Returning Funding for Supervised Consumption Sites

Friends

We are continuing to lose members of our community to fatal opioid overdose at a horrific rate. The Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario reported over 500 deaths per year for the last four years due to opioid toxicity in Toronto.

It is unconscionable that the federal and provincial governments have decided to stop their funding of harm reduction services in our city during this time.

Toronto Public Health officials have been clear that this crisis requires an evidence-based response that recognizes addiction as a human health issue. This is a time where we must come together to ensure that the full continuum of overdose prevention health services is available to our community members. This includes services for substance use prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and access to the social determinants of health.

Canadian and international evidence shows that Supervised Consumption Sites (SCSs) saves lives, connect people to social services and are vital pathways to treatment. SCSs are designed to improve the health status of people who use drugs by having trained health professionals available immediately should a person overdose. They are also a place for people who use drugs to connect with other health and social services, including mental health services. They have been shown to prevent overdose deaths and reduce the spread of infectious diseases.

I will be working in partnership with my Board of Health and City Council colleagues, and community, to demand federal and provincial funding is returned to these life-saving services.  

This week at Board of Health we began that fight. My colleagues and I voted unanimously to keep funding in the Toronto Public Health 2025 budget for supervised consumption sites (SCS). You can listen to my remarks on this item at Board of Health here.

We cannot allow stigma to be wielded for political gain at the expense of our community member’s lives. I hope you will join me in this fight.

Sincerely,


In This Week's Newsletter

City-Wide

  • Bloor West Village Toronto Ukrainian Festival, Sept 13-15
  • Roncesvalles Polish Festival, Sept 14 & 15
  • Fall PollinateTO Grant Applications Open
  • Parking Day Bike Cafe, Sept 21

Ward 4 

  • Community Environment Day - Sept 15
  • 304/504A King Streetcar Diversion - Sept 14 & 15
  • Moccasin Identifier Project, Sept 15
  • Prepared Parenting Lunch & Learn, Sept 23
  • Baby Point Gates BIA & Tapestry Opera Box Concert, Sept 14
  • Grenadier Pond Phragmites Removal, Sept 16
  • 11 Brock Project Updates

Developments

  • Community Consultation for 2461-2475 Dundas St W, Sept 16
  • Community Consultation for 2106-2112 Dundas St W & 1 Golden Ave, Sept 17

City Wide Updates

Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival

Celebrate our vibrate community! 

Thousands of people come every year to experience the diversity and beauty of our Ukrainian heritage at the Bloor West Village Toronto Ukrainian Festival. Every group, organization, committee or business that wishes to participate in the parade is welcome to do so.

For information on the festival's parade, performers, schedule, and location, visit https://ukrainianfestival.com/


Roncesvalles Polish Festival

Coming this September 14 & 15, 2024, and building on the long history of the Roncesvalles Polish Festival, which include fan favourites, like Polka and pierogi, in conjunction with a fresh focus to celebrate a broader range of local artists, musicians and, of course, food.

Combining old world charm with today’s Roncesvalles Village; well-known as one of Toronto’s most vibrant, unique, and creative communities, attendees will find an amazing variety of global cuisines from local eateries, exceptional shopping, and quality services, as well as performances by talented local artists and musicians, including Indigenous programming and family friendly activities!

Learn more about the stage schedule and festival map at https://polishfestival.ca/


Fall PollinateTO Grant Applications Open

Calling all gardeners! City of Toronto opens applications for its Fall PollinateTO Grants

Applications are now open for the City of Toronto’s PollinateTO grants!

PollinateTO offers grants of up to $5,000 to support community-led initiatives that result in the creation or expansion of pollinator habitats on public and private lands in Toronto. A priority will be placed on funding projects in Toronto’s Neighbourhood Improvement Areas.

Projects eligible for funding include those that create new pollinator habitats, expand or enhance an existing garden by adding pollinator-friendly plants and/or convert a lawn area, boulevard or hard service into a pollinator garden or rain garden.

The grants are a component of the City’s Pollinator Protection Strategy adopted by Toronto City Council in 2018 to support more than 360 species of bees and more than 100 species of butterflies and other pollinators in Toronto. Many species are in decline due to loss of habitat, climate change and other stressors. Pollinators support healthy and resilient ecosystems that help clean the air, capture carbon, stabilize soil and absorb stormwater.

Since 2019, PollinateTO has supported more than 190 community-led projects, resulting in the creation of 500 gardens and an estimated 25,500 m² of pollinator habitat.

Applications are open until Monday, October 21 and are available on the City’s website: www.toronto.ca/pollinateTO.

The City is hosting PollinateTO information sessions where interested applicants can learn more about the program. Dates include:
• Thursday, September 12 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
• Tuesday, October 1 from noon to 1 p.m.
• Thursday, October 10 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Residents can register to an upcoming information session by visiting the City’s PollinateTO webpage: www.toronto.ca/pollinateTO.


Parking Day Bike Cafe


Ward 4 Updates

Community Environment Day


304/504A King Streetcar Diversion

Please be advised that from 5 a.m. on Saturday, September 14, to 11:59 on Sunday, September 15, the TTC will divert the 304/504A King streetcar to accommodate the Roncesvalles Polish Festival (September 14 to 15) TTC service will divert as follows:

The 304/504A King streetcar will divert both ways via Bathurst Street, Dundas Street West, and Roncesvalles Avenue.

504A King Replacement buses will divert as follows:

  • Eastbound: from Dundas West Station, east on Edna Avenue, south to east on Dundas Street West, south on Lansdowne Avenue, west on Queen Street West, south on Triller Avenue to King Street West.
  • Westbound: from Triller Avenue, west on King Street West, east on Queen Street West, north on Lansdowne Avenue, west to north on Dundas Street West to Dundas West Station.

304 King Night Replacement buses will divert as follows:

  • Eastbound: from Dundas West Station, east on Edna Avenue, south to east on Dundas Street West, south on Roncesvalles Avenue, east on Dundas Street West, south on Lansdowne Avenue, west on Queen Street West, south on Triller Avenue, west on King Street West, east on Queen Street West, south on Shaw Street, east on King Street West, north on Bathurst Street, east on Wolseley Street to Wolseley Loop.
  • Westbound: from Wolseley Loop, south on Bathurst Street, west on King Street West, north on Shaw Street, west on Queen Street West, south on Triller Avenue, west on King Street West, east on Queen Street West, north on Lansdowne Avenue, west on Dundas Street West, north on Roncesvalles Avenue, north on Dundas Street West to Dundas West Station.


Moccasin Identifier Project

Please note: Wear clothing that can get paint splashed!


Prepared Parenting Lunch & Learn 


Baby Point Gates BIA & Tapestry Opera's Box Concert


Grenadier Pond Phragmites Removal

The City of Toronto, in collaboration with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), will be treating invasive Phragmites (Phragmites australis) grass at High Park Grenadier Pond from September 16 to 20, 2024 (weather dependent). The goal of this project is to restore native plant species and improve the ecological health of the pond.

Date: September 16 to 20, 2024 (weather dependent)

Location: Grenadier Pond, High Park

Signs will be placed 24 hours before treatment and removed 48 hours afterward.

For more information on Phragmites management, please visit:


11 Brock Project Updates

View the 11 Brock Avenue housing development plans (also view the housing development plans in Tibetan.

The City of Toronto and PARC will continue to engage with the local Parkdale community on the development of this site. Updates and invitations to participate in engagement opportunities will be delivered to the surrounding neighbourhood as the project proceeds.

Learn more at toronto.ca/11brock


Developments

Community Consultation Reminder for 2461-2475 Dundas St West

This is a reminder that the City has received a Zoning By-law Amendment application for 2461-2475 Dundas St West and City Planning has scheduled a virtual Community Consultation Meeting for the evening of September 16th at 6pm.

A plan has been proposed to redevelop this space into a 29-storey mixed use building with a 4-storey podium including retail on the ground floor. The building would contain 288 residential units (including 9 rental replacement units), 328 bike parking spaces, and 38 vehicle parking spaces. This month's meeting, consisting of presentations from the applicant and City Planning Staff, followed by a Q&A session, will allow you to view the proposal and share your thoughts.

Councillor Perks, City Planning staff, and the applicant will be in attendance to help answer any questions that may arise. You can register for the meeting here: https://toronto.webex.com/weblink/register/r489c0ffcb4f80756f17d5a6ea3cee56f.

Further information on the project and what is being proposed can be found on the City's Application Information Centre website here: https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/application-details/?id=5482273&pid=148578.


Community Consultation Reminder for 2106-2112 Dundas St West & 1 Golden Ave

This is a reminder that the City has received a Zoning By-law Amendment application for 2106-2112 Dundas St West & 1 Golden Ave and City Planning has scheduled a virtual Community Consultation Meeting for the evening of September 17th at 6pm.

A plan has been proposed to redevelop this space into a 10-storey mixed use building including 3 retail units on the ground floor. The building would contain 52 residential units, 58 bike parking spaces, and 4 vehicle parking spaces. This month's meeting, consisting of presentations from the applicant and City Planning Staff, followed by a Q&A session, will allow you to view the proposal and share your thoughts.

Councillor Perks, City Planning staff, and the applicant will be in attendance to help answer any questions that may arise. You can register for the meeting here: https://toronto.webex.com/weblink/register/r6ef3d47079ba2fb1165e8ae3d4d73f38.

Further information on the project and what is being proposed can be found on the City's Application Information Centre website here: https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/application-details/?id=5481364&pid=161633.


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Friends,

As part of the George Street Revitalization (GSR) project, the City continues to relocate existing shelter programs to new and enhanced facilities across Toronto. The 2299 Dundas St. W. Men’s Shelter will create a safe space for 80 men experiencing homelessness. This program will provide case management to assist clients in securing permanent housing and access to onsite healthcare and mental health supports, including a Managed Alcohol Program. The anticipated construction completion date for this shelter is Winter 2026.

The shelter will be staffed 24-hours a day, seven days a week and offer specialized programs that will provide health and housing support to help residents improve their health and move toward permanent housing.

Services and features of the shelter will include:
• Onsite healthcare, including personal support workers, nursing, medication support, and access to an in-house physician.
• Access to health services, including a Managed Alcohol Program (MAP) and the Annex Infirmary program which provides short-term medical observation, care, and recovery support to clients experiencing health challenges.
• Case management to support clients secure permanent and supportive housing.
• Mental health services and referrals to a wide range of additional community supports

Shelters in our city provide essential support to individuals in immediate housing crisis, act as a stepping stone to permanent housing, reduce reliance on other high-cost services (e.g emergency rooms), and bring people indoors, by providing an alternative to sleeping in parks, sidewalks, or transit shelters.

If you are interested in supporting the shelter, through the offer of programs that benefit shelter residents, participating in community events or partnerships, or donating goods, please email [email protected].

There will be a community event to welcome the shelter to the neighbourhood once construction is completed. Updates will continue to be shared as the project progresses on the City’s webpage at toronto.ca/2299dundas.

If you would like to receive future updates, ask a question or share an idea, you can reach the project team at [email protected] .

 

Sincerely,

Gord


In This Week's Newsletter

City-Wide News

  • TRCA Flood Safety Information
  • CultureLink Career Workshop
  • Grassy Narrows River Run Rally Save the Date

Ward 4 news

  • Pat Capponi Parkette Opening Event
  • Toronto East York Community Council
    • 1464 King Street West and 10 to 12 Maynard Avenue
    • 1497 and 1501 Queen Street West and 89 and 91 Beaty Avenue
    • 1 & 3 Close Ave & 78 Springhurst Ave
    • 1730 Bloor Street West
    • 2273, 2277 and 2279 Bloor Street West
    • 34 to 50 Southport Street
    • Renaming Close-Springhurst Parkette in Honour of Diane Rajaram
    • Transportation Items
      • CNE Traffic and Parking Regulations
      • King Street Construction
      • Armadale and Mayfield - All-Way Stop
      • Traffic Calming Various Streets
      • St. John's Road - Additional Speed Humps
  • Parkdale Parking Restrictions during FIFA  

Friends,

On June 10, 2026, the Infrastructure and Environment Committee voted in favour of urging the Ontario government to immediately implement a deposit-return program for non-alcoholic beverage containers.

Currently, Ontario operates a successful deposit return system for alcohol, seeing an average of 75 percent of all empties returned to Beer Stores each year. The deposit return provides a consumer incentive to consciously recycle. This system must be expanded to include all beverage containers.

Ontario is one of Canada’s only provinces without a deposit-return program for non-alcoholic beverages. As a result, Ontario has the lowest beverage container recovery rate in Canada—at roughly 50% of containers being recycled. Other provinces such as Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia have an expanded deposit return program and see recovery rates 50% higher than Ontario. The Ontario government proposed expanding the deposit return program to include non-alcoholic containers in 2023 but has yet to do so.

The City of Toronto will join the Peel Region, the City of Waterloo, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative in urging the Ontario government to immediately implement a deposit-return program for non-alcoholic beverage containers.

The IEC Committee received a letter of support from the Canadian Beverage Association to expand the Deposit Return Program as the current mixed recycling system is inefficient, resulting in higher cost for producers with worse outcomes.

You can hear my comments on the matter at the IEC meeting here: https://youtu.be/73ZTlD1yDIU

As we push for ways to be more sustainable, I encourage you to participate in the Plastic Free July challenge, a global campaign encouraging individuals and communities to cut down on single use plastics throughout the month of July.  We can use this movement to make incremental changes in individual habits but also to mobilize as a community to influence our governments and businesses to adopt sustainable practices.

 

Sincerely,

Gord


In This Week's Newsletter

City-Wide News

  • FIFA Related Nighttime Waste Collection Changes

Ward 4 news

  • Sorauren Construction Progress Update – June 18,2026  
  • Swansea Town Hall: Clean Indoor Air Toronto
  • Summer Fest - Baby Point Gates BIACommunity Environment Day - June 27
  • Community Environment Day - June 27
  • Parkside Live: A Summer Music Series
  • Taste of the Junction 2026
  • Parkdale Parking Restrictions during FIFA  

Friends,

This week at City Council we adopted a landmark funding deal in which $1.5 billion in funding will be provided to the City of Toronto to reduce development charges in partnership with the provincial and federal governments. The full City Council agenda can be reviewed here: City Council - Meeting 42 - TMMIS

The City can now reduce its residential development charges by 40 to 60 per cent for the next three years, and use this funding to pay for major infrastructure projects including our road network, water infrastructure, and enhanced transit capacity to support a growing population.  These reductions will apply across the board for residential development. Deeper development charge discounts (60 per cent) will be offered to units with two or more bedrooms, to help incentivize building more housing for families.

At a time when our housing market has slowed down, these development charge reductions will help make projects more financially viable, build more of the kind of housing we need, and make homes more affordable for residents. It will also help generate an estimated 143,000 jobs through construction and related industries.

This funding deal was inspired by the City’s successful Purpose-Built Rental Housing Incentives program.

The first phase of the program, launched in fall 2024 with more than $1.2 billion in financial contributions from the City of Toronto, supported more than 8,000 rental homes, including more than 2,000 affordable homes.

Building on that success, with the greater financial stability provided through the $1.5 billion in federal and provincial infrastructure funding, the City of Toronto is now in a position to launch a new phase of Purpose-Built Rental Incentives.

The second phase of the program will support up to 10,000 new rental homes, including a minimum of 2,000 affordable rental homes. We will prioritize shovel-ready projects and City staff will review and approve applications on a rolling basis over the coming weeks and months.

We are proving as a city that there is a crucial role for government to steer development towards building housing that Torontonians can afford to live in.  In doing so as a municipal government, we are influencing other orders of government to invest in Toronto with us.

 

Sincerely,

Gord


In This Week's Newsletter

City-Wide News

  • Celebrate Canada Day
  • Pride Weekend
  • Outdoor Swimming Pools
  • FIFA Related Nighttime Waste Collection Changes

Ward 4 news

  • Toronto East York Community Council
    • 1464 King Street West and 10 to 12 Maynard Avenue
    • 1497 and 1501 Queen Street West and 89 and 91 Beaty Avenue
    • 1 & 3 Close Ave & 78 Springhurst Ave
    • 1730 Bloor Street West
    • 2273, 2277 and 2279 Bloor Street West
    • 34 to 50 Southport Street
    • Renaming Close-Springhurst Parkette in Honour of Diane Rajaram
    • Transportation Items
  • Sorauren Ave Construction Update
  • Celebration of Compassion at Roncesvalles United Church
  • Celebrate Around the World on Roncy in Roncesvalles Village!
  • Swansea Town Hall: Clean Indoor Air Toronto
  • Summer Fest - Baby Point Gates BIA Community Environment Day - June 27
  • Community Environment Day - June 27
  • Parkside Live: A Summer Music Series
  • Taste of the Junction 2026
  • Parkdale Parking Restrictions during FIFA  

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