Ward 13 Don Valley West City Growth and Intensification Long Term Accommodation Plan

Tonight I attended a talk put on by the TDSB to inform the community about its long-term plans for Ward 13’s growth and intensification. I received the invitation from my friend Shannon Hardy and I’d like to thank her for sending it. Our City Councillor, Jaye Robinson, found out about it from Shannon as well. Our School Trustee, Gerri Gershon, was there to introduce TDSB Senior Planner Daniel Castaldo and his team. While she was there she announced that she has decided not to run in the next municipal election after 33 years in office and that this would be her last evening talk with the community, She received a standing ovation for her years of service. The election is on October 22nd. Currently, the 2018 voting places are under review, but you can still go here to make sure you are registered. While I was there I talked to Rachel Chernos Lin who is running as school trustee for Ward 13. It is confirmed that the Government has reduced the number of City of Toronto wards from 47 to 25. Cutting council to 25 members will increase the average ward size by approximately 40,000 residents but the municipal election date remains unchanged and will still take place on October 22, 2018. You can go here to find out more about the upcoming election and who is running in your ward.

This was the first meeting like this that I have attended and the most important thing I took away is how critical it is to get involved, to get educated about what is going on in our communities, and to raise our voices to speak about what is important to us. The Government is looking to bring in almost 1 million new Canadians over the next two years and the two places they are most likely to go are Vancouver and Toronto. This planning session did not even really address these numbers, saying that they only work with numbers they currently have access to, not future predictions. Despite that, schools that are already full are projected to run at way over capacity within the next 10 years by 2027 like Blythwood (121%), Grenoble (141%), Rolph Road (148%), and Bennington Heights (225%!). I wanted to ask about issues of overcrowding at Blythwood but I felt overwhelmed by statistics like the fact that the neighbourhood of Yonge and Eglinton has over 20,000 new residential units proposed, or in the works. Some schools like Grenoble apparently contain almost 20 portables that have been there for well over a decade. Daniel told us that one Toronto school had over 100 new refugee students show up on the first day of school this September. In total, almost 19,000 new residential units are proposed or are currently under construction for Ward 13. It feels like the school board is in crisis – where are we going to put all these kids? Right now the TDSB is forced to place holds on development in places like the Celestica development at Don Mills and Eglinton which will have 4,900 residential units. Places like Yonge and Eglinton, where there is no land, are likely going to have schools placed in condos and be forced to share green spaces with parks. Blythwood is on the list of high priority schools to be studied during the 2018-2019 school year to readdress accommodation. Boundaries will almost certainly be redrawn and schools will be notified about upcoming changes in “open public consultation meetings”, likely in the spring.

The TDSB says that they are taking steps to be more involved in city planning early on, to advocate for TDSB kids, and plan to appeal at the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal and at the Provincial Level to stop developments where students cannot be presently accommodated, and to negotiate for funding for proper planning. Click here if you’d like to learn more about the TDSB Planning Strategies and please feel free to reach out to me at alysa@kimhomes.ca in case I can answer any questions you might have about the evening. I asked how to find out about the next informational meeting and Daniel suggested I visit the TDSB and Blythwood PS websites regularly to stay informed. As an aside, I did go to those websites to check for the next scheduled event and could not find any information on either one. Once the new trustee is chosen, I’ll reach out to him or her and ask about this. In closing, I’d say it looks like it’s going to be a bumpy and crowded ride for the TDSB for the foreseeable future.