Current Issues

map of Toronto-area federal riding boundaries as of 2023

Have your federal riding boundaries changed?

In 2023 the federal riding boundaries were redrawn, and they now no longer correspond to the provincial riding boundaries (as they formerly did). 

“A redistribution of federal electoral districts (“ridings”) began in Canada following the results of the 2021 Canadian census.”

There were many changes in particular to the federal electoral district boundaries within the City of Toronto, which take effect for the 2025 Canadian federal election. You can search for your district information by a number of means.

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polluted water from sewage pipe flowing into lake

Ontario Place sewer plan an environmental disaster

We are writing in opposition to the Ontario Government’s combined sewer overflow work (CSO) at 955 Lakeshore Boulevard West (Ontario Place) that has the clear potential to spread polluted water, including sewer run off, into the West Channel around West Island at Ontario Place and the planned ‘new beach’. Combined overflow outlets run counter to herculean efforts to clean up Lake Ontario: the discharge will pollute a heavily used part of the waterfront.

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Construction cranes at sunset

Toronto city council passes plan to entice developers to build rental homes

Toronto city council has approved a plan to support the building of 20,000 new rental homes in the city.

The plan, approved Wednesday by a vote of 23 to 1, would see the city offer monetary incentives to private developers to build rental housing. The incentives include a deferral of development charges, a property tax reduction and foregone taxes and fees for affordable rental units.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow told reporters before the vote that rental housing is desperately needed in the city because of the housing crisis. She said 50 per cent of Toronto residents are renters. She said the city met with builders last week to discuss the plan.

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Construction cranes - Toronto

Mayor Chow proposing big change that would see buildings go up all over Toronto

Mayor Olivia Chow has proposed a major change to the process of how housing is built in Toronto, one that would allow a new generation of buildings to pop up on major streets across the city.

Chow is looking to implement sweeping as-of-right zoning on Toronto’s avenues that would allow for drastic changes in the city’s built form.

Toronto’s development scene has been dominated by tall towers in recent years, but Chow’s new push to change zoning regulations could result in a more Parisian style of residential density becoming the norm in town.

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Rachel Chernos Lin - Ward 15 Councillor 2024

Rachel Chernos Lin Wins Don Valley West By-Election

Rachel Chernos Lin has won the Don Valley West by-election with nearly 55 percent of the vote, beating competitor Anthony Furey by more than 20 points in what began as a wide-open race, but had in recent weeks become a battle of political polarization between the two leading candidates.

Chernos Lin, a Toronto District School Board trustee and the current chair, ended the night with 12,899 votes, followed by Furey with 7,343. Sam Robinson, son of former ward councillor Jaye Robinson, came in third with 1,271 votes.

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Heritage buildings at 45-47 Front St. in Toronto

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.

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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.

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Ontario Place after tree removal - satellite view

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…

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Public meeting

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.

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Urban sprawl at Derry & Thompson in Milton

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.

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Vancouver 4-plex

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.

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Yonge and Eglinton houses with construction in background

City of Toronto comments on Bill 185

FoNTRA is in strong support of the Recommendations in the Report from the Interim Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, as amended by the Planning and Housing Committee on May 9, 2024.

We are particularly concerned about especially the removal of residents’ right to appeal Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) decisions, which amounts to a serious loss of our democratic rights as citizens.

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Major Streets Map 3

Major Streets Study – FoNTRA responds

FoNTRA supports the general intent of the Major Streets initiative as being a logical framework to pursue opportunities for increased density in Neighbourhoods. However the proposal is presented as “one size fits all”, and no effort has been made to determine if the framework works in the varied street and settlement configurations, and transportation infrastructure, and cultural landscapes across the City. The methodology is not like that of an area planning study. It is simply an overlay of a standard set of permissions on the Official Plan Map 3 that shows road width.

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Garbage truck

Loud noises keeping you up at night?

The noise bylaw amendments, which will be discussed at the Economic and Community Development Committee next week, come after a pandemic-delayed review mandated by the 2019 bylaw.

Concerts with the volume turned lower. A limit on how loud a car can be. A new way to complain about noisy waste collectors.

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Toronto City Hall

FoNTRA 2023 Year End Review and 2024 Look Forward

Some highlights/lowlights of 2023 and a look forward to 2024 – another busy year ahead!

  • We ended the year with the most FoNTRA members ever – 37 resident associations!
  • We revitalized the FoNTRA board. It now comprises John Bossons (Summerhill RA), Maureen Kapral (Lytton Park RA), Geoff Kettel (Leaside RA), Al Kivi (South Eglinton Davisville RA), Cathie Macdonald (Deer Park RG), Alan Mackellar (Don Mills RI), Sanjeev Sharma (York Mills RA), and Diana White (QUoRA),
  • The Board updated the FoNTRA bylaw to better reflect how our organization works under the new Provincial (ONCA) requirements – clarifying how we are a federation of resident associations, and how our member RAs are involved.

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Leaside Business Park

Employment area policy proposals

The amendment to the provincial definition of “area of employment” narrows the scope of uses from what is currently permitted in areas of employment. In particular, it expressly excludes from the definition institutional uses and commercial uses, including retail and office uses that are not associated with manufacturing, warehousing, and research and development in connection with manufacturing.

Up to now the Leaside and other Business Parks has been protected though Official Plan policies and zoning bylaws, and Ontario Municipal Board decisions that have respected the Employment Lands boundaries and policies therein. However, under Bill 97, Municipal Comprehensive Reviews would no longer be required, creating open season on employment area conversions, creating uncertainty for employers, and reducing future opportunities for Ontario businesses to grow within their markets.

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Tree canopy - Toronto

Infill housing and protecting Toronto’s tree canopy

We strongly support the identification of potential strategies to protect and enhance the City’s tree canopy and growing space for trees, while also supporting infill housing growth in Toronto’s low-rise neighbourhoods.

However, we note the multiple previous reports to, and motions adopted by City Council, as documented by the Long Branch Neighbourhood Association (LBNA) in its PHC submission on the same item that leads to their recommendation that the effort needs to be hastened and expedited.

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New mid-rise construction adjacent to single-family residential area.

Mid-rise buildings rear transition

The rear angular plane guidelines were developed through a comprehensive study in 2010 that resulted in a guideline that the rear transition to abutting low density residential areas be a 45 degree angular plane applied from a height of 3 storeys at 7.5m from the side lot line of the residential property. The 7.5m is to be used for access and green space.

The (proposed) The guidelines omit any consideration of an objective to ensure an appropriate relationship with the adjacent residential neighbourhood, a key consideration for the angular plane regulation.

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Large house in Casa Loma neighbourhood

By-law simplification for low-rise residential zones

FoNTRA supports simple and clear zoning bylaws, but most important we support bylaws that do the work needed for building and maintaining a livable City. As such we are in broad support of most of the report directions and recommendations.

Simplification is also about simple understanding…But, calling a “converted house” a “low rise apartment building” creates confusion as the building forms are quite different.

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