Councillor's assistant on WOW TV

Our office's own Franco Ng visited WOW TV today to discuss the councillor's office and some of the issues which affect our ward.

If you missed your chance to watch him live, someone has graciously uploaded the clip onto Youtube, and we've translated the interview for our English-speaking readers:

Numbers denote the two WOW TV interviewers, F is Franco Ng

1: Wow, we really have to say thank you to today's guest. Without him and his boss, we might not have been able to pull May 9th off.
2: That's right
1: The reason being that May 9th was our grand opening, and our television station is in an area called Ward 39 - wait, I hope that's right - that's right.
2: (laughs)
1: But you know that the city is divided into Wards, and our station is at Ward 39, and its councillor, Mike Del Grande has helped us out from the beginning with laws and regulations and other things. Right up to May 9th, where as you know there were a lot of people coming in but not enough parking. What could we do?
2: Who took care of that?
1: So then we have here Toronto's Jet Li
2: (Laughs)
1: Actually we have right here Mike Del Grande's special assistant, Franco. Welcome
2: Good morning Franco
1: So this is his special assistant. First off let me thank you for coming in
2: Thank you so much
1: Let's start by, telling us where Ward 39 is exactly
F: First off, thank you for inviting me here to WOW TV. We were here for the opening, and it was very successful, lots of people. We were very happy that there was such an event right here in Ward 39. Ward 39 is in the Toronto area of Scarborough's northwest end. It goes north to Steeles, and south to about Sheppard. There's two big malls: Bamburgh Circle with the supermarket; and Bridlewood Mall, a sort of older mall that also has a couple of supermarkets. That's our jurisdiction, and what's inside our ward.
1: So let me step back and talk about how we knokw each other. We've had to consult with Franco about a lot of things, from big things like not having enough parking, to little things like single trees. So tell us a little bit about your jurisdiction.
F: So what your viewers can see behind me, the trees and sidewalks; they're all covered under municipal government's jurisdiction. So we deal with issues regarding those. So for instance potholes in the street; if you want to get them filled up, you can give us a call.
1: Folks, listen closely, Franco's going to give us his phone number, his email
F: Please don't call too much!
2: (laughs)
1: Well, they could be calling to compliment you!
2: (laughs) It might not always be a problem
1: So why don't you tell us, what our councillor, I mean this time we're talking to you, but next time we might invite your boss up to the show too, what his objective for being on this program is?
F: First and foremost we want to talk to your viewers about issues in the Chinese community, and how we can help the Chinese community. Because often, what we hear from people is "Huh? I didn't know you guys took care of that, I can call you about snow removal stuff? You guys take care of that?". So we want to share with everyone information like when to take out the trash, or what can be recycled, that sorta thing; that's just one of the many things the city does. So we just hope we can share that sort of thing with everyone
1: Just to sort of report in, right?
F: And it's lots of other things too
1: Would you like share some of those with us?
2: Like what are some of the big and small issues that you have?
1: What can you talk about with us this time?
F: Well, this time, I can talk about, for instance, the TTC. A lot of people call and ask "Why is it so expensive? Why are they raising fare prices?" The TTC is a branch of the municipal government. Other times people call and tell us a bus is late, or "the driver got out to get a coffee and I've been sitting here for fifteen minutes", so I'll tell the constituent "Make sure you remember the four digits on the bus, and what time and day it is, and what's going on. Make a record of it and call us back."
1: Like "Oh, he had three cups!"
2: (laughs)
F: Yeah, or like "He stopped to talk to a friend on the street", and give us a call, and we'll follow up on it. That's a minor issue. A bigger one would be, for instance, if the busses can't follow a schedule. If they're late-
1: It makes us citizens late, you know
F: And sometimes it's very strange, three busses will be in a row. Make sure you get down those numbers, and give us a call; we'll talk to the TTC about it. That's one of the things that we can do.
1: So let's take another example. Summer's coming up, so what kind of concerns do your constituents normally have?
F: Grass cutting
1: Oh, how does that affect you guys?
2: Really? Grass cutting?
F: That's because the city has a regulation, the grass can only be six inches tall. Now if you don't cut it, someone might report you. Your neighbours, some of them might take really good care of their front yards, got gardens and everything. They might say "Hey, our neighbour hasn't cut their grass, it's May now and the grass is this long"; and they would call us. So we'd have city workers whose jobs are to-
1: Warn them?
F: That's it, give them a warning, knock on their door. "Hey, someone's filed a complaint about you, we won't tell you who, and you need to cut your grass in a week, and if you don't you might get a fine".
2: Oh you can get a fine?
F: Yes, it's a city by-law, so you can get fined.
1: Now for instance, how about when people block the road by parking?
F: That's also us
1: Wow! You do everything, don't you
2: You guys really do a lot!
F: (Laughs) So that might be with the police, with Parking Enforcement, who's in charge of ticketing. I get tickets all the time myself
2: (Laughs)
1: Even as a city official?
F: I still have to pay. If you're parked illegally, or if you don't pay the meter. But in Toronto, you can only park on the street for a maximum of three hours. It's because in the winter there's snow plows, and in the summer, you might block people backing out. So this is the sort of thing we'd help report to the police.
1: We only have about a minute left. We'll speak to you in the future, but can you say a bit about Mike Del Grande?
F: This is the community newsletter that's distributed to the ward about Mike Del Grande. Inside there's also Chinese
1: Did you have a hand in that?
F: I translated it
2: Wow! We definitely have to support this then
F: The English and Chinese sections are pretty similar, and there's lots of photos and such
1: So how often does this newsletter get printed?
F: Twice a year, and a lot of councillors do this sort of thing. This other one I'll go over quickly is put out by the mayor
1: So the words of the mayor
F: Yes, and you can pick them up at the Civic Centres or City Hall
1: To finish up, let's give everyone your number, if anyone has any problems they can reach you, Franco
F: 416-392-1374
1: And if there's anything to report, you can also be emailed at fng2@toronto.ca?
F: Yes, that's my email
1: So with that, thank you very much Franco
2: Thank you
F: Thank you