Mike and Franco on WOW TV

The Councillor has appeared with his Special Assistant Franco on WOW TV, to introduce himself and talk about what we here at the office do. Amongst issues discussed include widened driveways, animal control, and signing authority. For those of you who couldn't catch it, the video has been graciously uploaded on Youtube. We've included a translation below, so that everyone can follow along. In case you missed last month's episode, it can be found here. There's a chance that this may be expanded into a regular segment, so stay tuned for more information!


Italicized portions are in Cantonese
Numbers denote the two interviewers, M is Mike Del Grande, and F is Franco Ng

1: As you saw, there were many guests there at Shanghai, but here in Toronto, we have a pair of guests too
2: That's right, and this is a very special guest; the councillor for our Scarborough ward, Ward 39, Mike Del Grande and his Special Assistant, special assistant Franco Ng. Good morning
1: Good morning
F: Good morning
M: Good morning, I'm very glad to be on WOW TV
1: Thank you
2: Oh, thank you so much. His Chinese is pretty good, Franco, did you teach him?
F: Well he knows some himself, he always has to learn
2: He's very good.
1: I guess he has to speak to Chinese people often
F: Of course, of course. Perhaps the Councillor would like to introduce himself
2: Mike, would you like to introduce yourself? Tell us a little bit about yourself.
M: Well, I live here in the Ward, I've lived here since 1983. I'm of Italian background, son of immigrants like many of our community residents. And I was first elected 2003 as the councillor for Ward 39, Scarborough-Agincourt.
2: Okay
1: So the Agincourt area, huh

2: So, Franco, what kind of issues do us constituents have? Right now, at least, what are the big issues?
F: Last time we spoke about grass cutting issues. After that episode, turns out that a lot of people had really long grass and weren't cutting it, we got a lot of calls in about that. This time, since summer's coming, we know a lot of people are redoing their front lawns and driveways. So today we wanted to let everyone know most of the time, you can't expand your driveway past certain limits. To put it simply, if you have a double garage, a double garage, your driveway can only be as wide as a double garage.
1: Well I know that some people want to park another car on the corner on purpose
F: Yeah
1: So is that not allowed?
F: Actually, those are illegal
1: You have to get a permit?
F: No, you can't even get a permit
2: So it's not allowed at all
F: This is because the city government wants more grass, meaning there's a green space requirement. So that means you can't turn it into sidewalk, or asphalt, or use it to park a car. In summer there's a lot of people just digging up their lawn and putting rocks, stone, or gravel in; you actually can't do any of that.
1: That means you're not supposed to do that sort of landscaping yourself
F: Yes
1: So the lawn is supposed to have grass, right.
F: That's right. Even if you hire a company to do it, it's still not allowed. We hope that everyone understands this city by-law
1: Oh, but what about if we didn't know before, and we already widened the driveway? Do we have to rip it up?
F: If it's already done and you didn't know, we have some modification you can do. We don't want people parking on the widened driveway, so what we can do is put some stones or planters there to separate it. That way if you have a double driveway, you can only park two cars, horizontally. A piece of wood, or some stones to fence it off show that you can't park there will be fine. When our inspectors comes to check, if they know you have no intention to park there, it'll be okay.
1: So if I show that I have no intention of parking there by fencing it off, it's okay?
F: That's right
1: Oh good, I can relax. Because I already paid for a widened driveway, but I didn't know
2: (laughs) Often we don't know
F: Well often even if it's done, there's no need to dig it up. It all depends on the reasoning.

1: We often hear that residents, like for instance those living here in Ward 39, can ask the councillor for help. What kind of things can we ask for help for?
F: Perhaps we'll let the councillor answer that one, is that alright?
1: Of course
F: What are some services we provide to the public?
M: Well, I'm a Commissioner of Oaths, so I can sign name changes, no charge; sometimes to verify documents from the original to copies, I can sign that for our community, no charge. If you go to professionals, they will charge anywhere from twenty dollars to sixty dollars. I'm free.
2: (laughs) That's good to know
M: We also provide information as I'm sure Franco's indicated, if people aren't sure on rules and regulations, they can call our office and Franco will speak to them in their language. We speak in our office Italian, Cantonese, Mandarin, we speak German, we also speak French, and we also speak some dialects from the Indian subcontinent. So we have a wide array of languages we can speak.
1: So in general, if residents have any big or small issues with the ward, or want clarifications on laws, we can call your office and ask? And as Mike mentioned, change names
F: Yes, because changing names requires signing documents. Outside of our ward, any councillor can also sign for their ward.
1: (laughs) So it's free, No charge. Right?
M: No charge.
2: (laughs) that's the most important thing
M: Sometimes I'll even come to your house to do it, instead of meeting with you. So if you're one of my residents, that's a service we offer
1: I see

2: So Franco, are there any other things that people might not know? I mean, I don't really know what kinds of issues there are. Would you like to speak about what residents can contact you about?
F: Well, one of the other issues is in your neighbour doesn't take care of their front or back yard, and just throws junk everywhere. Well there's laws about that. Sometimes we get residents calling saying that there's rats or raccoons running around in their backyard. Or perhaps people raising dogs or cats are letting them defecate on the sidewalk
1: And not picking it up, right?
F: Yes, or even leaving it around in their back yard.
2: It's not sanitary.
F: And after a while, you can smell it. So residents can call us, because it's summer, and you want to go out to your back yard and enjoy yourself, barbeque, or do other things, and enjoy summer. If your neighbours aren't being considerate, let us know, and we'll give you suggestions on what to do.
2: Can you tell us quickly then, because we're running out of time, what the boundaries of Ward 39 are? From where to where?
F: To put it simply, from Steeles, from that mall- can I say the name?
2: Of course, of course
F: The Splendid China Tower area down to Sheppard. On the east from Kennedy to Victoria Park on the west

1: Well, we hope that in the future, we can invite Franco and Mike to speak with us again regarding things that your office does. Thank you.
2: Thanks everyone. Thank you very much, Mike.
M: Thank you