Lakeview Ratepayers Association AGM: Impressive meeting, inspiring speakers including Mayor Crombie & Councillor Tovey

I had the good fortune to attend the Annual General Meeting of the Lakeview Ratepayers Association, which took place on Oct. 11, 2017 at the Mississauga Seniors Centre.

I learned about the meeting some time back, when I was driving south on Cawthra Road by the Mississauga Seniors Center and noticed a handy roadside sign, announcing the event. I’m pleased I saw the sign! The seniors centre is not far from a school in Mississauga where I used to teach. We used to take students skating at the nearby arena.

The meeting began with an introduction by Rea Lingo-Santaguida, President of the LRA, followed by approval of the 2016 AGM Minutes, presentation of the Treasurer’s Report, and an overview of Constitutional Amendments.

The Constitutional Amendments included the introduction of an Associate Member category. That is, individuals or businesses outside of the boundaries of the Lakeview Ratepayers Association will be able to join, as non-voting members. The membership fee, for this category, remains to be determined. Details related to the Election of Directors were also addressed.

As well, Rea Lingo-Santaguida shared a brief and informative PowerPoint presentation highlighting the LRA’s past year of activities and achievements.

Guest speakers

An impressive line-up of guest speakers followed.

In subsequent posts, I will highlight some of the contents of the presentations. For the current post, I will share photos and the following quick notes.

Martin Manna, a Manager at BMO, gave a brief talk, as did Dave McKeown, chair of The Compass, a charitable organization. I found McKeown’s presentation very moving. He spoke of the ways that we, as citizens, can offer help to fellow citizens, when help is needed during challenging transitions in people’s lives.

Mario Pascucci, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board Chair spoke next, followed by the Peel District School Board Chair, Janet McDougald.

In the Q & A, a question from the floor, following the latter presentation, concerned an ongoing controversy about the teaching of Mathematics in elementary schools in Ontario.

That is, some parents have expressed concern that students are not learning the basics, in Mathematics, because a “discovery” method does not appear to work that well, in this subject area.

Janet McDougald commented that this is a most interesting area for discussion, and noted that something is occurring between Grades 3 and Grades 6, as evidenced by Math EQAO scores.

Update: Meantime, by way of an update, an Oct. 12, 2017 CBC article is entitled: “Peel board says EQAO tests should be suspended over concerns with math results: Only half of Grade 6 students met the EQAO’s math standard last school year.”

Commentary: The comments, at the end of the article, are of interest. The entire topic, of how Math should be taught, is of interest. I have written, at this website, about the educational system in Finland, which does well in all subject areas in international testing, for whatever value such testing may have. I look forward to learning details, through further reading, regarding Finnish approaches to the teaching of Math.

[End]

Mayor Crombie

The speakers also included City of Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie. Including the Q & A that followed her remarks, she spoke for at least half an hour. I was super impressed with the content of her wide-ranging discussion.

Mayor Bonnie Crombie, Oct. 11, 2017. Jaan Pill photo

Her remarks helped me get a much better sense, than I had previously acquired, of the successful work that civic leaders in Mississauga are accomplishing, in bringing massive amounts of new investment to Mississauga and the Peel Region.

Crombie also spoke of the coordinated, focused approach to budgeting, at the City of Mississauga. She shared an insightful overview of the focus of energy, and the channeling of resources that is required, in order for the annual budgeting process to work out really well.

I will share additional overviews at future posts.

Councillor Tovey

The final speaker was City of Mississauga Ward 1 Councillor Jim Tovey, whose political career began when he served as President of the Lakeview Ratepayers Association.

Councillor Jim Tovey, Oct. 11, 2017. Jaan Pill photo

I’ve been following Jim Tovey’s career for many years, and have reported at length about his strongly collaborative leadership role, in a wide range of innovative Mississauga waterfront projects, including Inspiration Lakeview; the Lakeview Waterfront Connection project; several Port Credit land-use projects; and the Small Arms Building project.

I am pleased to add that, as I have noted at previous posts, another Lakeview resident who played a key role, alongside Tovey, in getting the above-mentioned projects off the ground, was Lakeview resident John Danahy, of the University of Toronto faculty of architecture, landscape, and design.

With regard to the Small Arms Building, I am also pleased to add that another (unnamed) Lakeview resident played a key role, in enabling the project to proceed in the first place, by raising the alarm at a point where the latter building was about to be demolished. What a difference that made!

Tovey’s talk at the Oct. 11, 2007 AGM, of the Lakeview Ratepayers Association, focused on development issues at the Ward level, and on infrastructure achievements at the Regional level.

In upcoming posts, I will feature highlights from his talk.

The power of civility

I will close with a comment from Mayor Crombie.

The Mayor spoke of the high level of collaboration and coordination among Councillors and City Staff in Mississauga.

Crombie noted there is disagreement at times, at Council, given that many different viewpoints are at play – but disagreements are expressed in ways that are respectful.

That is a key message, that I took home with me.

Civility makes for a great way to proceed.

It is indeed possible for people to debate and disagree, and still maintain civility, and a sense of collaboration. That is among the messages, from this years’s Lakeview Ratepayers Association AGM, that truly resonates for me.