the green line interview with mayoral candidate, cory deville

The GREENLINE TO Media Interview

Q&A Edition

The Green Line media team reached out to us for a Q&A interview. Here are the questions and they asked, and the answers Mayoral candidate Cory Deville provided.

Learn more about The Green Line media and publication team here.

Q: What concrete actions will you take to tackle the food insecurity crisis from a policy perspective? And how will you help people now? 

Within the first 100 days I commit to doing the following: (1) launching a fleet of City operated Food Trucks that offer Healthy Food staples to across all 25 City Wards with a 3x increased representation in Wards with disproportionately lower median household incomes and or scare affordable grocery store options, (2) launching a Monthly Care Package consisting of core food staples, like potatoes, rice, dark leafy green vegetables, canned fish, 12-24 cartons of eggs, and in season fruits, for Single Parents, Youth 27 and Under and Low Income Residents on Fixed Incomes; it would be comparable to 10 meals, (3) repurposing city real estate, and launch Hydroponic Towers (eg., for vertical urban farming) on under utilized city owned rooftops and enclosed spaces to grow healthy vegetables and produce; this would then be distributed to single parent households, school lunch programs in lower income wards, and lower income households throughout Toronto. 

Q2: How will you prevent provincial overreach and protect Toronto, while still working productively with the Ontario government?

I would form a non-partisan Council of City Mayors to act as a Municipal Opposition and Diplomacy Team to Doug Ford's PC Government, and leverage our microcosmic cabal to legally challenge The Ontario Government in instances where provincial policy causes undue harm, distress or compromises the well being of residents (ex., with a specific focus on economic working class, marginalized communities and at risk groups).  The Diplomatic face of this Council would be used to work collaboratively on policy ideation and implementation with the province when economic opportunity, safety and cost of living solutions can be made available to Working Class residents.

Q3: Residents repeatedly tell us they feel the city's current consultation process isn't working. What will you do to make sure their feedback is actually reflected in the process and final outcome of local developments?

I would adopt an efficiency focused  framework built around shorter project sprints following this cadence: plan, do, review, revise and reimplement.  I would ensure that all city projects had a single to three ward piloted version that we could scale within 90 days, defined key performance indicators built around the interests of the working class resident, a line by line accounting of budgetary spend, and a model to scale KPI successful projects into expanded forms. 

Q4: How will you ensure residents have equitable access to health care and other essential services, especially those who may face barriers navigating these systems?

I would work with the Province to audit health care and essential service accessibility, and then partner to remedy instances of barrier or obstruction.  I would start with city wards that have been traditionally underfunded or are home to median household incomes on the lowest end of the economic strata within Toronto, and then scale toward higher income neighbourhoods.  This way we prioritize those who are most vulnerable while still maintaining a city wide focus for long term ROI.

Q5: What concrete actions will you take to tackle the housing affordability crisis from a policy perspective? And how will you help people now?

I would prioritize the repurposing under utilized city real estate assets into residential properties priced at the median household income of the city ward, and then affix pre-defined rental caps on annual rent restricted by inflation and a hard upper ceiling to prevent price increases beyond that point (ex., even if inflation grew beyond it).  

I would use this same model for the acquisition of 2-3 story houses and convert them into self contained bedrooms for students, young professionals and those navigating being unhoused; and then the mid-term focus on developing 5-10 story buildings in dense urban environments, rather than 40 story skyscrapers (ex., a 5-10 story building scales faster, is cheaper, places less demand on city infrastructure like sewage, is more insulated from market cycles like recession, and would allow us to offer actionable solutions that would be meaningful).

A city that becomes the landlord protects residents from predatory landlords.

Q6: How will you deal with data centres in the city? 

I would draft and issue a motion to pause their development for 6-12 months, and then use that time to collaborate with community leaders, residents and industry experts to create a more environmentally sustainable model that enables technological innovation without: sacrificing quality of life for residents, jeopardizing environmental well being, introducing corporate cronyism and or increasing road congestion (ex., during the construction phase of these data centres). 

I would also work with the Provincial and Federal government on this solution, and ensure that we move in the direction of government alignment at a municipal, provincial and federal level. 

Q7: What concrete actions will you take to support newcomers (including undocumented people, PR holders, international students, refugees, migrant workers, etc.) as they navigate health care, employment, education and other settlement needs?

I am committed to prioritizing the allocation of resources and opportunities to Canadian citizens; and simultaneously building city infrastructure that can feasibly support Toronto residents as a whole. 

Some of the concrete ways this would look like: (1) helping to finance Health Clinics in Toronto operating as non-profits for people both with and without OHIP coverage for HIV prevention, abortion and women's reproductive health management, (2) youth focused educational scholarships and (3) economic opportunities in the form of part-time jobs, skills development and entrepreneurial grants (ex., the scholarship and entrepreneurial grant would be contingent on going to school in Toronto, and head quartering business in Toronto). 

Follow us on Instagram and TikTok to discuss policy, have conversation about the future of Toronto, and to get a behind the scenes look at People Focused Policy… and like always: Vote Deville. It’s Good For You.