Mike Sullivan MP has invited the community to come together at his office to view Jack Layton's funeral service on Saturday, August 27th. He has arranged to have a large viewing screen for the public. His office is at 36 South Station Street in Weston which is south of John Street and 1 block east of Weston Road. The viewing will begin about 1pm and the funeral takes place at Roy Thomson Hall at 2pm.

A book of condolence is available to sign and will be given to the family afterwards.

OpEd: Games with trains
Toronto Star
August 21, 2011
Mike Sullivan
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1042442--games-w...
Metrolinx, the public agency responsible for GO Transit, was recently publicly admonished by Advertising Standards Canada for publishing misleading information. The council is the watchdog of the advertising industry, making sure that claims made by advertisers are truthful.

Metrolinx will be holding a meeting July 6, 2011 at 1901 Weston road, at 6:30 pm, to update the community on the construction projects in Weston, including the Rail tunnel, the John Street pedestrian bridge, and the Denison Road underpass

Metrolinx/GO Transit will be holding a meeting June 9, 2011 at 1901 Weston Road to advise the community on the results of its Human Health Study.

Electrification

Much has happened since the last update. Metrolinx staff has recommended to the Board of Directors that the Lakeshore and Georgetown lines be electrified, starting with the Air Rail Link. That is good news. However, there are a number of problems.

The Clean Train Coalition is planning to demonstrate at the Metrolinx Board Meeting next Wednesday. If you can spare a few minutes to attend, that would be great. The Board Meeting Agenda includes the electrification Study, and the recommendations. We want the Board to adopt the recommendations, and question the timing.

Join the Clean Train Demonstration at the Central Y, 20 Grosvenor St Wednesday January 26, 2010 at 8:30 am. (N of College, W of Yonge)

The Metrolinx Board is meeting to make recommendations to the provincial government regarding electrification. This is a crucial time for us to demonstrate to Metrolinx and the Provincial government that we are not willing to accept any increased pollution in our neighbourhods.

Friends and Neighbours,

Much has happened.

Many thanks to the hundreds of you who took part in the Human Train event three weeks ago. It was a rousing success. Many walked the entire route from Weston, to Mount Dennis, to the Junction, to the Wallace Bridge, to Sorauren Park, and finally to Trinity Bellwoods. It made lots of press, and got the attention of the important folks at Queen’s Park, we hope.

While that was going on, Metrolinx was sending two leaflets to what we think was over 100,000 homes along the corridor. Those leaflets suggested that the Medical Officer of Health had reversed his opinion on the trains (not true) and that your health would be protected by Metrolinx’s plan (also not true). We are puzzled as to the extremely large expenditures of public money on these leaflets when the public comment period was long over. So we have formally complained to the Ombudsman of Ontario, André Marin. We are concerned with both the misleading content of the leaflets, and the fact that they were distributed at all, when they could not have any influence on the decision of the minister.

Finally we got the decision of the minister. He approved Metrolinx’s overall plan, with some conditions. Of course the most widely reported feature of his decision was the condition that they use only Tier 4 diesel engines. We have some concerns about that decision, mostly that it means spending scarce tax dollars on as yet unbuilt, more expensive technology, when the plan is to electrify the corridor shortly thereafter. But today we learned the most startling thing about his decision. He apparently didn’t mean to say ALL the trains in the corridor (though he did, and in writing, to us). Instead, only about 1/3 of the GO trains will be forced to be Tier 4. Apparently his decision only applies to the trains to Brampton and Georgetown, and the 200 odd trains going to Bradford and Milton are exempted. We will be consulting with our partners in the Clean Train Coalition about what to do next.

The minister did not ignore Weston. He said “I have also reminded Metrolinx of its requirement to meet the commitments set out in its Environmental Project Report, including maintaining a train stop in Weston, implementing the tunneled portion of the rail way between Church Street and King Street and maintaining existing accessibility to Church Street and King Street in Weston.” However, that statement is not in the ‘conditions’ only in his letter. So it remains to be seen how that will play out.

Once again, many thanks to those of you who have helped out. The fight’s not over.

Mike Sullivan
Chair
Weston Community Coalition

Below is a selection of responses we have recevied during the past week.....

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From: Mike Rothery [mailto:wmrothery@hotmail.com]
Sent: August-29-09 9:50 AM
To: minister.moe@ontario.ca
Cc: chair@westoncommunitycoalition.ca
Subject: Environmental report on Georgetown train corridor

You must reject the current Environmental Project Report and ensure that any future expansion of rail traffic along the Georgetown Corridor is electric.

Say no to outdated, outmoded, dangerous and polluting diesel technology.

Say yes to clean electric trains.

W M Rothery
Queen's Drive
Weston ON

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31 August 2009: Today the WCC has sent a detailed report to John Gerretsen, Minister of the Environment for Ontario.

This report contains our analysis of Ontario's Transit Project Assessment Process (TPAP) as it has been applied to the Air Rail Link project. Second, the report contains our analysis of the project itself and whether this is the most efficient and effective use of scarce taxpayer resources, and whether the ‘stronger, healthier communities’ goal is being met.

Our report can be downloaded here:
Open Report from the WCC to Environment Minister John Gerrettsen (31 August 2009)
Appendix 1 for Open Report from the WCC to Environment Minister John Gerrettsen (31 August 2009)