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A councillor you can count on |
As a resident of the ward he represents, Glenn De Baeremaeker is not only a Toronto city councillor, he's also a neighbour to the people he serves. Although well-known for his environmental accomplishments, Glenn's main focus as a councillor is on helping his fellow residents solve local problems. When he first ran for office in 2003, Glenn promised to be a citizens' ally at city hall, and, since getting elected (and re-elected), he has never lost sight of this mission. To that end, customer service is the mantra in Glenn's office and his team of dedicated staff are trained to make residents feel welcome when they call their councillor – because as Glenn says, "City hall can be an intimidating place."
Since Glenn lives in the ward where he is seeking re-election, the safety and tranquility of Scarborough Centre is as important to him as it is to his constituents. To make his community safer, he wholeheartedly supported the hiring of hundreds of new police officers during his seven years in office. Glenn has also worked on a number of other safety initiatives, including increasing the number of police patrols in our local parks and neighbourhoods, helping to close down a local trouble spot and getting four new sets of traffic lights approved for dangerous intersections in his ward.
Sometimes referred to as "Mr. Scarborough," Glenn is a big booster of his part of the city and hosts many local events that bring neighbours together. His picnics, movies in the park and Santa-comes-to-Scarborough parties foster community spirit, while his free compost days, gardening awards and Christmas light awards encourage neighbourhood beautification.
Around city hall, Glenn works effectively with other members of council, regardless of political stripe. In addition to activities out in his ward, he spends long hours attending Toronto council meetings and meetings for a number of important committees.
For the past four years, Glenn has been Chair of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, which oversees a budget of more than $1 billion a year and looks after Toronto's drinking water supply, sanitary sewer pipes, road and bridge repairs, garbage collection and recycling.
In addition to chairing the powerful works committee, Glenn also sits on: Scarborough Community Council, the Toronto Zoo Board and the Board of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. He previously sat on: the Toronto Board of Health, the Toronto Atmospheric Fund, the Toronto Transit Commission and its Audit Committee, and the Long-Term Fiscal Plan Sub-Committee (a sub-committee of Toronto's Budget Committee).
It takes stamina to stay alert at twelve-hour committee meetings, tend to residents' needs and attend weekend events in the ward, but Glenn is up to the challenge, thanks to what the Toronto Star once called his "seemingly boundless energy." A big fan of healthy living and physical fitness, he keeps up his energy level by cycling to city hall from his home in Scarborough as often as the weather and his schedule permit.
As well as being a strong voice for citizens, Glenn is also known as a friend of the environment, doing what he can to ensure the health of Toronto's citizens and its wildlife. Some of the green initiatives of his seven years in office include:
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urging the province to strengthen its Greenbelt Act
working with Fatal Light Awareness Program to prevent the death of thousands of migratory birds
proposing for the zoo a green energy plant that would convert animal waste into electricity
advocating for a "community right to know" by-law that exposes companies that pollute our air and water
creating more parks in his ward. |
Even before being elected, Glenn spent most of his adult life trying to make his community a healthier, greener, more beautiful place. Shortly after finishing his MA at the University of Toronto, Glenn became, at age 25, one of the leaders of the fight to preserve Scarborough's magnificent Rouge Valley. It was a multi-year struggle that resulted in the creation of Canada's largest urban park. A few years later, he mobilized thousands of citizens in defense of an even bigger swath of green space: the 160-kilometre-long Oak Ridges Moraine. By distributing thousands of flyers, fighting in the legal arena, organizing peaceful rallies and events, and regularly updating the media, Glenn helped turn a little-known landform into one of southern Ontario's best-known environmental issues. The result of this work was a thousand-acre park in Richmond Hill and protection for areas across the moraine.
During his years of citizen action, Glenn was called everything from an "ecological Robin Hood" to a "truly tireless" environmental crusader. His inspiring achievements have earned him a Volunteer Award from the former city of Scarborough, a Commemorative Medal from the Canadian government and a Queen's Jubilee Award.
During much of the time Glenn was protecting green space, he was also involved in other aspects of civic life, as executive assistant to Scarborough Councillor Doug Mahood. It was here that Glenn learned that just as important as grand, green visions are the small details that make up the quality of life in local neighbourhoods - details such as fixing a pothole, mending a broken streetlight, or going after a derelict property owner. In 2003, Glenn decided to apply his knowledge of politics and his passion for the community to becoming a city councillor in Ward 38, Scarborough Centre. He was honoured and delighted when the citizens of Ward 38 gave him the job.
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