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I put on a brave face this past holiday weekend as the third wave of the pandemic came rolling in hard. Here in Don Valley North, we were rocked by a school closure and saw entire grade cohorts sent to COVID-19 testing centres. The intensive care unit at North York General continued to fill up, as did those in hospitals across the province. At the office, our phones rang off the hook with calls from people frustrated by vaccine guidelines, financial pressures, outrageous car racing, and other issues. This latest wave of infection comes as all of us are running on empty. I also spent this past weekend baking to cheer up one very sad kid. Last year, on April 2, 2020, my youngest grandson Tyson was the first in our family to celebrate a pandemic birthday. “Don’t worry,” I assured him, “You will be ten next year and that’s a way better time for a big party.” This weekend, Tyson didn’t complain. Even at ten, he seemed to know that our family has been lucky to get through this alive and well. I got a little more vocal on social media over the Easter weekend as well. I have often bitten my tongue throughout the pandemic. I know it’s hard to lead in a crisis. More recently, however, I’ve made my disappointment with Provincial leadership clear. Provincial orders have felt contradictory to medical advice since the end of 2020, when our Premier kept the Province open long after doctors warned that a full lockdown was needed to curb the second wave. It’s hard not to imagine that we might be in a better position today if that medical advice had been followed. It seemed the Premier was continuing to ignore medical advice last week when he imposed an “emergency brake” that did little more in Toronto than close outdoor dining, a privilege we’d only been granted two weeks prior. Schools and businesses remained open as case numbers soared. I wasn’t the only one who spoke up a little louder after that announcement. Many in the community were scared that Ontario was losing control of the pandemic. Last Monday, Dr. Lawrence Loh, Peel’s Medical Officer of Health, overrode the Provincial government and closed schools in Peel region. By Tuesday, our Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen De Villa followed suit and closed Toronto schools. We finally saw evidence on Wednesday that the Premier might be listening to our doctors, on some things at least. The Province imposed another stay-at-home order, effective today. Non-essential businesses are now closed to in-store shopping, with big box stores finally required to only sell essential grocery and pharmacy items. Capacity in stores will go back to being carefully counted. Hopefully this will lead us back to sending only one family member to the store at a time. The Province has also stopped evictions from being enforced until the end of the stay-at-home order. Toronto is doing what it can with the modestly funded Toronto Rent Bank and payments are not being required on its rent loans during this time. Perhaps the most important part of Wednesday’s announcement was the expansion of the vaccination program to essential workers and “hot spot” neighbourhoods across the Province. I’ve outlined the full details in my vaccine update section below. As the Toronto Star reported, “Premier Doug Ford says he expects 40 per cent of adults in Ontario to be vaccinated by the end of a stay-at-home order… which is effective until May 7.” These measures are certainly needed to stop our cases numbers from climbing even higher, but I’m worried that they’re not enough. My team and I have seen the toll this pandemic has taken on our community, especially our families that have lost loved ones and are struggling to make ends meet. If we want this latest lockdown to be effective, and hopefully be our last, we need more action from higher levels of government. We need a full moratorium on evictions until this pandemic is over. Tens of thousands of homes in Toronto are in rent arrears. The Provincial and Federal Governments have to start working now to design housing safeguards that give individuals and families time to get back on their feet. We do the economy no favours if we stand by and watch more people be plunged into homelessness. More than anything, if we want to beat the third wave, we need to implement measures that will target the virus where it’s most active. We need the Premier to understand his role in mandating paid sick leave. He seems to think that the Federal Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB) is all that’s required. This program is helpful, but it does not replace a paycheque and will not stop struggling workers from going to work sick. A benefit that provides only $500 per week, less than what can be earned working full-time at minimum wage, does not provide enough income to allow people to stay home. The Provincial government needs to implement proper paid sick leave, the kind many of us received from our employers back in the sixties and seventies. Many people are going back to work despite direct exposure from an ill family member because their family is counting on that paycheck. Doctors are telling us as loudly as they can that this is how the virus is spreading: along the frontlines and in lower wage sectors of employment. Paid sick leave is what’s needed to give workers the confidence and financial support to stay home when they’re sick. I’ve been advocating for paid sick leave since this pandemic started, and I need you to do the same. Talk this up in your own virtual social circles, and help us get our communities talking about this until it cannot be ignored by our Provincial Government any longer. I know this latest stay-at-home order is hard to bear, and I share in many of your frustrations. We need to advocate for better action from our governments, and we need to hunker down as tightly as we did in April 2020. These next few weeks are crucial, and will tell us whether or not we are winning the war against the fast-spreading COVID variants. We can also start making our own vaccination plans to help the Premier reach the goal of getting 40% of Ontario’s adult population vaccinated by May 7. We expect that the details about vaccines for essential workers and those living in our high priority postal codes in Don Valley North, M2J and M2M, will be revealed in the next day or two. As soon as we receive this information, we will be shouting it out from the rooftops. My staff team and I want to support you in whatever way we can as you make your vaccination decisions, and I encourage you to call or email my office with any of your questions or concerns. We’ve also been promoting our upcoming Vaccine Town Hall (details below), which will give you a chance to hear from Dr. de Villa, NYGH CEO Karyn Popovich, and one of North York’s most beloved family doctors, Dr. David Eisen, head of NYGH Family Medicine. If you are still waiting to vaccinate and have questions of any kind, this is a medical superstar team that can really help. So how do we do our best to make this lockdown our last? We follow public health guidelines, stay at home, and help our family and friends get vaccinated. We also demand more from our Provincial government. We make sure that renters are protected from eviction, small businesses are supported, and that every worker has access to paid sick leave. I promise you that I’ll continue to fight for these measures and support our community so that we can finally get through this pandemic together.

As all of us live through this terrible third wave, it has become harder than ever to imagine what life will look like after the pandemic is over. The federal budget that was announced this week may be one of the last things on people’s minds. There are other things to worry about, like trying to get your vaccine appointment booked or keeping a close eye on the kids. While it’s hard to see past the moment we’re in right now, we need to look at how we’re going to get through this pandemic and out the other side. Here in Toronto, we need funding commitments from both the Federal and Provincial governments if we want to keep our city afloat, let alone achieve the recovery we need to keep Toronto strong. In this E-Blast, I’m taking a look at some of the most important aspects of the Federal budget and how they’ll impact our City. CHILD CARE One of the highlights of my week was reading the announcement that the federal budget pledged to provide all Canadians with access to $10 per day child care in the next five years. I’ve long been advocating that we provide all families with access to child care they can truly afford. I recently harkened back to a tweet I sent out in 2013, in hopes that my own granddaughter, Eva, might be able to access child care for $10 per day by the time she one day becomes a mom. After the announcement this week, it looks like this could become a reality long before then. The Federal government has dedicated nearly $30 billion in child care funding over the next five years. This funding will dramatically decrease the cost of child care that many families struggle to afford here in Toronto, where parents pay the highest fees in the country. I hear from countless parents (and even grandparents) trying to find affordable child care spaces for their kids. This federal funding would see the cost of all regulated early learning and child care reduced by 50% by the end of 2022, and would bring that cost even further down to the $10 a day average by 2025-26. Providing truly affordable child care is essential to building back our economy after this pandemic ends. Many people, especially women, are blocked from entering the workforce without access to child care. This program would help thousands of Toronto families access economic opportunity and contribute to building back our City in the aftermath of the pandemic. LONG-TERM CARE What I was most disappointed about in the federal budget was a lack of concrete steps to support our seniors in long-term care (LTC). Thousands of seniors have died from COVID-19 in LTC homes across the province, and many of you took the time to write to my office to advocate for robust, comprehensive changes to the LTC system. While the budget does commit $3 billion to improving LTC over five years, it does not spell out how this will happen and includes no national standards for how we care for some of our most vulnerable. We need a real plan from both the Federal and Provincial governments to ensure LTC residents receive the highest quality of care. We know that these homes need more staff who are better compensated and a rigorous inspection regime to ensure homes are operating to the highest standard. This is especially important as we remember that here in Toronto, LTC homes managed by the City fared far better than those managed by private companies or non-profit agencies. This was no accident. The City has high accountability standards in homes, provides more hours of hands-on care, and pays LTC workers a fair, liveable wage. We need a plan to make sure the same standard applies to every LTC home in our country. TRANSIT As TTC Commissioner, I paid close attention to the commitments to transit funding presented in the federal budget. This budget reiterated previous commitments of almost $15 billion over eight years to fund public transit expansion starting this year. While it's great to see funding for new subways and other transit projects, we also significant investments right now to maintain our existing levels of service on the TTC. We’ve needed over a billion dollars in funding just to cover the TTC’s operating costs during the pandemic. We’re going to need stable, long-term funding agreements from both the Federal and Provincial governments if we want to deliver much-needed service to our bus, streetcar, and subway routes. There is much heavy lifting to do in order for transit to recover. I'm hopeful that the three levels of government can work together to put the TTC on a strong path forward. WHERE WE'RE AT TODAY While this budget has given us a look towards the future, I know we still have a lot of work to do right now to get through the third wave. We have still not seen a plan to get vaccines to child care workers, education workers and teachers, and transit operators, who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to take care of our children and help our other frontline workers get where they need to be. All of these essential workers need to get their vaccines as soon as possible, along with the many other frontline workers that have allowed many of us to stay home. I also know there’s a lot of work to do as pop up clinics begin to roll out in our priority neighbourhoods, M2J and M2M. We were there to see the lines at the Parkway Forest pop up last Sunday, and heard your concerns loud and clear. No one should have to get in line at midnight to get a first-come, first-served vaccine at 8:30 AM the next morning. I have been communicating these concerns directly to North York General Hospital, the organizer of the clinic, to emphasize how important it is that they set up a pre-registration system for these clinics going forward. I'm happy to announce that they are working on this and we should see a better system for these pop up clinics soon. I know it can be stressful and frustrating to wait to get your first dose. By the time you read this, clinics here in Toronto will have delivered one million doses into arms, and that’s an achievement worth celebrating. Of course, there’s always room to improve, and I’ll keep advocating for better vaccine rollout here in Don Valley North and across the city. As more and more of us get the vaccine, I hope we start thinking about the future we want to see after this pandemic is over.

Against all odds, growth from development and construction continues in Toronto, right through the worst public health crisis we’ve ever faced with all of its economic impacts. We came into this pandemic with a deep housing shortage already underway. All three orders of government had already implemented programs to incentivize affordable housing construction, such as allowing for more extreme intensification along all transit corridors. Coupled with extended construction hours, the usual slowdown of development that accompanies an economic downturn simply has not materialized. I know that the scale and pace of development in Don Valley North has been stressful for many residents. We’re home to one of the busiest development corridors in the city, second only to Yonge Street. Some community members have told me they’re worried that approvals are being pushed through without consultation. Many folks might look at the sign on a development site, with its jarring orange box where a building might be, and think it’s already a done deal. In fact, every development proposal is very much a work in progress. Our city planners continue to apply the same amount of rigour to any development application they receive. This includes a long and complex process of planning, consultation, negotiation, approvals and appeals which has given our planners a reputation with developers for taking too long to produce final reports. At the City, we don’t apologize for this. Every development application must be carefully considered and our planners only write a final report when they have a result they can defend to Council. The circumstances of the pandemic have not changed that. The pandemic has, of course, changed the way we conduct consultations for these development proposals. Public consultations are happening virtually. I know this is not ideal, but it does have one benefit: virtual meetings can be recorded and reviewed when it comes time to sit down with the developer to demand key changes. Still, I know that it can be challenging to have your voice heard during a ward-wide public consultation. My team and I are always willing to schedule a virtual follow-up meeting for a group of neighbours, a condo board, or a resident group. This will give your group a chance to get more detail on the application and really spell out your local knowledge and input. Recently, my team and I met with North York planning staff to receive a quarterly update on all development applications in our area. Ryan Lo, my planning and policy advisor, has written an extensive Lo-Down report this week to bring you up to speed on development in Don Valley North. Unfortunately, this will be our last Lo-Down as Ryan is leaving us to join the City’s public consultation unit. When our ward doubled in size, I hired Ryan to help keep us on top of all of the development applications we were receiving. Ryan’s keen interest in mobility planning also made him the perfect person to spearhead our DVN Connects transportation plan. I’m always sad to lose a bright young staffer like Ryan, but it softens the blow to know he’s bringing his talents to the Toronto Public Service. I hope you will join me in thanking Ryan for all the work he’s done for Don Valley North. Development updates will always be a part of my E-Blast as long as our neighbourhoods are challenged by growth, but we will have to find a new name for the report. The Lo-Down will always belong to Ryan Lo. The Lo-Down: Development Overview At our meeting with City Planning staff, we discussed the progress on the nearly 40 active development applications in Don Valley North. This tremendous growth our community is facing highlights how important it is for us to continue engaging with residents like you about each proposal and its potential impact. While it's impossible to go over every application in this E-Blast, here are the key updates for our ward's most high-profile development proposals: 680-688 Sheppard Avenue East Shelley and City Planning staff still have many concerns about the current proposal for a 24-storey residential building. Issues such as height and built form remain unresolved at this time. 1181 Sheppard Avenue East Shelley met virtually with residents at Singer Court last month to discuss this application, which includes an office and residential building. Traffic and built form continue to be major concerns, while a public TTC/GO station connection presents an opportunity to improve transit access for the area. We anticipate that there will be changes to the proposal that will be shared with the community. 630-686 Finch Avenue East City Planning staff will be organizing a series of working group meetings in the coming months for this 12-storey mixed-use building proposal. Staff and the developer will be meeting with resident representatives to find solutions that address the community’s concerns. 6 Foxdale Court This application proposes to subdivide a large residential lot into five smaller lots. City Planning staff will be requesting permission from North York Community Council to schedule a community meeting, which will give residents an opportunity to share their concerns with City staff and the owner. 1 Heron's Hill Way The proposed 39-storey mixed-use building is on a site that is currently zoned as an employment area. This means that specific policies apply to the proposal and the review process is more stringent. City Planning staff will need to further study the merits of changing the zoning to include residential uses. What about the others? As always, you can find more information about other development applications and upcoming community meetings on our website: https://shelleycarroll.ca/development-updates. If you have any questions, feel free to email us at councillor_carroll@toronto.ca or call 416-338-2650.

First, a personal indulgence. Shout out to my Dad, Jack Baskerville, who turns 94 today. He’s waiting patiently to be sprung from his long-term care room for a nice trip out to a real restaurant with real waiters. Soon, Dad! Soon! In last week’s E-Blast, I shared some of the most notable items from our May Council meeting. One piece I left out was housing. My team and I have been engaging in many conversations with residents in Don Valley North about housing, whether that be helping a tenant who’s facing eviction or engaging with a neighbourhood about temporary and permanent housing solutions for those in our City who are homeless. At one virtual meeting, I heard many residents ask what the City is doing to create permanent housing solutions for those who need them most. I was happy to field this question, as the Mayor and Council are prioritizing the creation of housing to relieve our shelter crisis above all else except COVID-19 itself. We made some important moves towards this just last week at our May Council meeting. FRAMEWORK FOR THE USE OF MINISTERIAL ZONING ORDERS (MZOs) There has been a bit of confusion lately about a heavy-handed provincial planning tool called a ministerial zoning order or MZO. MZOs are a critical tool in the creation of rapid affordable housing. They can condense the planning process in order to take advantage of multi-government partnerships to get affordable housing built as quickly as possible. In Toronto, we may request an MZO if we receive funding for housing that’s conditional upon the project being completed within a prescribed time limit. When this happens, we still engage the community. Most importantly, we only use MZOs for projects that meet urgent needs while complimenting the official plan for the area. What causes me and my fellow Councillors to express outrage is when MZOs are used inappropriately by the Provincial Government to approve developments that, for instance, threaten the environment or compromise listed heritage facilities. City Council may have asked for MZOs, but not for developments that fly in the face of Toronto’s Official Plan or the Province’s own planning policy statement. To eliminate the confusion, Council has adopted our own policy guidelines that outline the circumstances under which Council would support the use of an MZO. We are sending these guidelines to the Province and sharing them with you, our residents of Toronto. They are included in recommendation number one in this item. RAPID HOUSING INITIATIVES IN CHINATOWN AND ROSEDALE Council approved two new projects that will create 336 units of permanent, supportive, and deeply affordable housing here in Toronto. The City has acquired two buildings downtown, 222 Spadina Ave in Chinatown and 877 Yonge St in Rosedale, which can be retrofitted using Federal Rapid Housing Initiative funding. These buildings are good candidates because they were previously used as residential buildings. They also have great common areas for the kinds of programming and support services that people need when they are making their way back to independent life from homelessness. These projects are also perfect examples of when the City would request the use of an MZO, as the funds for these projects, provided by the Federal Government, must be used by the end of 2021. MZOs are also necessary to decrease parking requirements and slightly increase the number of units to accommodate the larger number of bachelor units needed at these sites. There are five more rapid housing projects on their way this year to use the rest of the Rapid Housing Initiative dollars and other funding components of the National Housing Strategy. Every one of these projects is a step towards addressing the housing and homelessness crises in our city. VIRTUAL LANDLORD AND TENANT BOARD (LTB) HEARINGS Council endorsed a letter requesting that the Provincial Government reconsider its new strategy that would see virtual hearings at the Landlord and Tenant Board become the default format after the pandemic ends. While you may not have had to advocate for yourself in a dispute with a landlord at a virtual tribunal, I know that many of you have expressed frustrations with other virtual meeting formats. Whether it be for a development consultation or Committee of Adjustment hearing, it can be hard to participate and have your voice heard in a virtual setting. We’re all making do given the current circumstances, but some matters are too important to make virtual meetings the default once we’re through this pandemic. Part of the growth in homelessness in Toronto stems from evictions that have increased, lawful or not, throughout Ontario since the pandemic began. When the current moratorium on eviction tribunals is lifted, tens of thousands more tenants will face eviction. Providing fair, in-person eviction tribunals will be necessary to mediate recovery plans between tenants and landlords and prevent more people from experiencing homelessness. There are a number of organizations supporting tenants who are at risk of eviction, including Willowdale Legal here in Don Valley North and the Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations (FMTA). Legal aid clinics like Willowdale Legal saw a concerning Provincial funding cut just prior to the pandemic. They will need these funds restored to continue to be great advocates and mediators in these challenging times. UPDATE ON COMMITTEE OF ADJUSTMENT VIRTUAL PUBLIC HEARINGS As I mentioned above, I’ve heard from many of you who have been specifically frustrated with the Committee of Adjustment (CoA) during the pandemic. In response to these concerns, Council and I directed City staff to conduct an independent review of this process. Staff will investigate your concerns, revise current processes, and consider alternatives for things like minor variances that will make the CoA process more accessible and fair for all residents. MORE HOUSING INITIATIVES Beyond this month’s Council meeting, Toronto’s Housing Secretariat continues to utilize any and all partnerships that come our way to produce more affordable housing. There are a few more initiatives worth noting. Two modular housing projects have been completed in Toronto, and two more are preparing for construction. Once approved, these buildings are ready for occupancy after just six months. 226 new supportive units have been built to date, and Mayor Tory hopes to raise this number to 1000 units before the end of this term. The Mayor has also lead Council in directing City staff and partner agencies to help move shelter clients into stable housing. Mayor Tory has urged that as soon as a shelter client is ready to take on their own subsidized apartment or TCHC social housing unit, our City staff are there to help them do so. In the last 14 months, 6000 Torontonians who were experiencing homelessness have found permanent homes. This pandemic has only added to the housing challenges we’ve long been facing here in Toronto. That’s why it’s crucial that my fellow Councillors and I keep working towards a variety of affordable housing solutions as quickly as we can. While there’s still a ways to go to support our residents, we’re making some real progress towards housing stability and affordability in our City.

I started doing a monthly rundown of the most notable items appearing before Council back in 2019. I haven’t given one of these updates in the last couple of months, as the reality of the pandemic and vaccine rollout became the most important things to communicate to you. There are a number of things worth noting this month, so let’s get back to it. PAYIT: A NEW WAY TO PAY YOUR BILLS PayIt is a company that’s offering a new way for Torontonians to pay their bills. It will provide one central system to pay for your taxes, permits, swimming lessons and more. I believe it’s high time we updated our current hodgepodge of payment systems, but I take issue with the way this contract was awarded. Talking about the process for awarding contracts to companies can be a bit of a nerd fest. Suffice to say, a Councillor’s job is to ensure that the proper processes are followed. I firmly believe that every valid business should have a fair chance at winning one of these contracts. That’s not what happened in this case, so I voted against awarding the contract to PayIt. That being said, the majority of my colleagues on Council voted in favour. We’re moving forward with PayIt, and I will be working closely on this initiative to make sure it delivers on its promises. When the app is launched, I’ll write detailed instructions in this column to teach you how to use it and avoid unwanted service charges. CITY OF TORONTO’S RESPONSE TO COVID-19 On Tuesday night, Council had an opportunity to ask Dr. de Villa and Chief Pegg questions about our City’s response to COVID-19. My biggest takeaway was the importance of booking your vaccine as soon as possible. Don’t put it off any longer. Dr. de Villa reminded us that by June, you will be competing with all remaining adults while clinics also start administering second doses. The latest details on vaccinations are below, immediately after the Council highlights PETITION: VACCINATE TRANSIT WORKERS NOW As a TTC Commissioner, it was painful to see our transit workers left out of Phase One vaccinations while other frontline workers were prioritized. Since the pandemic began, over 1000 transit workers have tested positive for the virus. I started a petition to demand that transit workers get priority access to vaccines. Over 600 people signed my petition, and Council voted unanimously to receive it. I hope this sends a clear message to the Province to vaccinate our transit workers now. STOPPING EXCESSIVE VEHICLE NOISE A couple of my colleagues are taking a new approach to the campaign I’ve been waging for a couple of years now. I’ve been trying to get City Staff and Toronto Police to take street racing and dangerous stunt driving seriously in this city. We recently experienced the worst example of this in Don Valley North at McNicoll Avenue and Harold Evans Cres over Easter weekend. Burnt rubber stains still mark the intersection. I hope the unanimous support for this latest motion supplements the motions I’ve already moved and leads to a clampdown on these dangerous driving activities as the summer arrives. E-SCOOTERS: ACCESSIBILITY AND INSURANCE ISSUES Council and staff were in complete agreement that now is not a good time for us to pilot an e-scooter sharing service. Many of you have written to me with serious concerns about the safety of these vehicles. It’s important to remember that e-scooters remain prohibited on all Toronto roads, including bike lanes, sidewalks and pedestrian pathways. I also supported a motion asking the Province to make helmets mandatory on these fast-moving motorized vehicles. WHERE’S OUR GARBAGE GOING? Our landfill is starting to run out of capacity. This item authorizes staff to start shipping our waste to other municipalities to be incinerated. I voted against this because I wanted staff begin a dialogue with you before taking a big step like this. We need to start a city-wide conversation about the future of Toronto’s waste, with a focus on diverting from landfill and waste reduction. Reduction needs to be the first goal because all other waste solutions are growing in cost every day. BUILDING THE CHILD CARE SYSTEM TORONTO NEEDS I was proud to join Councillor Layton in moving this motion. City Council has welcomed the federal government’s plan to achieve universally affordable childcare. This national childcare plan would work with provinces and municipalities to build a ten-dollar-a-day childcare system across the country by 2025-2026. In Ontario, the goal is to cut childcare fees by 50% by the end of 2022. This would be a game changer for families who currently pay the highest childcare fees in the country, but it won’t happen if our Provincial Government doesn’t step up to this amazing opportunity. Stay tuned. I’ll be coming back to this initiative if we don’t hear a bold commitment from the Province to start partnering and working on this soon. SHOWING OUR SENIORS THAT WE CARE Back in 2004, during my first term on Council, we started a Council-sponsored Toronto Seniors’ Forum to inform our actions in long-term care and community-based senior services. I’m so glad that we did. In light of the current province-wide conversation, the forum has launched a campaign called “Showing Our Seniors That We Care”. I’m proud to join Councillor Fletcher in having this campaign endorsed by the Mayor and Council. The item includes their demands of all governments, including much-needed investments in long-term care and ageing in place. Planning items: Supportive housing, MZO’s, & virtual hearings Council is considering a number of items on planning and housing, including virtual hearings for Committee of Adjustment and the Landlord and Tenant Board, a framework for Minister’s Zoning Orders (MZOs), and supportive housing initiatives in Rosedale and Chinatown. These items are still being debated by Council today, so I’ll give you a full update in next week’s E-Blast.

I know many of us aren’t taking transit the way we used to. TTC ridership has plummeted over the past year as regular commuters started working from home or switched to other modes. Transit might not be top of mind for you right now, but it’s crucial that we continue to work towards our transit goals. We desperately need an expanded and properly-funded transit system, and that work can’t happen overnight. Last week, there was much fanfare about an infusion of federal dollars into major transit projects across the GTA. The bulk of this $12 billion commitment is focused on four very specific projects, none of which will run directly through Don Valley North. At first, it was disappointing to see that none of these projects connect directly to our neighbourhoods. However, after several days of mulling over the announcement and taking stock of other transit projects already underway, I came to the conclusion that our rides will be improved by these new projects. They will create more options for getting where you need to go. When I was growing up in Don Mills, getting yourself to Eglinton Station was everything. We would beg our parents to drive us down to Eglinton Avenue so we could catch a more frequent bus. I remember pleading, “Please, mom! We won’t have to pay a second zone fare if you just take us down to Eglinton and Leslie. Please!” Decades later, when my daughter started going to high school downtown, she would say, “Just drop me anywhere on Don Mills Road. It’s way less crowded if I take a bus down to Pape.” That rocked my world. It was never an option in my youth, when the Don Mills bus came so infrequently that you would freeze to death in the winter before you got on. Thankfully, transit options in our suburbs evolve as ridership patterns change. These days, the Don Mills bus arrives every two minutes. Bus service also changes when new subway and LRT lines are built, connecting existing routes to the new bus terminals in their stations. So while these upcoming projects won’t run directly through Don Valley North, they will provide new connections to the rest of the City. Let’s take a look at them. The four transit lines that Federal Minister McKenna announced last week are not new. What is new is the commitment from the Federal Government to fund 40% of their cost, while Provincial/Municipal agreements will cover the rest. This federal investment will see these four transit projects prioritized: The Yonge Subway Extension which continues Line One up into Richmond Hill The Scarborough Subway Extension which extends the Bloor-Danforth subway through Scarborough Town Centre and up to Sheppard Avenue The Ontario Line which will run from Ontario Place downtown to the Science Centre at Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue The Eglinton Crosstown West LRT Extension which takes the crosstown all the way to Mississauga, where it can connect to the MiWay transit system I do have some concerns about aspects of this plan. For instance, the agreement to prioritize the Yonge Subway Extension to Richmond Hill will add passengers to an already overloaded Line One. Thankfully, the TTC Commission has received funding commitments over the last few years that will be used to massively increase capacity on the Yonge Line. The TTC has used the reduced ridership during the pandemic to massively expedite installing an automated control signal system that will allow us to safely run more trains on the line and increase passenger capacity by almost 30%. However, we’ll need to continue this work to accommodate increased ridership from this new extension. The biggest disappointment, of course, is that the Sheppard subway extension isn’t included and will thus be pushed even further into the future. However, I still believe these projects and others already underway will deliver new options for transit riders in Don Valley North. The new station at Eglinton and Don Mills is going to provide a major connection to the rest of the City. If you haven’t been through that intersection in a while, you may not recognize it. Not only is the old IBM plant flattened and a massive new residential development under construction, but a large new bus terminal sits waiting for when the Eglinton Crosstown opens. Think of the number of journeys we might make by taking a Don Mills express bus to Don Mills and Eglinton, where we can then get on the Ontario Line to head downtown or the Eglinton Crosstown which will stretch all the way from the Airport to U of T’s Scarborough campus. Outside of these new TTC projects, there will also be new and improved options for our GO users in the coming years. Both Oriole GO Station and Agincourt GO Station are going through major transformations. Agincourt Station is being improved and prepared for increased ridership, including all day, two-way service. It will also have better pedestrian connections for those getting off the Sheppard bus to take a fast GO train downtown. Plans have also been submitted to connect Oriole Station, located at Leslie and the 401, to the Leslie subway station, which I started advocating for as soon as Leslie Station became part of my ward. These station improvements will make it easier to access express rail service to Union Station and slightly lessen the load on the Yonge subway line. Finally, I want to remind you that while new transit projects are exciting, we need to take care of the system we have. As a TTC Commissioner, this is my chief responsibility. My fellow board members and I are tasked with maintaining and upgrading our existing system so that it can continue to serve you as best as possible. Since I returned as Commissioner at the beginning of this term, I have been lobbying at every level of government for new vehicles to be ordered. I have been as repetitive as a broken record on this subject. Our TTC senior staff took inventory of our existing fleet and informed us that we would run woefully short of buses, subway cars and streetcars by the end of this decade. That would impact every Torontonian. Unreliable transit vehicles and reduced service drives people off the system and puts more cars on the road. Thankfully, along with the new lines, we have a multi-government funding commitment to order the new vehicles we need. Every new transit project announced will help us, but it’s important to remember that what will help us most isn’t even a new line on the map. It’s brand new vehicles for the ride you take every day. It’ll be many years until we can all enjoy our new, expanded transit lines. Until that day comes, I’m going to keep working hard to maintain and improve our existing system to continue serving Toronto residents. Now, all we need is for the pandemic to end so we can hop back on the bus and go to work.

A year ago, our community here in Don Valley North had to face an additional struggle on top of the COVID-19 pandemic: a European gypsy moth infestation. I’m lucky to have such engaged and proactive residents in my ward. You were the first to observe this infestation, and by reporting it to my office we got City staff on the case straight away. The City’s Urban Forestry staff had already been responding to sightings of these prolific little moths in the west end. Suddenly, we needed them to head east to Don Valley North and act fast. They have been responding to the infestation on a city-wide basis ever since. Last summer, my team and I disseminated information on gypsy moths through this E-Blast. We also made an instructional video demonstrating how to remove unhatched egg masses from the trees in your yard. I remember driving up to Lescon Park to film the video with one of my staff, my husband, and my 13 year old grandson, who turned out to be a decent little camera man. You can watch the video below: Egg mass removal is effective from August to May, before the caterpillars have hatched. Other strategies are needed to beat these bugs the rest of the year. Since filming that video, I’ve made a dedicated page on my website with comprehensive information on how to respond to gypsy moths. It includes a downloadable copy of the City’s informational pamphlet that was sent to homes in affected areas. I encourage you to print and circulate the pamphlet to any neighbour that needs to know what to look out for on their own trees. You can find all of this at my website: shelleycarroll.ca/gypsy-moths Recently, we have been receiving new calls about this year’s gypsy moth sightings. A few residents have asked why we haven’t been able to get rid of these things completely. Unfortunately, the species is so well-established in North America that eradicating the moths is no longer possible. Instead, we all have a part to play in managing the moths at every part of their life cycle. Let’s review what the City has been doing to manage this year’s infestation and what you can do to help. At any point in the year, you can report a gypsy moth sighting to City staff to help inform their work for the following season. You can report gypsy moths by calling or emailing 311, or by using the City’s new online reporting tool: Based on these reports from last year, the City’s contractors removed unhatched egg masses from approximately 1000 trees in Don Valley North over the past several months. To put that into perspective, removing eggs from 1000 trees is equivalent to stopping 1,000,000 caterpillars from hatching. These 1000 trees were all on City property, whether that be in City parks or on the boulevard in front of your home. It’s important to note that trees located on private property, like your backyard, are the responsibility of the property owner. The City has created its own webpage with comprehensive information about what you can do to deal with gypsy moths on your private trees. They add an important bottom line: if you are facing a serious outbreak on your own property, they recommend you call an arborist to get professional advice and possibly full treatment for your trees. So what do you need to do right now? Currently, the caterpillars are the things you really want to stop. Having just hatched over the past couple of weeks, they will continue to feast on trees until mid-July when they enter the cocoon phase. These caterpillars eat so much, they can completely defoliate a tree and others around it. Some trees are at a higher risk than others, particularly oak trees. The trees won’t necessarily die, but they become quite vulnerable while they’re defoliated. If you notice gypsy moth caterpillars on your trees, there are two things you can do. From late May to early June, you can apply a Btk solution to your trees. You can purchase this product at the hardware store, and it won’t harm the tree itself, just the insect. Until July, you can also hand-pick caterpillars from your trees and bushes and place them in a bucket of soapy water to destroy them. This is most effective on smaller trees and shrubs. Be sure to wear gloves while doing this, as we recently learned that the residue left behind by these little pests can cause an itchy skin rash. Once again, I’m feeling blessed to have such engaged and diligent residents in my ward. It was a resident just like you who reported that the caterpillars can cause skin rashes, which has since been confirmed by a doctor. This has put me on another quest to ensure this important health information is added to our City’s website and literature pieces on gypsy moths. By doing your part to remove caterpillars from your trees now, and egg masses later in the summer, you can help control the gypsy moth population in our neighbourhoods. I know how bothersome these pests can be, so my team and I will continue to assist you with any questions or concerns you have about gypsy moths. Together, we can reduce the impact of these bugs so that we (and our trees) can enjoy the beautiful spring we’ve been having.

With patios and retail stores re-opening this weekend, it finally feels like we’re starting to get to the other side of the pandemic. Of course, responding to COVID-19 is still top of mind, but there are many other important issues affecting our City as well. City Council met this week, so let’s take a look at some of the big items from this month’s meeting. ELECTION RELATED INFORMATION REQUESTS Council considered a report from the City Clerk on a range of municipal election related issues. These are more important than ever after the Premier cut Council in half just before the 2018 election, creating super-wards. In particular, I had requested the Clerk report back on a “matching funds” campaign program, currently in use in New York City. There, the City matches small campaign donations 8:1 instead of providing rebates much later on. This encourages candidates to focus their campaigns on smaller, neighbourhood-based contributions. The matching funds are provided only after candidates agree to strict, periodic compliance audits and website disclosure of their donors prior to election day. I’m disappointed that staff did not emphasize the need for these transparency measures here in Toronto. While I had to concur it is not feasible to put this program in place for the next election in 2022, a few more councillors expressed an interest in pursuing it for the next term. Support for this healthy change for our democracy is growing. ONTARIO PLACE REDEVELOPMENT UPDATE The Provincial government wants to redevelop Ontario Place, but hasn’t revealed any details about its plan in nearly two years. More importantly, there hasn’t been consultation with Toronto residents or the City on this massive project. Council has requested that the Province start to work with us on the future of Ontario Place. We’ve also requested that public meetings be held as soon as possible so that residents get a say in redeveloping this iconic part of the city. THE PEANUT AS A POTENTIAL NEIGHBOURHOOD IMPROVEMENT AREA At the end of May, I requested that City staff review The Peanut, our neighbourhood in and around Don Mills Road, as a potential Neighbourhood Improvement Area (NIA). NIAs receive additional investments to address the community’s greatest needs, and I believe The Peanut deserves this designation. I know how hard our community organizations are working to support the thousands of newcomers and low-income Torontonians who call The Peanut home. I was so glad to see my fellow Councillors support this motion, and I’ll be keeping you all updated on staff’s review of this item. A retro aerial image showing why The Peanut got its name. TORONTO NEWCOMER STRATEGY 2022-2026 Those of you who read my E-Blast last week will remember that I touched on the importance of securing more federal funding to support newly-arrived refugees when Canada can open up its borders again. In a similar vein, Council adopted the Toronto Newcomer Strategy 2022 - 2026 to ensure that our growing population of newcomers receives proper transition supports when they arrive here in Toronto in the coming years. This included calls on the Provincial and Federal governments to engage with the City on this important topic. CHILD CARE GROWTH STRATEGY In my last Council rundown, I shared exciting news about the Federal government’s plan to achieve universally affordable childcare by 2026. I know that Toronto families need to see this program come into effect as quickly and smoothly as possible. This item adopted by Council requests that the City of Toronto be a partner in developing this plan. I moved that we take another look at our own Child Care Strategy to see how it can align with the Federal plan, how we can explore new models that match the changing needs of parents, and how we can grow enrollment in our centres this fall. The item also asks that the child care sector in Toronto receive much-needed funding to get through the end of the pandemic and recovery period. MANAGING PLASTICS AND SINGLE-USE TAKEAWAY ITEMS While the pandemic has spurred us to make faster progress on some important issues, like affordable housing, it’s caused us to lose ground on others, especially single-use items and plastics. We still need a plan to tackle this issue, so Council adopted two items aimed to decrease our use of plastics and single-use items. We called on the Federal government to implement its plan to reduce and ban some plastics as soon as possible, and implemented the first phase of our own reduction strategy. For now, the City is focusing on encouraging and incentivizing businesses to take voluntary steps to reduce plastic. Once we get through the pandemic, we’ll be able to take stronger steps to eliminate single-use plastics. ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING PROJECT Council adopted another item to help our environment. The Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF) will be receiving $2 million from a federal infrastructure program to fund an electric vehicle charging pilot across the city. This will put charging stations into neighbourhoods, making electric vehicle ownership more accessible and convenient. This will help us achieve our goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. An example of an on-street electric vehicle charging station. The City is already piloting 17 of these charging locations. The new TAF investment will see even more charging stations become available across Toronto. HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT UPDATES Council and City staff are continuing to work around the clock to increase our supply of affordable and supportive housing. At this month’s meeting, Council adopted multiple motions to authorize the City to create more affordable housing spaces, including the multiple sites of modular housing I have written about in the past, affordable rental units on Queen St. E, and a proposal for affordable rental homes in a new development downtown. Also of interest for our community: the City will be attending the Ontario Land Tribunal (formerly the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal, or LPAT) to oppose a development appeal at Teagarden Court, just on the other side of Bayview Avenue. I have written many times about the trouble of this Provincial Tribunal, its changing names, and legal changes that have given it more and more authority to overrule local community planning decisions. The case of Teagarden Court is the perfect example of the increasingly troublesome approach the Province is taking to development. Here, we have a developer that had already successfully appealed to the Tribunal for their application and once they started to build, decided they wanted even more density. I will keep you updated as this goes forward. DEALING WITH LOUD CARS AND LATE NIGHT NOISE One strange side effect of the pandemic has been the marked increase in stunt driving and speed racing here in Toronto. Along with Councillor Fletcher, I moved to have Toronto Police increase their efforts to stop reckless driving. This motion also called on the City's Noise Bylaw team and Toronto Police to focus on the Don Valley Parkway when they begin initiatives to educate motorcycle riders and industry members on acceptable vehicle noise levels. Council also passed a motion to investigate how Toronto Police and the City's Municipal Licensing & Standards division respond to all types of late night noise complaints. I know many of our residents are affected by this issue, and I hope this motion will ensure there’s no service gap in how these complaints are dealt with. STANDING AGAINST ISLAMOPHOBIA This past Monday, a Muslim family in London was tragically killed in an intentional Islamophobic attack. I was heartbroken by this act of terror, and joined my fellow Councillors yesterday in condemning Islamophobia in all forms. There is much we need to do in Toronto and across our country to stamp out Islamophobia and racism. After having a conversation with one of my team members who is Muslim, I realized just how often my own staff have to deal with racist remarks. I spoke at Council about the need for all Councillors to have a policy to call out racism when we hear it, even if it costs us a vote.

I remember sitting through our first ever virtual City Council meeting in April of last year. At the time, I never imagined that many of us would be continuing to work from home (now a hashtag, #WFH) over a year later. While there are many things I miss about heading to work in person each day, virtual work gave me a unique opportunity this week. I joined many of my colleagues from across the country in attending the Federation of Canadian Municipalities 2021 Annual Conference. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) brings together cities, rural communities, and municipal associations to discuss key issues for cities and towns of every size. I’m not a committee member at FCM this term, but I was able to attend the conference virtually this year without costing the City any expense. A screenshot of me and my colleagues at the FCM Ontario Caucus. Fellow Toronto City Councillors Brad Bradford, Cynthia Lai, and Paul Ainslie were also in attendance. I have enjoyed tremendous professional development at FCM over the years. The conference provides a great opportunity to join mayors and councillors in advocating for our city and combatting the “Everybody hates Toronto” mythology. As you would imagine, this year’s workshops focused on how municipalities will rebuild their economies and help repair the lives of those who have suffered the greatest economic challenges during this pandemic. Those two goals couldn’t be more intertwined. I was struck by a fact shared in a workshop on using community data for an inclusive recovery. A demographer explained that in most regions of Canada outside the urban core, three people need to enter the workforce to replace one retiree exiting the economy. It makes sense if you think about it. One person replaces that person’s job. Another needs to enter the geriatric care sector to support our growing aging population that the retiree is set to join. Lastly, you need a third person to enter the workforce to generate growth in the economy. For better or for worse, our Canadian economic system is built on growth and some of that growth needs to make its way to medium and small municipalities. So how do get enough people to create the economic growth we need? We know that right now, there’s no shortage of people looking for jobs. The economic loss caused by the pandemic has put many Canadians into a tough place, or potentially even pushed people out of housing and onto the street or into the shelter system. Helping these individuals enter or re-enter the workforce will be essential, but we also need to grow our population in order to generate this kind of economic growth. Of course, the pandemic hasn’t just affected Canada, and once it ends we’ll likely have an influx of refugee claimants seeking asylum here. As it turns out, supporting those who have been hardest hit by the pandemic, both at home and abroad, is essential to rebuilding and growing our economy. Canada has always been a place of refuge. In 2015 and 2016, for example, we welcomed nearly 40,000 Syrian refugees. Many were well-sponsored and found their way into employment and affordable homes in towns and cities across the country. This shows that refugees can be a vital part of the “three people for every retiree” equation. But what happens to those who fall through the cracks in their most crucial first three years here in Canada? They end up in the shelter system in major cities. They get stuck. When refugee arrivals slip into homelessness, they can’t respond to the great economic opportunities across our country. On the same day we were discussing this problem at FCM, I opened my email to find a fresh edition of Toronto Star contributor Matt Elliot’s “City Hall Watcher”. Using open data collected by the City, Matt shows that the number of refugees entering the shelter system has dropped significantly since the start of the pandemic, as border closures have reduced refugee migration overall. Once the pandemic ends, we’ll need to have adequate supports in place to support these newcomers. The above chart shows the number of individuals who have newly entered the shelter system, both non-refugees and refugees, from January 2020 to April 2021. (Source: Matt Elliot, City Hall Watcher) Matt also shows that it’s too soon to pat ourselves on the back for the affordable and supportive housing being created this year. While we talk about finding thousands of permanent homes for shelter residents, Matt shows that the number of people entering and exiting the shelter system each month is nearly equal. The above excerpt of a chart shows the number of individuals who have both entered and exited the shelter system from January 2021 to April 2021, including the net change. Click on the image to view the full chart, which shows data from January 2020. (Source: Matt Elliot, City Hall Watcher) A net total of about 1600 people have been able to leave Toronto’s shelter system over the past year. When the borders re-open after the pandemic, the influx of refugee claimants will wipe out the progress being made on the housing front. If you add a wave of tenant evictions set to begin in the coming days, since the Province has not extended protection for tenants facing pandemic economic crisis, then all progress on the housing front is lost. This brings me to why I bother to attend national events like FCM. It gives me an opportunity to convince members across the country, from rural Saskatchewan to small town Nova Scotia, why they should support many of Toronto’s requests and initiatives. Since 2015, we have been petitioning the Federal Government for proper compensation for the shelter expenses of our influx of refugees. With adequate supports, we really can help new arrivals become valued members of Canada’s workforce who can help any town succeed. The data I’ve shared above and the conversations I’ve had at FCM make it clear what we need to do to rebuild our economy post-pandemic: We need support from the Federal Government for refugee shelter costs going forward. Smaller municipalities should support rather than criticize this request. We need to keep up the pace on development of deeply affordable and supportive housing solutions. We need the Provincial government to announce proper support and protection from eviction for all tenants in pandemic-related crisis. Simply put, we need to support those who have been hit the hardest by this pandemic. Municipalities across the country need to work together to help those who need it most, and in turn help our economy.

For as long as developers have been making overly ambitious applications to build condos along the Sheppard Subway line, there’s been one question that has never changed. Early on in the community meeting, someone always asks “How can there be enough infrastructure to support this much population growth?” You were right to ask this question. There’s an important report coming to North York Community Council next week concerning this issue in our ward. In a nutshell, it says that the City has fallen behind on necessary infrastructure upgrades to support the planned developments along Sheppard Avenue. A rendering of the Ontario Municipal Board approved plan for Amexon at 1200 Sheppard Ave E, one of many new developments planned on Sheppard between Bayview and Leslie. At community meetings, staff have always explained that the City collects development charges (DCs) on a per-unit-of-housing basis. These charges are used to upgrade and enhance infrastructure such as roads, transit, water and sewer systems. DC rates are reviewed and increased periodically to keep pace with the changing costs of infrastructure. Staff now report that earlier this year, while reviewing the Sheppard Subway secondary plan, they determined that our capital infrastructure plan has fallen behind the pace of growth in this area. Toronto Water and Engineering staff are asking Council to place an official hold on all approved developments between Bayview Ave and Leslie St. This hold means that developers will not be able to obtain their approved building permits until Toronto Water can complete an extensive sewer upgrade at the collection point under the intersection of Leslie Street and Sheppard Avenue. City staff have already started to prepare for the work that needs to be done. If you live in the immediate area, you will have already received a notice of the work in the mail. If you use the parking lot at Leslie and Sheppard to access the Don River Trail and all of its tributaries, you may have noticed that part of it is already fenced off. When the work begins, this parking lot and washroom will be closed and signage will indicate a number of other entrances to the trail system. An aerial view of Sheppard Avenue East. Some of us might have a cynical reaction to this news and want to proclaim “I told you so!” to every developer and staff person who has overseen these projects. Instead, what if we decide to take solace from this news, even if the development community doesn’t? It feels good to know that City staff properly monitor and gauge our water and sewer systems to ensure they’re delivering the necessary levels of service. Staff said they would increase the capacity of these systems as the area grew, and now they are taking extreme measures to make good on that promise. From the perspective of the developers who already have approvals for their projects, this sewer upgrade should have been done earlier. I have no doubt they will have lengthy discussions with City Planning and City Legal. However, engineers are clear that no new toilets should be flushed in this area until after their work is done. While this report is coming to North York Community Council, and pertains to some very local sites, it will also be going on to City Council in July. It should serve as a cautionary tale for every member of Council. Often, we rush through our Capital Program at budget time, quickly scanning to see what’s being done in our wards and ignoring everything else. As the oversight body, the Mayor and Council must always ask the essential question, “What’s in this year’s plan to service growth? Where we are increasing infrastructure capacity to support our growing population?” Then, we need to give the managers of our Capital Infrastructure Program the time and resources to consistently track our rapid growth so they are always able to keep up with the pace of development in our city. There are two other final reports from City Planning at North York Community Council next week: one for a 12-storey building at 699 Sheppard Ave E (the old Canada Post building) and the other for Lansing Square, the large site at Sheppard and Victoria Park. A preliminary rendering of 699 Sheppard, showing the staggered south side of the building. At 699 Sheppard, City Planning is recommending that Council approve the revised application, subject to a number of conditions. Over the past two years, City Planning has gone back and forth with the applicant to reduce the height and traffic impact of the site. To reduce height impacts, Planning has worked to stagger the south side of the building that faces the single-family neighbourhood south of Sheppard. City Planning has also suggested reducing resident parking to limit traffic impacts. With the site less than 200m from Bessarion Station, the intention is to attract residents who will choose transit over getting in the car. This development will generate around $1 million in Section 37 funds that we can use to enhance community facilities in the neighbourhood. The report for Lansing Square is a little more complicated. This is the first application to come in under the ConsumersNext Secondary Plan that was made in collaboration with City staff, local businesses, and residents of Brian Village and Wishing Well. Here’s an overview of the current application: This application proposes a comprehensive redevelopment of a master planned community that is comprised of a new 18 storey commercial office building, six residential buildings with heights of 40 storeys (Tower A), 30 storeys (Tower B), 25 storeys (Tower C), 35 storeys (Tower D), 6 storeys (Building F), 4 storeys (Building G). This master planned community would also include 3,336.7 square metres of retail space in Towers A to D, a 4,843 square metre public park, three new public streets, two privately owned, publicly accessible open spaces ("POPS"), and the creation of 160 affordable housing rental dwelling units. The two existing two-storey office buildings are proposed to be demolished and the existing eight-storey and twelve-storey office buildings are to remain. A rendering of the proposed developments at Lansing Square. It's a significant proposal, but one that largely fits within the community vision that's outlined in the ConsumersNext Plan. If approved, it will be several years before new residents are ready to move in. In the meantime, I will continue to call on the Provincial government to change course and accelerate their plans for a subway extension along Sheppard Ave E that would service this new community. Finally, two last items of note for Don Valley Northerners at this NYCC meeting: A status update on the Sheppard Avenue East Review, which will look at the current policies that guide development between Bayview and Leslie. City Planning will be doing more engagement with the community in coming months on this important study. In response to requests from many parents in the Zion Heights Middle School community, we'll be looking to make sure that Leslie Street is added back and prioritized for speed limit reductions as part of Vision Zero. This will bring the limit down to 50 km/h, as it will be on all major arteries. We've had a couple of close calls with kids over the last few years, so it's past time we make this stretch of our roads safer for all. The many notable items at NYCC this month show the pace and scope of development here in Don Valley North. We have to work within the Province’s development framework and growth plan, but rest assured that City staff and I are keeping a close eye on every proposal being made to ensure that our community and infrastructure can keep up with this growth.

Next week, City staff will present a proposal to Council that would allow rooming houses to be licensed and operate legally across the city. The official name for these dwellings would be multi-tenant houses. If Council approves this framework, City staff would license the operators of these multi-tenant houses and require them to get these properties into compliance with the license conditions. This would include limiting the number of tenants, requiring true structural fire proofing, and other health and safety conditions. These houses would then be inspected regularly, with or without notice. Multi-tenant houses that do not apply for the new license or that fail to comply would then be put under investigation and shut down. A BRIEF HISTORY LESSON In Don Valley North, we have struggled with illegal rooming houses for many, many years. I understand why they exist, why staff are proposing a licensing solution but I also understand very well why residents are concerned. I am too. Bear with me as I walk through the elements of this issue. North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke all have suburban college and university campuses that have been rapidly growing since 2003. That was the double cohort year that millennials in both grade 12 and grade 13 entered post-secondary. Students began to rent houses around these campuses under single leases or second suite leases, both of which are legal. As the student populations grew, savvy speculators moved onto these streets and started operating rooming houses where each student could have their own separate lease, which is not legal. Today, almost 20 years later, we have a hodgepodge of legal and illegal rentals on our streets: owners who rent out their basement, absentee owners who rent out their whole homes, and owners who operate multi-tenant houses with a mixture of students and newcomers renting their first room in Toronto. It is next to impossible for City bylaw inspectors to enforce bylaws in this environment. All of the aforementioned situations get reported as suspected rooming houses. Inspecting the legal situations is relatively easy. These owners invite the inspector in and are able to show they’re renting out part or all of their home legally. When inspectors are not invited in, they know they are probably dealing with an illegal rooming house but they do not have the same power of entry as a police officer or firefighter. No invite, no entry. Worse still, in cases where City inspectors have concrete proof of an illegal rooming house, taking the owner to court rarely works out in the City’s favour. In a city where homelessness has been rising for some time now, judges tend to say, “You are asking me to shut this house down and make 10 tenants homeless. Provide alternative shelter.” Whether we agree with the judge’s position or not, the rooming house in this case does not get shut down. CITY STAFF’S PROPOSAL City staff held many virtual consultations over the last few months to share their proposal and get feedback from residents across the City. I logged on to a couple of these sessions, and I was concerned that most attendees speaking in favour of legalizing rooming houses came from areas of the city where rooming houses are already licensed. Whenever I’ve held local meetings to discuss our illegal rooming house challenges over the years, I’ve heard much more heated opinions. Staff have a number of reasons for recommending the City license multi-tenant homes. The first is that there is an obvious need for this type of housing. There are thousands of Torontonians that can’t afford $1500 a month for a one bedroom apartment, and the waitlist for subsidized housing is years long and prioritizes families and seniors. Unlicensed and illegal rooming houses often aren't up to fire code, putting tenants at serious risk. Perhaps the biggest reason staff cite for legalizing and licensing multi-tenant houses is the power of entry. Once staff establish bylaws and license conditions, they will have created a legal path to enter the house and a condition of holding a license would be allowing routine inspections. This would provide far more protection to many tenants who are currently living in sub-standard or even dangerous rooming houses. The conversation city staff have in court when the discover a non-compliant, non-licensed rooming housing would be quite different. Essentially, they would be asking the judge to order an operator to comply with the licensing regime or be shut down. If the judge was petitioned to shut down that illegal operator, there would be legal and licensed alternative rooming houses that displaced tenants could move to. RISKS Does this proposal have risks? If you live next door to a single family home with eight tenants and six cars parked in the driveway, it might feel like there’s no downside to a licensing program that would limit rooming houses in our area to six rooms per dwelling and require concrete plans for cleaning, yard care, and pest control. But what happens if we license these houses without investing enough resources to actually make this work? I would be ready to vote for this new proposal right now if I was sure that it would be very aggressively implemented. I would need to see strict timelines on requiring owners to license, followed by a city-wide effort to find and document unlicensed rooming houses. This would need to be followed by a dedicated legal team litigating the operators that refuse to comply. If licensing means that the tenants inside these houses now have the right to make property management complaints, there will have to be a massive new inspection unit that follows up on these complaints. Legalizing rooming houses will require significant investments in multiple City departments, and I don’t have a lot of faith that Council will agree to invest in the kind of aggressive implementation we need for this to work. Right now, there are illegal rooming houses operating in downtown neighbourhoods where the City does license legal multi-tenant homes. This happens because the staff that should be responding to these illegal situations are sorely under-resourced. I’m going to have a lot of questions for staff when the Planning and Housing Committee meets on Monday to debate this item, called “A New Regulatory Framework for Multi-Tenant Houses”. Then, on Wednesday evening, I’ll be holding a Town Hall for our community so that you and I can discuss this proposal before Mayor Tory and Council comes to a final decision in July. If you would like to take part in our Town Hall, you can RSVP at shelleycarroll.ca/rooming-houses and a meeting link will be sent to you closer to the date. We have a lot to consider when it comes to licensing rooming houses here in Don Valley North. Follow the Committee meeting live on Monday and then join the Town Hall on Wednesday to discuss it with me.

I’d bet that our city parks have never seen as much use as they have over this past year. Last summer, when case counts were dipping down and we all started to feel safe seeing one another outdoors again, the park was one of the first places we went. What better place to safely meet up with friends and family? They’ve been the perfect spot for a socially distanced picnic or an impromptu basketball game. They’ve also provided us with much needed fresh air and a chance to get some exercise as many of us have been staying home. This summer, our parks are again packed with Torontonians itching to get outside, even as patios and retail stores open their doors. I had a blast chatting with local residents at our Park Pop-Up at Alamosa Park this past Tuesday. Collectively, this pandemic has really shown us the value of our parks and public spaces. They aren’t just places that are nice to look at or walk through every once in a while. They are essential to our mental and physical health and wellbeing. With this lesson has come the realization that despite being so essential, our parks aren’t receiving the attention and care they deserve. Quite simply, we need to do better when it comes to our public spaces. We need to design them in a way that works for everyone, and we need to commit the funding they need to serve Toronto residents in the best ways possible. As our parks got busier and busier over the course of the pandemic, I heard more and more valid frustrations from residents. Many noticed that parks weren’t receiving enough maintenance, and it made them hard to use. Some paths weren’t cleared or de-iced in our snowy winter months, and through spring and summer many have noticed the grass hasn’t been cut as often as usual. Even more importantly, many residents complained about the lack of public washroom facilities and water fountains in parks. Certain groups, particularly seniors, people with health conditions, and children, need to be able to access these facilities in order to enjoy these spaces. Knowing how important these outdoor spaces have been throughout the pandemic, opening bathrooms shouldn’t have been such a tall order. The reality is, there’s a cost to all of this. The City needs to hire enough staff and dedicate enough time and money to keep our parks in good condition. Parks was one of the departments that saw budget cuts as the City tried to balance COVID expenses, and it shows. Just like with any other service, maintenance isn’t flashy or exciting. When budget time rolls around, we need to demand that our parks and public spaces receive the funding they deserve. Not everyone has access to a backyard oasis, but everyone deserves to enjoy a well-maintained public space. I also heard from residents who were frustrated by the challenge of sharing these spaces in a way that works for everyone. This has been a particular challenge on our trails, where cyclists and pedestrians struggle to share space while maintaining safe distances from one another. This brings us to our second big issue with public spaces here in the city: they haven’t all been designed in a way that meets our current needs. Collectively, we need to think about what public space means to us and think of creative ways to incorporate new, better spaces here in Toronto. So what would it look like if our parks and public spaces could be something more? In other places around the world and even here in Canada, public space is given a much greater value than it is here in Toronto. We need to look to some of these places for ideas on how we can better incorporate innovative new spaces in our city. For example, many cities across North America have started incorporating woonerfs in and around new high-rise developments. What even is a woonerf, you might ask? It’s a Dutch term that refers to a “living street”, where shared space, traffic calming, and low speed limits are used to create vibrant public spaces right outside your front door. Woonerfs, like the ones pictured above, create a new type of public space to be enjoyed by residents. They ease the journey out of a tower and towards the main road. The first steps outside the building are free of accessibility issues. Woonerfs prioritize the pedestrian, allowing a pleasant walk out to busier streets, while still leaving flexible space for vehicle drop offs and deliveries. Some even include bollards that can be raised from the ground to make the space pedestrian-only for community events. These spaces are truly designed to work for all users while prioritizing those who need the space most. This isn’t a concept we’re very familiar with here in Toronto, but it’s an example of the new and innovative public realm, park and street designs that are starting to emerge all over North America. By thinking outside the box, we can make densely populated cities more liveable for everyone. In a city like Toronto, we need to find ways to integrate innovative public spaces wherever we can. We are also starting to see different approaches to parks here in the city. Ethennonnhawahstihnen’ Park right here in Don Valley North shows how innovative park design and landscaping can create an inviting public space with dozens of uses. This is just the beginning of what our public spaces can be. We need to continue to look at public spaces around the world to see how we can make our parks more inviting and accessible. The reflecting pond and new playground at Ethennonnhawahstihnen' Park. My team and I are starting conversations on public space improvements in many parks and areas around Don Valley North. I sincerely hope you’ll join me in envisioning these new and exciting spaces to ensure they’re designed in the best possible way to serve our communities. Now, more than ever, we need to stand up for our parks and public spaces. We need to demand excellence in park design, street design, and even the odd woonerf here or here. We need to keep pushing to create new and exciting public spaces, and we need to value and maintain the ones that we already have. My job will be to make sure that all of City Council embraces this and does the work to create policies and funding strategies to maintain this mixture of old and new public realm for years to come.