The Federation of North Toronto Residents’ Associations Incorporated (FoNTRA) is a not for profit organization now comprised of over 30 residents’ associations, located between Bloor Street, Sheppard Avenue, the Don Valley Parkway and Bathurst Street in the City of Toronto. We monitor, investigate and help solve urban planning issues, share best practices and represent common interests of our members with all levels of government.
Current Issues
Ward 15 By-Election News
The Ward 15 By-Election set for November 4, 2024, will fill the late Councillor Jaye Robinson’s seat as Ward 15 representative on City Council. The Ward 15 Resident Association By-Election Planning Committee (RA- BEPC) has been established in order to encourage and support informed discussion regarding the issues relevant to residents of Ward 15.
The RA-BEPC is politically neutral and will not be taking a position in favour of a particular candidate.
Candidates
- Rachel Chernos Lin
- Habiba Desai
- Anthony Furey
- Peter Handjis
- Syed Jaffery
- Mario Lamanna
- Cleveland Marshall
- Sam Robinson
- Shakhlo Sharipova
- Sheena Sharp
- Jason Stevens
- Lesley Stoyan
- Dan Trayes
- Calvin Xu
We thank all the candidates for their service to Ward 15 and Toronto. Many candidates have remarkable achievements. Of the 16 registered candidates, 4 provided no email address and could not be contacted. A questionnaire was sent out to 12 candidates and we received 11 responses.
PLEASE NOTE: two candidates – Evan Sambasivam and Dhruv Jain – have dropped out of the race (in support of Rachel Chernos-Lin). It’s important to know that while their names will still appear on the ballot, they are no longer running for office.
Ward 15 By-Election Candidate Surveys
Heritage planning and designation
FoNTRA recognizes the immense challenge imposed by the provincial government’s deadline for designation of listed properties, and the threat to loss of Toronto’s cultural heritage. We strongly support the City’s approach to moving forward with prioritization of listed properties, and measures to maintain an ongoing inventory going forward.
As such, we are also strongly in support of the Toronto Preservation Board’s recommendations concerning the report, namely that:
- City Council request the Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism to extend the deadline for elimination of listed properties from the Heritage Register to Jan 1, 2030.
- City Council direct the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to maintain a publicly accessible inventory of all listed properties eliminated from the Heritage Register.
Improving Community Consultation – Housing Action Plan
FoNTRA requeststhat consideration of the report be deferred to allow for proper communication, engagement and consultation for its proposals and recommendations.
FoNTRA supports the objectives of the Housing Action Plan, but the detailed recommendations introduce many changes and the Draft Bylaw which includes the zoning provisions, zoning maps and height maps was only made public a day and a half before the Committee meeting, with inadequate time to review. In addition, drawings to show the new proposals have not been provided.
Over 850 trees bulldozed at Ontario Place under cover of darkness, as Province releases Therme lease details
Under cover of darkness, Infrastructure Ontario began the removal of 865 trees at Ontario Place on the evening of Wednesday, October 2, 2024. Within a single day, workers had cut down the vast majority of those trees.
The work—which includes the removal of every single tree on the western portion of the waterfront site adjacent downtown Toronto—is part of the approximately $200-million in site preparations that taxpayers are funding to prepare the land for Therme, an Austrian spa company, to develop a stadium-sized indoor waterpark on the site.
The next day, October 3, the Province released the details of its 95-year lease with Therme, which journalists and grassroots organizations have…
Improving Community Consultation
This will confirm that in principle we support (with one significant reservation), the staff report and its recommendations, including: Planning and Housing Committee to request the Executive Director, Development Review, in consultation with the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, to continue to undertake stakeholder consultation on potential policy amendments to address ongoing legislative changes and report back to Planning and Housing Committee by the end of Q2 2025.
We appreciate that City Planning is attempting to ensure a balanced and effective public consultation regime under difficult circumstances. In that regard, the report notes the rapidly changing (and seemingly haphazard) legislative environment directly affecting development review – such as Bill 185 eliminating mandatory pre-application consultation PAC). The latter process represented an innovative approach by the City to address the revised review deadlines and punitive application fee refunds imposed by the Province.
In Ontario, it’s harder than ever to appeal local developments
Groups frustrated by the Ford government’s “sledgehammer” approach limiting development appeals say they’re now powerless to prevent urban sprawl, loss of farmland, and squandered green space in the province.
Among other changes, Ontario’s Bill 185, known as the “Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act” limits third-party challenges to municipal plans and zoning heard by the Ontario Land Tribunal and dismissed appeals scheduled after April 10. The new rules were introduced by the provincial government to expedite construction of 1.5 million homes by 2031.
Could a housing revolution transform Canadian cities?
A new type of home called a fourplex is being hailed as the answer to Canada’s acute housing shortage. But why is there so much opposition?
Proponents of fourplexes, which include the Canadian government, hope they will spread out across the country. They want them to provide the “missing-middle” between large apartment buildings and single residency houses.
(The) opposition centres on a fear that long-existing Canadian suburbs of single-family homes will have their character irretrievably changed if fourplexes are forced upon them.
