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Last month, the Toronto Star put out a lengthy article about the state of child care delivery in the GTA , and Toronto in particular. The article dug into some of the most problematic aspects of Ontario’s rollout of the Federal government’s $10-a-day child care program , which has already delivered cost reductions and will reduce child care costs to $10 per day by 2026. Dedicated E-Blast readers know that I always keep a close eye on child care as a former operator myself. Today, I want to unpack the numbers a bit because affordable childcare makes life more affordable for every generation of a family. First, let’s look at the history of child care in Toronto. Since amalgamation in 1998, Toronto Children’s Services  has been the City division that has coordinated our city’s entire child care system, including distributing needs-based subsidies from other orders of government across the not-for-profit system. Additionally, they provide a portion of Toronto’s child care spaces through City-run centres. Historically, parents’ fees have varied across the system but were continually increasing due to the rising cost of operation. Child care workers, the people who spend all day with our kids, were chronically underpaid to balance the books. External factors have changed the child care landscape over the years. The biggest change came with the rollout of full-day kindergarten in 2014, reducing the number of children who needed care during school hours. I’ll compare some numbers from well after the dust settled following the introduction of full-day kindergarten to show the ways in which child care has changed in recent years. Let’s look at the numbers from 2018 to today, as we are now two years into the $10-dollar-a-day program rollout.  Toronto Children’s Services by the numbers: 2018 (Pre-$10-a-Day) 2025 (Post-$10-a-Day) Supporting 990 child care centres across Toronto, including 52 City-run centres Supporting over 1000 child care centres across Toronto, including 40 City-run centres (some City-run centres consolidated during the pandemic)Additionally supporting 3000 child care spaces in licensed in-home centres Coordinating 72,000 child care spaces Coordinating 84,000 child care spaces Administering subsidies for 30,490 spaces Administering subsidies for 30,700 spaces Gross budget (including subsidies from the Provincial government): $621.4 million Gross budget (including subsidies from the Provincial government): $1.67 billion Net cost to the City (property-tax funded): $80.6 million  (13% of the total budget for system management) Net cost to the City (property-tax funded): $90.8 million  (8% of the total budget for system management) Following the implementation of the $10-a-day program, the Toronto Children’s Services budget has grown by over $1 billion without any additional cost to your property taxes above inflation. We knew this program would require a great deal of support to roll out effectively, especially in Canada’s largest city with the highest number of child care centres. This program could not work without the system coordination and support provided by Toronto Children’s Services.  Presently, the $10-a-day program has capped daily fees at $22 (remember, this was planned to be a gradual program implementation with costs coming all the way down to $10-a-day by 2026). Even at this point in the rollout, the program has generated significant savings for families. Parents with children in participating centres are saving between 41% and 75% of costs per child—savings of over $1000 per month are not uncommon for families with multiple young children. At the same time, the Early Childhood Educators who care for our children will see their wages rise to $23.86 per hour this year, and $25.86 per hour by the end of 2026. The benefits of this program can’t only be measured in direct cost savings, though those are truly life-changing for many Toronto families. The reduction of fees will allow subsidies to be redirected to the lowest end of the income scale. This will make child care accessible to families who could not afford it at all before, meaning more moms can pursue higher education, vocational training, and enter (or re-enter) the workforce, boosting our local economy. There is one big problem created by the $10-a-day program: the need for more spaces. While the $10-a-day program promised capital funds for the creation of new child care spaces and facilities, the dollars for that portion of the program have yet to flow. The only new centres being built in Toronto are the result of community benefit funds collected from developers. In Don Valley North, we created a new child care centre at Parkway Forest Community Centre 12 years ago, and another will soon open at Ethennonnhawahstihnen’ Community Recreation Centre. Both of these centres were built with development funds. If we’re trying to meet the target of 86,000 new spaces in Toronto, a couple of centres opening in a ward every 12 years won’t cut it. Eight more centres are planned across the city but require additional funding to top up community benefit funds. A big part of our issue creating new child care spaces has to do with our Provincial government’s unique ambition to grow participation in the $10-a-day program amongst private child care operators. The private, for-profit operators have been reluctant to join from the start, despite Toronto Children’s Services’ commitment to help them adjust to receiving public dollars. The accounting processes and needs for transparency and regular inspection are very different under the $10-a-day program, leading many for-profit centres to choose not to participate and others to try and drop out a little later. This may be a reason for the Province’s reluctance to flow the capital dollars needed to create more spaces. Here’s my opinion after closely tracking child care throughout my time in government: The Provincial government should look at just how effective Toronto Children’s Services is at making child care more affordable for families in Toronto. Children’s Services is incredibly adept at creating new child care centres, managing relationships with school boards to provide seamless care for school-age children, and they do it all with system coordination costs at just 8%. For-profit centres will take longer to adapt to this new system, but parents need access to new spaces now. Municipal coordinators like Toronto Children’s Services are simply better positioned to quickly produce more spaces at a low cost.  Moreover, “for-profit” is simply a term used to describe a certain type of business license. These centres don’t have access to the conditions that facilitate expansion, even when funding is made available. If you currently have a child or grandchild in a private, for-profit child care centre, it’s important to know that most of those centres struggle to make ends meet in the same way not-for-profit organizations do. Child care is always an under-capitalized labour of love. I’m confident that many for-profit centres will find their way to participating in the $10-a-day program over time, but it will be a journey.  In the meantime, we need to create more child care spaces as quickly as possible. The $10-a-day child care program is a game changer for families across Canada and a boon to our local economy as parents enter and re-enter the workforce. So I say to our Provincial Minister of Education Jill Dunlop: We can do more. If you let your largest city have its share of the capital that has been promised but not delivered, we’ll give you serious bang for your buck. Toronto Children’s Services can create more spaces, shrink waitlists, and do all the coordination necessary to provide much-needed child care spaces to Toronto families. Let us get to work to make life more affordable for families.

The past ten days have been a real challenge for all of us. With 53 centimetres of snow falling in back-to-back storms, our streets, sidewalks, and driveways have been buried under winter’s worst. I know many of you have been struggling to get around safely, and I want to acknowledge the frustration this has caused. Whether it’s the stress of navigating uncleared sidewalks, digging out windrows at the end of your driveway, or trying to drag a stroller down the road to school, this has been an incredibly difficult time for residents across Toronto. While I wish I could say the City’s response was seamless, the truth is that our winter maintenance system—especially under extreme conditions—continues to have real gaps. I want to take a moment to break down what’s happening, and why today’s approach to winter maintenance feels so different from what some of you remember from our old North York days. Snow Clearing vs. Snow Removal – What’s the Difference? Over the past week, I’ve heard a lot of frustration from residents asking, Why is the snow still sitting here? Why hasn’t it been removed? It’s important to understand that snow clearing and snow removal are two different things: 🛑 Snow Clearing: This is our winter core service that happens in any snow event. Clearing always happens. Our snow clearing contractors are required to plow snow to the sides of the roads and sidewalks. It’s about making roads passable as quickly as possible—but it doesn’t get rid of the snow itself. 🚛 Snow Removal: This is what’s happening now. Snow removal is not an annual service. This happens only after an extreme snow like last weekend or in an accumulated event such as with the extraordinary winter of 2008/2009. Snowbanks and piles that have built up along curbs, sidewalks, and transit stops are physically loaded into dump trucks and hauled away to storage sites. It is easy for me to remember 2008, the winter we got more snow than even 1999, when Mayor Lastman called in the army. I was budget chief in 2008 and was briefed when we had to entirely spend our plowing reserves. Removal was very much necessary then and Montreal was kind enough to lend Toronto enough dump trucks to get the job done in two weeks. It is just as well that we didn’t rush out and expand our dump truck fleet because we didn’t need to do major snow removal again until 2019. It is important to remember that as we deploy removal operations that priorities must be set. For instance, downtown streetcar routes must be a top priority for towing of illegally parked cars and removal of snowbanks because the network is essential to hundreds of thousands of commuter trips a day. After that, priority goes to roads impacting the most commuters in all modes of travel. Transportation director Vince Sferrazza did a good job explaining the fundamental difference between clearing and removal in the media earlier this week. From the Star: At Monday's press conference Vincent Sferrazza, Toronto's director of transportation operations and maintenance, shared some insight about why removal takes so long. Plowing snow, for example, on a one-kilometre local residential road takes about five to 10 minutes with a vehicle travelling at about 15 kilometres an hour. "Snow removal on that same kilometre of road can take up to 10 hours," Sferrazza said. This is because the blower — the front-end loader on the snow-removal machine — travels about one kilometre an hour while it blows the snow into a lineup of dump trucks. The trucks then cart the snow to five storage sites and three melter sites in the city before returning. Each removal crew consists of 10 to 15 pieces of equipment and 20 to 30 workers, according to city documents. The City is now fully engaged in snow removal, which will take a couple weeks, given how intensive the work is for full removal. Crews are prioritizing key locations first, including: ✅ Main roads and sidewalks on transit routes ✅ Hospitals, fire stations, and emergency services ✅ Areas where there is no room to store more snow ✅ School drop-off zones You’ll start seeing temporary orange signs advising residents to move their vehicles for snow removal. Crews may also knock on doors asking for vehicles to be moved to allow for this work. If you see them in your area, please do what you can to clear the way so the work can happen quickly. Why Doesn’t This Work Like It Used To? If you are longtime North Yorker like me, you well remember a time when plowing and windrow clearing happened quickly and seamlessly. That was back when our North York works commissioner invented the windrow truck and our city did this work in-house. Mel Lastman was a strong believer that you could only innovate your own equipment like that if you actually owned and operated your own fleet of snowplows, so his City staff were responsible for clearing our streets. In those days, when a snowfall hit, plowing, windrow clearing, and sidewalk clearing happened together in North York. The plows and the accompanying windrow clearing truck travelled the streets virtually together. That’s why residents rarely had to wait long or fight with windrows that froze solid overnight. Today, this work is almost entirely contracted out to private companies. The City no longer owns most of its plows, nor does it directly employ the workers operating them. Instead, we rely on contractors who are paid to meet service standards outlined in their contracts. And as we’ve seen in recent years, when contractors fail to deliver, residents are the ones left dealing with the consequences. Holding Contractors Accountable Since the rough start to our new winter maintenance contracts in 2022–2023, the City has been working to tighten oversight and improve service delivery. Some key improvements include: 🌟 GPS Tracking on All Snow Clearing Vehicles – Every piece of contracted equipment now has GPS, allowing City staff to monitor deployment and make sure plows are actually on the roads when they should be. 🌟 PlowTO Map Enhancements – Residents can track plows, salt trucks, and sidewalk plows in real-time. We’re working on adding updates for windrow clearing and snow removal so you can see when service is expected. (Note: we have received reports of some issues with this tool this week and those are being escalated). 🌟 Better 311 Response Times – We’re improving communication on service requests so residents aren’t left wondering when or if help is coming. In an extreme event like last weekend, 311 will let you know through the media and they’ll let councillors’ offices know if the complaint system needs to be put on pause until the most extreme part of the storm has passed and highways are cleared. 🌟 Refined Snow Clearing Routes – Transportation Services continues to fine-tune plowing routes to improve efficiency and reduce delays. My team and I continue to tell the fine-tuning team about chronic trouble spots as we track your calls year after year for patterns. These are important steps, but I know they haven’t solved everything. I’m continuing to push for more rigorous enforcement of contractor performance and to explore ways to bring more of this work back under direct City control. Windrow Clearing – A Service Under Review One of the biggest pain points I’ve heard this winter is windrow clearing. Many residents—especially seniors and those with mobility challenges—depend on this service to clear the heavy pile of snow left behind by plows at the end of their driveway. But too often, the windrow plow comes late (or not at all), leaving residents stranded or forced to do backbreaking work. This season, the City is conducting a full review of windrow clearing services. I’ve made it clear that if we’re going to continue to pay contractors to provide this service, they must deliver it to a better standard. One that is predictable. If you’ve experienced issues with windrow clearing, please report it to 311 and copy my office so we can push for improvements. What’s Next? Snow removal operations will continue 24/7for the next few weeks. Meanwhile, I’ll be meeting with Barbara Gray, General Manager of Transportation Services, to discuss contractor accountability and what steps we need to take next to ensure better service. I know this winter storm has been exhausting, and sometimes downright infuriating. I want you to know that I hear you, and I share your frustration. The way our City handles winter maintenance needs to be better, and I am committed to pushing for change. At the same time, I want to thank you for letting me explain a bit about how it works. I think it helps if we have a common understanding of what to expect after every snowfall and what to expect when those periodic extreme winter storms come along. As always, my office is here to help. If you have concerns, questions, or suggestions, never hesitate to reach out. Sometimes Mother Nature takes the win but we will get through this. We get through winter best when we stick together and remember our great Canadian senses of humour.

That’s a wrap on another Budget process! As your Councillor and Chair of the Budget Committee, I am very proud of the Budget we delivered. During our special Council session on Tuesday, I stressed the importance of sticking to our 2025 Budget plan over the year ahead. We must commit to our strategy to improve our City’s infrastructure, especially as we brace ourselves for potential economic fallout from the new U.S. administration.  Of course, every Budget process starts with the search for savings. As Budget Chief, finding savings and efficiencies is my top priority before we come to you, the people of Toronto, and ask you to invest in our city. This year, we found $680 million in reductions and offsets, significantly bringing down our opening budgetary pressure. After we identified these savings and efficiencies, we crafted a Budget based on the priorities you shared with us during our robust budget consultation process. Let’s take a look at what the 2025 Budget promises to do: Safer Streets We’re hiring hundreds of new first responders, including firefighters and paramedics, to speed up emergency response times. We’ve committed to a historic, multi-year police hiring plan to make sure we have enough cops to keep our communities safe.  We’re investing in our Vision Zero Road Safety Plan  to reduce traffic accidents and protect our most vulnerable road users, particularly seniors and children.  We’re putting more traffic wardens on the road to help traffic flow better, reduce congestion, and, for the first time, help drivers navigate pinch points near highway off ramps in the suburbs. Keeping Toronto safe in every sense of the word is essential as we look to our city’s future. Businesses want to open up shop here and choose to stay here because they know we are a safe and reliable place to do business. Of course, we also need to keep our city safe so that it remains a place that you and future generations will want to call home. I was joined by dozens of first responders at the 2025 Budget launch. Better Transit A reliable transit system is the backbone of our region’s economy. We need to make sure that Toronto is easy to get around, which is why we’re making the following investments in transit: We’re extending service hours to make transit more reliable and able to move more people through our city each day.  We’re getting 55 new subway cars to ensure the TTC keeps pace with our growing population. We’re investing in cleaner, safer, and more attractive transit stations and vehicles. As we look ahead to the future of our city, a high-capacity and reliable transit system is essential. Not only is it a much more sustainable way for people to get around, it’s more economical, particularly for young people who are getting their start in Toronto. Providing reliable access to transit also means fewer cars on the road for those of us who have no option but to drive. Investments in transit really do make it easier for everyone to get around. For our Budget investments to work and make a real difference in our transit system, we need to ensure we are collecting our full fare revenue. At our Council Budget meeting, I introduced a motion directing the TTC Board to implement the Auditor General’s recommendations to stop fare evasion ASAP. If we’re going to use property tax dollars to make our transit system better, transit riders need to pay their “fare share” too.  Affordable Living During tough economic times, we need to think outside the box to make life more affordable for families. Toronto needs to be a place where people can thrive, not just survive. With help from our other orders of government and your investment, this Budget is committed to providing services that markedly improve your quality of life: We’re making significant investments to build new homes, protect renters, and keep our shelter system safe and functional.  We’re making it easier for families to find affordable child care and fun recreation programming for their kids.  We’re extending library hours and opening pools earlier so families and seniors can enjoy them more often. It’s important to note that over $1 billion has been put directly into our Children’s Services budget thanks to the deal between the Federal and Provincial governments to deliver affordable child care. That money is not coming from your property taxes but will make a real difference to thousands of families.   On Tuesday night, I worked with the Mayor’s team and my fellow Councillors to introduce additional affordability measures that will help seniors, young people at risk, and those who don’t have reliable access to food, including here in Don Valley North. These measures were made possible by extra returns we received at the end of the year—our Finance team always makes the most conservative estimates possible to ensure we aren’t overspending, and that often results in a little extra wiggle room come Budget time.  These are the investments we’re making in partnership with you, the people of Toronto. All of them are aimed at making real, tangible, on-the-ground improvements to your quality of life in our city. This Budget is also built on a very reliable system—one that has won awards from international accounting experts and helped our city raise its credit rating for the first time in decades .  It might not surprise you that as Budget Chief, I can nerd out on the numbers a bit, but I do find it helpful to show exactly where our Budget dollars are going: The graph above shows that the most significant investments we’re making are into transit and our police force. These are both essential to keeping our city safe and moving, and I know our strategic investments in these areas will deliver significant returns in terms of quality of life here in Toronto. As we look to the year ahead, we need to be prepared for any economic problems that may come our way, trade wars or otherwise. We cannot underinvest in our city like we did for so many years. Underinvestment means streets with potholes, overgrown parks, and overflowing trash cans. It means a transit system that doesn’t get people where they need to go. It means a city that tourists don’t want to visit and companies don’t want to invest in. We have to fix the things that have been holding Toronto back without cutting back on any of our essential services.  In response to recent actions from the U.S., we have added targeted Budget directives to protect our economy, including: Aligning our procurement activities with the Government of Ontario’s approach to respond to U.S. tariffs, where possible. Working with the Federal and Provincial governments on a priority solution for buying our new subway cars, subject to our existing trade agreements.  Directing our Chief Financial Officer and City Finance staff to develop targeted supports for the businesses most impacted by the looming threat of a U.S. trade war. All of these measures align us with “Team Canada”, help insulate us from potential impacts of trade wars, and make progress on the Economic Action Plan  we presented to Council last fall.  I also closed off our Budget process with a firm reminder to my Council colleagues. Over the past three years, we’ve asked Torontonians to absorb some big increases to cover the City’s COVID-19 bill and help Toronto get back on its feet. Last year, I said that the property tax increases should be able to be reduced every year for three years going forward, and Council agreed. We delivered on that promise this first year, and to deliver on it again in 2026 we need to stay focused. We need to be smart, fix any problems we find, and closely follow reports from the Auditor General that outline strategic savings we can make. That’s exactly what you asked for, and what Council must focus on in the year ahead.  This Budget is a roadmap to a future for Toronto that is safe, clean, affordable and mobile. The 2025 Budget may be passed, but my work as Budget Chief is far from over. Now, I need to turn my attention to ensuring this Budget is implemented in its entirety. At this time next year, we should be able to say we made significant progress with full confidence. Of course, I’ll keep you updated right here in this E-Blast every step of the way.

This week’s column will address a number of planning questions my office received after our comprehensive development update last week . I will get to the column shortly, but I can’t proceed without acknowledging the looming threat our nation is facing.  As of this past weekend, we find ourselves in a trade war with the United States. That is not an overstatement. The definition of a trade war is a situation in which trade agreements are abandoned and nations set trade rules designed to punish one another.  Thankfully, the implementation of the proposed tariffs has been delayed by 30 days . Unfortunately, we are dealing with an unpredictable president. There’s no telling how this will play out. In the meantime, here at the municipal level we’re bracing for impact and creating plans to support the efforts of our Federal and Provincial counterparts. Rest assured I will keep our community up-to-date on all measures being taken by the City to protect Toronto’s economy during these uncertain times.  Now, back to regularly scheduled business. Usually, I respond directly to questions that arise from the E-Blast. This week, a follow-up column seems practical since many messages we received posed similar questions.  Most of the questions revolved around concern about the level of density that will result from the dozens of active development applications in our ward. To understand the rate of development and the types of buildings that are allowed in different areas of Don Valley North, it’s important to understand Provincial planning policy and how it influences cities in Ontario.  Ontario’s Provincial Planning Statement governs all planning decisions. This has always been the case. Ontario municipalities must submit all of their local planning policy to the Province for approval. When the Provincial Planning Statement changes, local planning policy must change to align with it. While there is a degree of dialogue between municipalities and the Province, the Province ultimately reigns supreme.  Recently, all of the Provincial planning changes of the past seven or so years have been amalgamated into the current Provincial Planning Statement, 2024 . Let’s take a look at some of its main principles: The Provincial Planning Statement, 2024 All decisions of Council regarding planning matters must be consistent with the PPS 2024. The PPS 2024 provides province-wide policy direction on land use planning and development to, among other matters, ensure the full range of housing need is met, promote a strong and competitive economy, optimize investments in infrastructure and public services facilities, create a sense of place, support the agricultural sector and sensitive areas, and mitigate risks to public health and safety. It includes policies on key issues, such as: the efficient management of land and infrastructure over the long term in order to minimize impacts on air, water, and other resources; building complete communities that improve social equity and overall quality of life for people of all ages, abilities and incomes; promoting communities with a mix of housing, recreational opportunities, and transportation choices, including active transportation and transit; and encouraging a sense of place in communities by promoting a well-designed built form. The PPS 2024 also includes policies that direct municipalities to: support the achievement of complete communities by accommodating an appropriate range and mix of lands uses, housing options, transportation options, and employment; encourage transit-supportive development and intensification in proximity to transit corridors and stations; support redevelopment of retail lands to support mixed-use residential; promote densities for new housing to efficiently use land, resources, infrastructure, public services facilities, and support the use of active transportation; identify and focus growth and development in strategic growth areas;  identify the appropriate type and scale of development in strategic growth areas. The sweeping policy statements above can be interpreted in a number of ways. As always, the devil is in the details. In this case, the details come in the form of legislative bills that follow these broad, visionary statements. The bills detail specific regulations that municipalities are then expected to enact. For instance, specific regulations surrounding transit corridors and subway stations changed significantly while City staff were creating our Renew Sheppard Plan . City Planning staff had to update their recommendations to ensure Renew Sheppard meets the new regulations for high-rise density in subway corridors, as per PPS 2024.  Our City Planners take every measure possible to try to mitigate the potential negative impacts of Provincial Planning Statements and continue to build complete, liveable communities here in Toronto. However, as I mentioned above, the Province always has the final say. In the case of Renew Sheppard, the plan is being appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) by some developers with applications in Don Valley North. The OLT will use the 2024 Planning Statement to guide its decision on those appeals.  How Does PPS 2024 Impact Toronto? Now, I know all of this may sound like a blame game. I want to assure you most sincerely that it is not. This tension has always existed between developers, City Councils, and the Provincial government, no matter which party is in power at Queen’s Park. The reason I’m spelling all of this out is to help Don Valley Northerners understand why certain things are changing in our development landscape. While we may want to have full control over local planning matters, that is simply not our reality.  It’s also always important to situate these Planning Statements in the context of our critical housing shortage. The housing shortage we face in Toronto is very much the responsibility of both our Provincial and Federal governments to address, as much as it is ours. We can’t be surprised when the Province creates rule after rule to promote density. While we do need to increase supply to help tackle our housing shortage, I remain adamant that municipalities play a central role in bringing local context to the policy table and fighting for it.  When it comes to making these applications actually work in a community—including the technical engineering required to develop adequate infrastructure—it is the City’s public service that provides the plans. City governments also drive green building standards and provide painstaking inspection and review to ensure every detail of a development application is up to standard. You and I have a role to play as well. While local planners bring much-needed context to development discussions and advocate for our communities, they don’t live in every corner of the city. They get that context and lived experience from us, and especially from you. If you’ve attended a development consultation in Don Valley North, you’ve likely heard me say something along the lines of, “The developer always has the right to appeal a City Council decision. We need to put our community dealbreakers into the mix right from the outset so that our City Planner can place them in the official recommendations and defend them at the OLT.” Often, we do win those dealbreakers in the final decision, and they come directly from you, the local residents.  I know it can be hard to imagine what our little corner of Toronto will look like in five or ten years’ time. I get that, because I grew up here like so many of you. We can’t stop our communities from growing and changing—that’s a built-in fact of life in a big city—but we can help shape that growth and change in a way that helps all of us.  Update on EHON Avenues Policy A recent example where we are working to give you more of a voice while we deliver more housing happened this week at a Special City Council meeting. On Wednesday, Council considered phase one of the Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhood (EHON, for short) Avenues Study , which will shape future development along key corridors. I heard from many residents who are concerned about how these new avenue designations could impact growth in their neighbourhoods. Troublingly, the residents who reached out to me shred that they feel like their concerns were not heard during the phase one consultations. There’s no doubt that the way this policy plays out on the ground in our suburbs will be different than downtown. We’re seeing it already with other zoning changes.  That’s why I supported an amendment worked on with other suburban Councillors that will require Planning staff to consult with you first, before they begin evaluating any rezoning along avenues. This means we will have the opportunity to shape the recommendations from the start, rather than being consulted only after potential changes have been identified and this goes too far down the tracks. The DVN EHON Resident Reference Group The need for resident voice in the creation of planning policy is also why I’ve created the DVN Resident Reference Group . We need to check in with each other and chat about the planning process as it stands. Let’s take time to discuss the policy pieces that are impacting us the most right now and consider new policy proposals. If you’re interested in joining this reference group and having regular conversations with me about the state of planning and development in our neighbourhoods, be sure to check out all the information below.  Whether through this group, at a community consultation meeting, or at one of my regular summer park pop-ups, I’m always ready to talk to our community honestly and transparently about planning and development. It’s a discussion that will never be finished, so keep your questions coming and let’s stay in conversation. Join Don Valley North’s EHON Resident Reference Group! Are you passionate about shaping the future of housing and retail in our community? Join the Don Valley North EHON Resident Reference Group! The City of Toronto's Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods (EHON)  initiative seeks to find ways to address housing needs while maintaining vibrant, livable communities. The DVN Resident Reference Group will discuss upcoming EHON proposals, including the Retail in Neighbourhoods  and Avenues  Studies, to ensure that we bring our unique suburban perspective to this important initiative. This is your opportunity to learn about these proposals, share insights, and work together to develop constructive solutions that reflect resident concerns. Meeting Schedule: February 18, 2025, 7:00 PM March 18, 2025, 7:00 PM April 16, 2025, 7:00 PM   All meetings will be held virtually. Participants must commit to attending all three sessions. If you’re a Don Valley North resident and want to make your voice heard, sign up today to help shape our community’s future!

It’s time for another Don Valley North Development Update. With dozens of applications underway in our neighbourhoods, I always make sure to send a periodic update so our community knows where these applications stand. I know this list can look intimidating. It’s important to remember that these proposals and applications are at a number of different stages in the development process. Some are approved, while others aren’t even complete proposals yet. Our City Planning department follows each and every proposal through every step of the process, and I’m here to keep you up-to-date along the way. Similar to last year, the development industry is still moving slowly when it comes to actually putting shovels in the ground after their applications are approved. Nevertheless, there is progress being made and changes are coming in a few key areas, all of which is detailed below.  It’s also important to remember that the impacts of many Provincial planning policy changes are gradually beginning to play out in our neighbourhoods. At the same time, there are some proposals coming forward this year that align with new City policy, where we have jurisdiction. My team and I are building a residents’ reference group so that I can receive more local input into our planning policy than City consultations might provide. You can find all the details at the end of this column. Now, onto our development updates!    ReNew Sheppard The ReNew Sheppard Secondary Plan , which is an overarching plan to guide growth and development along Sheppard Avenue East in the coming years, has been appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal by several property owners following its approval by City Council. These appeals will delay the plan's implementation. City Planning and Legal staff are carefully reviewing the situation, and we remain committed to keeping residents informed as this process unfolds. Bayview Village   1001 Sheppard Avenue East - Concord Park Place  Proposal:  Two towers of 44 and 39 storeys atop a 6-storey podium. This application also includes a proposal for a new TCDSB elementary school incorporated within the first 2-storeys of the base building, as well as a school yard and retail space. The proposal consists of 867 residential units and 4,618 square metres of non-residential gross floor area (retail space and TCDSB school). Community Consultation: Held in June 2024. Status: Under review by City Staff. City Planner: Michael Romero – Michael.Romero@toronto.ca   1125 Sheppard Avenue East - Concord Park Place Proposal: Two towers of 40 and 36 storeys atop a 6-storey podium with a stratified (multi-storey) park at the southeast corner of the site and a landscaped mid-block connecting Sheppard Avenue East to Singer Court. The proposal consists of 950 residential units and 2,881 square metres of non-residential gross floor area (retail space). Community Consultation:  Held in June 2024. Status:  Under review by City staff. Awaiting resubmission from applicant.  City Planner: Michael Romero – Michael.Romero@toronto.ca     11 Greenbriar Road Proposal: A 4-storey residential building with 30 units. Community Consultation: Held in March 2022.  Status: Under review by City staff. Awaiting resubmission from applicant.  City Planner: Michael Romero - Michael.Romero@toronto.ca     23-29 Greenbriar Road Proposal: A 25-storey residential building with 326 units, 24 of which will be purpose-built rentals. Community Consultation: Held in June 2022. Status: Under review by City staff. Awaiting resubmission from applicant.  City Planner: Michael Romero - Michael.Romero@toronto.ca     2901 Bayview Ave - Bayview Village Mall Application:  Two six-storey buildings, one 20-storey tower, and a commercial addition to the existing shopping centre (North); a development consisting of two towers with proposed heights of 29 and 30 storeys connected by a single podium building (South), and; a development consisting of a 5-storey above grade parking structure adjacent to the existing Shopping Centre (Parkade). The proposal consists of 1,026 residential units and 34,901 square metres of non-residential gross floor area (retail space). Community Consultation:  Held in November 2017. Status:   Approved at the Ontario Land Tribunal. City staff are currently working with the applicant to finalize the technical drawings and details needed for the building permit approvals and site plan.   City Planner: Marian Prejel – Marian.Prejel@toronto.ca     589 Sheppard Avenue East Proposal:  One building of 14 storeys. The proposal consists of 160 residential units, 410 square metres of non-residential gross floor area (retail space), and the relocation of Thomas Clark House. Community Consultation: Held in May 2021. Status:  Under review by City staff. Awaiting resubmission from applicant.  City Planner: Michael Romero – Michael.Romero@toronto.ca     567 Sheppard Ave East – YMCA Proposal: Three buildings of 55, 45, and 2 storeys and the reconstruction of the existing YMCA community facility. The proposal consists of 1,179 residential units and 6,404 square metres of non-residential gross floor area (YMCA community facility). Community Consultation: Held in July 2024. Status: Under review by City staff. Awaiting resubmission from applicant. You will recall that this initial submission included several major issues identified by City Planning, the community, and myself. We are looking for a major rework here.  City Planner:  Michael Romero – Michael.Romero@toronto.ca     635 Sheppard Avenue East Application:  One building of 12 storeys atop a 5-storey podium. The proposal consists of 145 residential units and 404 square metres of non-residential gross floor area (retail space). Community Consultation:  Held in January 2022. Status: Approved in October 2023. City staff are currently working with the applicant to finalize the technical drawings and details needed for the building permit approvals and site plan.   City Planner:  Michael Romero – Michael.Romero@toronto.ca     680 Sheppard Avenue East Application: A tower of 22 storeys and an 8- to 13-storey mid-rise component atop a shared 6-8 storey podium, and a 747 square metre park. The proposal consists of 487 residential units and 6,16 square metres of non-residential gross floor area.. Community Consultation: Held in November 2020. Status:  Approved at the Ontario Land Tribunal. City staff are currently working with the applicant to finalize the technical drawings and details needed for the building permit approvals and site plan. City Planner: Heather Au – Heather.Au@toronto.ca     720 Sheppard Avenue East Original Proposal:  A 29-storey mixed-use building with an 11-storey podium. 554 residential units, 1,185 square metres of commercial space, 298 parking spaces and 438 bicycle parking spaces. Revised Proposal:  32- and 28-storey mixed use buildings (705 units) with a shared 8-storey podium and 4-storey streetwall (submitted in November 2024). Community Consultation: Coming soon. Status: Under review by City staff. Awaiting resubmission from applicant.  City Planner: Jenny Choi — Jenny.Choi@toronto.ca     71 Talara Drive Application: A 23-storey residential building atop a 5-storey podium. The proposal consists of 281 residential units. Community Consultation:  Held in July 2021. Status: Approved in 2021. City staff are currently working with the applicant to finalize the technical drawings and details needed for the building permit approvals and site plan.   City Planner:  Michael Romero – Michael.Romero@toronto.ca     4000 Leslie Street – North York General Hospital Application:  One 16-storey building housing a North York General Hospital long-term care facility (528 beds). This seniors’ health facility will be owned and operated by North York General Hospital (NYGH), and offer senior-focused services (hemodialysis, medical imaging and pharmacy) as well as integrated care services offered through NYGH (4001 Leslie Street). The first two levels will be devoted to retail, medical office, clinic uses, and lobby and building service uses. Community Consultation:  N/A. No community consultation was required because this project was approved by a Provincial Ministerial Zoning Order. Status: Approved by Provincial Ministerial Zoning Order. City staff are currently working with the applicant to finalize the technical drawings and details needed for the building permit approvals and site plan.   City Planner: Jenny Choi – Jenny.Choi@toronto.ca     Don Valley Village 44 Appian Drive Application:  A new 2-storey school for Conseil Scolaire Viamonde (A public French-language elementary school). Community Consultation: N/A. No zoning changes required. Status: No zoning changes required. City staff are currently working with the applicant to finalize the technical drawings and details needed for the building permit approvals and site plan.   City Planner:  Ingrid Fung - Ingrid.Fung@toronto.ca     2500 Don Mills Road Application: Two towers of 49 and 44 storeys atop a 6-storey podium. The proposal consists of 1,196 residential units and 1,003 square metres of non-residential gross floor area (retail space). Community Consultation:  Coming soon. Status: Approved at the Ontario Land Tribunal in Nov 2024. City staff are currently working with the applicant to finalize the technical drawings and details needed for the building permit approvals and site plan City Planner: Jenny Choi – Jenny.Choi@toronto.ca     2600 Don Mills Road Original Proposal: A 33-storey infill tower that maintains the existing rental building, along with three blocks of stacked townhomes on other parts of the site. The 384 new units would be supported by additional parkland and road network additions through a block context plan with 1650 Sheppard Ave and 25 Leith Hill Rd. Revised Proposal: Four buildings with heights of 47, 42, 42 and 42 storeys, with an onsite public park occupying 1,096.8 square metres. This proposal would demolish the existing residential building. Community Consultation: Coming soon Status:  Under review by City Staff City Planner:  Jenny Choi - Jenny.Choi@toronto.ca     5 Fairview Mall Drive Proposal: Two towers of 36 and 31 storeys atop a 5-storey podium and retention of an existing 4-storey medical office building on site, with approximately 8,000 square metres of gross floor area. The proposal consists of 598 residential units and 11,432 square metres of non-residential gross floor area (retail space). Community Consultation: Held in January 2023. Series of workshops between Applicant and City Staff to address comments completed. Status: Awaiting resubmission from applicant.  City Planner:  Michelle Charkow – Michelle.Charkow@toronto.ca   1800 Sheppard Avenue East (Fairview Mall) Original Proposal: Master Plan concept of 12 buildings between 18 and 52 storeys with approximately 4500 residential units and three new public parks over four phases. No existing buildings would be demolished. The first phase proposes three buildings of 38, 48, and 58 storeys containing 1,416 residential units. Approved application: Master Plan concept of 14 new buildings, with height ranges between 24 and 52 storeys, 9,500 square metres of parkland, a multi-use path along the east side of Fairview Mall Drive, new public streets, existing private driveways, and a total of approximately 6200 residential units.  Community Consultation: Held in July 2022. We also facilitated working group meetings with Cadillac Fairview and local stakeholders throughout 2024. This resulted in more parkland, more affordable housing, and more community space in the development. Status: Master Plan approved at City Council in November 2024. Application for Phase 1 under review by City Staff, awaiting resubmission from applicant.  City Planner: Michelle Charkow – Michelle.Charkow@toronto.ca     Parkway Forest 123 Parkway Forest Drive Proposal: One tower of 35 storeys atop a 1-storey podium, the retention of an existing 19-storey apartment building and five 3-storey townhouses on site, and the demolition of five existing 3-storey townhouses on site. The proposal consists of 339 residential units. Community Consultation: Held in February 2022. Status: Under review by City Staff. City Planner: Leila Mirriahi – Leila.Mirriahi@toronto.ca     Bayview Woods-Steeles   10 Ruddington Drive Application:  One building of 13 storeys and three stacked townhouse blocks, and the retention of an existing 13-storey residential building. The proposal consists of 244 residential units. Community Consultation:  Held in June 2021. Status: Approved by the Ontario Land Tribunal in December 2021. City staff are currently working with the applicant to finalize the technical drawings and details needed for the building permit approvals. City Planner: Philip Liu – Philip.Liu@toronto.ca     3377 Bayview Avenue (Tyndale University) Application: 14 residential buildings, the majority of which range in height from 6 storeys to 8 storeys. Three buildings will have heights of 11, 15, and 20 storeys. There will be a total of 1530 residential units across the site, as well as a daycare, café, and flexible use spaces to be used by Tyndale University Community Consultation:  Held in October 2021. My office also convened a working group which met regularly to discuss this application. Status: Approved at the Ontario Land Tribunal. City staff are currently working with the applicant to finalize the technical drawings and details needed for the building permit approvals City Planner:  Marian Prejel - Marian.Prejel@toronto.ca Consumers Business Park 15 Smooth Rose Court Proposal: One tower of 43 storeys. The proposal consists of 471 residential units. Community Consultation: To be determined once application is fully received.  Status:  Under review by City Staff—determined Incomplete Application. Anticipating a resubmission from the applicant.   City Planner:  Richard Martin – Richard.Martin@toronto.ca     245 Yorkland Boulevard Proposal:  Four towers of 45 storeys each atop two 6-storey podiums, a public park in the northeast corner of the site, and the retention of an existing 12-storey office building located in the centre of the site. The proposal consists of 2,140 residential units. Community Consultation:  To be determined once application is fully received.  Status: Under review by City Staff—determined Incomplete Application. Anticipating a completed submission from the applicant.   City Planner: Derrick Wong – Derrick.Wong@toronto.ca     Hillcrest Village/Shawnee Park 3125 Steeles Avenue East Proposal: One 10-storey hotel building and one 3-storey data centre building. The proposals consist of 243 hotel suites and 21,510 square metres of gross floor area (data centre – office and industrial). Community Consultation: N/A. No zoning changes or official plan review required. Status:  Proposal for hotel under review by City Staff. Data Center approved and  construction began January 2025. City Planners:  Leila Mirriahi – Leila.Mirriahi@toronto.ca  & Derrick Wong – Derrick.Wong@toronto.ca 2900 Steeles Ave East – Shops on Steeles While not in the Ward (or the City of Toronto), we know there is significant interest in Don Valley North about the application to redevelop the Shops on Steeles on the northeast corner of Steeles Avenue East and Don Mills Road, known municipally as 2880 to 2930 Steeles Avenue East in Markham. The application proposes a mixed-use community of 13 buildings ranging in height from eight to 59 storeys, consisting of 5,049 dwelling units, two levels of underground parking for 4,367 cars, and 7,884 m2 (85,000 sq. ft.) of commercial space. Planning staff in Markham have offered the following update: Applications were submitted in June 2024 A Public Meeting was held by the City of Markham on November 5, 2024, the Public Meeting Information Report is linked here Comments from Markham City Staff and external agencies were issued to the applicant in October 2024 Join Don Valley North’s EHON Resident Reference Group!   Dear Don Valley Northerners,   Are you passionate about shaping the future of housing and retail in our community? The City of Toronto's Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods (EHON)  initiative seeks to find ways to address housing needs while maintaining vibrant, livable communities. As part of this effort, I am forming an informal Resident Reference Group to discuss upcoming EHON proposals, including the Retail in Neighbourhoods  and Avenues  Studies, so that we are bringing our unique suburban perspective to this important initiative.   This is your opportunity to learn about these proposals, share insights, and work together to develop constructive solutions that reflect resident concerns.   Meeting Schedule: February 18, 2025, 7:00 PM March 18, 2025, 7:00 PM April 16, 2025, 7:00 PM   All meetings will be held virtually. Participants must commit to attending all three sessions. If you’re a Don Valley North resident and want to make your voice heard, sign up today to help shape our community’s future!

Earlier this week, the TTC released a report that outlines their plan for weekend and evening closures in 2025 . It immediately garnered attention from the media, and fairly so. The report  outlines the need for 38 closures over 28 weekends (some weekends will include closures on both Line 1 and Line 2, which are counted separately). This is up significantly from the past few years, and it rightfully causes frustration amongst transit users and drivers alike. So why are these weekend closures necessary? Toronto’s transit system is the busiest in Canada, moving over 1.6 million people every day. It’s also the oldest—the Yonge Line dates all the way back to 1954. As the TTC continues to age, it requires regular maintenance to remain safe and functional, just like any other piece of vital public infrastructure. The issue is that chronic underfunding of our transit system has led to a backlog of necessary repairs. The TTC has faced significant funding challenges for decades. It is more reliant on fares than any other major transit system in North America—a major reason why the pandemic was so devastating to transit here in Toronto. The lack of stable financial support from other orders of government and years of underinvestment has led to track issues, signal failures, and an increase in “slow zones”, particularly on Line 1.  This year’s City Budget invests billions of new dollars to improve our transit system. With this funding comes the requirement to deliver on our promises and actually make our system better. To do so, we need to undertake major projects and those require intermittent closures. While these disruptions certainly feel inconvenient in the short term, they are necessary investments in the safety, reliability, and long-term health of the TTC. The upcoming repair work includes a range of projects, from upgrading aging tracks and signals to ensuring our stations meet modern safety and accessibility standards. These aren’t just cosmetic upgrades—far from it. They’re essential to keeping our transit system running. Let’s bring it back to the Yonge subway line. It’s the backbone of our network, and one of the busiest and oldest transit corridors in North America. As such, it needs immediate and significant investment to ensure it can continue to run reliably. Without this investment, Line 1 will only continue to strain under massive ridership, leading to more frequent breakdowns and delays. Our subway systems are just like anything else—the longer you put off the repairs, the worse the problem gets. Once these critical infrastructure projects are complete, riders will experience smoother, faster, and more dependable service. Better a little inconvenience now for decades of significant benefits.  Investing in repairs now is also essential to ensure our transit system will be able to support our future growth. Toronto’s population is set to expand significantly in the coming decades, and we need a transit system that can keep up. Modernizing our infrastructure will allow us to increase transit capacity, reduce congestion, and deliver the transit service a world-class city like Toronto deserves. At a time when we’re struggling with congestion and mobility across our city, we can’t afford to let our transit system falter. Every bus, every streetcar, and every subway takes dozens or hundreds of cars off the road and out of the way of drivers for whom transit is not a viable option. When we plan for growth here in Toronto, we want to plan for it to be as smooth and sustainable as possible. Creating space for future residents on our transit system is the most reliable way to keep our city moving. Now, let’s get back to the question I posed at the top of this column: Why do these closures have to happen over the weekend? Can’t the work just get done overnight? Here is a very handy and succinct explanation from the TTC’s most recent report: “A full weekend subway closure offers the equivalent of approximately five weeks of regular night work as it provides up to 50 uninterrupted hours of work, allowing for multiple work groups to participate.” Think about it: Undertaking work always requires a certain amount of set up and take down. Doing that every night results in far fewer hours to actually get work done. If you were renovating your kitchen, for instance, would you rather the workers come in every night for 5 weeks or get the same amount of work done over one weekend? Every closure requires the same work to set up, clean up, and re-open, but with a 48-hour closure you get far more bang for your buck. Weekend closures also allow for better coordination of work. It is far more efficient and cost-effective to conduct longer closures where multiple teams can work on projects simultaneously and actually make significant progress. Weekend closures are a pain, but they’re necessary if we want our transit system to keep running and actually improve in the year ahead. It’s also essential that we coordinate this work with other construction and take special events into account. This is particularly true for weekend subway closures—the TTC Board needs to take a close look at the report to ensure these won’t coincide with major road closures or large-scale festivals.  The other factor we have to grapple with this year is the World Cup coming to town in 2026. You’ll see this crop up in other capital work across the city, including road repairs. I’ve written before about the work underway to prepare for FIFA, how we came to host the matches, and why it’s important that we make this event a success . One of the requirements of hosting the World Cup is to have a blackout period for construction work in certain areas around the event in 2026. This means we have to go into construction overdrive in 2025 to make sure we’re World Cup ready come next summer.  The TTC and the City are acutely aware that this transit work is frustrating and inconvenient for riders and drivers. We have our work cut out for us to ensure that we’re stepping up communication and helping residents and visitors navigate the system during these closures. When you feel frustrated by this work, as I’m sure we all will at some point, try to remember just how essential it is to keeping our city moving in the long run. If you experience significant challenges during this period, please don’t hesitate to reach out—I want to make sure your voice is part of the conversation, and continually monitor this work to ensure it goes as smoothly as possible for our residents.

At this time last year, I had just helped launch the first budget under our current administration. When I accepted the role of Budget Chief the previous summer, I knew it was no small job. The challenges facing our city were immense: We were grappling with a $2 billion operating budget shortfall due to years of underinvestment and continued impacts of the pandemic, including rising inflation and labour shortages. This put both essential services and the long-term health of our city at risk. It was a pivotal moment. Ultimately, we made the hard decision but the right one—we said no to kicking the can further down the road and started to take real action to get our city back on track. A photo from last year's Budget launch. The focus of last year’s budget was laying the groundwork for recovery and resilience. It started with combing through every line to find savings and efficiencies wherever possible. Then, for the first time in over a decade, we came to you—the people of Toronto—to hear your priorities and solutions for the future of our city. I’m proud to say this hard work paid off. Not only did we craft a budget that made key investments in the areas that matter most, the City also had its credit rating raised for the first time in 20 years . This is a true testament to our strong financial stewardship and deep commitment to responsible planning.  This year, we’re building on that foundation. The 2025 Budget is a roadmap for a stronger, more vibrant, and more liveable Toronto. It’s a budget for the city we want to see now and in the future. This budget balances our need for fiscal sustainability with critical investments in the areas that matter most to residents—affordable living, safer streets, and better transit.  I launched this year's Budget this past Monday. Here’s everything you need to know about Budget 2025: Just like in 2024, we left no stone unturned in our quest to find savings. This year, we identified over $680 million in efficiencies, reductions, and offsets. Staff in every department worked tirelessly to find savings wherever possible. Our number one goal is to ensure your tax dollars are spent wisely while protecting the high-quality services you rely on.  As we worked to find those savings, we also recognized that Toronto cannot afford to continue underinvesting in its future. For over a decade, our city faced chronic underfunding. Torontonians were paying the lowest property taxes in the GTHA despite  living in the country’s largest city, which has to deal with a host of challenges that smaller cities do not. While these artificially low tax rates may have been popular in the moment, they eroded core services and left us extremely vulnerable to today’s challenges.  As I said at the outset, we can’t keep kicking the can down the road. Underinvestment shows up as dirty and pothole-filled streets, overgrown grass in parks, overflowing litter bins, and a transit system in crisis. Historically, it also forced us to shed hundreds of police officers, leading to some of the safety challenges we face today. To break this cycle, we must make targeted investments that address our most urgent needs while positioning our city for long-term success.  The 2025 Budget proposes a combined property tax increase of 6.9%—a 5.4% property tax increase plus a 1.5% increase to the City Building Levy. For the average Toronto homeowner, this will translate to an additional $22.36 per month. I understand that any tax increase is significant for residents. I also know this is a necessary investment in our city, present and future. These extra dollars will directly support the services and infrastructure that Torontonians have told us they value most. Thousands of residents participated in our pre-budget consultations, sharing your priorities and hopes for our city. That feedback was instrumental in shaping this year’s budget, which focuses on three key areas: Affordable Living We know that Toronto is facing an affordability crisis. The budget includes a number of measures to make life more affordable for all Torontonians: Significant investments in new housing initiatives, renter protections, and shelters Expanded access to affordable child care and recreation programs Longer library hours and earlier pool openings to better serve families and seniors Safer Streets Every Torontonian deserves to feel safe in our city. This budget makes key investments to strengthen public safety by: Hiring hundreds of new first responders, including firefighters and paramedics, to improve emergency response times Supporting an unprecedented multi-year police hiring plan to put more officers on our streets Expanding Vision Zero  investments to prevent traffic-related fatalities and injuries Increasing the number of traffic wardens to improve traffic flow, ease congestion, and protect vulnerable road users Better Transit Reliable, accessible transit is essential to our city’s success and the economic strength of the region. We’re making the most impactful transit investments possible to keep Toronto moving, including: Expanding service hours to improve transit reliability and capacity Purchasing 55 new subway cars to meet growing ridership needs Investing in cleaner, safer, and brighter transit stations and vehicles These investments will lead to real, on-the-ground improvements you will see in your communities. Whether it’s knowing that first responders will get to you faster in an emergency, enjoying more affordable classes at your local community centre, or trusting that your bus will show up on time, this budget is helping us build the city we all need to succeed. In addition to these key priorities, the 2025 Budget tackles Toronto’s growing infrastructure backlog through a 1.5% increase to the City Building Levy. These funds are dedicated to addressing our state of good repair backlog, which includes things like fixing our roads, transit systems, community centres and libraries to ensure they’re safe and functional for years to come. Torontonians made it clear they want services protected. Affordability, safety, transit reliability—these are the cornerstones of healthy and vibrant communities. We know that making these investments now will help us build a Toronto that is equitable, vibrant, and thriving for current residents and future generations alike. As we make these core investments, we must continue our journey towards financial sustainability. You’ve heard me say it before, and I’ll say it again. Toronto is a world class city, and we need the revenue tools to go along with it. Even with this and last year’s property tax increases, Toronto still has a lower than average property tax rate compared to other municipalities in the province. We’ve made real progress in our intergovernmental partnerships, particularly when we signed the New Deal with the Provincial government. Rest assured those conversations are continuing. In the meantime, we continue to take a multi-year approach to stabilizing Toronto’s finances, guided by our updated Long-Term Financial Plan . I had great conversations with residents at this year's North York Pre-Budget Consultation. This budget is a reflection of our shared priorities, and your input has been instrumental in shaping it. Over the next few weeks, there will be more opportunities for you to share your feedback, including public consultations and Council meetings. I encourage you to participate in any way you can—ask questions, share your thoughts, and tell us how we can continue building a city that works for all. Budgets are more than just numbers. They reflect our values, and act as a blueprint for the city we want to live in today and the city we aspire to be tomorrow. We can create a Toronto that is more affordable, safer, and better connected, while laying the foundation for long-term success. I look forward to continuing on this path together as we tweak the 2025 Budget in the weeks ahead. As always, I’ll keep you updated every step of the way right here in this E-Blast. Let’s keep the conversation going and get to work! Don Valley North Budget Town Hall Join me for the Don Valley North Budget Town Hall to learn about the 2025 City Budget, share your priorities, and discuss how it impacts our community. Date: Monday, January 20 Time: 7:00 PM Location: Parkway Forest Community Centre – Multipurpose Room B Learn more and RSVP at the link below:

For me, the period between the winter holidays and the new year is always a time to reflect. My husband and I wash and put away the good dishes that only come out during the holidays, passed down to me by my mother. We laugh together, reminisce on the past year, and then I turn my sights to the year ahead. Whether you’re a fan of New Year’s resolutions or not, I think that setting intentions for the coming months is a great way to ring in the year. When it comes to serving our community here in Don Valley North, there’s no better way I can think of to set those goals than by coming up with them together. My favourite thing about municipal government is how closely I get to work with all of you. If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that having conversations and working together only strengthens the sense of community in our neighbourhoods. Whether neighbours come together to share feedback on city-wide issues like the 2025 Budget or let me know about a problem with garbage collection on a specific street, I am always energized by the incredible dedication of our community. So, let’s look ahead to 2025 together. I want to hear your ideas for a better Don Valley North and a better Toronto so I can get to work delivering the changes that matter most. The New Year always starts off with a bang, with the launch of the annual City Budget. We have been hard at work finalizing the proposed Budget so it can be presented to Budget Committee and the public this coming Monday. I’ll be writing a detailed E-Blast on the subject next week, and I’ll be hosting our annual Don Valley North Budget Town Hall on Tuesday, January 20 (details below) . This is one of many opportunities you have to share your feedback on the proposed budget. What’s unique about this Town Hall is that it is really meant for our community here in Don Valley North. I want to see as many neighbours as possible come together and tell me where our City needs to invest and where we might be able to pull back. We started some great conversations during our Pre-Budget Town Halls in October, and I know I will hear very valuable feedback after the Budget is fully launched. There will be plenty of other city-wide work for me to tackle in 2025. At the Toronto Police Service Board, I’ll be working to realize our new multi-year hiring plan that will see hundreds of new officers hired in the coming years. I’ll also be working hard to ensure the 2026 FIFA World Cup stays on track and on budget, and helping businesses large and small succeed in Toronto. Through all of this, it’s essential that I stay in communication with you. Of course, there will be a number of projects underway here in Don Valley North as well. The local work we do for our neighbourhoods may not receive the same fanfare in the media, but it means the most to me. One of my goals for 2025 is to leave lots of room for chats with our community here in DVN. Let’s unpack some of the things we’ve done so far. Did it work? How can we do things differently next time? What can we do to improve? Conversations like these are exactly how we revamped the Vacant Home Tax program to ensure declaration is easier this year.  I know from your calls and emails that there are all sorts of things on your mind, and I am more than happy to make time to chat, whether it’s about road work and road safety improvements like the The Peanut Streets Plan , local planning and development projects, park improvements, or other local issues you want to bring to my attention. We don’t need to wait for an official meeting or a big challenge to arise—I think proactive conversations are the best way to strengthen our neighbourhoods and our city. Sitting down to discuss gives all of us valuable insights to manage future changes coming our way. I really want to focus on bringing these conversations down to a more meaningful scale. There’s one thing I heard loud and clear from you in 2024: larger meetings and open houses are important, but they’re not ideal. City staff do need to host these meetings to meet statutory requirements, but that doesn’t mean we can’t complement them with our own hyper-local meetings. That can mean anything from meeting with a church congregation, to a couple of condo boards, a ratepayers association, or even hosting a virtual morning coffee with your small group. Please let me know if you want to chat, and the Don Valley North team and I will get to work providing the time and space. 2025 will bring a Federal election and possibly an early Provincial one, but things will keep chugging along here at City Hall. That means we can really hunker down and talk about where Don Valley North and our city are headed. It’s like I always say—you are the experts on your neighbourhoods. If you have an idea for how to make that neighbourhood better, I want to hear it. That’s my job—to listen to you and be your voice at City Hall. So let’s get the conversation going and talk about the Don Valley North and the Toronto we want to see in 2025. P.S. On the topic of what 2025 holds for our city, I want to take a moment to shout out the Editor-in-Chief of the Toronto Star , Nicole MacIntyre, for her fabulous new series “ Toronto the Better ”. We face a number of challenges here in Toronto, heaven knows, but Nicole has made space for constructive pieces that share bold ideas for how we can make the city better and appreciate the great things we do have here. The series kicked off with a great piece called “ 50 ways to be happy in Toronto ”. Nestled in the dozens of suggestions was a local treasure. John Lorinc, one of Toronto’s great writers and wanderers, advised Torontontonians to “track down the perfect csabai”. It’s a wonderful bit of Hungarian charcuterie, and his favourite place to get it is at So HungAry on Sheppard just west of Bayview. Bravo to John Lorinc for reminding Toronto that happiness continues north of the 401. My New Year’s challenge to you: take a look at that list and imagine it needs to go all the way to 100. What would you add?

Happy New Year, Don Valley North! I hope everyone has had the chance to enjoy the holiday season with their loved ones and had a blast ringing in 2025. To kick off the New Year, my office is hosting a Winter Bash at Ethennonnhawahstihnen' Park next weekend! Date: Saturday, January 11, 2025 Time: 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM Location: Ethennonnhawahstihnen' Park (80 McMahon Drive) Bring your family, friends, and neighbours to enjoy ice skating (including free skate rentals), winter crafts, and warm up with free hot chocolate! Ethennonnhawahstihnen' Park is just south of Bessarion Subway Station. Parking is available beneath Ethennonnhawahstihnen' Community Centre and in the parking lot next to Canadian Tire.  RSVP at the link below. You can also email my office at councillor_carroll@toronto.ca or call at 416-338-2650 to RSVP. I can't wait to see you there and enjoy a fun-filled afternoon with our fabulous community here in Don Valley North!

We have officially wrapped up the final Council session of 2024. This agenda is always a busy one as the Mayor and City Councillors work to make sure the most important items are in motion for 2025. This week, Council tackled everything from expanding our rental housing supply, to implementing $10-a-day childcare, addressing excessive temperatures in apartments, and setting interim fees for water and waste management. Let’s take a look at these items and more: CC24.16 - Advancing Phase One of the Purpose-built Rental Housing Incentives Stream City staff updated Council on the call for applications for the Purpose-Built Rental Housing Incentives stream , which aims to create 20,000 new rental homes by the end of 2026. We received a truly overwhelming response to this program—75 applications were submitted that could create over 32,600 new rental homes. In Phase One, the City has approved 17 applications that will create 7,156 net new rental homes, including over 1,000 affordable rental homes. More applications could move forward in the second phase of the program, but that is dependent on the Province providing a Build More Homes Rebate to the City to cover development charges and the majority of property taxes for eligible projects.  The overwhelming response to this program from the housing sector shows the need for all orders of government to work together to help these units get built. City staff will continue to work with successful applicants to finalize agreements and expedite project timelines. I’ll be sure to keep our community updated on this initiative’s progress.  PH17.2 - Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods - Neighbourhood Retail and Services Study Phase Two Final Report This report outlines a recommended zoning bylaw amendment that would permit certain small scale retail, service, and office uses in residential properties in neighbourhoods across the City. I’ve heard from many residents who are concerned about what this would mean for their neighbourhoods, so I’m happy that Council referred this item back to staff. It’s clear that we have more work to do to ensure this policy works for local communities. I look forward to bringing Don Valley North residents together for a working group to make sure we unpack this proposal together and share our feedback with City staff. EC17.4 - Shelter Safety Action Plan  & CC24.1 - Ombudsman Toronto Report - An Investigation into the City's Decision to Stop Allowing Refugee Claimants into Base Shelter System Beds Council adopted a report to improve the safety of those living and working in our emergency shelter system. The Shelter Safety Action Plan  (SSAP) will implement 14 actions over the next three years, with a particular focus on addressing issues stemming from the toxic drug supply and mental health crises that cities are struggling with worldwide. It also updates policies to better support refugee claimants who arrive in Toronto and high-needs individuals living in Toronto Community Housing.  With all of this important work underway, it was unfortunate to see the surprisingly one-sided report released by the Toronto Ombudsman  regarding the City’s inability to continue accepting federal refugee claimants in our shelters in May 2023. The Ombudsman investigated the isolated fallout of that action and did not wholly consider the context in which that announcement was made. In May 2023, Toronto was without a mayor and receiving no support from the Federal government. It took Mayor Chow’s election and my proposal of a 6% Federal Impacts Levy during the 2024 Budget to secure emergency refugee shelter funding from the Feds.  I am proud of the actions we have been able to take to improve our shelter system since receiving appropriate funding support from our Federal partners. While there is still more work to do, we have made significant progress on the Shelter Safety Action Plan and a number of other Council-approved plans, including the Homelessness Solutions Service Plan , Our Health, Our City: A Mental Health, Substance Use, Harm Reduction and Treatment Strategy , and the SafeTO: Community Safety & Well-Being Plan .    EC17.5 - Implementation of the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care System and 2025 to 2029 Child Care and Early Years Service Plan: Update   Incredible progress has been made on the implementation of the Federal $10-a-day child care program since it began rolling out in 2022. Currently, 87% of licensed child care centres and 92% of home daycares in Toronto are part of the program, radically reducing child care costs for parents as they move towards the $10-a-day mark. We can only hope that this program is far enough along that a change in government would not wipe it out.  The challenge we still face is the need to create new child care spaces here in Ontario. In Don Valley North, for instance, the only two new child care centres that have recently been built (at Parkway Forest Community Centre and soon to open at Ethennonnhawahstihnen’ Community Centre) were built with Section 37 developer funding. Since the Provincial government removed that section from the Ontario Planning Act, we need a Provincial Capital Strategy to ensure child care facilities are keeping pace with needs.   PH17.5 - Establishing a Framework to Address Excessive Indoor Temperatures in Leased Residential Premises This is a report back on a motion I moved last year on behalf of tenants in Don Valley North. There has long been a bylaw requiring landlords to turn the heat on and off at specific points in the year. The problem is that nowadays, climate change has led our seasons to stop following the calendar as predictably as they once did. This meant some tenants were sweltering in their units during early heat waves in April and May. Staff are recommending we update our temperature bylaws to ensure they are responsive to actual temperatures rather than dates. They recommend a minimum indoor temperature of 21°C and a maximum of 26°C. While this will be enforceable regarding the landlord's use of furnaces, there are still thousands of apartments where air conditioning is not provided. We don’t have the power to require landlords to provide air conditioning, but we are working with the Province to create requirements for landlords to provide access to cool spaces somewhere in the building during extreme heat events to better protect the health of tenants.   EX19.9 - 2025 Interim Water and Wastewater Consumption Rates and Service Fees  & EX19.10 - 2025 Interim Solid Waste Management Services Rates and Fees By now, you have likely seen in the news that Toronto’s water and waste rates are both increasing. These increases are both incredibly modest. For water, the increase will mean an extra $3.25 per month for the average family, while the increase on a medium garbage bin works out to less than $1.50 per month. Let’s break down exactly why these increases are needed. Toronto Water is undertaking massive capital work across the city as they complete basement flooding mitigation work and replacing ageing water mains. What is important to remember is that we continue to avoid the use of debt to fund water infrastructure. Instead, it is all paid for by development charges and pay-as-we-go rates. The chart below shows that even with this increase, we are still at the lower end of rates across the GTHA. A chart showing the cost of water consumption in Toronto compared to other municipalities in the GTHA. Click to view a larger version. In terms of waste rates, Toronto is unique in the GTHA for billing garbage separately from your property taxes. We do this so that you can be billed on the basis of how much waste you produce. The more waste you are able to divert from landfill, especially by reducing, reusing, recycling and composting, the more your family is able to save.  We will face significant waste expenses in a few years when our landfill reaches the end of its life. We hope to face this challenge by reducing our waste volume as much as possible and paying for the next waste solution from a Solid Waste stabilization reserve. CC24.2 - Policy Framework - City Response to Demonstrations   Our City Manager has presented Council with a definitive policy on what constitutes hate activity. This will allow us to determine when the City needs to intervene in demonstrations—if a demonstration is determined to be hate activity, then protections of free speech and protest are overridden and action must be taken. This policy clearly defines guidelines and responsibilities for all City divisions regarding protests. City Council also directed staff to craft the bylaw with extra protections around vulnerable institutions including places of worship, faith-based schools, and cultural institutions.  The policy also articulates the partnership between the City and our Police Service to respond to these incidents. At the Police Board last week, we learned that the Toronto Police Service has laid over 500 charges related to hate speech and hate crimes since October 7, 2023. Of course, the wave of antisemitism occurring in our city goes beyond protest activity and includes terrifying acts of violence and vandalism. While Toronto Police continue to respond to all hate activity, my hope is that this policy will help the City execute a clear and coordinated response to hate-based activities to help make Toronto safer and more inclusive for all. We had a busy and impactful final Council session of 2024. We’ll be right back at it in the New Year with the launch of the 2025 Budget, and staff will continue working hard to implement these impactful programs, policies, and more in the months ahead. Holiday Office Closure We're taking a break from the E-Blast next week, as my office will be closed for the holidays. My team will be keeping an eye out for any urgent phone calls or emails, and we will be fully re-opened for regular service on Monday, January 6. Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year to you and your loved ones!

It’s that time again—there are just over two weeks left in 2024, and I’m sure all of us are doing some reminiscing on everything that happened this past year. It was certainly a busy one here at City Hall and in the Don Valley North office. Let’s take a look back the highlights of 2024.   Getting Toronto Back on Track: Budget, Safety, and Prosperity   In addition to dutifully serving their wards, every Councillor must carry some city-wide responsibilities. I started 2024 laser-focused on delivering my first budget under our current administration.   When I returned to the role of Budget Chief in August 2023, I knew it would be a challenge. The 2024 Budget process opened with a $2 billion hole, largely caused by lingering pandemic pressures. Thankfully, between my work with staff to identify over $600 million in savings and Mayor Chow’s work to secure a New Deal with the Provincial government, we were able to close a significant portion of that gap before 2024 even began.   I kicked off the New Year by presenting our proposed Budget to you, the people of Toronto. It was based on weeks of deeply impactful conversations during our Pre-Budget consultations—the first time the City held this style of budget consultation in over 12 years. January and the early part of February were spent fine-tuning that Budget proposal in collaboration with the Mayor and Council, while all of us continued to listen to feedback from our residents. I kicked off the New Year announcing our proposed 2024 Budget. In the end, I am incredibly proud of the 2024 Budget we delivered. We hired more police officers, firefighters, and paramedics to bring down response times. We made key investments to improve safety on our transit system and made a major dent in our infrastructure repair backlog. We expanded our shelter offerings to serve more people in crisis. We also made key investments in the daily services you rely on to get Toronto back on track.   Of course, the backbone of the 2024 Budget was fiscal responsibility. Thanks to the strong direction provided by our updated Long-Term Financial Plan  and the prudence of our 2024 Budget, S&P Global, an international credit rating agency, raised the City of Toronto’s credit rating from AA to AA+ in October of this year . This is the first time our credit rating has been raised in 23 years.   Two other significant milestones took place in the fall of 2024. As the Mayor’s Economic Development & Culture Champion, I was able to wrap up this year by joining City staff for the launch of two incredible action plans: Sidewalks to Skylines: A 10-Year Action Plan for Toronto’s Economy  and Culture Connects: An Action Plan for Culture in Toronto . These plans are the result of months of work by two dedicated advisory panels comprised of local experts and leaders in their fields. They will be instrumental in helping us attract top investment and talent, create and maintain high quality jobs, and continue to strengthen the vibrancy that makes us proud to call Toronto home. I joined industry leaders and City staff to launch the Economic Action Plan back in October. We also revamped Toronto’s festival funding formula (try saying that three times fast). The Special Events Stabilization Initiative (SESI) , launched earlier this year, will help provide financial relief to our local festival organizers who have been hit hard by rising costs since the pandemic. This was another important step in supporting Toronto’s vibrant cultural scene.     On a different note, I joined the Toronto Police Service Board this past May, just as a new Community Safety and Policing Act took effect across the province. The focus of my time on the Police Board thus far has been to work with Chief Demkiw to create a Multi-Year Hiring Plan  to guide the Service’s growth in the years ahead. This plan was approved by the Police Board a few weeks ago, and its benefits are twofold: it allows us to ensure our police service will be adequately staffed as our population grows and it allows us to budget for that growth smartly in advance. This staffing plan will help us continue to bring down response times and ensure our officers can keep tackling city-wide issues like car thefts, which are down significantly this year compared to last. Chief Demkiw and I announced the new Multi-Year Hiring Plan for the Toronto Police Service last month. In July, I chaired the first meeting of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Subcommittee. Our mandate is to complete detailed, line-by-line reviews of our FIFA event budget, control spending, and hunt for revenue opportunities to help cover the cost of hosting this exciting international event. This work will continue to ramp up in 2025 as we get closer and closer to the Cup in summer 2026.   The Mayor also asked me to chair her Labour Relations Committee. As Budget Chief, I dutifully accepted this role knowing that labour relations will present the most significant financial pressure we face going forward. Many of our collective bargaining process are either currently underway or set to begin soon. I’ll be sure to keep all of you updated on my work in this role as it carries over to the new year and beyond.   And of course, you’ll hear from me again very soon about the 2025 Budget. We had another incredible round of Pre-Budget consultations in October of this year. I want to thank each and every Torontonian who took the time to come out to a meeting or participate in a virtual consultation and share their feedback. Just like with our 2024 Budget, your ideas and priorities are invaluable as we work to finalize the proposed 2025 Budget.  I joined Mayor Chow and Deputy Prime Minister Freeland for a major Federal funding announcement in support of refugees earlier this year. City Council Decisions   There were thousands of items passed at Council this year, but a few key decisions stand out from the rest: Council took steps to provide greater incentives for the creation of rental housing. We launched the Rental Housing Supply Program  and established a new Purpose-built Rental Homes Incentives Stream  to expedite building permits, waive fees, and remove other barriers to getting these much-needed units built. We accelerated state-of-good-repair work on the Gardiner Expressway . City Council also reallocated funding that had been set aside for this work  after the Provincial government agreed to finance the project as part of the Ontario-Toronto New Deal. We asked staff to develop implementation plans for a Universal Student Food Program  after the Federal government announced its plan to fund these programs nation-wide. We accepted City staff’s proposed improvements to the Vacant Home Tax declaration system . I know this posed some major challenges in 2024, but I can assure you that we have made it easier than ever to declare for the upcoming year. Feel free to reach out to my office if you still require assistance submitting your declaration. We extended the lease for Billy Bishop airport  to ensure they are able to meet new Federal safety requirements, protecting an asset that is vital to our local economy. We strengthened Toronto’s Congestion Management Plan , including adding important measures to coordinate capital work and minimize lane closures, to keep Toronto moving.   Milestones in Don Valley North   The projects we launch here in Don Valley North are always the ones I hold closest to my heart. Perhaps our biggest milestone this year was the grand opening of Ethennonnhawahstihnen’ Community Recreation Centre & Library  in March. It was an absolute honour to be joined by representatives from the Huron-Wendat Nation, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, and Six Nations of the Grand River for this wonderful celebration.   We had an incredible grand opening for our state-of-the-art Ethennonnhawahstihnen' CRC in March. We were also able to open a new park dedicated to our former Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) David Caplan in the presence of his entire family. This was a very special day for me and I encourage you to visit our brand-new David Caplan Park at Sheppard and Consumers Road. Other milestones include the opening of the new-and-improved Clydesdale Clubhouse, major progress made on renovations at both Pleasant View  and Fairview  libraries, and getting started on a number of exciting Participatory Budgeting  projects in both Bayview Village and Henry Farm. Construction also began on the Parkway Forest Off-Leash Area , which will soon provide a great new amenity to the neighbourhood. It was an honour to be joined by late MPP David Caplan's family for the opening of the new park named in his memory. In terms of major capital work, we made significant progress on the work underway in the East Don Ravine , which will not only stabilize the creek but improve sewer capacity for our growing community along Sheppard. We also made progress on a number of road upgrades along Steeles Avenue East . I know this construction has caused some headaches for the neighbourhood, but this resurfacing was badly needed and we have been able to bundle a number of great safety improvements with this work.   Of course, the real highlight of my year was getting to connect with so many of you at our Don Valley North community events. From informational events like Seniors Info Day and our Community Safety Town Hall with Toronto Police Division 33, to practical Community Environment Days and Compost Days, to relaxed movie nights in the park, there’s nothing I love more than being out in the community in our beautiful Don Valley North. We also held another fabulous Summer Celebration this year, with hundreds of nieghbours attending to enjoy fun in the sun with their families and friends. A small sample of the amazing community events we held this year. Top row: Compost Day at Bestview Park, Toronto Nature Stewards event. Bottom row: Movie Night at Linus Park, Summer Celebration. Of course, I couldn’t do a year in review E-Blast without giving a shoutout to my incredible Don Valley North team. They directly assisted with over 3500 constituent cases this year, helping all of you with everything from missed garbage collection to traffic issues and everything in between. My team also helped me edit and circulate 45 weekly E-Blasts, ensuring our community stayed up-to-date on the most important things happening here in Don Valley North and across Toronto.   Looking Ahead to 2025   I’m looking forward to 2025, but with an ounce of trepidation. There’s a chance we’ll have both Federal and Provincial elections next year, and Toronto always has the potential to become a political football of sorts when our other orders of government head to the polls. We need long-term solutions and stability to continue our important work here at City Hall. We’ll have to wait and see exactly what 2025 has in store.   I’ll be back next week with my final E-Blast column of the year: December Council Highlights. As always, it is an honour and privilege spending a year serving our community here in Don Valley North. I can tell you one thing I’m excited about for sure: our very first event of 2025, Winter Bash at Ethennonnhawahstihnen’ Park! I hope to see you there to kick of another amazing year together.

The first flurries of the season have begun to flutter down. Even with some of the headaches that winter brings, I still always get excited about that first snowfall. We were lucky to have a relatively mild winter last year, but here in Toronto we always have to be prepared for serious snow. In today’s E-Blast, I’m going to share updates on the continuous improvements being made to our winter operations and share some helpful information to help you glide through our coldest season as smoothly as possible. 2024-2025 Winter Maintenance Improvements After the rocky start to our new winter maintenance contracts in the 2022-2023 season, Toronto’s Auditor General did a deep dive into our winter operations and made a series of recommendations to improve service . Transportation Services staff have been hard at work implementing those recommendations to ensure residents across Toronto receive reliable and high-quality snow clearing from our contractors. One improvement I’m very glad to see implemented is the Annual Winter Maintenance Report . Each year, Transportation Services will deliver a report on winter operations from the previous season and share improvements for the upcoming season. This year’s report was presented to City Council in July. It breaks down service from the 2023-2024 season, and outlines the improvements that will be implemented this winter season (2024-2025).  The first improvement to report is the full implementation of GPS monitoring of winter maintenance vehicles that began last season. There were supply chain issues that prevented the GPS devices from being fully installed in the 2022-2023 winter season, but all 1200+ pieces of contracted winter equipment had working GPS last year and will be similarly equipped this year. These GPS trackers are essential for ensuring that our winter maintenance contractors are deploying their vehicles promptly and delivering the expected level of service for each and every snowfall.  The GPS devices also allow the City to provide live updates to residents during plowing events via the PlowTO Map . This map shows the real-time location of snow plows, salt trucks, and sidewalk plows, and also allows you to check when a road was last cleared. Transportation Staff have been hard at work improving this map over the past few years. Upcoming improvements include real-time information for windrow clearing and snow removal.  There are also ongoing customer service enhancements to improve the winter experience for Toronto residents. An improvement that was implemented last year was the ability for 311 agents to share detailed updates on winter maintenance Service Requests (SRs) from residents. This year, staff are working to improve communication on SRs and set clear, accurate timeframes for resolution. They’re also working to improve the process for identifying urgent SRs and triaging them accordingly.  In addition to these improvements, staff are continually refining routes for our contractors to ensure they deliver efficient and effective service. As always, you are my eyes and ears on the ground. If you notice any issues with snow clearing on your street this year, please don’t hesitate to reach out to my office. We can help connect you with staff and ensure that any issues on your street are promptly resolved. Windrow Service Review Transportation Services staff will also be completing a review of our driveway windrow service this winter season. This is a legacy service that was offered in specific boroughs before amalgamation, where a second plow comes by to remove snow from the end of your driveway. The City continues to offer windrow clearing in areas without on-street permit parking, meaning the service is primarily offered in Etobicoke, Scarborough, and North York (including here in Don Valley North). While windrow clearing is included in our windrow contracts, issues with windrow clearing are a top complaint received by 311 each winter. We’ve had issues with windrow plows coming extremely late or not at all in recent winters. If we’re going to pay for this service, we need to ensure it’s being delivered in a way that actually benefits Torontonians. I’ll be sure to update our community on the outcome of this review once it’s completed.  Winter Maintenance Service Levels I always find it’s helpful to remind folks what to expect from our winter maintenance contractors. Below is a quick guide outlining when and how different types of roads are salted and plowed, as well as the timeframes for contractors to complete each round of winter maintenance: As you can see, Expressways (like the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner) receive plowing after 2.5 cm of snow accumulation. Major roads, transit routes and streets with hills receive plowing at 5 cm of accumulation, while residential streets are only cleared after 8 cm of snow. The amount of time to complete each round of plowing also increases with each category. Think about it—there are far more residential streets in Toronto than major roads. If your local street still hasn’t been cleared 14 hours after a major snowfall, be sure to reach out to 311 to report.  You might notice that sidewalks aren’t included in the chart above. That’s because they follow a separate process. The City clears sidewalks after 2 cm or more of snow has accumulated. If the snowfall is lighter, it’s the legal responsibility of residents and businesses to clear sidewalks adjacent to their property within 12 hours of the snowfall ending. When the City does clear sidewalks, priority is given to busy streets, especially those connecting to schools and transit stops. Local residential streets are addressed later, with sidewalk clearing taking up to 13 hours to complete and continuing for as long as 72 hours after the snow has stopped falling. For a full breakdown of sidewalk clearing timelines and details, click below: As always, my office is here to support you with any challenges you may face this winter season. Whether your street was missed during a round of plowing or you have questions about the wonderful winter recreation programs  offered by the City, the Don Valley North team is here to help. I also always take this opportunity to plug my Winter Tenant Guide, which is full of helpful information for renters navigating the winter season: I’ll be back with more end-of-year updates in next week’s E-Blast, so stay tuned. And have a wonderful winter!