Toronto Police Union Wants Pride Funding Pulled After Floats Banned

The union representing Toronto’s police officers is urging the city to pull an annual grant to Canada’s largest Pride parade after the event banned police floats.

In an open letter released by the union Wednesday, a committee representing LGBTQ officers in the force said it would be unacceptable for the city to give the roughly $260,000 grant to an event that excludes certain municipal employees.

The committee said officers would feel completely devalued and unsupported by the city if the funding continued.

The plea comes weeks after a similar call from a Toronto city councillor, who said the grant should be voted down until the city’s Pride parade returns to its “core principals of equity and inclusivity.”

In January, Pride Toronto adopted a list of demands issued by the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter, including banning police floats from the parade.

Members of the anti-racism group held a sit-in part way through the parade last July, stopping it from moving forward for about a half hour, until Pride organizers signed the list of demands.

Black Lives Matter said it opposed police presence in the parade because it could discourage marginalized communities from participating.

About a month after Pride Toronto’s ruling, Toronto’s police chief announced the force would not be participating in the annual event this year, citing divisions within the LGBTQ community as a key motivator.

The city still provides policing, transportation and other services for the Pride parade, which would not be affected even if the grant is revoked.

Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, read the open letter Wednesday at city hall, where he was set to deliver it to Mayor John Tory.

“When any city employee, regardless of their job function, is disinvited from an event hosted in the city of Toronto, we feel it is simply a conflict of interest and unacceptable that the City of Toronto remain a sponsor,” he read.

“We can think of no example in Canada where either a public or private employer has been a lead sponsor for an event their employees were asked not to participate in.”

Pride Toronto said although the city’s police service will not be participating this year, individual LGBTQ officers were welcome to march in the parade.

“Toronto city council has provided valuable support to Pride through funding and support services. In turn, we provide the largest economic impact of any festival in the city,” the organization said in statement Wednesday night. “We hope this reality will be front of mind for council as they consider our funding this year.”

The issue of police participation in Pride parades has also emerged in other Canadian cities in recent months.

The Vancouver Pride Society has asked officers in that city to show up in fewer numbers and without their uniforms at the request of the local chapter of Black Lives Matter.

Halifax police have also announced they would pull out of the city’s Pride parade this year in light of the “national debate” about law enforcement participation in such events.

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Toronto Homeowners Cash Out of Hot Real Estate Market

TORONTO — Sarah Blakely recalls feeling some trepidation when she and her husband shelled out more than $300,000 for a modest 1 1/2-storey house in a less-desirable part of Toronto.

Seven years later, they found themselves on the right side of a hot housing market, with values tripling in a 'hood suddenly considered up-and-coming for young families seeking detached homes.

They recently sold that renovated three-bedroom for more than $1 million and now expect to live mortgage-free in a four-bedroom purchase in their hometown of Ottawa.

The 34-year-old says it made sense to cash out of a city that was draining their finances, energy and family time.

"My husband and I saw an opportunity to take advantage of the recent gains in real estate and to move to a less expensive city to live mortgage-free, support our savings for retirement and also to be closer to family," says Blakely, whose new home has nearly twice the square footage.

And they may have taken action at just the right time.

Blakely's real estate agent Josie Stern says the market appears to be cooling, and doubts Blakely could fetch that same jackpot sale today.

"A little bit of air has been let out of the bubble," she says.

Many buyers and sellers are waiting to see what will come of Tuesday's scheduled meeting between Finance Minister Bill Morneau, Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa and Toronto Mayor John Tory, who are expected to discuss ways to rein in Toronto's hot housing market.

Meanwhile, the Ontario government is promising to announce affordability measures soon.

Stern says some buyers are delaying their purchase in anticipation of possible fixes.

"Buyers have been in such a stressful situation for so long that now they think somebody is going to save them and they're waiting," says Stern. "They've dug their heels in, they're tired of competition and then there's those that are still proceeding, but there's been quite a big pullback from buyers."

Sellers who've bought new homes are rushing to list their old property, she adds, but many are not getting the high bids seen a month ago.

The Toronto market has been astonishing, with the average sale in the Greater Toronto Area skyrocketing last month to $916,567. That's up 33.2 per cent from a year ago.

With strong demand and limited supply, it wasn't uncommon for bidding wars to result in sales hundreds of thousands of dollars above asking. And a lot of those sellers took those dollars out of the Greater Toronto Area where they can get more acreage, less congestion and still pocket a fair bit of cash.

"We're finding that a lot of people are leaving the city," says Stern, who estimates that about a third of her 35 sales this year involved sellers either downsizing to condos or moving to more affordable markets.

"It's empty-nesters, it's (couples with) babies, it's all kinds of people that are doing this."

Even with a new uncertainty in the air, it's still a seller's market, she adds.

One of her biggest sales was a $2-million listing that went $575,000 over asking in February. The sellers moved to the commuter city of Burlington, Ont.

They're joining buyers priced out of the Toronto market who have gone looking for cheaper housing in smaller communities across the Golden Horseshoe, spurring other sales spikes in the region — Hamilton-Burlington homes jumped 22.6 per cent during the first two months of 2017 compared to a year earlier.

Still other buyers are looking farther afield.

Remember that relatively inexpensive Nova Scotia mansion that dominated Facebook last month?

Real estate agent Wanda Graves of Eastern Valley Real Estate says it's sparked more inquiries from Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and B.C. house hunters suddenly hip to Eastern Canada's charms.

Nova Scotia sellers are taking notice, and are marketing to out-of-province buyers now considered increasingly likely to make an offer.

"They know that there are buyers out there and now it's, 'How do we reach them?'" says Graves.

Before selling for $455,000, the mansion in Newport Landing, N.S., drew more than one million views on her company's website and 36,000 shares on Facebook.

It's a story Vancouver real estate agent Melissa Wu knows well.

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Toronto's Housing Bubble Also Causing Trouble For Employers

At the end of a recent hiring process, recruiting firm IQ Partners believed it had found the perfect candidate for a vice-presidency with the Canadian Professional Sales Association. He ticked all the boxes – a senior executive in the field with the right résumé and the requisite expertise. He wanted the job, too. But he turned it down for one reason: Toronto’s housing prices.

After looking at listings, the candidate realized he couldn’t afford a “comparable home” in a move from Mississauga to a neighbourhood closer to the CPSA’s downtown office.

“Despite it being a very attractive job and being interested, he decided to decline simply because of the complications around home prices,” said IQ Partners’ managing partner, Bruce Powell. “These situations happen all the time.”

Increasingly, recruiters and employers are grappling with apprehensive job seekers who simply aren’t sure Toronto warrants its soaring real-estate prices. Typical wage gains have fallen far behind housing prices, which jumped more than 30 per cent in the past year. The issue appears to be most acute with executive positions, which attract talent with higher housing expectations.

“This is a state of emergency right now,” said Toronto Region Board of Trade president and chief executive Janet De Silva about the need to reduce housing costs to avoid seriously damaging the local job market. “The challenge is that at a certain point, it’s both the housing market and the lack of regional transit, and it’s a double whammy.”

Twice in the past month – at a dinner with international CEOs and during a visit from a Saudi Arabian delegation – Toronto’s international business community identified the looming housing crisis as a “top of mind concern,” Ms. De Silva said.

“It’s just the overall cost of doing business in Toronto and their ability to recruit in the talent that they want,” she said.

As a result, recruiters are seeing candidates take jobs closer to their bedroom communities, forcing businesses to either move out of the city or toward its core.

“The companies that aren’t geographically positioned around transportation hubs aren’t as attractive,” Mr. Powell said.

He believes that if IQ Partners wasn’t located across from Union Station, many of his own employees, who commute by GO train from places such as Ajax, Barrie, Milton and Oakville, wouldn’t be able to work for him.

Women, in particular, are choosing to abandon job searches, unable to juggle the cost of housing with families and long commutes, according to Ms. De Silva.

As a result, the Board of Trade has begun research into the impact the tough real estate market has already had on Toronto’s ability to attract talent.

Ms. De Silva points out that almost 80,000 new residents are moving into Toronto annually. The Board of Trade estimates the city needs 30,000 new rental units to match that flow. With just 1,500 new units each year, Toronto is nowhere near matching that target.

“We need to fast-track more rental properties,” Ms. De Silva said. “[We’re in] panic mode, where folks feel like if they don’t get in now, they’re never going to be able to afford it.”

Not all firms or sectors have felt the same impact, however.

Sean Kogan, a managing partner with staffing firm Recruiting in Motion, deals with job classes that fall below the traditional $150,000 cutoff for executive status. RIM matches candidates primarily in the $60,000 to $80,000 salary range. Mr. Kogan says that job market remains buoyant and the flow of candidates hasn’t yet slowed.

But he has his concerns.

“I think it might [slow]. I can’t imagine that if [housing prices] keep going up we won’t see an impact,” he said. “The price of jobs has not gone up nearly to the extent that the real-estate market has gone up.”

Mr. Powell says it’s easier now to hire for entry-level jobs than for senior positions because there’s a higher proportion of young workers, in the early years of their careers, living in condominiums closer to the downtown.

“It’s this interesting dilemma where we can help a company like CPSA hire their sales reps more easily than we can help them hire their VP of sales,” he said.

Gassia Maljian, the executive search director for digital recruiter Creative Niche, hasn’t seen tech companies match the rising cost of housing with increased compensation, either.

“Tech companies based in Toronto offer wonderful perks like subsidized lunches and gym memberships, but when you get down to it, salaries aren’t changing and they aren’t reflective of the housing market,” she said. “Those perks are great, but they don’t pay the rent.”

In the creative world, companies are increasingly moving to Hamilton to attract younger, cheaper talent. Animation studio Awesometown Entertainment is one of several creative companies to move to Toronto’s neighbour to the west, according to Glen Norton, the director of the city’s economic development office.

“You can get lost in the creative world in Toronto because it’s

just so big, and here you can make a name for yourself and plug into a network,” Mr. Norton said.

“It makes it really easy for us to hire juniors who, when they’re coming out of school, it’s much more affordable to reside somewhere closer to Hamilton,” Awesometown president Lucas Lynette-Krech said.

Hamilton’s real-estate prices are soaring too, though. And Mr. Norton fears young people may begin to bypass the city to move even farther out, to communities such as Brantford.
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Toronto to be Canada's Most Expensive Rental Market

A new report suggests that Toronto rental rates continue to increase as the Ontario government mulls over new rental control measures that could be tabled as early as the upcoming April 27 budget.

According to apartment listings website Padmapper, the median rent for a one bedroom in Toronto surpassed the $1,750 mark for the first time, on the heels of a 4.9 percent jump in the median price for such units this month.

Last month, the site also tracked a 4.9 percent increase. Since Padmapper began recording the median rental rates in Toronto for one and two bedroom apartments, they've risen from $1,320 and $1,650 (June 2016) to $1,760 and $2,270 in the span of 10 months.

If the trend continues, this puts Toronto on track to pass Vancouver as the most expensive rental market in the country by this summer. The median price for a one bedroom in Vancouver has hovered at $1,900 for the last three months, while Toronto's witnessed steady gains.

There may, however, be relief in sight. In addition to possible rent control measures, another recent report from Urbanation claims that rent for condo units in Toronto decreased in the first quarter of 2017.

Urbanation cites increased supply as the force behind stabilization in the market, though many would argue that the rates for condo rentals in Toronto became unaffordable long ago.

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Toronto Mega City Amalgamation, Mike Harris, 20 Years Later

Twenty years ago this month, Mike Harris introduced Bill 103 at Queen’s Park, forcing Toronto’s amalgamation with what still seems like malice. Little wonder the provincial Tories have never recovered. Toronto has become their political graveyard. But the road to governing can be greased with a little Toronto love.

Exactly 20 years ago this month, Toronto was embroiled in a civic upheaval unmatched in our memory. The provincial government imposed a controversial merger on the six municipalities that stretched from Etobicoke Creek to the Rouge River, Lake Ontario up to Steeles Ave.

The forced amalgamation of Toronto, York, Etobicoke, East York, Scarborough and North York was resisted with verve, vigour and the kind of civic passion unparalleled since the huge majority of residents (three in four) had their protests squelched.

Mike Harris introduced Bill 103 at Queen’s Park. The entire creation, it seemed, hollered “No” — in referenda, nightly vigils, legislative filibuster and with the amplification provided by every available democratic tool. To no avail. The majority Tory government carried the day. The old city was history. A new one would be born eight months later. And everywhere, the citizens vowed never to love the child born out of what amounted to a political assault akin to forced marriage.

The fight has gone out of the dog — reality never matches the warnings of doom and destruction, so people forget what they had and what they’ve lost and celebrate survival where spectacular success was possible. But look close to the surface and the wounds are only now healing.

Of course, this sounds like strange doctrine to so many. Hundreds of thousands of newcomers have since arrived. The only Mad Max mayor they know of is Rob Ford, not the original Bad Boy Mel Lastman. Ancient grievances between old Toronto and the regional government of Metro Toronto are lost on them. They don’t get the stubborn, latent whine from Scarborough that the burbs get no respect.

Market Value Assessment. A New Deal for City. Downloading. Relics of the past, yes, the very near past. Still, one rarely hears calls for de-amalgamation.

By the time the amalgamated government took office on Jan. 1, 1998, the metropolis had grown weary. And Harris bludgeoned what little fight was left by turning the bazooka on the city with an unprecedented dump of service costs and cuts on the new city, rendering it almost stillborn.

Queen’s Park used to pay close to three-quarters of capital costs and half the operating costs for the TTC. Harris advised the new government it was getting out of paying the operating costs and grudgingly supplied a diminishing percentage of the cost of building the system and supplying it with vehicles.

Housing, a social cost if there ever was one, became Toronto’s responsibility. He stopped paying for sections of highways and dumped the cost on the city. And those costs have framed the fiscal arguments for the past 20 years.

The changeover was so tumultuous and seemingly designed to destabilize the city that, in order to survive, Toronto had to pull together.

Understand, this was the time the province filled in the tunnel already being built for the Eglinton West subway — yes the very route where the Crosstown LRT is being built now. Harris said no to the Spadina extension now going up to Vaughan. He acquiesced to Lastman for the Sheppard Subway, but short-turned it at Don Mills Rd., instead of all the way to the Scarborough Town Centre.

To many reading this, it is ancient history. But there are direct lines from our current fiscal issues to those decisions. Due to heroic, sustained advocacy, much of the social service costs — minus housing — have been taken back. It was the Liberal government, led by Dalton McGuinty, that started the repair. That might explain the persistent deference to the Libs.

So was the amalgamation the correct decision? I still think so, though it has never felt comfortable to hold that view, contrary to allies on most other fronts. The union was a natural evolution of a relationship that had survived more than 150 years.

But Harris executed the act with what still seems like malice and malevolence.

This was an act of sheer terror, a hatchet job that hacked the city to near death. We’ll never know what a unified Toronto might have accomplished — lovingly spawned after a proper gestation period and welcomed into the world with the appropriate crib and balloons and care package.

Instead, we got a new municipality, grieving a civic divorce, forced to exist in an arranged marriage with a good portion of its household income stolen by the source of the upheaval.

Little wonder the provincial Tories have never recovered. Toronto has become their political graveyard.

During the provincial election next year, the Tories could win the province by sweeping everywhere but Toronto. Again. But the road to governing can be greased with a little Toronto love.

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Toronto Housing Bubble Going Nuts

Based on fundamentals? You gotta be kidding.

Residential property sales in Greater Toronto soared 17.7% year-over-year to 12,077 homes, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB). New listings jumped 15.2% to 17,052. Prices for all types of homes, based on the MLS Home Price Index Composite “Benchmark,” soared 28.6%. The “average” selling price soared 33.2%!

That average selling price of C$916,567 is up from C$688,011 a year ago. Over the past five years, it has doubled!

The heavenly manna was spread across the spectrum. For condos, the average price in Greater Toronto soared 33.1% to C$518,879; for townhouses it soared 32.9% to C$705,078; for semi-detached houses, 34.4% to C$858,202; and for detached houses, 33.4% to C$1,214,422.

Even the house price bubble in Beijing cannot compete with this sort of miracle; new house prices there increased only 22% year-over-year in February. And Sydney’s fabulous house price bubble just flat out pales compared to the spectacle transpiring in Toronto, with prices up only 19% in March.

Vancouver has its own housing bubble to deal with. But there, the government of British Columbia has tried to tamp down on wild speculation with various measures, including a transfer tax aimed squarely at foreign non-resident investors, with “mixed” success.

Now the great fear in Toronto’s real estate circles is that the government of Ontario might impose similarly cruel and unusual punishment on the participants in this spectacle. Some measures are on the table, with folks wondering how to stop the bubble from inflating further and causing even greater harm to the real economy when it deflates, as all bubbles eventually do.

They’re reluctant. It seems they want to see how BC’s measures are washing out in Vancouver. The central government too is trying to fine-tune some macroprudential measures, but they’ve had absolutely no effect on Toronto’s housing bubble. And the Bank of Canada, which has been fretting about the housing bubble for a while – always couched in its very careful terms – refuses to raise rates. Everyone is talking. No one dares to do anything real about Toronto’s house price bubble.

In Toronto, according the real estate folks, it’s all based on fundamentals. It’s based on supply and demand and very rational calculated thinking, and there is no bubble in sight, lenders are just fine, and if Canadians are locked out of the housing market, so be it, it’s just a shortage of housing, really. So TREB President Larry Cerqua is glad the efforts to tamp down on it all have not come to fruition, in part due to TREB’s vigorous lobbying:

“It has been encouraging to see that policymakers have not implemented any knee-jerk policies regarding the GTA housing market,” he said in a statement.

“Different levels of government are holding consultations with market stakeholders and TREB has participated and will continue to participate in these discussions,” he said. “Policy makers must remember that it is the interplay between the demand for and supply of listings that influences price growth.”

Singing a similar tune, Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis, explained the basic supply and demand problem:

“Annual rates of price growth continued to accelerate in March as growth in sales outstripped growth in listings,” he said. “A substantial period of months in which listings growth is greater than sales growth will be required to bring the GTA housing market back into balance.”

And he told policy makers to tread carefully: “As policy makers seek to achieve this balance, it is important that an evidence-based approach is followed,” he said. This is a gravy train, and it must be allowed to speed on until the last cent has been extracted.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this will end in tears. What we don’t know yet is when it will end in tears, and whose tears it will end with. But we already know: When it does end in tears, real estate organizations will first be denying it, and then they’ll be clamoring for a bailout of their stakeholders – so it will end in the tears of others.

Even the big Canadian banks are fretting. “Let’s drop the pretense. The Toronto housing market and the many cities surrounding it are in a housing bubble,” Bank of Montreal Chief Economist Doug Porter warned clients. But the bubble’s deflation would push the city into a fiscal and financial sinkhole.
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Unoccupied Homes in Toronto, Almost 100,000

Statistics Canada, show the City of Toronto saw Vancouver’s 25k+ unoccupied homes, and trumped it by another 74k units. Now with over 99k unoccupied homes in the city, speculation of Toronto real estate might be worse than previously thought.
Hold my beer Vancouver, we got this. The newly released 2016 Census numbers from

99,236 Homes Not Regularly Occupied

The number of homes in the GTA that aren’t being occupied is growing almost as fast as the price of shelter. The latest numbers show that 99,236 homes are not regularly occupied, as identified by the owner of the residence. This represents 4.5% of all homes in the city, and a 10.5% change over the past 5 years. The general population grew by 4.5% during the same period, which means this trend appears to be accelerating.
The rate of irregular occupancy was mostly skewed up by a few concentrated pockets. Most of the city came in under the 5% level, but a few areas were nowhere near that. The highest rate was in the Concord area of Vaughan, which came in at 35.27%. Interesting since a number of new projects are slated to hit the area…you know, because who doesn’t want a pied-à-terre next to the Ikea.

Downtown Toronto The Most Units

Downtown Toronto averaged higher than the rest of the city. The area South of Bloor Street, East of Roncesvalles Ave., and West of Yonge Street showed an average of 8.79% unoccupied. This number is also significant because the volume of housing is much higher. For instance the Fashion District (King West) had a massive 3,316 units (21.81%) not regularly occupied. The corridor going up Yonge Street also had a higher than usual concentration when compared to the rest of the city.

Why Are They Empty?

I know what you’re thinking, foreign buyers! Well, foreign buyers aren’t usually census respondents so these are most likely domestic residents. AirBnB, pied-à-terre, or short-term renting are all uses I’ve heard from owners of multiple Toronto homes. The most popular reason however, is likely plain ole’ speculation. One of the consequences of living in a city with a red hot real estate market is flippers will hang on to inventory until they believe they’ve hit peak. In fact, a few months ago we observed that 1 in 3 homes in the city were being sold as never been lived in, despite many having been built a few years ago.
Speculation isn’t a bad thing by itself. There’s nothing wrong with flipping units for the purposes of making a profit. This could present a problem however if Canada’s record consumer debt has anything to do with this.

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Downsview Park GO Station in Toronto

The Downsview Park GO Station is a unique project in collaboration with the TTC and their Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension.

GO Transit and the TTC are collaborating on the new Downsview Park Station, which will allow customers to transition between subway and GO train service, much like they do at Union Station. Located just west of Sheppard West and Chesswood Drive on the Barrie corridor, GO train service will be above ground and subway service below ground.

The station will be fully accessible and will include elevators, escalators, ramps and other features necessary for customers to travel with ease throughout the station. A public concourse will be built below the rail to facilitate customers transferring from GO to TTC service.

GO will have its own station integrated into the subway station, which will consist of a 12-car platform with a snowmelt system, heated shelters, bike shelter, an accessible platform and a GO ticket sales booth.

We plan to start GO Train service at Downsview Park Station in late 2017 to coincide with the start of service on the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension. Note that Downsview, TTC’s current line 1 terminus station at Sheppard West and Allen Road, will be renamed Sheppard West.

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Toronto Condo Renters Hurting From City’s Red-hot Housing Market

Prospective homeowners in Toronto aren’t the only ones getting burned by Toronto’s red-hot housing market.

According to a new report by Urbanation, a real estate consulting and market research firm, the average rent in the city jumped by a record rate of 11.7 per cent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2016, thanks to a shortage of listings.

This marked a “dramatic acceleration” from the same period last year, which saw rates jump by 4.2 per cent.

On the back of this spike, monthly rent for a typical 719-square-foot unit reached nearly $1,990 in the Greater Toronto Area.

Rents saw the biggest rise in Toronto downtown core, as the average price for a condo was $2,134, up 12 per cent from the fourth quarter last year.

Meanwhile, the average rate in the suburbs of Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough rose by seven per cent to $1,857. Rent in the 905-region was also up six per cent to $1,739.

The data, which was released Monday, indicated that rents have climbed, in part, thanks to rising resale prices for condos, which jumped 15 per cent during the same period, enticing owners to sell their units rather than use them as rentals.

At the same time, Urbanation said that there has been less turnover as fewer renters have been willing to move as they take note of the high cost of renting in the open market.

Urbanation said the number of condo units in the GTA that were rented through the Multiple Listing Service system in 2016 declined for the first time since it began tracking the data in 2011, falling 2 per cent to 26,602 units.

The real estate research firm also noted that the share of the total inventory of rental condos dropped from 9.3 per cent in 2015 to 8.5 last year, while units that were resold climbed from 7.1 per cent to 8.1 per cent.

This trend was particularly evident in the fourth quarter of 2016 as final closings for new condos surged by 34 per cent year-over-year, while total rental listings fell by 8 per cent, dragging down lease volumes by 4 per cent annually.

“The undersupply of rentals in the GTA continued to worsen throughout the year, causing rents to surge alongside home prices and further deteriorating housing affordability across the region,” wrote Shaun Hildebrand, Urbanation’s senior vice-president.

Occupancy delays for condos under construction also contributed to the slowdown in rental activity, according to Urbanation.

The growth in renters also seems to be spurring developers to build rental units, rather than condos.

Urbanation found that applications for rental apartments jumped by 7,586 units in the fourth quarter to 27,812.

Despite this upcoming boost in stock, Hildebrand said there needs to be a greater focus on developing rental units.

“While less pressure on rent growth may arrive in 2017 due to a temporary rise in new apartment completions, it (has) become clear that more attention needs to be paid to building rentals over the longer-term,” he wrote.
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Downsview Park Built For People and Nature, Combines a Park and TTC Subway and Urban Infrastructure

Does Downsview Park have a future as Toronto’s version of New York City’s Central Park?

This idea was shown to me — literally — on a recent tour of the park in a golf cart. We were there, planting trees for the Highway of Heroes Living Tribute (check it out at hohtribute.ca) on one of the beautiful, clear days we’ve had this past fall.

David Anselmi, a director with Canada Lands Company, the crown corporation in charge of the park, offered to drive me across the 291-acre swath located in northwest Toronto, at Sheppard Ave. and Keele St. For nearly 50 years it was the military base CFB Toronto before closing in 1996.

Canada Lands has invested $45 million in a new chapter for the park that will make the property into a multi-purpose urban centre. In its 20 years as a city park, progress has been quiet. Among Downsview’s biggest achievements was hosting 800,000 in 2002 for Pope John Paul II’s World Youth Day. Today, things are quieter but progress is underway with some iconic features such as the Lake, the Meadow and the Mound. And Anselmi is clearly proud of it. This past year, 125,000 visited the park that hosted 22 major events.

One of the first things on our tour that I spied were new public washrooms. “OK — good start,” I thought. If I’m going to visit a public park, I want washrooms and I want the doors to not be locked as they are so often are in places like this. 

Next: The Orchard, a variety of 400 specially chosen apple trees. This wonderful idea reminds me of a similar park in Strathcona, AB., where large planters of edible flowers and vegetables include a sign that reads: “Help yourself.”

Then we motored over the hill to a magnificent view of a nine-acre man-made lake. This is actually a stormwater retention pond that serves more than 400 surrounding acres of land. The lake is full of waterfowl, water plants and has a walking/running path that goes around it. 

Other features of the new Downsview Park:

WILLIAM BAKER WOODLOT: This 27-acre park is the perfect place for kids to play and adults to absorb some oxygen. The 1856 homestead of the Boakes family was located here, and the forest provides a reminder that the property provided a real home to real people long before it became an Air Force base in the late 1930s. 

LOVE SPORTS? Chances are you will find a sport to your liking at the park’s Hangar Sports Complex. Soccer, basketball, volleyball, ball hockey and other recreational sports activities are all accessible to the public. Details at hangarsportevents.com

LOVE WILDLIFE? This park is teaming with wildlife. The lake provides a magnet for much of it, but everywhere in the almost-300 acres there is evidence that Mother Nature is making a home here for herself. Song birds and beneficial insects are enjoying the substantial wetland areas that have formed naturally through a disciplined approach to development of the land.

LOVE TO WALK, RUN AND/OR BIKE? The Circuit Path stretches 2.7-kilometres along the outer ring, with paths criss-crossing through it, to The Meadow in the middle. Most of the paths are well lit and wide enough a baby-stroller, a runner and a bicyclist to share.

TREES: As well as the mature trees in Boake’s Grove, thousands of new trees have been planted across the property. Nothing man-made can match the contribution trees make to our social and recreational while also enhancing the health of our natural environment. The only problem is that they need time to grow. And time will make this park spectacular.

LIVING THERE: Mattamy Homes is building there now, in their Stanley Greene community. Many more units are to come over the next 10 years. 

Will Downsview become to Toronto what Central Park is to New York City? A few comparisons:

• Central Park is 843 acres. Downsview is almost 300 acres.

• Central Park has a 22-acre lake.

• Central Park took 25 years to build and is now 160 years old. That is, give or take, about seven generations.

I have no doubt that in seven generations Downsview Park will hold a significant place in the hearts of Torontonians. While the park is not currently well known and not travelled nearly as much as it could be, the new subway station at the park (on the Toronto-York Spadina extension) and growing awareness of this gem will change all of that.

As all of us are told when we try and grow up too fast: “It takes time.” The pre adolescent Downsview will no doubt grow into a beauty.

 
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