Di Biase Reviews His Programme

Vaughan mayor presents update of the status of his ten most important initiatives

During the last campaign, Michael Di Biase made some important promises to his fellow citizens. Now, one year later, he has decided to review the advancement of the various initiatives.
"Over the last 12 months, the whole City Council and I have worked hard, and the projects I based my campaign on are developing according to plan," said Di Biase opening a press conference last week.
The mayor listed 10 issues, divided in two groups:
Infrastructures
• road network
• extension of Highway 427
• extension of the Spadina-York subway line
• the hospital
• the new City Hall
Services
• a safer community
• a community portal
• Access Vaughan
• environment
• tourism
Concerning the road network, Di Biase underscored the commitment of the city and the region: "In 2004, we spent $50 million in order to improve our roads ($10 million by the City, $40 million by the Region) including repaving, new roads, and expanding existing roads.
"Moreover," continued the mayor, "I restate my position on main arteries requiring widening before new residential areas can be developed." Di Biase listed the works done and the plans for next year, which include the new Teston Rd. & Hwy 400 junction, the widening of Islington Ave. between Rutherford and Major Mackenzie, and the elevated junction around the Corporate Centre.
The second item in the list was the extension of Hwy 427. "This project is vitally important for job creation in the City of Vaughan," said the mayor. "We are working with the provincial government to speed this project up as much as possible."
Then the mayor mentioned the extension of the Spadina-York subway line. With the new soccer and football arena at York University, he said, "extending the subway at least to Steeles and then to the Corporate Centre (Hwys 400 & 7) is fundamental; that's the only way to allow the latter to develop."
The proposal of a hospital in Vaughan is also progressing. A formal request will be submitted to Queen's Park in the coming month of January.
Construction of the new City Hall is also going forward; it should begin in the autumn of 2005 and be completed by 2007. City Hall has recently published an informational booklet (Leading The Enviromental Age) which highlights the attention to environmental issues and to service excellence that form the basis of the project submitted by the KPMB studio, winners of the tender.
After concluding the review of infrastructural works, Di Biase continued with services, beginning with community safety and security issues. "I strongly support the need to equip the York Regional Police of all the resources it needs," remarked Di Biase, who then illustrated the collaboration programmes currently in place with the Police and the Fire Services.
In the age of new technologies, the mayor mentioned the "virtual City Hall", a project that he promised to develop through the Web site of the City, offering new on-line services to the citizens. "Right now, we are choosing the company that will build the community portal," explained Di Biase.
For those who are less familiar with the Web, Vaughan is studying how to restructure what was known as the "Citizen Care Centre" and in June 2005 will be called "Access Vaughan", a 'global' contact point for all city services whose plan will be presented in January. City Hall priorities include environmental issues where the mayor would like to turn Vaughan into a model city in this field. Many initiatives have already been launched, and some important results have been accomplished: the victory in Communities in Bloom 2004, the Award for the Asian Long-Horned Beetle crisis, and closing the Keele Street waste transfer station following last month's fire.
Finally, the mayor spoke about tourism, a field where the City is concentrating much energy and where a strategy will be fully developed within the spring of 2005.

Publication Date: 2004-12-05
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=4688