Jacqueline Perlin
Assistant News Editor
Students from all over the Greater Toronto Area, including those from York, made their way to city hall September 26 to oppose proposed cuts to vital city services.
Sandy Hudson, chair of the Canadian Federation of Students Ontario (CFS-O), says students from colleges and universities across the GTA have been organizing to make sure their voices will be heard.
“[These are] all sorts of services that students in this city need in order to continue their studies, to get to school, and to make sure that they’re able to do well,” says Hudson.
She points out the biggest concerns for students include cuts to childcare, libraries, bike lanes, and the TTC.
However, city councillor for Ward 17 Cesar Palacio insists that this is not about cutting services.
“It’s about improving and maintaining the level of service,” he says. “The difference is between having the essential services and all other services that would be nice to have—the ones we cannot afford. City council is simply trying to find what services are essential to Torontonians and to find efficiencies.”
Alastair Woods, vp campaigns and advocacy for the York Federation of Students (YFS), agrees city service cuts—especially to transit and bike lanes—will have a huge impact on students.
“We have a lot of students who travel from all ends of the city,” he says. “Any cuts to the TTC—whether it be in routes or whether it be in the number of times [buses] come or whether it be in the actual infrastructure—will end up hurting students in the end.”
Fourth-year York student Sean Dimnik depends on his bicycle to get around the city. The notion of less bike lanes worries him.
“It would limit my mobility,” he says. “My primary resource is my bike in terms of transportation.”
Woods also addresses the concerns of students who rely on childcare.
“I think the common misconception is that students are 18 or 19 years old and don’t always have kids to take care of,” he says, “but that’s not entirely true.”
Tanya McFayden, vp gender issues for the Graduate Students Association, has a child in the Lee Wiggins Childcare Centre at York.
“I know many people in my life with children who end up putting them in childcare they don’t feel comfortable with,” she says. “They put them into unlicensed daycares and into home daycares simply because they need a spot and they have to work.”
If she didn’t have a spot, says McFayden, she would not be able to pursue her graduate studies.
Hudson says the massive outcry from residents across the city has resulted in city council delaying some service cuts, such as those to public libraries.
“[People] here today are demonstrating for two reasons: one is a bit of a celebration because it looks like some of the cuts that were on the table […] before have been delayed or will be, at the very least.”
However, Palacio believes there won’t be any radical changes.
“[In reality], there won’t be any closures to city libraries in Toronto […] and the city is still going to provide daycare services,” he explains. “What we’re asking is simply for the province to subsidize the additional funding that we need to provide the 2000 additional spaces [to daycare].”
“The main thing is that we’re in a crisis right now, and we have a chronic financial problem and deficit of $470 million dollars,” Palacio points out. “In the last administration, nothing was done. But this administration has taken the fortitude to stand up to the challenge and get a review of city financing.”
