Deputation to City of Toronto’s Planning and Housing Committee by SaveTPARK on May 31, 2022

The Planning and Housing Committee's primary focus should be on urban form and housing development, with a mandate to monitor and make recommendations on planning, property standards, growth, and housing development.

Our deputation was as follows:

Good afternoon,

Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you.  My name is Ilyas Lulat and I am here on behalf of SaveTPARK, a grassroots organization from Thorncliffe Park opposed to Metrolinx’s plan to build a train yard in our community.

I am here to speak to you today about the City’s Employment Survey: how it was contorted by Metrolinx to rationalize an odious decision with no comment or intervention from the City; and how City staff participated directly in a secret process that prioritized impacts in one particular location over another – leading to the displacement of over 1,300 jobs and dozens of unique small businesses from our community in favour of a massive train yard that is better suited to nearby industrial areas far removed from residential areas.

For the record, one year out, we have no idea what the status is regarding the future of those businesses or their employees because Metrolinx made the owners sign Non-Disclosure Agreements while discussing the purchase or expropriation of their properties.  As a result, no one is talking about them or what effect their relocation or buyout means to our community; we don’t think it is prudent to wait for some future employment survey to evaluate what all this confidential manoeuvring means – because then it will be too late to do anything about it.  The economic and social impacts need to be evaluated now.

In April 2021, Metrolinx shocked our community by announcing that a train yard was to be located in Thorncliffe Park.  This followed a secret process that involved no input from the community, knowledgeable stakeholders or elected representatives to understand the dynamics of our community and the potential social and economic impacts they are planning to inflict. 

From our perspective, it is bad planning to locate a train yard in a currently vibrant neighbourhood beside a new subway station that should instead be a catalyst to address the many needs of a Priority Neighbourhood that desperately needs more affordable housing, jobs and public spaces.  This decision is directly contrary to all planning policies, principles and objectives of both the City and Province when it comes to transit-related developments.  Yet the silence from anyone with the power to question the unaccountable behemoth that is Metrolinx is deafening.

Instead, all we get from Metrolinx is arrogant condescension and justifications based on an earlier version of the City’s employment survey and reference to a meeting organized by City staff that allowed just two companies (Tremco – 200 employees & Siltech – 100 employees) the opportunity to express their opposition to the originally preferred location in the Wicksteed area - thus prompting the justification that Metrolinx needed to dump the yard where less resistance could be anticipated.

Unfortunately, many people rely on the Environmental Assessment process to assess and weigh the impacts associated with a large public project like the train yard.  That used to be true, but the requirement to conduct a social impact assessment for transit projects was removed years ago, and we are victims of that streamlining effort. Transit engineers and planners still have to identify potential impacts to the complete spectrum of flora and fauna and design mitigation and/or protection strategies for every species encountered - except the human kind.

Lacking any knowledge about social impacts on the ground in Thorncliffe Park but knowing it had to subsequently explain their decision, the spin doctors at Metrolinx decided that they would equate community impacts with job numbers gleaned from Toronto’s Employment Survey.  Then they used those numbers to compare the short-listed sites in an apples to oranges manner to create a false narrative that rationalized their preferred location. 

We understand that Toronto cannot be held responsible for how others use or interpret their data, but when it is used by a partner government agency to shape the future of a community and justify a very questionable decision, we think that the City should step up and speak up.

Therefore, our ask is simple.

We request the Committee to:

1.     Ask staff to review and report on whether Metrolinx accurately and appropriately used the City’s employment survey data to interpret impacts when comparing the three short-listed sites for the train yard (Leaside, Wicksteed, Overlea), and;

2.     Request Metrolinx to advise on the status of negotiations with those businesses that will be directly displaced by the train yard and determine the net benefits/losses of jobs & income to the local community as a result.

3.     Review the implications associated with the changes in property ownership that have taken place since April 2021 in the Wicksteed area and enumerate what businesses currently operate there, the number of people they currently employ and how long the existing businesses plan to stay; and

4.      Compare the number of jobs in the 2021 Survey vs the 2019 Survey for businesses located in the Wicksteed industrial area and the number of jobs that would be permanently lost if the train yard was to located there as originally planned or as recommended by SaveTPARK in its submission to Metrolinx of an alternative scenario.