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

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

WOW TV Grand Opening

Ward 39 celebrated the grand opening of a brand new specialty channel, and the councillor was there to welcome them.

You can see and watch the festivities for yourself at WOW TV's official website, under "Day Show".