I can’t believe that July has come to an end and we’re already into August. While my favourite part of summer is being out in the community with all of you, whether that’s at our Summer Celebration, a community movie night, or one of my signature Park Pop-Ups, the work never stops here at City Hall. We had a busy July Council session, tackling everything from speeding up construction on the Gardiner to taking greater action to mitigate flooding after our extreme July storm. Let’s dive into it.
The Mayor’s First Key Matter for this Council agenda was aimed directly at tackling challenges with the Gardiner rehabilitation project. While the Gardiner Expressway is being uploaded to the Provincial government as part of the New Deal, the City will still be closely involved in the execution of state of good repair work to the end of the year. The traffic challenges we’ve experienced over the past few months have made it clear that we must speed up this work and do more to manage congestion.
Through partnership with the Provincial government, the City has secured an expedited work plan that will allow the project to wrap up a year earlier than originally planned. The project is now slated to finish in April 2026 instead of April 2027. The upgraded contract permits crews to work 24/7 to get this work done and keep our city moving. Rest assured we’ve built provisions into the contract to ensure the noisiest work, including demolitions, happens during the day. City staff also worked closely with industry experts to develop better congestion management measures—all essential steps to minimize the impacts of this project on commuters.
City Council also approved a plan to reallocate the funds from the upload of the Gardiner and the Don Valley Parkway (DVP) that resulted from the Ontario-Toronto New Deal we secured last year. This was a major achievement for the City. The New Deal awarded us operating savings for three years, but the capital savings on highway repairs are permanent and significant. The City will save $1.9 billion in capital costs in the first ten years alone.
That means nearly $2 billion can now be allocated to other much-needed capital work across Toronto, including $500 million for TTC improvements and hundreds of millions invested into state of good repair work in various city departments. I’ve gotten questions from some folks asking why this money is being spent instead of saved. The answer is that Toronto is staring down a state of good repair backlog of $10.6 billion.
The $1.9 billion we saved by uploading the Gardiner takes a good chunk out of that backlog. Delayed repairs only result in more damage and higher costs. These New Deal dollars will help us fix our roads faster, repair and upgrade important neighbourhood spaces like parks, community centres, and libraries, make essential investments into housing state of good repair, and complete important flood protection work. Here is the full list of areas where you can expect to see increased investment:
This was another long discussion at Council. The City of Toronto does not own or manage the Ontario Science Centre so the tools available to us are limited. We could never afford to take over the operation of a facility that costs $15 million to run each year with nothing but your property taxes.
We have heard loud and clear that the community wants the Science Centre to remain in place. While that is not within the City’s power to guarantee, Council has made a number of requests to the Province to explore options for a Provincial attraction at this site. That includes an invitation for the Provincial government to join a working group together with the City, the Toronto Zoo, and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority to discuss lease obligations and a possible Provincial solution for the future of the site.
I recently began my duties as Chair of the City’s FIFA World Cup sub-committee. The World Cup has the potential to give our economy a serious boost, especially in our hospitality and entertainment sectors. As Chair of this sub-committee, my focus is to balance costs and ensure that any public investments yield significant benefits for Torontonians.
We approved two motions at City Council that move us a few steps closer to hosting the tournament. The first allows us to receive donations and sponsorships to help cover the cost of the games. Given the huge impact this event will have on our local economy, I want to see the private sector step up and help us make our World Cup games the best they can be. This motion also allows us to accelerate transit projects on Dufferin Street and Bathurst Street to help fans make it to the games and alleviate some of the traffic impacts of hosting.
The second motion outlines our procurement plan to award contracts for a number of costs associated with hosting the games—everything from infrastructure upgrades to food and drink suppliers. A major contract has been awarded for the expansion of BMO Field. We also adopted policies for future contracts to ensure that our FIFA budget provides fair and equitable opportunities to businesses here in Toronto. This will help us ensure that the economic benefits of hosting the games are the strongest for Toronto businesses and workers.
This item responds to a deeply troubling development in our efforts to ensure everyone has access to $10-a-day child care. The Provincial government recently announced that they are cancelling 48 previously-approved child care expansion projects in schools across the city. This represents a loss of thousands of child care spaces, including nearly 50 new spaces that were slated to open here in Don Valley North.
The Provincial government must reverse this decision and make the necessary investments to expand school-based child care in our city. Since the implementation of the Federal $10-a-day program began, we’ve seen improved affordability for parents, better wages for workers, and moms getting back into the workforce, but the number of spaces has remained a challenge. We must continue to expand child care space to support Toronto families.
The Toronto Island Park Master Plan is the result of years of work and deep engagement with the community, and I hope you’ll pardon the pun when I say it truly is masterful. As the Mayor’s Economic Development & Culture Champion, I was focused on a specific part of the plan that had to do with our island airport—Billy Bishop.
An earlier draft of the Master Plan mentioned that if the airport ceased to exist, the City would turn those lands back into a park. This caused concern from a number of businesses that rely on our island airport. There are now about three million trips in and out of Billy Bishop airport every year, and it has become a key component of our downtown economy. Working with the Mayor’s Office and City staff, I was able to have the Master Plan updated. It now states that the western end of Toronto Island is still designated as an airport and there are no plans to change that.
This motion from Mayor Chow and Deputy Mayor McKelvie is a direct response to the extreme weather and flooding we experienced earlier this month. The July 16 storm made it abundantly clear that we still have a lot of work to do to adapt to climate change and make our city more resilient to extreme weather. To do that effectively, we need to implement a range of measures on public and private property.
On the public property side, staff will be investigating options to increase green infrastructure on our boulevards, streets, parking lots, and other public spaces. On the private property side, Mayor Chow’s motion directs staff to take stock of the stormwater mitigation programs we currently offer to property owners and evaluate their success and uptake. Staff will explore new programs that can help protect private properties from the impacts of flooding and will collect public input as part of their reporting process. Stay tuned for opportunities to share your feedback on what programs and incentives you would find most beneficial. With coordinated action, we can avoid costly floods and minimize the impact of extreme weather on our city.
Member Motions:
Below are a few more notable motions moved by my fellow Councillors at our meeting last week:
MM20.1 – Putting the Brakes on Auto Theft: This motion from Councillor Burnside asks the Federal and Provincial governments to tighten up their regulations for vehicle security features and registrations to help tackle auto thefts. Auto thefts are down across the City but we must stay diligent to combat this persistent problem.
MM20.3 – Welcome to Toronto, Taylor Swift!: Deputy Mayor McKelvie moved this motion to have a bit of fun with Taylor Swift’s upcoming visit to Toronto. She has organized a donor to fund the small cost of temporary “Taylor Swift Way” signs along the route from Nathan Phillips Square to the Rogers Centre, and the City will auction off the signs after the concerts to raise money for Daily Bread Food Bank.
As always, I hope you found these Council updates helpful and informative. I’ll be taking a break from the E-Blast for the month of August, but don’t worry—I’ll be back in your inbox the first week of September sharing everything you need to know as we move into a busy fall. I hope everyone here in Don Valley North and readers across the city have a wonderful rest of the summer.
Farewell, Josh!
I have some bittersweet news to share.
Many of you know Josh Bowman, who has been a member of my team since the summer of 2020. Josh has worn many hats in our office, doing everything from helping neighbours in Bayview Village and Henry Farm with local issues to handling some of our major policy files and development applications. He has been a pillar of my team for the past four years and has done so much to support my work here in Don Valley North.
Josh will be moving over to the City of Toronto's public service as a Senior Consultation Coordinator in the Parks department later this month. This is a wonderful opportunity, and I'm glad to know Josh's hard work and dedication will still very much be serving the people of Toronto in his new role.
A big congratulations to Josh on his new position! I know he will be missed here in Don Valley North, but we wish him all the best in this exciting new chapter.