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Dundas West Business Improvement Association204-1457 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON, M6J1Y7

Telephone: 416-540-6750 / Fax: 416-516-8458Email: DuWestBIA@gmail.com /www.DundasWestBIA.ca

Toronto, March 24, 2012

Councillor Ana Bailo. Ward 18100 Queen Street West, Suite C42Toronto, ON M5H 2N2

Councillor Mike Layton, Ward 19100 Queen Street West, Suite C47Toronto, ON M5H 2N2

Re. Proposed street closure and festival on Dundas West in June, 2012

Dear Councillors Bailo & Layton,

We are writing this letter to express our deep disappointment at the fate of the streetfestival proposed by ACAPO, scheduled to have happened in June of this year along

Dundas Street West. We also intend to leave a few facts on record.

Starting in April of 2011, ACAPO president Jose Eustaquio asked our BIA to join him,the Little Portugal BIA and Festival Portugus to move the festivities from TrinityBellwoods Park to Dundas Street, from Lansdowne Ave. in the West to Montrose Ave. inthe east. After that we met on a few occasions at City hall, with the assistance of youroffices. We continued to meet over the summer and into the fall, at which point wereceived from Mr. Eustaquio a preliminary plan.

Concurrently, at these meetings, many issues were discussed. These issues allappeared in a memorandum of understanding that was later written and presented to Mr.Eustaquio, as it seemed that we had, over the course of these meetings, reached an

understanding.

We presented Mr. Eustaquio's written festival plan to our respective memberships atAGMs held in October and November. This plan was approved by our respectivemembers, as was the amount of $50,000 by the membership of both BIAs that Mr.Eustaquio had requested as our contribution.

mailto:DuWestBIA@gmail.comhttp://www.dundaswestbia.ca/http://www.dundaswestbia.ca/mailto:DuWestBIA@gmail.com

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Dundas West Business Improvement Association204-1457 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON, M6J1Y7

Telephone: 416-540-6750 / Fax: 416-516-8458Email: DuWestBIA@gmail.com /www.DundasWestBIA.ca

Then we met on January 9, 2011 with Mr. Eustaquio and staff from both of your officesand presented the above-mentioned memorandum of understanding, essentially, anagreement based on points that were discussed at previous meetings, in addition todemands presented by our members to board members of both BIAs at the AGMs.

Mr. Eustaquio agreed to bring this memorandum to the members of ACAPO and tokeep in touch with us frequently with any modifications to the agreement so that, byFebruary 7th we could formally sign this the agreement in front of his members at anACAPO membership meeting. Mr. Eustaquio had also requested some funds to start.We agreed to have each BIA contribute $5,000.00. Those cheques were ready forFebruary 7.

In short, we did everything possible to have the agreement signed and funds of $10,000available by February 7th, a date proposed by Mr. Eustaquio.

Please allow us to emphasize how much effort was put into this by everyone involved.

We spoke to our members, in person and through several newsletters, about theimportance of this event for everyone in the community.

Portugal Week belongs on Dundas. Our members feel betrayed, and rightly so.This was a golden opportunity for ACAPO and the Portuguese community to leave apermanent mark on the cultural life of our city. By abandoning this idea at this late stagethey have effectively crippled any chance of any future event gaining the support of thesurrounding businesses and community and have not left us with enough time toorganize an event ourselves. This could have been avoided.

Both BIAS have subsequently met and agreed to work together in the future, possibly onan event such as this one, in 2013. We hope we can count on the support of your offices

for any future endeavours.

Regards,

The Board of Management of the Dundas West BIAThe Board of Management of the Little Portugal

mailto:DuWestBIA@gmail.comhttp://www.dundaswestbia.ca/http://www.dundaswestbia.ca/mailto:DuWestBIA@gmail.com