Regional Municipality of York

GO buses will run direct between Union and Pearson.

York Regional Police are increasing their presence this weekend as members of the Jewish community observe the High Holy Days.

Police say command posts will be deployed and police will be increasing patrols near synagogues, community centres and other gathering places.

Police will be available to answer questions, take reports and address concerns.

Here in the city of Vaughan throughout, we have tried very hard to stand in allyship with our Jewish residents.

We have brought forward bylaws.

We have worked very closely with York Regional Police, and I believe that we've done the very best we can to make sure that our Jewish residents in Vaughan feel safe and know that they are seen.

The heightened security comes after a series of shootings targeting Toronto-area synagogues.

Another major school district is hitting pause on artificial intelligence.

Yesterday, New York City banned students from using AI through eighth grade.

Now the LA Unified School District is blocking students from using AI on school-issued devices.

The ban will stay in place for at least the rest of the school year.

Pleasure to be with you.

A great topic.

Yeah, I wanted to talk about what we're seeing in the United States, both in New York and LA.

They're deciding to have a moratorium on the use of AI.

And after about 17 years in Toronto, doing different things, moving around the city, doing a lot of projects with the police, working on the bike program and that sort of thing, I decided that maybe it was time to transition to a different service with a slightly lower call volume because it's pretty busy down there.

So I applied to York Region Paramedic Services and I got the job.

And then we moved to Bradford because it put me closer to my workplace and it reduced her commute to Jane and Finch.

Right.

I think they just graduated a group just recently, but they have never had 40. um if we were having this conversation six months or a year ago they had about 15 volunteer firefighters

so

that would be a conversation with the chief you know i i work in york region i work shoulder to shoulder with king township who are all volunteer I know them very well.

I'm trained in the officer training programs to act as a captain in the officer seat with a lot of them.

Yes.

And you may have seen some of the advertisements from the city saying, "These are illegal here." Um, but in neighboring Mississauga or in neighboring York Region, they have opted into the pilot.

So each r- place is gonna, jurisdiction is gonna do what it's gonna do, but it is a very complicated level of understanding for the average user, purchaser, uh, end user.

Especially if you know you're going from, take the GTA as an example, like, from Toronto to Mississauga, which is just, like, 40 minutes away, the rules change, right? And yeah, so it's illegal in Toronto-

You ask Peel Regional.

You ask York Regional.

You go to the RCMP.

You go to the OPP.

So in hindsight, when you look back, how do you view the success of the Presto payment system?

I did support the Presto system because I saw that the TTC was with the extension of the Yonge University Spadina line, which is line one, into York Region, the TTC had the potential to become a regional transit carrier beyond the borders of Toronto.

But in order to make that viable, we needed a payment system that crossed, that you could use in different jurisdictions, and that it would lead to a harmonization of fares.

Because if you think about it, if you live in Thornhill, you need to take a Thornhill bus to or come down Yonge Street to Finch, you're taking the Thornhill bus onto the transit system, you're paying two fares.

Or if you take the GO train to Union, then the subway, you're paying two fares.

And if we had a one payment system across those different municipalities and those borders, you eliminate that and you have one card, one fare or harmonized fare that would really boost ridership and actually make the system more usable for people who need it to get around.

And so I was a huge advocate because that card, you can use that card whether you're in Toronto, whether you're in Hamilton, whether you're in Mississauga, whether you're in York region, you only need one transit card and it's accessible across the greater Toronto area and Greater Golden Horseshoe.

And what was lost in that debate was, I think, you know, it got down to the implementation, but what was lost was the opportunity and also the fact that it was the largest implementation of its kind.

So seeing some great results, uh, with those as they expand the use in Toronto, and using the ALPRs that are static in the neighborhoods.

We saw it in, uh, York Region being announced last year and now in Brampton as well.

They're creating that, uh, that fence around a large area, and they should be able to capture these vehicles going in and out, and especially around such a big problem with stolen cars and hijacked cars.

Mm-hmm.