Shelley Carroll

For the next few days, I will be writing about various city wide initiatives by way of an ‘end of Term Report’. After September 6^th, updates must go on hiatus until October 26^th.

Housing:

This term, Council adopted the Housing Opportunities for Toronto (HOT) plan. This plan is already being talked about across the country as the model to emulate going forward. Council has a major role along with Toronto Community Housing Corporation and private sector partners in the regeneration and rebuild of Regent Park. Plans for Lawrence Heights and Alexandra Park have also been adopted. These neighbourhoods represent some of the most challenged and crime-ridden Toronto areas over the past decade. A drive down to the completed sections of the new Regent Park will inspire you.

Nine more social housing sites will be rejuvenated using public-private development projects, including a location in Ward 33. As well, Council directed $75 million towards TCHC property repairs from the sale of Hydro Telecom. In the same year, City and TCHC staff negotiated a further $35 million for repairs from the Province, the first significant contribution to upkeep since the Province downloaded this housing to Toronto.

Our innovative Streets to Homes program moves people off the street and into housing using intensive transitional support and is being copied by the new Mayor of Vancouver. The project began by focusing on the 60 individuals then sleeping nightly in Nathan Philips Square.

An intensive program called MRAB was adopted through Council’s Licensing and Standards Committee in order to target sub-standard landlords and improve living standards for residents of multi-residential buildings across the City. So far, most of the special staff team are targeting particular problem properties but the project is designed to enhance skills in the Licensing and Standards division on both the inspection front and the legal follow-up front which is good news in Ward 33. Always feel free to call my office with tenant and property standards concerns.

For the next few days, I will be writing about various city wide initiatives by way of an ‘end of Term Report’. After September 6^th, updates must go on hiatus until October 26^th.

Waterfront

There has been steady progress here over the last three years. If you have taken a ferry trip to the Island this summer (and you should), the results appear as you look back at our harbour. Waterfront Toronto, the city’s partner, has opened Sugar Beach in an exciting area of development on the Lakeshore. Along with Sugar Beach, you will see the new Corus Entertainment headquarters, bringing 800 jobs to the area. Construction of the new beachfront George Brown campus is in full swing.

An environmental assessment on the future of the eastern section of the Gardiner Expressway is underway and its findings will be delivered to a new Mayor and Council for their consideration. The residential plan for the Lower Donlands neighbourhood and the plan to restore the Mouth of the Don River to mitigate flooding were recently adopted.

West Donlands is under construction already to house the Pan Am Games Athletes Village. You can see it as you reach the southern end of the Don Valley Parkway. Cherry Beach sports fields are already up and running in advance of the games.

If you commute through Union Station, you know that work is fully underway there. Not only will connections to GO and VIA be vastly improved, but the Pearson railink will be accommodated giving downtown travellers an alternative to joining us on the 401.The station will have a better connection to the Waterfront, sending those condo residents in a southerly direction and out of the Rush Hour crush.

And last but not least, it’s worth the trip to Queen’s Quay to walk west and note the progress. The Wave Deck is a favourite with tourists and children. Harbourfront Centre has developed beautiful outdoor performance spaces with the help of generous private sponsors. If you are taking a trip on Porter Airlines, it is worth it to cross the parking lot to spend a moment in Ireland Park. Nestled behind the old Canada Malting silos, this little parkette contains a very moving sculpture park to commemorate where some of our Irish ancestors came ashore tragically suffering from the effects of their voyage.

For the next few days, I will be writing about various city wide initiatives by way of an ‘end of Term Report’. After September 6^th, updates must go on hiatus until October 26^th. 

Transit City

Transit City is the most comprehensive undertaking ever to create new high-performance routes that will connect the suburbs with fast light rail transit (LRTs). The new lines proposed for Eglinton, Sheppard and Finch will connect Scarborough to Etobicoke without having to route through downtown. For the 50% of residents who rely on public transit, this upgrade will significantly reduce travel times.

The new LRTs will be fully accessible so that families with strollers and Torontonians with wheelchairs and walkers will have complete access. The new cars will be longer and carry more people reducing the rush hour crush of buses and cars.

The Sheppard East line is now under construction with funding from all three orders of government. Transit riders will change from the Sheppard subway to an LRT car all on one level and remain underground until Consumers Rd. avoiding the most dense rush hour traffic around the 404 interchange and Fairview Mall. As the construction moves into our area, this Blog will provide email updates on the traffic impacts of construction.

For the next few days, I will be writing about various city wide initiatives by way of an ‘End of Term Report’. After September 6^th, updates must go on hiatus until October 26^th.

Protecting Employment:

Through a number of decisions, City Council put emphasis on the economic health of Toronto. The Capital Budget 2009/10 was very consciously developed with an economic stimulus package to keep Torontonians working and out of the depths of recession. And it worked. Development charges were frozen in order to complement economic stimulus funded by other orders of government. The commercial property tax rate for small businesses, most vulnerable in a crisis, fell steadily.

A policy of tax increment financing was also established to attract outside business interest and to anchor key industries in the City such as food manufacturing, film production, green energy industries and the commercial portion of the new Woodbine Live complex.

On strong advice from the business sector, Council established Toronto Employment services and two new arms length corporations, Build Toronto and Invest Toronto. Build Toronto will take a private sector approach to maximizing return on city-owned and city-surplus real estate. Invest Toronto will aggressively seek out new business and new employment opportunities within our city limits.

All of this and more has been accomplished despite the continued slow pace of senior levels of government’s upload of unfair social costs on the City of Toronto. Combine all of your tax dollars, property, income, sales tax, etc. and you will find that the City of Toronto receives seven cents of every tax dollar you spend. All of the rest goes to Ottawa and Queen’s Park. But great strides in inter-governmental co-operation have been achieved during the recent Global Financial Crisis. This can and must continue to protect our urban economy and provide employment for our children and grandchildren.