Fixing Rexdale

 
 
 

The Neverending Line of 2291 Kipling Avenue.

If you have had cause to visit a Service Canada office in the last couple of years for issues like a passport renewal, you have encountered long, frustrating lineups. The wait times can be infuriating but at least most Service Canada offices provide you with some kind of shelter, even as you line up, which I know we appreciate on days with inclement weather.

But if you live in Northern Etobicoke, in the community of Rexdale, you are well acquainted with the nightmare that is 2291 Kipling Avenue.

This Service Canada is notorious for long lineups that invariably spill to the outside, usually 30-40 people deep. No shelter, all the gusts of wind from every direction.

Let us remove jurisdiction & liability as part of the conversation. Representative offices at a municipal, provincial & federal level (so your Councilor, MPP & MP) are geographically close by. As a representative of this neighbourhood, regardless of the level of government, you have cause to drive by this Service Canada office during business hours to access or exit the neighbourhood. You have seen the lineups.

If someone is having difficulty in opening a door, whatever the circumstance is (be they elderly, or they have a disability) out of civility, you at least would offer to open the door for them. The most basic courtesy provided to the constituent should at least be an imperative of representation. If you are tasked to be an officer of the neighbourhood, it is your job to seek consent from your citizens to effect either repair or create shelter where required (even if it be temporary)

A canopy. A side or deluxe wall for an event tent. Any temporary shelter you may have seen employed during vaccination rollouts to keep inclement weather at bay & even the additional luxury of a patio heater or something that can be deployed safely – the cost of the purchasing of these items is in the hundreds of dollars. The most basic of expenses.

I am not a meteorologist. I cannot speak to the design in Structure vs. Environment that causes a wind tunnel. What I can tell is that on the coldest of days, the chill here is almost unbearable, these lineups have been going on for years and if you stand out in that lineup, that wind is blowing in your direction, regardless of the direction you are facing.

Not a single member of any government at any level, the plaza management or Service Canada have taken the initiative to use a tiny part of the parking area (which they could block off completely and only lose a dozen spots, at the most in two separate lots attached to the front and back of the plaza that always has empty spots) to build a temporary shelter.

To live in Rexdale is to stand out in the cold and not a soul that you have trusted to represent you can even be bothered to lift a finger to provide even the most basic of shelter. And if this were the Rose & not the Rex of the dale, this would not stand.

rahim@viciousminuteshour.com

rahim ladha

rahim is faster on three wheels & six gears than most people on two wheels & ten. he currently lives in rexdale & has walked & biked on every street in Toronto & has knocked on more doors & talked to more people than any politician.