can make appointment for you anytime of the day to take you for trip to show we how we handle 911 calls and particularly I would like to share with you a public awareness campaign which we are launching on how we respond to 911 call in any language. And we could do on the 24th or any other day if you can’t come on this day is we could have you come in and in the language of your publication to make a mock call in 911 and show you how we respond to the callers your or any of the 170 language service we provide which might be interesting to you. This could be interesting and work for radio, tv or newspaper. We would like to request you to provide an editorial for us. If you wish we can provide creative for you. Unfortunately we do not have budget to purchase space for advertise at this time but can help you provide support to prepare your articles. I do not hear from you about demonstrating CPR, how you can protect your community members from cardiac arrest, etc. I would like to help you provide information for you so you can print or broadcast in your media. We have many videos that you can utilize and broadcast in many languages. Just let us know whatever you need and we will help you anyway we can. There was it wasn’t a situation that was due to lack of services. We try to get to life threatening emergencies in 8.95 minutes.  

Question & Answer session

Liz E. Philbert – What is the employment opportunity system for young people in EMS?

“We just a story on national post where we demonstrated that how good it is to work for the EMS and trying to bring attention of young people to inspire them to work for the EMS. It is something that all people can inspire to.”

 

Gerald Paul – Are there any of your representative involved international projects?

“We do have members paramedic, Rahul Singhs who founded Globalmedics and received Order of Ontario. He has been recognized recently by Times as one of the 100 most interesting people in the world. He volunteers through his fundraising organization called Globalmedics but he works with us.”

 

Suleyman Güven – I called 911 recently to inform about attempted suicide and they asked me questions for about 5 minutes which was I found very irresponsible. How do you deal with these situations?

“We go through this process because it is the best way to recognize the medical needs of the person in emergency but just because we are asking this questions that doesn’t mean that we haven’t dispatched the ambulance. We are asking these questions to prepare the paramedics to face the emergency situation about what they may need to provide help appropriately. The person asking the question is typing the information and the person in the ambulance is reading the information on their mobile devices to make sure they take appropriate equipment to help.”

 

Report by the President:

-          I would like to first of all thank the members who came today after your long absence back to the organization.

-          Ethnic Press Exhibition, City Hall – Thanks to everyone who came and volunteered to help set up the exhibition. On the opening night, we ordered food for 500 people and there were only about 280 members who attended the opening ceremony. Last year we had issues with the food and everyone complained that they didn’t get enough food to eat. We had over 220 newspapers on display and less than 300 members attended the opening ceremony which is one of the most embarrassing situations for us as we had the Mayor, ministers and councillors who attended the event only to find out that not all of us were there.  However, we are glad to inform everyone here today that the exhibition was successful and managed to get attention of different media organizations in Toronto and Ontario. We presented the plaque to the Mayor and many people had an issue about it. This presentation is in fact to the public official like the Mayor of Toronto and a courtesy on behalf of the people of Toronto and tax payers of this great city. It was presented to him for letting us use the space for our exhibition. The mainstream media is attacking him every day for doing any/everything. I do not personally have any problem with him. Every time I request him to attend our event he makes sure that he attends it and he never declines any of my requests. Everyone attracts from every single mainstream media outlet in Toronto. I received about 500 emails from professors of Journalism, journalists, from people and even one lady from Kingston sent me an email to complain about why we recognized or gave an award to the May. I had to spend a day to spend days to respond to their email explaining that this organization is recognizing an official because this is the way interest of the members is in line and we do those things for these reason. We presented a certificate of appreciation thanking him for coming to our event and thanking him for allowing us use the space of the City Hall for a week and thank you for the support we received from the administration. We are not giving any award to the official. One of the emails I received said, ‘If you had avoided making presentation to the Mayor then you would have saved yourself from embarrassment.’ I responded to him that it was made according to the decisions of the members and it is an internal affair of the organization. Toronto Star sent many emails complaining about the presentation. Finally they said that they do not mean any harm to you personally or to the organization. It was a very big success. Yesterday we wrapped-up and pulled down the exhibition. The good results of this event are that almost all the mainstream media and also few international media covered our news.

-          Canada day celebration on July 2nd at the Cypriot Community Centre – We are selling the ticket for the amount of $10.00 in order to secure the seating of the hall. We will be printing and bringing tickets to the next meeting and we would like you to bring your payment and take your ticket with you. Tickets will be sold on payment received and seating arrangement is on first-come-first basis. This $10.00 will cover food and drinks for you with entertainment.

-          2012 NEPMCC Awards – As every year we are holding our awards ceremony on the last Monday/Friday of October at the Lieutenant Governor’s suite in Legislative Building of Ontario. 30th of June is deadline for awards nomination. Please send in your applications for nomination if you would like to nominate anyone. The awards committee which is chaired by Dr. Tajdolati selected few newspapers for awards for 14 newspapers and magazines out of the display on exhibition. Now we are waiting for 10 community members who will be recognized for their contribution to your community. Please submit your nomination as soon as possible.

o        There has been a motion to organize a celebration with dinner after the ceremony at Lieutenant’s Suite. It should be somewhere everyone can enjoy and we must have at least 400-500 guests in order to make sure that it is a good celebration and an event for all of us to celebrate.

-          North Ontario Visit – I have requested the Minister of Tourism to take the members of our organization to Northern Ontario for a visit so they can cover news and story about the tour and publish or broadcast in their medium. I have requested the Ministry to cover the expenses for travel and accommodation but the organization will cover the expenses for food. This will be an opportunity for us to enjoy the beauty of Ontario while doing an assignment for their media. We are waiting for Minister’s response on this request.

-          NEPMCC Exhibition at the Canadian National Exhibition – we are working on making preparation and arrangements for the exhibition. We have submitted proposal for the funding and will be able to give some payment to the people who help. There is no news as of yet. But we do not receive funding everyone will have to volunteer for the event or I will work on my own to make arrangements for the event. We will also get some tickets for the entry of the hall. Please come on the day of the official opening of the exhibition. The day of the closing we didn’t have enough people to help.

-          Next Meetting : we are going to have Premier McGuinty to attend with us as a guest speaker. We are working on organizing a meeting with the Prime Minister. We are working on organizing a meeting with him in downtown Toronto.

-          Funding Application: I received calls from the funder about your application for the funding of your application. I explained multiple times about how to prepare your application for the funding. Please come to the office if you have any questions to fill up your application before you submit them.

-          Next Development Semminar  – We are working on preparing an application to submit to the Government of Ontario and Government of Canada for our next Development Seminar. Seneca College is trying to see what subjects we can cover for this seminar. We will be in touch with you and let you know if there is any update for you.

Motion:

Motion moved by Ned for $10.00 for the ticket amount for the Canada Day celebration on July 2nd. Upali Obeyesekere seconded it. The motion was carried.

 

New members:

o        Mr. Nimal G. Egoda Gedara, Photojournalist, Ceylon Express News

Adjournment: Irene Keroglidis moved a motion to adjourn the meeting, Dr. Tajdolati seconded it. The motion was carried. The chair adjourned the meeting at 9:30 pm. The next meeting would take place on June 11, 2012, 6:00 pm at the committee room N# 230 (located on the second floor west wing), Legislative Building, Queen’s Park, Toronto.