Hi Neighbour!
Many thanks to the many community leaders who joined us for our first-ever Willowdale Leadership Symposium. We had some great discussions about how we support the most vulnerable in our neighbourhood and how we can work together to strengthen our community. I would like to thank my staff and all the volunteers who gave up their weekend to bring our community together in this meaningful way. We will be sharing some highlights of what we learned and what we can do in a future email.
A Walk with our City Manager
This past week Paul Johnson, our City Manager who manages a team of 30K staff, came to Willowdale to see our corner of the world. He noticed the rows of half trees that fill our planters along Yonge Street. We discussed community safety with our Yonge Street Foot Patrol and the importance of Economic and Cultural Development. He noted the significant density and growing urban context. We talked about ideas that could help decentralize some of the divisional oversight. We also introduced him to a Custard Fish Shaped Pastry from Kim’s Cart which he said was delicious. He also had his first-ever Bubble Tea from the Corner Café. I am grateful he took time out of his busy schedule to come to Willowdale. I hope this will help strengthen future advocacy.
Take Action Thursday
Make your voice heard! There are plenty of surveys available right now to improve our city. Share your feedback and help make a difference in our community!
Bishop Park: Click Here to take the survey. Share your thoughts on what an improved and expanded Bishop Park could look like! The survey closes on Sunday, December 8, 2024.
Wedgewood Park: Click Here to learn more. The City of Toronto is improving the playground in Wedgewood Park North York! Help design the new playground by sharing your thoughts on the play equipment in this short survey. The survey will go live tomorrow, November 22.
Maxome/Bishop Traffic: Click Here to take the survey. In response to recent concerns that have risen around Maxome Ave, this survey is collecting feedback on 3 change proposals along Maxome Ave:
Traffic Calming (E.g. Speed Humps) installation on Maxome Ave, from Finch Ave E to Steeles Ave E.
Removal of Left Turn Prohibition from Bishop Ave onto Maxome Ave. and Right Turn Prohibition from Maxome Ave to Bishop Ave.
Removal of North-South Travel Prohibition on Steeles Ave E & Maxome Ave.
Strategic Parking Framework: Click Here to take the survey. The City of Toronto is developing a strategic framework for managing motor vehicle public parking, both on-street and in parking lots. The survey closes on November 26, 2024.
Yonge North York Public Realm Master Plan: Click Here to take the survey. The Yonge North York BIA (Business Improvement Area) is preparing a public realm master plan for its district along the Yonge corridor between Hwy 401 and Finch Station. The ideas and strategies that are presented in the draft public realm plan can be found here. It is recommended to review these materials before completing this 5 minute survey.
Participate for a chance to win one of three $50 gift cards to a Member restaurant or café of your choice within the boundaries of Yonge North York BIA. The survey closes on November 26, 2024.
Do you think we should get 12-Storey Buildings on Steeles and Bayview?
The city is currently undertaking a study to change how we develop Avenues and marking new areas in the city as proposed Avenues. This is an important decision that could also impact parts of Finch, Sheppard, and Bathurst. Please join the consultation virtually TOMORROW MORNING, November 22, at 10:00 AM. Click Here to register! Learn more by visiting bit.ly/housingactionplan.
This study looks at allowing midrise buildings of up to 11 storeys along busy streets in the city to address the city's housing shortage. This policy expands across Toronto and the City is now expanding its focus into newer areas. The Avenues policy review contemplates new streets to be designated as avenues for greater density.
Avenue Studies are planning assessments done for areas designated for strategic mixed-use development. These studies typically evaluate factors such as:
Click Here to read a recent Toronto Star article about this new policy.
Click Here to see the City’s map of proposed new avenues.
Click Here for the City’s Avenues Policy Review.
North York Moms meeting to Save the Science Centre
This past week we held a late-night virtual meeting with Jason Ash, the founder of Save the Science Centre to talk about how moms, dads, and kids could mobilize to save an important gem to the North York community. One mom shed tears as she described how important the Science Centre has been to her and her children. The moms discussed finding leads at every school to empower children to write letters or draw pictures of advocacy to be sent to our provincial leaders. Click Here to see some great templates for kids to use and stay tuned as Jason will be putting together a portal for parents to sign up to champion mobilizing their class, school, or local friends.
Ideas for Hendon Park Fieldhouse?
I visited the Hendon Park Fieldhouse this past week with city parks staff. The building offers a public access bathroom on the east side and provides storage to some baseball teams. If you peek in the windows you will see that the interior looks quite abandoned. Once upon a time, the building was used as a changeroom facility and included a snack bar. While the city is working on creating a new expanded and accessible washroom on the west side, there are no plans to rebuild or revitalize the building.
As our community population continues to grow, I don’t think we should leave any city space abandoned to rot. I would like to examine how we can repurpose this space. A significant renovation would need to be done, but doing so could unlock some opportunities to expand summer camp capacities and provide much-needed community space. I also think that having an active snack bar would be a great asset to this park that has a playground, splash pad and 2 baseball diamonds. None of this will happen overnight, but our next step is to bring in technical services to examine the condition of the building to see what it would cost to bring it back to functionality vs. rebuilding the structure.
Tears at City Council - MM23.6 - Proclaiming December as Christian Heritage Month
This was an unexpected emotional moment for me at City Council and the first time I cried with a live mic. This motion was moved by Councillor Mantas. Prior to this passing in Toronto, 30 cities had already passed this motion. Mississauga passed it unanimously on October 30. Given that the city currently has Hindu, Jewish, Sikh, and Islamic Heritage Months, I thought this would pass easily. Unfortunately, this was not the case as people brought up the wrongs of the Christian church and pointed to its dominance in Canadian culture.
As a practicing Christian who defines my faith by what I stand for and not what I stand against, I began to get emotional as I felt the Christian faith was unfairly being put on trial. Every faith and people group have imperfect histories we must reconcile and learn from. However, this does not mean we discount the entire faith or people group. I shared how Christianity has saved my life from many struggles including an eating disorder and depression. It also carried me through the difficult journey I shared with my mom in her final years with Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
The motion passed despite the opposition and absence of many councillors. I wore my heart on my sleeve because I do not want my kids to think that being Christian should be something we should be ashamed of. Many Christians are committed to continual learning and taking steps toward reconciliation for the difficult history of the church. But I am proud to be Christian and grateful for the compass it provides for my life and leadership.
CC23.1 - Respecting Local Democracy and Cities
Whether or not you agree with bike lanes, which we know are controversial, I hope you can agree that we should work towards strengthening not weakening local democracy. The province’s proposal to override city policies on bike lanes sets a dangerous course for how cities can maintain the integrity of our democracy. This motion opposes Bill 212.
Here is the speech I shared at council:
In 2018, I signed up to run for City Council for the first time. I printed T-Shirts, put together a team for Ward 29, only to see the ward map I had printed on my materials disappear with the stroke of a notwithstanding clause.
Fast forward to 2024. I am thankfully a City Councillor. My ward has mixed feelings about bike lanes, which we are not sure will be implemented with this legislation. However, my strongest commitment eloquently echoed by my colleague Councillor Chernos Lin, is for the voice of local residents to matter.
My ward is a hybrid urban and suburban neighbourhood. Many of my residents need to drive to access our main street, while we also have many residents living in vertical communities along Yonge for whom biking and walking are integral to their daily lives.
Competing interests are always difficult in our line of work. But the best way to navigate difficult decisions is to listen to the community and chart a path based on common ground. That is my plan as we embark on the design of Transform Yonge.
We now have many e-scooters and e-bikes zipping across our sidewalks endangering the lives of our seniors and pedestrians. We have to build a future that is built on listening. The best way forward for any decisions - including the pain points currently experienced on Bloor West - is to listen to the community and chart a path forward. Is it messy? Yes! Is it sometimes painful? Yes! But this is democracy and it’s worth fighting for.
This provincial override could deny me the opportunity to work in a meaningful way with my community to come up with a safe and inclusive transformation of Yonge St.
But, this motion is not about bike lanes. It is about our democracy. As Torontonians, we are already THE MOST UNDERREPRESENTED constituents in Canada with on average 120K constituents per councillor. The shrinking of council was already a huge override and silencing of our local voice.
We cannot let the voices of Torontonians be overridden as a political tool of another level of government. We must fight to maintain the integrity of our local democracy! Otherwise, people are going to give up on participating.
The 10 Year Economic Plan Sidewalks to Skylines and 10 Year Culture Plan Culture Connects were both passed. The culture plan is a $10 million investment over 10 years with a focus on ensuring art is accessible in all neighbourhoods, especially those outside the downtown core. I agree with much of what was shared in both plans and look forward to their implementation. My only concern is the strong focus in the early years of the Economic Plan on the Central Business District (CBD) downtown. Willowdale has the largest concentration of business towers outside the downtown core and plans for much-needed revitalization do not kick in with this plan until 2027. Meanwhile, the large office buildings struggle with a vacancy of 25-30%.
Here is my speech about the Culture Connects Plan:
Make art not war. In a world that is increasingly divisive, art can help us build much needed bridges of inspiration and understanding.
As our city creates new downtowns with high levels of density, we must ensure the investment is made in these new communities to seed new arts organizations and programs to build social fabric and strengthen community engagement. We cannot keep building 40 and 50-storey buildings in the inner burbs and not invest in building the economic and cultural plans for these new downtown areas.
Mel Lastman envisioned North York to be a vibrant downtown as a centre to the GTA. We look forward to investments that can help to strengthen our cultural economy.
In Willowdale we have a fledgling arts organization called the Willowdale Arts Collective that started our first Live Lounge with live music at the Novotel Hotel on Thursday nights throughout the winter. Thus far, the first two nights have been sold out. The hunger for the arts is here, but the infrastructure is still lacking. North York Arts wants to be able to have accessible gallery space, local actors would love to have affordable rehearsal and performance space. Yet available space is unaffordable or inaccessible.
We have a concentration of up to 80% immigrants living along the Yonge Corridor and there are amazing cross-cultural arts opportunities that need just a little investment to seed and expand the existing pool of talent.
We will be a better Toronto when we invest in arts programs that bring us together.
General Government Committee
GG18.4 - Award of Doc4553928310 to GFL Environmental Inc., for Curbside Collection Services in District 2 for Solid Waste Management Services
This is the GFL contract that serves the west side of Yonge in our neighbourhood and beyond. This is a $289 million 5-year contract with two 1-year extension options. Some people wrote us in response to my previous newsletters about this item saying they prefer the private service they receive.
To be clear, privatization no longer provides an economic benefit. The cost is now the same on both the east and west sides of Yonge. However, GFL pays waste removal staff on the west side of Yonge an hourly rate of $24.02, whereas City Staff are paid $31.24 (this does not include fringe benefits), meanwhile, the chief executive officer Patrick Dovigi was paid $68.46 million in 2023. But, what is more concerning are the ethical and sustainable practices of this organization. Click Here to read some concerns brought up by The Local. No one wants to risk continuity of service for waste removal. Furthermore, this is not something that can be changed quickly due to the infrastructure costs required to deliver this service. As such, the motion to move forward with this contract was passed. That being said, I have some concerns which I hope can be addressed in future procurement processes.
The procurement for this contract was done as an RFQ (Request for Quote) which means the main determining factor was the price. This is different from an RFP (Request for Proposal) which can include other factors for consideration.
The city is currently examining the cost, benefits and risks of bringing privatized waste collection back in-house. This report will come out next year, giving the city sufficient time to establish the infrastructure necessary to fulfill such a service. Regardless of how we move forward, GFL will continue to be a part of our lives as they have secured the contract for Recycling based on terms set out by the province and an agency of producers under whose jurisdiction recycling will now be designated. Here are my concerns:
We should never consider such a large contract, especially one where environmental impact is a key factor, through an RFQ. Instead, we should consider their environmental behaviours and track record along with other factors that can speak to their performance and reliability.
Should the city care about an organization's ethical and sustainable practices when we choose to partner with them? An RFQ is blind to these matters, whereas an RFP can help us ensure we select partners that are not creating problems for our planet outside of our city, especially since our waste does not get buried in Toronto. We should care about how our waste is dealt with and ensure that it does not create problems for others, especially those who are more vulnerable.
I tried to move a motion in consultation with Deputy Mayor McKelvie, Chair Ainslie, and environmental advocate Councillor Saxe to ensure a better outcome in the future. However, my motion below failed at General Government Committee. I hope to explore other options to bring this back to council. Here is my failed motion:
1. City Council direct the General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services to report on the following in their upcoming report to Infrastructure and Environment Committee:
a. the feasibility of a managed competition for the next procurement of a waste collection service provider;
b. a procurement strategy for curbside collection services that considers/ incorporates/evaluates:
i. supplier performance and sustainability practices in alignment with TransformTO and the City’s sustainability objectives, including reaching Net Zero by 2040, and
ii. how evaluation criteria can be included in the solicitation regarding sustainable practices and regulatory compliance of proponents, and
c. the critical path with the procurement timeline required to acquire and / or build the necessary infrastructure, including procurement of trucks and truck storage capacity.
GG18.6 - Amendment to Blanket Contracts 47024891 with CBV Collection Services Ltd., 47024892 with Gatestone & Co Inc., and 47024893 with Partners in Credit Inc., for the Collection Services for Provincial Offences Act Fines for Court Services
We work with these agencies to collect debt for Provincial Offences Act fines. These collection agency costs are fully recovered from the debtors. Here are answers to a few questions I asked of staff:
Other items to read:
GG18.39 - Temporary Suspension of Duron Ontario Ltd. This item actually made the news. The motion to extend the suspension was passed.
GG18.37 - Status of iOS AirDrop Functionality on City Devices. Councillor Ainslie would like to see AirDrop functionality restored on city devices, however staff feel there is too much risk. Councillor Ainslie deferred the matter, possibly to explore if this can be changed. I too would like to see this functionality restored.
Thanks again for reading this very long email. We also selected a candidate for TOLive and the Housing Rights Advisory Committee at Civic Appointments this past week. Click Here to see the agenda for Service Excellence Committee next week.
Warmest Regards,
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