East Yorkers protest fire truck’s move to Scarborough

Beaches-East York city councillor Janet Davis and MPP Michael Prue discuss the move of an East York fire truck, at a community budget consultation organized by Davis. (Photo by Rajesh Sammy) 

One of East York’s fire trucks is moving to Scarborough next spring, and some East Yorkers think it’s a bad move.

At the city budget committee meeting on Nov. 27, it was decided that a Toronto Fire Service truck would be moving in March from Station 224, at 1313 Woodbine Ave. in East York, to a station that’s currently under construction on Eglinton Avenue East west of Midland Avenue, in Scarborough.

Michael Prue, the New Democrat MPP for Beaches-East York — and former East York mayor — has expressed his opposition to the move, saying that fewer resources means that it could take longer for firefighters to arrive at the scene of a fire in East York.

“The average response time since amalgamation has gone way up since I was mayor,” said Prue. “It’s not going to get there on time.”

East Yorker Veronica Callinan attended the meeting and promised a petition to try to reverse the decision. It’s now been posted, at:

https://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/maintain-the-current-vehicles-and-crew-at-fire-station-224-woodbine

“I just see services deteriorating, and this is just another example,” said Callinan. “Our services are moving farther away. It feels like we’re being treated like second-class citizens.”

Prue agreed.

“I was very disappointed when I heard this,” he said. “We cannot put the lives of any person at risk in the city but almost as importantly, the fire trucks were paid for by East Yorkers’ taxes.”

About this article

By: Arooj Yaqub
Posted: Dec 16 2013 1:30 pm
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