The Battle for the Bike Plan opened on a third front this week. On Monday the Economic Development and Parks Committee held their first meeting to discuss the Economic Development Culture and Tourism Budget. The situation is much better there than for the UDS and WES budgets. The staff proposed $1.9 million for path and trail projects. Not all of this is for Bikeway Network projects. It has projects that would be used by pedestrians such as stairway reconstructions and pedestrian walkways as well as projects that are identified in the Toronto Bike Plan.

The total amount of the budget request that dealt with cycling related projects was $940,000. The amount that has been approved to this point is $690,000. The original request included $250,000 that was intended to upgrade existing paths that are in serious need of repairs, resurfacing or reconstruction. Some of these paths are older and are not up to the standards of the paths being built today. Some are very narrow and need to be widened so users can pass each other safely.

This $250,000 has been cut by the Executive Management Team. The EDCT budget is now in the hands of the Economic Development and Parks Committee. They will be meeting to hear deputations and make final decisions on Friday, January 25th.

You can contact your councillor and let them know that you support having the $250,000 restored to the budget If one of these Councillors is the councillor from your ward let them know. The opinion of their constituants carries more weight than that of someone from outside their ward.

If you want to find who is your councillor and their contact info the go to this page and type in your street address.

I have listed the Councillors on the Committee below. Click on their names to get their contact information to call or send a fax or click on their email addresses to send. them an email.

Economic Development and Parks

Michael Feldman (chair) councillor_feldman@city.toronto.on.ca

Chris Korwin-Kuczynski (vice chair) councillor_korwin-kuczynski@city.toronto.on.ca

Maria Augimeri councillor_augimeri@city.toronto.on.ca

Raymond Cho councillor_cho@city.toronto.on.ca

John Filion councillor_filion@city.toronto.on.ca

George Mammoliti councillor_mammoliti@city.toronto.on.ca

Denzil Minnan-Wong councillor_minnan-wong@city.toronto.on.ca

Ron Moeser councillor_moeser@city.toronto.on.ca

Martin Koob
tcc-rep@tbn.ca