Some Toronto high school students are getting a lesson in politics as they push for design changes to a city bridge.
Eleven Marc Garneau Collegiate grade 12 students, members of the high school’s 4M Tech Design Class, presented their ideas on how to reimagine Overlea Bridge to city officials recently.
The bridge, which links the neighbourhoods of Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park, sees an estimated 3,000 pedestrians a day, with the majority between 11 and 19 years old. Officially called the Charles H. Hiscott Bridge, it was built in 1960.
“This bridge is our community sidewalk,” Zanib Zaakia, 17, one of the students, told city officials.
“We will have to come back to school soon. Our community still faces immense pressure from the pandemic today. We cannot wait for years before anything changes. We are asking you to find things that can be done today that bring some of our vision to life.”
On Monday, five students will take part in a one-hour workshop on how to talk to politicians led by Don Valley West MP Robert Oliphant. On March 23, they are expected to speak at the city’s infrastructure and environment committee after turning their presentation into a deputation.
According to the students, the bridge lacks enough space for pedestrians and cyclists and is not safe. There are no protected bike lanes. The road surface drainage and lighting are both poor. As well, there is no way to enforce the speed limit during rush hour in the curb lane reserved for buses, taxis and bicycles.
Community members have said it also lacks room for physical distancing during the pandemic.
Students learning how to present ideas ‘efficiently’
Zaakia, who lives in Thorncliffe Park, said on Sunday the project has taught the students about design, but presenting the project is teaching them how to convey their views succinctly. The bridge is important to the students because it connects two communities together, she said.
“It’s a bridge that I have to cross every day to get to and from school. It’s a place where you can see the beauty of the valley. It’s an experience for me and the other students, just crossing on it every single day,” she said.
Zanib Zaakia, 17, a grade 12 student at Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute, says: ‘It’s a bridge that I have to cross every day to get to and from school. It’s a place where you can see the beauty of the valley.’ (Shafqat Zubair)
Zaakia, who wants to be an engineer, said she signed up for the workshop to improve her communications skills. Through the project, she has learned about bridges, which she called a “symbol for communities,” and how to think like an engineer by solving a problem that affects her life.
“We learned about a lot of ways to present our ideas in a systematic way so what we have to say stands out. We learned that we can present what we have to say efficiently to the councillors and the MPs,” she said.
According to teacher Tim Langford, redesigning the bridge became a school project and the final phase involved the students presenting their versions of the reimagined bridge to the public.
“Although this is primarily a political issue, I put it to my Technological Design class as a design problem. They responded! The students were keen to work on the project because they live with the bridge and have many complaints about it themselves,” Langford said in an email.
Langford said the students are gathering community support by circulating the presentation within Thorncliffe and Flemingdon neighbourhoods. A social media campaign is underway.
City says it has started design work for bridge overhaul
Jacquelyn Hayward, director of project design and management for the city’s Transportation Services, told CBC Toronto that design work is underway as part of a planned overhaul of the bridge. The city also plans to improve infrastructure near the bridge, including the intersection of Don Mills Road and Overlea Boulevard.
Some girls, pictured here after school in November 2020, take their time walking home on the Overlea Bridge. (Muriel Draaisma/CBC)
“The City recognizes the need to enhance the bridge with wider sidewalks and higher railings, for example, and several of the concepts that the students were looking to see are already incorporated in preliminary designs,” Hayward said.
She said a public consultation process will take place later this year on preliminary designs.
“This consultation process will be a great way for the students to get involved and ensure their voices are heard formally through the City’s design process.”
At the meeting, six students presented videos showing their redesigns.
Among some of the ideas were glass barriers with bright LED lights, a new bike lane, wider pedestrian lanes with benches, speed bumps and a destination board, as well as surveillance cameras and high railings at both ends.
“We want the bridge to be a community place that will serve our mental health needs as well as our physical health needs: our needs for a sense of connection and community, and our need to experience beauty,” Arielle Limas, a student, told the meeting.
An image taken from an animated proposal by Zanib Zaakia, a Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute student, to redesign Overlea Bridge. (Submitted by Zanib Zaakia)
Students get mixed reaction from officials
The response from officials was mixed.
Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong, Ward 16, Don Valley East, told the students that any proposals have financial considerations.
“It’s a complicated problem. I would say that our councillors, the elected officials here, need you to send your plans over to your financial literacy class because this is going to be an expensive, expensive project. Quite frankly, we have to find a way to pay for any of these things,” he said.
Coun. Jaye Robinson, Ward 14, Don Valley West, said she was impressed by the presentation and use of technology. She has said the bridge is scheduled for major infrastructure improvements in the next five years.
“Great work on everybody’s part,” Robinson said.
Coun. Jaye Robinson, Ward 14, Don Valley West, has said Overlea bridge is scheduled for major infrastructure improvements in the next five years. (Lauren Pelley/CBC News)
Hayward, for her part, said the research on existing conditions of the bridge was “fantastic” but reminded the students that thousands of vehicles use the bridge daily. “You recognize that the traffic demand is about 20,000 vehicles a day,” she said. “Part of that is a very highly used bus route.”
She said the city would like to maintain the “existing lane capacity” of Overlea Boulevard but said the students identified key parts of the design process.
‘Don’t be discouraged,’ former premier tells students
Kathleen Wynne, Don Valley West MPP and former Ontario premier, praised the students for their work, saying: “It’s remarkable and it’s thorough and it’s just so very impressive,” she said.
Wynne encouraged the students to speak to the North York Community Council with a focus on making the bridge safe.
“Don’t be discouraged by the idea that it will cost millions of dollars. Of course, it will. There is a plan and there will be dollars that will go into the road. Better that you have input now, right at the beginning of that process.”
Oliphant thanked the students for solving a problem in a way that is good for their communities.
Kathleen Wynne, Don Valley West MPP and former Ontario premier, told the students: ‘Don’t be discouraged by the idea that it will cost millions of dollars. Of course, it will. There is a plan and there will be dollars that will go into the road.’ (Mark Blinch/Canadian Press)
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
