James Pasternak
MEMBER

Toronto City Councillor James Pasternak was elected to City Council in 2010 and was re-elected in 2014, 2018 and 2022. He continues to advocate for investing in vital programs and services while simultaneously supporting fiscal responsibility. He sits on the Mayor’s Executive Committee, is the Chair of the North York Community Council and of the General Government Committee, he also sits on the Toronto Seniors Housing Corporation Board, Corporate Nominations and the Striking Committee.

He has championed investing in city parks, recreation programs, services for seniors, public realm projects and road infrastructure.

When James sat on the budget committee, he helped fund the expansion of Youth Hubs, free programs at high needs community centres and bring participatory budget making to the City of Toronto.

James has a proven track record for securing affordable housing units in development applications, expanding the Housing Now affordable housing initiative, and assisting thousands of residents in making effective applications to Toronto Community Housing buildings.

He has hosted numerous community meetings on topics such as transit, community safety, the arts, affordable housing, traffic issues, basement flooding and budgeting priorities. Councillor Pasternak is credited with driving a number of transformative policy issues at City Hall. His work lead to the updating of the 15 year old City of Toronto Anti-Discrimination Policy; developing the policy to prohibit hate rallies from taking place on City property; the creation of Toronto’s Tennis Excellence Framework; the move to expand Toronto’s student nutrition program; study the safety and privacy issues of drone aircraft; and bring the issue of e-cigarettes onto the Toronto Board of Health agenda.

Through the pandemic, Councillor Pasternak worked closely with the Toronto Public Health and community partners, to make York Centre one of the highest wards to achieve full vaccination rate, bringing pop-up vaccine clinics close to the homes of seniors and those most vulnerable.

Before coming to City Hall, James Pasternak had been elected as a Toronto District School Board Trustee where he led community initiatives such as supporting special education and seeing the establishment of Toronto’s only Africentric Alternative School. Councillor Pasternak has earned degrees from the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of Western Ontario and York University.