Toronto, March 24, 2012

Councillor Ana Bailo. Ward 18 100 Queen Street West, Suite C42 Toronto, ON M5H 2N2 Councillor Mike Layton, Ward 19 100 Queen Street West, Suite C47 Toronto, 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 street festival 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 Trinity Bellwoods Park to Dundas Street, from Lansdowne Ave. in the West to Montrose Ave. in the east. After that we met on a few occasions at City hall, with the assistance of your offices. We continued to meet over the summer and into the fall, at which point we received from Mr. Eustaquio a preliminary plan. Concurrently, at these meetings, many issues were discussed. These issues all appeared 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 at AGMs held in October and November. This plan was approved by our respective members, as was the amount of $50,000 by the membership of both BIAs that Mr. Eustaquio had requested as our contribution.

Dundas West Business Improvement Association 204-1457 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON, M6J1Y7 Telephone: 416-540-6750 / Fax: 416-516-8458 Email: DuWestBIA@gmail.com / www.DundasWestBIA.ca

Then we met on January 9, 2011 with Mr. Eustaquio and staff from both of your offices and presented the above-mentioned memorandum of understanding, essentially, an agreement based on points that were discussed at previous meetings, in addition to demands 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 to keep in touch with us frequently with any modifications to the agreement so that, by February 7th we could formally sign this the agreement in front of his members at an ACAPO 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 for February 7. In short, we did everything possible to have the agreement signed and funds of $10,000 available 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 the importance 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 a permanent mark on the cultural life of our city. By abandoning this idea at this late stage they have effectively crippled any chance of any future event gaining the support of the surrounding businesses and community and have not left us with enough time to organize an event ourselves. This could have been avoided. Both BIAS have subsequently met and agreed to work together in the future, possibly on an 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 BIA The Board of Management of the Little Portugal

Dundas West Business Improvement Association 204-1457 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON, M6J1Y7 Telephone: 416-540-6750 / Fax: 416-516-8458 Email: DuWestBIA@gmail.com / www.DundasWestBIA.ca