Mayor Tory’s four deputy mayors tasked with helping bring city together

That will mean bringing the wishes, and complaints, of different areas of the city to Tory – things, the mayor said Monday, which stand in the way of a feeling Toronto is one city.

When it comes to Scarborough, those complaints are many.

Despite the pledge of a Bloor-Danforth subway extension from Kennedy Station, Scarborough - amalgamated with six other cities into Toronto a decade and a half ago – still seems to be "last in line" and hasn’t received its fair share, said Glenn De Baeremaeker, the councillor Tory picked to bring the aspirations of the area’s residents to him once a month.

"We are not happy with this forced marriage," added De Baeremaeker. "The wealth needs to be shared."

Vincent Crisanti of Etobicoke and Pam McConnell, who represents a downtown ward, round out the deputy mayor’s group, which Tory hasn’t named yet, since it hasn’t received city council approval.

In an interview, Tory said he will give each deputy special responsibilities.

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McConnell will lead the city in developing an anti-poverty strategy, while De Baeremaeker will act as "champion" for the promised subway extension and also help Tory keep his promise to plant 3.8 million trees across the city over 10 years.

As for a role for Crisanti, who was a loyalist for Rob Ford during his first term in office, Tory said, "He and I are still discussing that."

In interview barely an hour after he was sworn into office, the mayor said the four deputies can each tell him what residents are saying in different parts of Toronto.

But he added this arrangement, unique since the province forced a merger on the former cities, "is not a marriage broker, and this is not a divorce lawyer. This is a marriage counsellor."

De Baeremaeker, despite his conviction Scarborough, for whatever reason, has been shortchanged, welcomed the chance to be Tory’s "eyes and ears" there.

"I think John Tory wants to listen," he said.

De Baeremaeker suggested he’ll press Tory to support proposed investments in Scarborough, including at the Toronto Zoo, the Rouge National Urban Park, Span McCowan near Scarborough Town Centre on McCowan Road and improvements along Scarborough’s underused waterfront.

"Our waterfront’s spectacular, but virtually nobody can get to it," he said.

De Baeremaeker also wants a station added to the subway extension at Danforth Road and Eglinton Avenue.

It will make the subway accessible to many more people, raise surrounding property values and spur development, he argued.

Tory said he’ll weigh all possible city investments by considering "what’s going to do the best for the most," but said he’s willing to speak up about any issue – including the obsolete operating rooms at The Scarborough Hospital’s General campus – that residents in Scarborough feel is important.

Tory said he recently toured northwest Etobicoke, saw the state of recreational facilities there, and left shaking his head. Areas that seem to need improved recreation the most are somehow furthest down the list, for reasons he doesn’t yet understand, he said.