By Perry King

Outside her unit, in the stairway, at 250 Davenport Rd., Kathy Halliday has found makeshift beds and human feces coming from the homeless and drug addicted. Perry King/Gleaner News

“This morning, when I was coming to see you, I walked out to a nice condom and a pair of underwear,” said Kathy Halliday, a tenant of a two-floor townhouse at 250 Davenport Rd.

Sitting down with the Gleaner in October, Halliday says she has had enough of the living conditions, poor quality of service, negligent management, and lack of security in her Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC)-owned unit.

Visiting 250 Davenport, the Gleaner observed makeshift beds and human feces in the stair corridor by Halliday’s unit. “People are living in there, people are living in the staircase,” said Halliday, a tenant since 1988.

She has mould on her walls and windows and has had numerous leaks and water damage to her furniture—and says nothing has changed in ten years. By her account, the property managers have been negligent on a number of fronts—not just repairs. “My brother passed away in 2007, I’m still getting a lease in my brother’s name. That’s unacceptable.”

Other residents have come forward with similar stories to Halliday’s. “When I first moved in here, the quality of the people were different and it was definitely cleaner. It was in better shape,” said Mauva Smith, a tenant since 2000. “[Now] there’s weird people walking around sometimes, and there are drug addicts. They use the townhouse as a pathway all the time now.”

Halliday and other tenants are preparing a lawsuit related to the complaints. Through Downtown Legal Services (655 Spadina Ave.), Halliday retained Lee Webb, a second-year law student.

Webb says the final details of the lawsuit, including the number of plaintiffs and the basis of the claims, are not finalized. “People are starting to back out on us, I don’t know if it’s because they’re scared, because they have kids or what the deal is,” said Halliday.

As of press date, neither TCHC nor Greenwin Property Management—contracted to manage 250 Davenport until March of next year—had been served papers, but both companies say they do their best to respond to tenant concerns.

“We house 164,000 tenants in 58,500 units, so it is not uncommon for us to have tenants coming forward with service requests,” wrote TCHC representative Sinead Canavan in an email.

Canavan says that tenants have emergency numbers to call in case of emergencies and security issues. A Tenant Complaint Process form is also available. “Our bigger challenge is our $650-million capital repair bill, and the fact we don’t have the funding needed to bring our buildings to a good state of repair. Without change, more of our housing will fall into a poor state of repair. This is why we propose action like selling 706 houses and using the $300 million in sales proceeds for much-needed repairs.”

Vice president of residential services for Greenwin Bruce Creber said that they are aware of problems in the building, and that while they have tried to make repairs, the larger issues are structural and a matter of concern for the TCHC. “We really do care about the residents, a lot. But, we can only do that which we’re contracted to do. There’s no more resources which we’re given to do it. We’ve had the contract for a lot of years, and I think that sort of speaks to the service we endeavour to give and one we hope to continue to give. It’s not our place to address the overall global problem of TCHC, that’s a political decision that has to be made by far different people than ourselves. We’re just the servants of the masters.”

For Halliday, the last straw was management’s response to a flood in her apartment on March 4. While she called management, and they fixed the leak, three days later “there was just water coming up everywhere.”

After her calls to Greenwin went unanswered, Halliday contacted TCHC and a work order was drawn up. Greenwin did not comply until May 27 and Halliday says their response was insufficient. “I kicked them out of my house,” she said. “Caulking and plastering [for a leak] is not enough.”

Smith says she has noticed rats and poor maintenence of the building’s facade. “It’s not good, it’s not like they respect anybody. They don’t listen to our complaints, really. They just have little temporary solutions, but they don’t really address the problems.”

Halliday says all of the tenants have similar problems. “One of the girls had a major leak a couple weeks ago, which flooded out her basement. She had wall-to-wall carpeting. Housing came in and said ‘Oh’ and walked back out.”

For Rita DiBiasi, who is also involved in the lawsuit, negligence has been a theme for Greenwin. “I’ve had two days off .. for them to fix my bathroom—like the tiles, the tub. If you had seen them before … [the bathroom was] caving in,” said DiBiasi. “All these broken promises … How long does it take to do a quote?”

DiBiasi and Halliday have also informed property management about heating in their units, which has not been supplying adequate heat for several years. In the past, Halliday has pleaded with management to raise the heat further, as the old units—unlike the tower units—have reinforced conrcrete walls. As of press date, the tenants were still without heat, but Halliday had received a letter from Greenwin stating the heating system would be fixed and the units inspected. The letter said the repairs could take at least a month.

250 Davenport Rd. also includes 26-storeys of apartment units. Perry King/Gleaner News

Located at Davenport and Bedford Roads, 250 Davenport includes a 26-storey housing tower and 11 townhouse units. It is one of a few townhouse projects in the TCHC porfolio.

Greenwin is one of the largest property management companies in Canada. With numerous residential properties across the country, it is one of three companies contracted to manage day-to-day affairs for the TCHC—a large share of 10,400 TCHC properties. The company also manages the affairs of 200 Wellesley St. E., the site of an infamous six-alarm fire in 2010.

A class action lawsuit has been filed by tenants at 200 Wellesley against Greenwin and TCHC as a result of the fire, alleging breach of contract and negligence—on the grounds that the defendants permitted a tenant to create a fire hazard by hoarding large quantities of paper in his apartment. The case is still before the courts.

While the details of their lawsuit have yet to be finalized, Halliday is clear about the compensation she wants. “I want a one-bedroom apartment out of the deal, I want to move,” said Halliday.

Whatever happens, the tenants believe the lawsuit could be the force that creates more accountability for Greenwin. “We were afraid to speak” said DiBiasi. “We just settled for living in these conditions. Thanks to this, whether it is a lawsuit or not, it’s one voice that just made us wake up and say ‘We have rights.’”

By Jennifer Farncomb

It has been 13 years since amalgamation, and City of Toronto staff say it is about time that the remaining legacy legislation dealing with public rights of way from the former seven municipalities become harmonized into one unified “Streets Bylaw.”

Public consultation took place in the fall with the public and stakeholders on proposed amendments to Chapter 743 (Streets and sidewalks, Use of) of the Toronto Municipal Code, known as the Streets Bylaw.

“By and large, the comments we have received have been relatively positive,” said Allan Smithies, city project manager for Traffic Planning/Right of Way management.

However, some have expressed concerns about new additions. One new clause in the bylaw prohibits camping and dwelling in the streets without the approval of the city’s general manager, and some are worried that this may be used as a tool to round up the homeless.

“Throughout the city there are a number of people who live in bus shelters because that gives them some shelter from the snow and the wind … all these people could potentially be ticketed, they’d be infringing this bylaw, ” said Greg Cook, a representative from Sanctuary, a Christian charitable organization that assists homeless people, at a consultation.

Don Pardoe, supervisor of Right of Way management, said this was not the intention of the bylaw. “Our intent is not to chase people with this. I don’t have the staff to do it. I’ve got other safety issues on the streets that I need to deal with. This just gives us another tool should we need it in a very unique situation,” he said.

Another new clause gives the general manager authority to enter on private property, excluding dwelling houses, at any “reasonable” time for the purpose of inspection, or to conduct necessary repairs.

“For front yard parking applications, for us to do the proper measurements, right now, we’re trespassing to go to measure these out, so, this would allow us to go in there and lay out the front yard parking pad. This gives us the opportunity to go and do our investigation without breaking the law,” said Pardoe.

The bylaw has brought to light the public’s dissatisfaction with the city’s diligence when it comes to street work. As a result of construction by utility companies, many streets in Toronto have been semi-permanently patched up with asphalt.

According to Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27, Toronto-Centre Rosedale), it can take two to seven years before permanent restoration is completed.

“The problem is that you can have the utility companies do the permanent restoration, but you need to have a pant load of municipal inspectors there to check the work they’re doing because all they want to do is the minimum amount of work,” said Smithies. “So the feeling has been internally that we do the permanent restoration in house with our own contractors.”

One person attending a public open house said city streets were looking like those of a third world country and challenged Smithies on this, asking why the city could not hire more inspectors and charge the cost back to the contractors.

According to the city, the impetus to harmonize existing bylaws stems from a need for consistency and equity among all Toronto districts. After amalgamation, Toronto inherited 30 sets of regulations from the seven former municipalities—making interpretation difficult at times. For example, “a property owner in former Toronto or York is required to cut the boulevard grass, while property owners/occupants in Scarborough and East York have to maintain their hedges and shrubs, but are not legally required to cut the grass.”

In addition, city staff say harmonization will make administration more efficient. Under the proposed bylaw, routine practices such as approving encroachments will be delegated to staff.

“Encroachment applications clog up community council agenda with a lot of administrative minutia that quite frankly they don’t want to see, they don’t need to see and it can be simply delegated to staff to approve,” said Smithies. “Under the old bylaw, the simple act of excavating in a road allowance required a permit whether you were planting a flower or repaving your driveway, or doing anything in the road allowance that involved breaking open the surface of the boulevard.”

In contrast, the amendments propose that certain activities like soft landscaping are exempt from requiring a permit. In addition to encroachments, the amendments deal with aspects of right of way administration—including prohibited and regulated activities, working in streets, boulevard maintenance, and sidewalks, constructing driveways as well as regulations specifying power of enforcement.

On Nov. 29, city council will decide on whether to give final approval or request further amendments.

If approved, the bylaw will likely take effect in the next two years.

To view the the proposed new bylaw, visit toronto.ca/involved/projects/streetsbylaw.

RioCan has bought a collection of properties on Bathurst Street, including the Kromer Radio electronics store (420 Bathurst St.). Perry King/Gleaner News

The future is unclear for a RioCan development on Bathurst Street, but the relationship between the local community and one of North America’s largest real estate companies has taken significant steps forward.

At a September meeting at Scadding Court Community Centre (707 Dundas St. W.), RioCan senior vice president Jordan Robins and his planning and legal team unveiled the first draft of their site plan for 410–444 Bathurst Street: a 139,000 square foot, three-storey development.

With rumours swirling about potential tenants, Robins wanted to communicate that no one had signed up yet. “I have heard every rumour that you have, and frankly some I wish were true, but aren’t,” said Robins. He would not speculate on which companies had come forward or who he would prefer on site. “We’re talking to everybody. We made a substantive investment, and we’re busy marketing, this is the nature of what we do.”

The site is expected to have multiple commercial tenants. The south end of the site will sync-up their loading and garage ramps with the traffic lights at the intersection. There is expected to be more than 300 underground parking spots.

Stretching from Nassau Street to the south and the Beer Store (452 Bathurst St.) to the north, the new project will replace electronics stalwart Kromer Radio (420 Bathurst St.), two auto body shops, and a supply warehouse. RioCan purchased the properties in the spring for $8 million Canadian.

Rumours swirled about the acquisition this summer. Councillor Mike Layton (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) was initially informed about the acquisition of the Bathurst properties in late 2010, and formally sat down with RioCan about the sale in March.

Compiled by Emina Gamulin, Perry King, and Rebecca Payne

Check out the links below about our Q & A with candidates for the Parkdale-High Park riding.

The riding

The candidates

Question One: The state of health care in PHP
Question Two: Poverty
Question Three: Clean trains
Question Four: Energy inflation
Question Five: the Ontario Arts Council

The riding:

Parkdale-High Park is composed of seven neighbourhoods: Swansea, High Park North, the south half of The Junction, Runnymede-Bloor West Village, Lambton-Baby Point, Roncesvalles, and Parkdale directly to the south.

The statistics:
Population = 102,142 *
Electoral = 71,954
Political History
2007 = New Democrat **
2003 = Liberal **
1999 = Liberal **
* Cited from StatsCan 2006 Census
** Cited from Elections Ontario

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The candidates:

Rev. Dr. Cheri DiNovo is the Member of Provincial Parliament for Parkdale-High Park and the Deputy Speaker on the Ontario Legislative Assembly. DiNovo was first elected into the legislature in 2006 in a by-election and re-elected in 2007. An award winning author, DiNovo is an outspoken social justice activist and a former United Church Minister who was voted Best MPP by NOW magazine. In addition to being described by the Toronto Star as a “spark plug” at Queen’s Park and a leader who “personifies an emerging consensus,” Cheri DiNovo was named “Favourite Politician” by the Parkdale Liberty for her ongoing pledge to donate her monthly MPP salary raise to local organizations and charities.

Having devoted his career to technology innovation, Progressive Conservative candidate Joe Ganetakos and his wife Mary are now looking to give back to their community through public service. Used to working under tight deadlines while helping to design some of Ontario’s most advanced electronic games, he’s remained steady under pressure, never shirking away from challenges. Joe pledges to work passionately on any efforts he’s involved with on behalf of the residents of Parkdale-High Park. Joe believes that the taxpayers of Parkdale-High Park deserve a strong voice in government, and this has led him to commit to helping Tim Hudak giveback to Ontarians the strong economy that he believes they have always had with Progressive Conservative governments.

Liberal Party candidate Cortney Pasternak is a professional broadcast journalist. She also teaches journalism at the university and college level. She served as both the Global TV Queen’s Park Bureau Chief and CTV’s National Parliamentary Correspondent reporting from around the globe on a range of topics including politics, health care, education, human rights, environment, poverty, and crime. She currently runs a small, home-based business. Cortney is married with two young children and shares her home with three cats with great personalities.

Justin Trottier has dedicated his life to balancing his love of science and technology with his interest in public education, community service, and social advocacy. He studied engineering at the University of Toronto and worked in research and development in alternative energy systems. He then founded the national educational charity the Centre for Inquiry. Justin speaks regularly in the media in defence of fundamental freedoms, civil and human rights, and participates in public events bringing together groups from different backgrounds to discuss ethics and social policy. He also volunteers with youth-focused community groups, including Pathways to Education and tutoring at the Parkdale Library.

Also running in PHP are Redmond Weissenberger for the Freedom Party Of Ontario, Thomas Zaugg of the People’s Political Party of Ontario, Rod Rojas of the Ontario Libertarian Party, and four independent candidates: George Babula, Cecilia Luu, Bohdan Ewhen Radejewsky, and Istvan Tar. The Gleaner was unable to reach the remaining candidates in time for this Q & A.

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The Questions

1. What is the most important issue for our health care system? What will you do to improve the health of residents in Parkdale-High Park?
—Perry King, senior editor, Gleaner Community Press

DiNovo: Right now if you visited any of the retirement homes or long-term care facilities in our riding they would tell you the same thing—they don’t get enough from the provincial government to provide quality care. The provincial government actually pays more to feed prisoners right now than it does to pay for long-term care residents. We’ve had a government in Ontario that has chipped away medicare at the edges rather than expand it. We need dental health care, not just for a few, but for many who cannot afford it. Many Ontarians cannot afford dental care, and don’t get it. This is unconscionable.

Ganetakos: I was of another party stripe, and one of the [things] that attracted me to the PCs was the plan to invest heavily in health care. But the difference with what we want to do is  invest it directly into front line care. So if you are a doctor or nurse  we want to basically make sure that the money goes to those direct staff. If you are working with a patient, you are going to be getting our full support. In the pasts it has not gone that way. Our view is that the provincial bureaucracy has been not effective and has acted as a political shield. [We will] invest $6.1 billion into health care, but ensure that it gets front-line staff.

Pasternak: As someone who has used the health care system, who has three family members in and out of St. Joe’s over the last year, there are more problems than I’d like to think. I think that the investments that this government has made have been unbelievable. We’ve lowered wait times, we’ve improved access to family doctors. We have to start treating more people in the community, and the Liberal Party is making investments there. We’re talking about community health centres, places like Runnymede. Aside from covering, as a reporter, many issues around mental health, I’ve also advocated and had to take care of people with mental health issues. These are things that need to be addressed and not in the emergency rooms.

Trottier: Within all the broad priorities of the health care infrastructure, I think the one we’re addressing the least well is mental health. The Canada Health Act and other pieces of legislation haven’t done a very good job to integrate mental health into the rest of its purview. Medicare, when it was set up, was set up to deal mostly with accidents and to keep people having a family doctor. It wasn’t really structured to deal with chronic or acute conditions, and certainly not mental health. We’re very much a party that sees the importance of empowering local communities to make health care decisions, and one way to do that is to make sure that the physical proximity of health care hubs are as close as possible to the neighbourhoods that need them the most.

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DiNovo: You’re talking to the woman who brought in the $10 minimum wage bill. And thanks to that bill, in our riding, a million Ontarians got a twenty-eight per cent raise. So that’s significant, and that was within the first six months of my being elected, and that’s as a member of the Opposition in a ten-person caucus, in a 107-person government. I’m part of the provincial legislature and I sit in Opposition Government primarily because of poverty issues. One in six children in our riding, and in our city, and in our province, live in poverty. We would definitely reassess the ODSP rates and raise them. We’ve also promised that we would be building at least 10,000 new [units] in housing every year. Also, introduce legislation to allow municipalities to call for inclusionary zoning.

Ganetakos: One of the things we’re offering that I’m really happy about is support for those who are on OW and ODSP. There are those that are working part-time and are trying to improve their quality of life and they are trying to takes steps forward. But the Liberal government claws back moneys from their paycheque. It’s a disincentive to try. Our plan is to let those on OW and ODSP to keep more of their money. It may not be possible for some, and we understand that, but we want them to have more money that they work for so that they can have more dignity in their lives.

Pasternak: Daycare is a huge issue in this riding, and one that I will be championing to make sure we have lots more, we desperately need them in this riding. Full-day kindergarten is a real, measurable investment made by the McGuinty government that helps alleviate the poverty cycle in so many ways. The other thing that we’re doing is, people may not be able to feel it, but the fact is that we just went through one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression, and we’ve come out stronger, we’ve created more jobs than the other provinces combined. The truth is, when the economy is lifted up, everyone gets lifted up.

Trottier: One Green policy area that I really think is important is the idea of taxing resource use and property use, and taxing less income and earned value. For us, we would seek to reduce income tax and one of our policies is to reduce it by a certain percentage dependent on the amount of income a person is bringing in, but in such a way that those with the smallest income, the poorest among us, would benefit the most in income reduction. We would offset [those decreased tax dollars] by increasing the tax on property and on resource use. This has the benefit of encouraging the use of currently vacant property, which is an issue right along Queen Street.

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DiNovo: Absolutely. I’ve been a huge proponent, a member of the Ontario CTC, and the only one at Queen’s Park by the way. The only hurdle standing in our way between electric, clean trains in our neighbourhood and the diesel that they’ve already inked the deal for, is Dalton McGuinty and the Liberal government. Even Rob Ford has come out saying that electric trains are what we need. The Conservatives have said electric trains are what we need. Literally only the Liberals stand between us and electric clean trains.

Pasternak: I’m a mother of a 5-year-old with asthma. Up to two weeks ago, my son couldn’t go out on smoggy days. It’s been very difficult for us. To me, as a mother, I fully support the electrification, but the truth is two things. One, yes, I support electrification, but we do need to do more than just talk about [it]. The fact is that we need to make this area a hub, we need to make it one in order to revitalize the main streets, and we are moving towards that. Electrification is good on so many levels, it’s not just about the environment, it’s about being able to create more than one stop—because the trains can stop here.

Trottier: I was just reviewing the recent news on the airport link and electrification dilemma that we’re in. My understanding is that all the stakeholders involved approve the move to electrification. The question is how to do it in a timely manner. I think we should do that immediately, it would save us money in the long run. I don’t understand why it’s taking, apparently now, a few years to do an environmental assessment on the move to electrification, when it’s taken less time to assess the $1 billion original building plan. We should be able to move a lot faster than we are, it would save us money, save us emissions. I definitely support the Clean Train Coalition.

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4. How does your party plan to protect Ontarians from energy inflation related to home heating and electricity in the near and long-term and why?
—Chris Chopik

DiNovo: We have promised to take the HST off essentials like home heating and hydro. We think the way forward is not nuclear, because it’s expensive. We think the way forward is to really ratchet up our reusable and recyclable programs. We’ve also promised as government we would introduce an extra $5,000 for the retrofitting program per home owner. We’re going to close the coal-firing plants. McGuinty still hasn’t done it and promised to do it in 2007.

Ganetakos: Removing the Ontario portion of the HST on home energy bills and heating, we know will have a positive impact. We’re not anti anything. We’re pro green, pro solar, pro wind—we’re just anti lousy, lousy deals. That’s the honest truth. I come from the private sector and my experience is, if you only have one bidder on the contract, you are not going to get the best price. You’re not even going to get something competitive. This deal stinks and it’s also been very concealed. By getting out of that energy experiment, and just ensuring that we have highly efficient, very safe, very well-regulated nuclear energy, which is the bulk of power by a country mile.

Pasternak: We’re giving a 10 per cent rebate off all electricity bills and hydro bills over the next five years to help people adjust to the increasing costs of energy. The truth is hydro actually went up more under the last provincial government, the Harris Conservatives, than they have under us. We’ve got to recognize that we are some of the biggest consumers in the world for energy. To say that we should just have cheap energy—it’s well-known that we have some of the cheapest energy anywhere in the world. Let’s come back to Ontario Clean Energy Benefit, reductions on all hydro bills for families, for farmers, for seniors and small businesses. That’s about $150 per family, $1,700 for small businesses.

Trottier: I think it’s important to give an honest assessment of what’s actually happening. I don’t think any party can honestly commit to stopping energy inflation, the rise of energy prices. I don’t think that’s realistic. I think there are a lot of things that we can do to conserve better, I think every dollar we invest in conservation is worth much more than the amount of money we would have to spend on expensive nuclear reactors, to offset the increasing energy needs, or coal-fire power plants—that sort of thing. Our party is very much in terms of tax benefits and tax credits, which would promote home retrofitting. We have the Green Energy Building Plan, which would tax credits back to homeowners and business owners for energy audits that would seem to make these kind of retrofits—that we could produce. Thirty per cent is our general proposal.

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5. Please comment on the adequacy of the Ontario Arts Council at its present level of funding.
—David Perlman

DiNovo: The simple answer is one word—it’s inadequate. We need to make Ontario a hub for artists. I used to be the culture critic, and as such I brought in a Status of the Artist legislation, which was not passed. We have no Status of the Artist legislation in Ontario, not for children, not for adults. We need to have income tax averaging for them, because, as most artists know, sometimes you earn a lot of money in one year the other year you earn nothing, and yet you pay a whole lot of taxes one year. We should definitely fund the arts better, including tax credits. Instead of spending their valuable time writing proposals, they should be able to count on a certain amount of money coming from Queen’s Park and it certainly should be more than they get now.

Ganetakos: As a person who is not on the Ontario Arts Council, who is not witnessing its current funding, all I can tell you is that I’m an OCA grad, I’ve worked in the arts on the digital side of things for ten years and I’m raring to go to be champion for the arts. I believe you can make a solid return on investment for the arts, but unfortunately right now, door-to-door, that’s not what people are telling me. I’ll bet you I am more directly connected to the arts than many, many candidates, federally or provincially, and I would fight for it tooth and nail. But right now our priorities are what’s in the Change Book.

Pasternak: The Liberals are known to be very good to the arts community. I come from broadcasting, my husband used to produce documentaries, and they needed to access funding. I know that moving forward, the government is very big on digital media and investing a lot more into digital media. I come from a artists’ background. I think it’s not just about supporting artists, it’s an economy. It brings people here to work, and I’m a huge supporter.

Trottier: I understand competing priorities, and how everybody sort of wants to increase the chunk of the pie for their particular area. I can’t make lofty promises about increasing budgets for any one area. All I can say is that I understand the importance of all of the those different stakeholders, and the Green Party would do what it can to provide all sorts of financial benefits to local community hubs and leave it to those community centres and hubs to decide on allocations into the community like social service projects, artistic brands, that sort of thing.

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All answers have been edited for space. Candidates’ bios are their own.

By Katie O’Connor

Chris Alexander had just settled in for one of his last screenings at the Bloor Cinema when he spotted something, or rather someone, who didn’t belong.

Alexander, editor-in-chief of Fangoria magazine, hosts a monthly film series titled ‘Film School Confidential’ where he showcases cult, horror and sci-fi films.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers had just begun when Alexander noticed some movement out of the corner of his eye. “I was sitting there in my seat and at the stage there was a spilled container of popcorn from the previous screening. What was either a very small rat or a very large mouse kept coming out from under the stage, eating popcorn and disappearing back into its hole.”

For Alexander, incidents like this, that make up what he calls the theatre’s “not ready for the ball” aesthetic, are what initially drew him to the Bloor. “It had that art deco feel to it, it was a little rough around the edges,” he said. “It still had a kind of 42nd street vibe about it but it was still evolved enough that you could bring your mom there.”

Alexander and others who enjoy the Bloor’s “rough around the edges” vibe may have to look elsewhere when the legendary Annex theatre re-opens under the helm of documentary festival powerhouse, Hot Docs.

Hot Docs announced in July that they would be partnering with Blue Ice Films, a Toronto-based sales and acquisitions company, to own and operate the theatre.
Blue Ice Films purchased the building for $3.25 million, and under a joint-venture agreement, Hot Docs will manage the theatre and provide programming for the Bloor year-round.

“We want to make sure the Bloor keeps the same role in the community,” said Hot Docs executive director Chris McDonald, speaking to the local business community at a BIA meeting in July. “It has been one of our beloved homes for ten years.”

However, the theatre will be revamped significantly both in appearance and philosophy. Programming will be split 80/20 between documentaries—including the festival’s Doc Soup series—and a combination of second-run films and festivals that previously screened at the Bloor.

Renovations will include new seating, lighting, carpets, snack bar, sound system, screen and digital projection, as well as improvements to the exterior. Accessible washrooms will be added on the ground floor, and the rake of the balcony will be adjusted to ensure better views. McDonald said they have also applied for a liquor licence. Renovations began in mid-September and Hot Docs say they expect to complete them in December at the very latest.

Hot Docs is only the latest step in what has been a long and storied history for the 106-year-old theatre which has seen its days as a 1920s vaudeville theatre, a 1940s movie palace, a 1960s grindhouse, and a 1970s porn theatre. A family-run business for many years, it has seen its share of love, laughs, and drama.

Originally known as the Madison, the Bloor Cinema was built in 1905 as a vaudeville theatre for the Annex, according to the archives of Ontario.

By the early 1940s, it was in major need of repairs. The theatre was closed down and rebuilt from the ground up, and re-opened in 1941 as the Midtown, complete with a new art deco façade. The Midtown had a lot of competition, said Robin Sharp, who co-directed a short film titled The Bloor, which was released back in 2005 to celebrate the theatre’s 100-year anniversary. Three other theatres clamoured for movie-goers attention at the corner of Bloor and Bathurst, including the original Bloor Theatre, where Lee’s Palace is now located.

The Midtown lasted almost three decades and according to the archives of Ontario, in 1967 it became the Capri, showing popular grindhouse-style films.

The Capri didn’t last long as hard times hit Toronto, and the theatre took on a new persona. In 1973, it opened as the Famous Players-operated Eden, showing soft-core pornography.

“It was definitely an interesting time in the Bloor’s history,” said Sharp.

Robin Sharp, inside the Bloor Cinema. File Photo, Matt James/Gleaner News.

The Eden was eventually put out of business by neighbouring theatre the Metro (677 Bloor St. W.), who showed the same fare for lower prices.

During the late 1970s, Tom Litvinkas and Jerry Szczur of Festival Cinemas took over the theatre.

They had the idea to buy out old theatres in Toronto and turn them into second-run cinemas. They partnered with Carm Bordonaro, and renamed the theatre. The Bloor Cinema opened its doors in December of 1979. Bordonaro proposed the idea of selling tickets for 99 cents and charging a membership fee.

Initially, the Bloor was a great success, with screenings selling out weekend after weekend.

“That first night I sold 160 memberships just sitting up here in an office by myself with a little note on the box office window and the door open,” said Bordonaro. “The community was so welcoming, it was phenomenal. It felt like It’s A Wonderful Life.”

The theatre prospered, with 1,500 people streaming through its doors a night, according to Bordonaro. “We were able to play two different films every night for eight weeks without repeating one.”

However, the theatre suffered ongoing financial conflict and in 1999 Festival Cinemas’ lease was terminated.

Despite the fall of Festival Cinemas, the Bloor remained firmly in the hands of the Bordonaro family, with Carm Bordonaro taking over management.

Speculation that the Bloor was financially struggling surfaced in 2004 after a chunk of plaster fell from the ceiling during a screening of The Corporation.

The Bloor continued to draw in crowds through a variety of events. One of these events was ‘The Wright Stuff’ with Edgar Wright, director of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Wright showcased his movies Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. Director Kevin Smith also attended the theatre in a special organized event. A popular Fringe event called ‘The Silver Stage’ was created, where actors performed shadow casts of the film Blue Velvet by David Lynch and a double bill of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s musical episode “Once More With Feeling” and Doctor Horrible’s Sing Along Blog by Joss Whedon. Shadow casts involve actors reenacting scenes on stage while the film or TV program plays behind them.

Alex Woodside and Nigel Agnew, who now run the Toronto Underground Cinema, were two of the minds behind these events. They departed from the Bloor in 2009 after reportedly butting heads with the Bordonaros.

“The Bloor was like a really tight knit family,” said Peter Kuplowsky, who worked at the theatre and was involved with the Kevin Smith event. “With families, there is always lots of drama.”

Kuplowsky said staff often clashed with the Bordonaros over programming, with the drama coming to a head over funds from the Silver Stage Fringe event. With Fringe events, performers normally receive 100 per cent of the proceeds, which didn’t happen in this case.

“At that point the staff had become a really tight family, and the owners, they sort of weren’t really paying attention for a year, so we kind of took over,” he said.

“The Fringe show made a lot of money and there were verbal agreements that were made that certain parties didn’t think were being honoured. That’s what started the fighting. Because there was the weird case that the Bloor had distribution fees to pay for, they expected to get money. The owners were out of the loop so much that they didn’t realize that the performers would be getting money. They ended up doing a split. Because there was bad communication between both parties, nobody was trusting each other and it led to arguments that shouldn’t have happened and very bad feelings from both sides.”

Carm Bordonaro declined to comment on the event, saying it was a legal matter.

The last two years saw the Bloor hit hard times, and the family began to look for ways to reinvent the theatre. “We had to work really hard just to pay the bills and keep everything going,” said Bordonaro.

In June 2010, with their lease ending, the family purchased the theatre for $1.6 million in an effort to ensure its survival as a cinema.

Bordonaro said they had many offers from developers but they wanted to find the right person or company who would allow the space to stay as a theatre.

Bordonaro was approached by Hot Docs and Blue Ice in May of this year. Initially, both parties remained tight lipped as they worked out the deal. Many people speculated on the fate of the Bloor after it was announced that the theatre would be closing for renovations at the end of June.

Misty Pusztai was working at the theatre when the renovations were announced, and said that staff were given very little notice. “It was really slow, and we were all kind of wondering what was going on, and then two or three days before the renovation posters went up in the windows, we were told that the cinema was going to be renovated and that we’d all be out of a job at the end of the month. They gave us a really nice termination letter and supplied us with all of our paperwork but nobody was informed really, with proper notice. It was all kind of shocking to a lot of people.”

Bordonaro said their hands were tied. “We weren’t allowed to say anything. The closing date was June 30, and we hadn’t really even officially closed, so we weren’t in the greatest position to reveal anything earlier than we did.”

Adam Lopez, festival director of the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, said they were also given very little notice. “We weren’t really told what was going on,” said Lopez. “I understand why, because it was a confidential situation.”

Toronto After Dark announced last month that they would be moving this year’s festival to the Toronto Underground Cinema (186 Spadina Ave.), but that they would be back at the Bloor in 2012.

“There was no way of being 100 per cent sure that the renovations would be done in time,” said Lopez. “They are hoping to have the renovations done in October, two weeks before the festival. As a festival director, that was terrifying.”

Amy Taylor, of Excited Mental State, the group that performs monthly Rocky Horror Picture Show shadow casts at the Bloor said that the whole process has been really positive, and that Hot Docs has been welcoming. “They want us to be there, they want the neighbourhood to have a sense of continuity.”

However, many people, including Chris Alexander, are unsure what a revamped Bloor Cinema will be like. Alexander is permanently moving his ‘Film School Confidential’ night to the Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Ave.). “It’s a double edged sword,” said Alexander. “You bring an A-list filmmaker in town or a big movie, you won’t have to worry about creatures running around.”

Hot Docs held a community meeting in August where members of the public were invited to voice their questions and suggestions.

One of the main concerns brought up at the meeting was that the building would be “over-glammed.”

Concern was also voiced over a possible name change for the theatre. McDonald said they would be changing the name, but that the word ‘Bloor’ would be prominently featured.

Kuplowsky, who attended the meeting, said he was not worried at all about the fate of the theatre. “The fact that you have a very specific type of festival taking over means its going to have its own kind of identity that is going to be iconic and people are going to latch on to that,” he said. “I don’t think the stuff that everybody loves about that place is going to disappear. The community doesn’t want it to disappear and [Hot Docs] are smart businessmen.”

Kuplowsky likened the Bloor to a TV series. “There was always lots of drama, and it was kind of like a revolving door with people coming in and out. I hope with Hot Docs it will be like a new season.”

If you have any questions or feedback regarding the Bloor Cinema, please email feedback@hotdocs.ca.

Compiled by Emina Gamulin, Mike Radoslav, and Lindsay Tsuji

Click on the links below for more information about Trinity-Spadina and our Q & A with the MPP candidates in the upcoming provincial election on Oct 6.

The Riding
Trin-Spa Statistics

The Candidates

Question 1: Helping families
Question 2: Fossil fuel-based transportation
Question 3: Alternative medicine
Question 4: 40 hours of community service??
Question 5: Amalgamation

Candidate debates this month in Trinity-Spadina

The Riding:

The Trinity-Spadina neighbourhoods include the Annex, Harbord Village, Seaton Village, Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Italy, Little Portugal, parts of the University of Toronto, the harbourfront, and the Toronto Islands.

Trinity-Spadina's geography. Source: Elections Ontario

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The statistics:

Population = 115,361 *
Number of electors = 95,363 *
Median income = $50,047 **
Political History:
2007 elections = New Democrat ***
2003 = New Democrat ***
1999 elections = New Democrat ***

* Cited from StatsCan 2006 census data
** Cited from StatsCan 2001 census data
*** Cited from Elections Ontario

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The candidates:

Rosario Marchese (incumbent, NDP)

Rosario Marchese ( incumbent) was first elected to the Ontario Legislature in 1990. He is the NDP’s critic for Education, Toronto Issues, and Training, Colleges and Universities. Raised in the heart of Trinity-Spadina, he studied at Harbord Collegiate (286 Harbord St.) and graduated from the University of Toronto with bachelor degrees in arts and education. Marchese worked as a teacher and served as a Toronto school board and public library board trustee. He helped local residents organize Ontario’s first condo owners association and has been a vocal defender of condo owners’ rights.

Tim Grant (Ontario Green Party)

Until his nomination, Tim Grant was the chair of the Harbord Village Residents’ Association, where he led numerous tree-planting activities, and helped over 100 downtown households add solar panels to their rooftops. He continues to co-chair Tower Power Toronto, helping condo and co-op residents to green their buildings. Grant has been the co-editor of [Green Teacher ITAL] magazine for the past 20 years. A member of Karma Food Co-operative (739 Palmerston Ave.) and the Huron Community Garden, Grant and his partner Gail were early investors in the wind turbine at the Exhibition. They share their Trinity-Spadina home with a black and white cat who makes them laugh every day.

Sarah Thomson (Ontario Liberal Party)

Sarah Thomson, Trinity-Spadina’s Liberal party candidate, is former CEO and founder of Women’s Post Media, a print and online business magazine for women. She launched studioto.ca, which advocates for excellence in architecture and the protection of heritage buildings in Toronto after spending many years restoring old homes. Thomson ran for mayor of Toronto in 2010 because of her passion for her community and that passion has driven her to run for provincial parliament. She was born in Trinity-Spadina and is the daughter of an architect and an artist. Thomson stands for supporting our hospitals and senior care facilities, better transit in downtown Toronto, the redevelopment of Ontario Place to create local jobs, support for investments in green energy, and protection of our heritage buildings. She is running because she wants help build the foundation for a stronger Ontario for her children. Thomson lives downtown with her husband Greg and their two sons.

Mike Yen (Ontario Progressive Conservative Party)

Born and raised in the GTA, Mike Yen learned first-hand the benefits that strong and diverse cultures offer a city from the lessons passed from his great grandfather who immigrated to Toronto, from China. Yen translated his appreciation for cultural diversity into a Bachelor of Arts from York University—where he majored in History. For the last four years, Yen has called Trinity-Spadina home, where he has developed strong relationships within the community. As a 10-year federal civil servant, Mike has extensive experience working with troubled business and is well aware of the issues and problems that hinder the growth and prosperity of our business community.

Also running in Trinity-Spadina are Guy Fogel for the Socialist Party of Ontario and Silvio Ursomarzo, for the Freedom Party of Ontario. The Gleaner was unable to reach these candidates in time for this story.

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The Questions:

1. If elected how do you plan to support families with young children and does this plan involve more money for child and family services? BOLD
—Ruth Rosenblood, Children’s Storefront

Marchese: Many community members are profoundly worried about what services are going to be cut that will affect our social infrastructure, so this is a serious concern. I’ve been to The Children’s Storefront and they provide a wonderful service. It’s not a structured kind of environment that they have, but it’s a place where mothers and fathers and grandparents can come bring their children and they can do what they want. For just a little investment, communities have access to a centre like that that provides a creative place for them to be involved as parents grandparents and with children. It’s important to understand what they do and how critical they are to communities. We haven’t specifically said in our platform commitments that this is a program that needs to be funded, but I am a big supporter of that kind of program, and programs for families and children.

Grant: We’re strong supporters of the early childhood initiative, I wish that it involved more schools, but I think that’s a foundation that’s long overdue—especially in downtown neighbourhoods where child care spaces have been scarce. Early childhood education is an important foundation for everything that happens later in life. But there’s also a bunch of other factors involved here. One of the problems we have in Toronto—and especially in Trinity-Spadina—is that housing is unaffordable, and it’s often not available to families. We are asking to have 30 per cent of new condo units be made affordable for people like those needing larger units, instead of forcing them to move out to the suburbs.

Thomson: The Liberals have the early childhood education program—that’s full-day kindergarten and that’s a huge benefit. I have a four and five year old, so as a mother with children that age, it’s a huge asset to be able to put them into full-day kindergarten and it’s so good for their future education. That’s something happening here and now in our riding that I am a huge believer in, as well as more child care. [Premier Dalton] McGuinty had a meeting with our mayor, Rob Ford, and they were discussing more child care. I don’t know the details of that plan, but it sounds that going forward it will be a good plan for families—basically more child care positions. We’ve put in 60,000 child care positions in the last year, so it’s all moving forward.

Yen: The Ontario PC government is looking to give an immediate relief to families by taking the HST retirement charge off their home heating and hydro and making the smart meters optional. It’s too tough to afford the cost of living, and with McGuinty and his tax machines, it’s become more and more difficult in that regard, and families and businesses are really struggling with the high cost of energy. So hopefully this will help her out as well.

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2. What will you do to help Ontarians reduce their dependence on fossil fuel-based transportation?
—François Villeneuve

Marchese: We have announced that we would share the TTC operating costs 50/50. It’s something we used to do as governments, and we did it when I was a minister in 1990. We’re one of the few cities in the world that gets very little support from the province and/or federal government. It’s absolutely wrong. So the promise of sharing the costs with the cities is critical, and the only commitment we ask of the city is that they don’t increase the fare. We have to build that kind of infrastructure because if we have better access to the TTC system—whether its light rail, and/or subways—assuming that we can commit to federal governments to support us—then people will use it and they will get out of their cars. That doesn’t solve the problem of trucks and pollution, because that in my mind is a big, big problem. We attacked the government because they claimed to be the greenest ever in this province, and yet they were the ones that have allowed diesel trains. We need to commit ourselves to electrifying our rail system across Ontario, and indeed across Canada. People will stop using their cars if they have a better alternative. At the moment, we are not giving them a better alternative.

Grant: Trinity-Spadina is blessed with streetcar lines and subways, although not enough and not everywhere. The TTC itself doesn’t have the funds to provide the kind of service we really need. We need to start shifting monies away from new highway construction to transit, so that the system has the long-term, stable funding both to maintain a state of good repair and expand service. We think one per cent of the current $5.8 billion Ministry of Transportation budget should go to cycling infrastructure, and one per cent to pedestrian infrastructure, to create a fund that municipalities could apply to for projects. The other issue for us in Trinity-Spadina is GO Transit. With the rapid expansion westward of the train lines people will be subjected to a larger number of diesel trains. We believe that electrification of rail lines is not only urgent, but the additional cost of electrification can be paid for by covering over the tracks and selling the real estate above it, which from Dufferin Street all the way to Yonge would be quite valuable.

Thomson: I don’t know if you know this, but I ran for mayor of Toronto in the last election. I was a big subway advocate. I believe in public transit, especially in our downtown core. We’ve got $9 billion coming to Toronto, which is terrific. We’ve got an Eglinton [light rail] line, which will help reduce the reliance on the automobile. That’s one of the big things that I was just so happy about which was announced back in February or March, that it would go to the Eglinton [light rail], as well as the coal plants that we’re shutting down. We will be closing all coal plants by 2014. All of them. My father died of emphysema and pneumonia so it’s a personal issue for me.

Yen: We’re going to close all coal-fueled plants by 2014. The Ontario PC Party believes in green energy, but it has to be at a price that Ontario families can afford. Unfortunately, Dalton McGuinty’s green energy experiment is too much of a strain on families. So, again, it’s about providing immediate relief and getting away from the coal plants. We plan on investing in the city. We’re going to take the gas tax and invest it in transit infrastructure.

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3. “What does the Ministry of Health do to encourage research on medicines you can’t patent, things that already exist like vitamins, amino acids, metabolic co-factors, etc.? Is it enough? Is it feasible to do more?”
—Jason Skomorowski

Marchese: The fact that you have patents for 20 years, in my mind, has always been a problem. That makes that product very expensive until generics are able to get in. [Drugs] comprise about 15 per cent of our overall health costs, which means its incredibly expensive and it has become a growing expensive problem in this province. That’s something governments have to tackle a little more effectively to bring down the costs. But what kind of research does the government do in non-patent areas? I think we probably don’t do very much. Mainly, I suspect, because it’s a very expensive thing to do, I think there isn’t much research in the non-patent areas. When you are not in [the party that forms the] government you don’t have access to research in terms of what they do. Could more be done? I suspect so. I suspect there are a number of problems, which makes this a very challenging area of study.

Grant: Traditionally the role of the Ministry of Health has largely been dealing with the safety of drugs and the efficacy of drugs, but what we haven’t done is paid enough attention to non-invasive, non-drug treatments that can also be supportive of greater public health. I’m not aware of how much the Ministry of Health currently spends on investigating non-drug treatments, but I would certainly endorse them doing so. One of the ways Trinity-Spadina is different, from my personal experience, is that we have a much greater interest in public health, and in personal health, and people are more knowledgeable and do seek out alternatives. It does behoove us as a government to make sure all non-invasive drug and medical treatments meet the standards of care that we demand of drug treatments, that they don’t cause harm, and when taken in reasonable doses they promote health.

Thomson: I’m a big promoter of naturopathy, I saw it firsthand in my father when he was ill. The Ministry of Health is looking [at it] and they’re actually accepting naturopathic medicine as a credible alternative. That’s something that I’m so proud of that we’ve done. We’re the first government to actually see it as a credible source of healing and a method to reduce reliance on hospitalization and drugs. I think there is so much more we can do to give acceptance to that area of naturopathy that has been overlooked for years and years and years.

Yen: With regards to health, we’re planning on investing $6.1 billion to our health system and we’re going to be investing that into front-line care. Unfortunately under the McGuinty government we’ve seen more and more investment into administration. So with further investment in health care we should be able to increase front-line services.

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4. “Please comment on the current state of the high school 40 hour community service requirement for students as introduced by the Harris government. What, if anything, would you do differently?”
—David Perlman

Marchese: [The requirement] forces students to think about the larger community because most students don’t think beyond what they need to do in school, and sometimes they think school doesn’t really connect to their real life experiences, or real issues they’re facing at the moment.  It would be good to do a study of all that students have done, like we do with exit polling, to find out how their experience has been and how we can improve it. But overall, I think the idea is a good one and doing 40 hours of community service is good for all of us.

Grant: I think this was a good, tiny first step, but I think our high school system betrays the developmental needs of high school kids. I’m a big advocate of changing the curriculum at the high school level so that kids are much more engaged in community projects and improving the life of their communities. When kids are involved in community projects they themselves develop a greater enthusiasm for the learning they are doing back in the classroom in support of that project, and they start to care about subjects they didn’t previously.  We should start with pilot projects that eventually move to 10 per cent of the curriculum spent outside in the community, not just 40 hours, where teams of teachers would work together to create projects for students.

Thomson: It gives them a chance to get out there in the working environment and I think that’s great. Some students need that; some students already have that because they’re already working. I think it’s a really good plan, [I would] maybe allow some students more hours, so they could get credit for their hours. Because of my background, I left school quite early, in grade 11, and then I had to go back and take it through night courses. I found certain people learn differently and apprenticeship is a great way to learn.

Yen: The Ontario PC government would fully invest in education and we want to give teachers a little bit more freedom in making decision for their classrooms. So it’s about investing in our education and giving a little bit more freedom. I think community services are great for students. It’s great for them to get out there and experience things outside the classroom. I know we have a lot of students who volunteer on my campaign and they’re learning quite a bit and they’re making a lot of great connections in the community. And they may be learning things that they may not be learning in school.

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5. “Given recent votes and voting patterns at City Hall, do you support reversing the amalgamation foisted upon Toronto by Mike Harris?”
—Hamish Wilson

Marchese: I think Mike Harris destroyed our city. I think amalgamation has made it incredibly complex. We used to have a process where people could go to a city and have much more influence on their city, whether it was East York, Toronto, North York and so on. When you made it into one huge city of 2.6 million it has become complex and difficult, and citizens are not able to influence the City of Toronto as they could in the old days. I would love to break it up again, but I’m not quite sure that it’s easy to do. And if there was a better way we could give more access to citizens by the city to be able to influence policy direction, I would love to be able to study that. But to break it up again would be yet another destructive or hurtful move for the City of Toronto. [Going back] would create problems yet again that would have to be solved once again, so the best thing we could do is improve this structure that has been hoisted upon us.

Grant: I certainly support an honest review of de-amalgamation, but ultimately these are initiatives that must be citizen-driven. We should provide people with a reasoned debate so in the cold light of day, with the facts before them, they can make a decision. This would help to determine whether we go back to six municipalities, or maybe we go back to four. However I think we speak too much about differences, there is a recognition that all corners of Toronto need equal access to services and good transit and need public investment in infrastructure. This would help the people in the corners of Toronto address the same needs as those living downtown.

Thomson: I’m not for going backwards. I think we are still suffering from amalgamation not being transitioned effectively, but I believe that there is still work to be done, and I believe that if we can do it effectively the city could get more benefit from it. I don’t know if you know that we’ve uploaded services such as our drug benefits program. There has been a lot of uploading from the municipalities back to the McGuinty government. That was an agreement that was done in 2009, so it has just come through. And that uploading does help. Services like the drug benefit program, disability support, work benefits program, court security costs. Those things have been uploaded.

Yen: The City of Toronto has a lot of tough decisions to make and the Ontario PC government will work with every municipality including Toronto to make sure that we’re able to deliver services to the best we can working together.

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Who wants a debate?

Candidates for the provincial Trinity-Spadina seat will have many chances to compel and rally their would be constituents at all-candidates debates and forums this month.

On Sept 14, the Trinity-St. Paul’s Church’s (427 Bloor St. W.) debate will be moderated by Rory Sinclair, chair of the Harbord Village Residents’ Association. It is being co-sponsored by the Annex, Seaton Village, Harbord Village and Huron-Sussex Residents’ Associations, and the Harbord Street and Bloor-Annex BIAs.

On the 15th, the University of Toronto Students Union is hosting their all-candidates debate from 2 to 4 p.m. The debate takes place at Hart House (15 Hart House Circle).

If education issues are your thing, check out the forum at Central Technical School (730 Bathurst St.) on the 20th, which begins at 7 p.m.

The next night, Sept. 21, the Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association (BQNA) and the York Quay Neighbourhood Asoociation (YQNA) will host their all-candidate event. Taking place at the Harbourfront Community Centre (627 Queen’s Quay W.), the debate occurs from 7 p.m. to 10  p.m. and will be moderated by local artist Alice Norton.

On Sept. 24, at the Financial Services Building at 290 Adelaide Street East, the Make it Count! Festival will feature live entertainment, voter education, a workshop on Provincial policy 101, and an all-candidates debate. Lunch and snacks will be provided. Event begins at 10 a.m. For more information, visit www.ontarioyouthmatter.ca and www.rockthevotecanada.ca.

On Sept. 27, starting at 8 p.m., Rogers Television will broadcast a Trinity-Spadina debate. Check your TV listings for the correct channel, it varies depending on the cable provider.

Finally, on Sept. 28 from 7 to 9:30 p.m., the Friends of Christie Pits and Christie Pits Residents’ Association will host their debate. It will take place at Bob Abate Recreation Centre (485 Montrose Ave.) at 7 p.m.

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By Julia Hennessey

Wellbeing Toronto allows the user to select multiple indicators for a neighbourhood at one time. Screenshot courtesy of City of Toronto.

After two years of development, Wellbeing Toronto website launched this summer and received close to 20,000 hits on its first day.

The City of Toronto, along with partners that include the United Way and Toronto’s school boards, have contributed to the development of the online application that allows users to view and compare Toronto neighbourhoods based on personally weighted criteria and create on-the-fly maps.

The tool may change how government funding is allocated, the way nonprofits will operate, and will inform business owners and residents about their neighbourhoods.

“We wanted to create a system that looked at neighbourhood well-being across all of Toronto’s neighbourhoods, not just a certain number or a priority number of neighbourhoods,” said Harvey Low, manager of Social Research and Analysis for the City of Toronto.

Information is provided for 140 neighbourhoods in Toronto and users can select up to 20 indicators for a specific neighbourhood at a time. The weighted indicators allow users to evaluate areas based on the criteria they deem most important.

Options go beyond typical demographic information such as population, to provide data ranging from tree cover to voter turnout, and pinpoint the locations of amenities. Low hopes Wellbeing Toronto will offer new insight into neighbourhoods like the Annex by providing “information that we’ve never reported on before in this format-on cycling and pedestrian traffic, accidents, and access to public transit.”

Criteria were selected to illustrate all aspects of a neighbourhood. “We decided to include indicators that could potentially look at the assets of communities as well as the challenges.”

While Wellbeing Toronto has the potential to serve a wide range of users including academia, NGOs, and government, the site may be especially interesting to businesses when positioning themselves, and residents shopping for a home.

Low said businesses and corporations can use the website to find information about potential clients, including income level and languages most commonly spoken when deciding on a location and how to target their services. “If you’re doing service planning and you want to locate a new convenience store, use Wellbeing Toronto to find out where the existing ones are so you don’t locate right next to an existing one.”

The website also offers information to business operators about community support for their employees. “The Annex has a variety of restaurants, many different retail outlets along Bloor. It would provide not only information about those retail establishments and where they are located, but also the human supports in that community from child care to seniors homes.”

People looking to purchase homes can use Wellbeing to investigate area information including the location of schools and the average annual income of homeowners, says Low. “[People] want to be near public transit, which the Annex is, they want to be near great parks, which the Annex has,” but they may weight these characteristics at different levels of importance. Wellbeing Toronto allows these users to “pick the same indicators but weight them differently.”

However, Low suggests that the application is one of a number of tools that those shopping for a home can use. “In order to really get a feeling of a community like the Annex you need to walk the streets, you need to feel the neighbourhood, you need to smell the air, look at the trees.”

Elden Freeman, Vice President of Freeman Real Estate, agrees that the applications usefulness in the real estate sector is limited. “People buy homes on an emotional basis. If the schools are good and their peer group is buying in the neighbourhood—statistics don’t add anything.”

He says Wellbeing may also stigmatize neighbourhoods whose positive characteristics statistics may not be illustrated by statistics and is concerned the website will increase the divide between neighbourhoods. “It really is creating ghettos of rich and poor, and that’s what this whole map reinforces.”

Renny Cannon, a homeowner who shopped for a home in the Annex in 2006, says he would have tried the website, but is not convinced it would have been useful. “The areas are so large. I mean—when they define the Annex [to include] from Christie Street to Avenue Road—the area surrounding Christie Pits is very different from the area surrounding University Avenue, so I don’t think it provides too much insight into a neighbourhood.”

Visit the Wellbeing Toronto Website at map.toronto.ca/wellbeing.

By Michael Radoslav

Councillor Adam Vaughan leads a Jane's Walk through CityPlace. Courtesy Gary Pieters.

While condo projects have dotted the Toronto skyline for years, at CityPlace some see more than just construction underway—they see the potential for a great community.

“CityPlace is a great development and that’s what it was before we started here, a development,” said Dean Maher, president of the recently-formed CityPlace Residents’ Association. “Our goal is to make a house a home.”

The residents’ association wants CityPlace—a group of condominium developments located south of the rail corridor between Spadina and Bathurst—officially recognized as a neighbourhood by the City of Toronto, much like Kensington, Chinatown, and other areas. In addition they are working on a host of community-building initiatives.

Maher is a founding member of the association, helping to aid its formation last January after an unsuccessful bid to become a councillor in last fall’s municipal election.

The residents’ association has been working with Councillor Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) to achieve their goal of obtaining official recognition.

“Very few neighbourhoods are created out of nothing, and that is why this is so exciting,” said Vaughan. “It is a great opportunity to create this new community in the downtown core.”

Community-building initiatives are sprouting organically based on resident feedback said Steve Kee, the association’s vice-president of communications. Such initiatives include declaring a portion of Canoe Landing Park a dog park and starting up neighbourhood sports leagues at the turf field. For a part of town rich in rooming space, but lacking communal facilities, Maher said more restaurants or a community library would help make the area more attractive.

The group has also started hosting public meetings, including a recent one with Metrolinx regarding future projects.

However, the association’s work is not without its challenges. A lack of longevity is a hurdle in growing a community, said Sandeep Agrawal, an urban planning professor at Ryerson University. Downtown condos generally attract young professionals and young couples, groups not known for staying in one place too long. “At the moment what I see is that it’s more of a transitory place,” said Agrawal. “It is families and kids that make a neighbourhood lively and rich and give it more of a sense of permanency.”

Jack Kiatmysack, 26, a CityPlace tenant, reaffirmed that notion. “We’re leasing and we’re leasing on purpose,” he said.

Many of Kiatmysack’s neighbours say they do not see this as a long term destination point, he said, but rather a stop along the way.

“They have to find a way to keep everybody here,” said Korhan Kinazi, 33, a real estate agent who lives at CityPlace. “I think there’s an age aspect of living here, after you get settled and have a baby, I see people moving away.”

Maher said that perception of temporary residence is something the association is fighting to change. “If that’s the mentality we’ll never have people sit down, have a coffee and meet their neighbour.”

Future developments, such as the Toronto Community Housing project slated for the area, will help the area by adding more long-term residents, he added.

In addition to the transient nature of life in CityPlace, the group also has 12 official members that represent the interests of 12,000 people, which may prove to be another challenge. The residents’ association is currently made up of eight board members and four people working on projects, according to Kee. He said the group has “no immediate goals” of seeking mass membership from the greater CityPlace community, saying their focus is currently to “build up, be solid, be consistent, and build infrastructure,” but they want to “continue to make inroads into buildings and talk to people.”

While the group is not currently focused on membership drives, they are happy to work with residents who have suggestions and intend to find a representative from each building to widen their network. “We have to demonstrate that we’re building value, and I believe that we are,” Kee said. “We feel that we’ve made great strides.”

Ultimately to build a neighbourhood people need a reason to come together, Agrawal said, whether out of desire or necessity. In the past, neighbourhoods have united when a large construction project, such as highway, was built nearby, a tragedy has struck, or a group looked to occupy a specific piece of land together. Maher is confident a strong connection can and will be established among residents living at CityPlace.

“We won’t be Little Italy or Little Portugal since we are a condo community,” Maher said, “but we will form a new community.”

By Rebecca Payne

The stretch of Queen Street between Dufferin and Roncesvalles will be under the city’s microscope as a restaurant concentration study begins, a move that may prove to be divisive for the neighbourhood, if a recent community meeting is any indication of things to come.

At a heated meeting on June 28 at May Robinson Auditorium (20 West Lodge Ave.), city planner Dan Nicholson and Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 14, Parkdale-High Park) hosted the first meeting to hear residents’ thoughts about the developments in their neighbourhood in the past few years—namely, a growing number of bars in the area that some residents say has had a negative impact.

Some residents were concerned a concentration study would have a negative impact on the neighbourhood, while others complained about noise and drunken behaviour in relation to bars in the area (the only one specifically referred to by name was Parts & Labour).

Two restaurant owners showed up to the meeting to make the case for their businesses. A man affiliated with Local Kitchen & Wine Bar said he had not been approached by the city, or any residents, before receiving notice of this meeting about “the negative impact of restaurants.” He suggested the city needed to work more closely with those in the restaurant industry.

Another restaurateur, who did not give his name, said the “little guys” might be affected negatively by the results of the study. He felt his business was of benefit to the community, and that he was out there making the community more safe. “Sometimes we’re the only people who are asking drunk [people] to stop and getting people to stop fighting [on the street],” he said.

Some residents agreed that the increase in activity in the area was making it a safer place to be.

“[I’ve been] in the area for the last ten years, and … [it’s a] hell of a lot better now than it was ten years ago, that’s for sure,” said one resident. “And I don’t know one restaurant in Toronto that doesn’t play music when people are eating,” he continued. “Let them dance!”

One Cowan Avenue resident, who has lived in the neighbourhood for 12 years, said “I think it’s a great place to live, [with] people of all different ethnic and economic backgrounds. By and large people get along. It’s becoming posh and they want to throw out dive bars and make it more posh … [I’d like to see] a mix of bars, restaurants, and other stores.”

A similar study was conducted in 2009 for the strip of Queen between Dovercourt and Gladstone, where between 2004 and 2009, 13 new restaurants opened.

In the final report from the 2009 Dovercourt-Gladstone study, several recommendations were made to stop an over-concentration of “late night drinking establishments” in the area, including reducing maximum size of ground floor area for new businesses.

Although members of the working group wanted a new “hybrid” zoning bylaw definition for restaurant/bar establishments, the city did not agree. According to the report, the AGCO “requires at least five entreé items (food) to be available for purchase,” which means these establishments will, in theory, have space dedicated to food preparation, and thus be difficult to distinguish from restaurants. (Although, as noted by Perks, some establishments will merely “have a couple Hungry Man dinners in the freezer” to get around the required food service.)

Perks proposed that a “working group” made up of representatives from interested parties be set up to discuss concerns in detail. This is the same process that was undertaken for the Dovercourt-Gladstone study. Perks’ suggestions for members of the working group included representatives from Toronto Police, the AGCO, MLS, the BIA (one being a restaurant owner and one not), and the Parkdale Residents’ Association.

Some in attendance seemed to feel Perks’ choices for representatives would result in a status quo result. To wit, one attendee suggested they “get a clubber” to participate in the working group. (Perks’ then joked, “I’m so old, no clubber would ever speak to me.”)

The working group will meet at least three times to discuss the issues brought forth at this meeting, and then another public meeting will be held where the group’s findings will be presented.

“Change always prompts concern,” said Nicholson. “A lot of what’s happening on Queen is positive—but there are concerns.”

For more information contact Dan Nicholson at 416-397-4077

By Cara Waterfall

While the Canada Post strike is over, the organization still has its share of headaches. The RCMP said the company has lost millions of dollars because of counterfeit stamp operations in the last year.

The RCMP and police raided 24 retail and commercial stores and seized 40,000 counterfeit stamps and 10,000 authentic, reused ones. The convenience stores sold the forged stamps while the reused stamps were sold online.

Corporal David Sutherland, who heads the RCMP’s Greater Toronto Area Federal Enforcement Section, said that the raids did not involve any stores in the Annex, but counterfeit stamps are circulating in the neighbourhood.“Our investigation revealed counterfeit stamps were mailed directly from within [this area] to other areas of Toronto and beyond,” he said.

However, at least one neighbourhood store is stocking the forgeries. Susan Oppenheim, owner of Java Mama (1075 Bathurst St.), did not realize she had purchased a counterfeit stamp until she got a call from her daughter.

The forgery was flagged with a special rubber stamp that said “counterfeit stamp, return to sender.”

Despite Oppenheim’s desire to keep the store anonymous, she notified the business owners of the counterfeit, and described their reaction as “puzzled.”

The convenience store in question declined to comment on this story.

According to Cpl. Sutherland, stamp counterfeiting does not generally result in jail time, but if found guilty, offenders can face fines ranging from $0 to $1 million.

In March, a one-year investigation culminated in five suspects being arrested including two from Toronto.

Cpl. Sutherland advises local residents and businesses to be vigilant when purchasing stamps, especially if deep discounts are provided.

Canada Post does have measures in place to detect the counterfeit stamps, but declined to provide specific details. “The more we give information on that, the more information people who would like to do it illegally have,” said Latour.

“What is important to remember with counterfeit stamps is that they could be returned to sender at the sender’s cost,” said Canada Post spokeswoman, Geneviève Latour. “It is important to buy from registered dealers.”

Cpl. Sutherland said that they believe that all the counterfeit stamps originated from the same point, although it is unclear whether they were produced locally or imported to Canada. The forged stamps featured the same series of classic Canadian images: lighthouses from the Dec. 27, 2007 series, and the Queen and Vancouver 2010 Olympics images from the Jan. 12, 2010 series.

For more information, call the RCMP at 905-953-7271 or Canada Post at 416-345-7503 ext. 54384, or, mail a letter to Canada Post, Attn: Customer Service, 4567 Dixie Rd, Mississauga ON L4W 1S2

By Lindsay Tsuji

Former mayoral candidate to run for provincial seat. Perry King/Gleaner News

Former Toronto mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson’s name will be back on the ballot, but this time she’s going provincial. Thomson officially launched her campaign as the Liberal candidate for Trinity-Spadina late last month. The Gleaner sat down with Thomson to discuss her nomination, her platform, and why she’s qualified to represent Trinity-Spadina at Queen’s Park.

How does it feel to be the Liberal nominee for Trinity-Spadina?

It feels like coming home. Before that I was sort of in the middle. You try not to be biased either way in publishing, so you try to keep out of the politics. But I looked at it and said, out of all of Toronto where would I want to run? When I first moved to Toronto I moved on to Harbord Street and Howland. It’s a really diverse riding and I love that. That line that we have in Toronto “Diversity, our Strength”— that is so much the case in Trinity-Spadina.

Some reports indicated that you were going to run in the Parkdale-High Park riding. Is there any truth to that?

That was just a rumour; there was no substance of truth to that at all. The big thing was that I had to pay off my mayoral debts. I’ve always said that I wanted to get involved but I just needed to focus on that debt. I didn’t want to get sidetracked with something else before I was ready.

Rosario Marchese has been a favourite in the area for a very long time. How do you plan to compete?

I look around and say, what has he done? What am I going up against? I couldn’t find anything. He’s tried to do things but nothing has worked out for him.

I think it’s so important that the riding does get representation and a voice, and right now they don’t have a voice. Rosie’s been there for 20 years now. I think the community is getting reinvigorated: you can see the change and the young urbanites going into the condos; you can see the new families. There’s a sense of new energy there. In a sense that’s what I represent. I’m a do-er. I’m not somebody that can sit on the sidelines and criticize the government. I’m someone that says okay, what does this riding need and what can we bring to the table?

I’ve campaigned there and canvassed there. I’ve actually gone door-to-door—especially for these young families. I can relate to them; I have a son in junior kindergarten and that’s something they’re not getting from Rosario. Rosario doesn’t even live there, he moved out of the riding. What does that tell you? To me that’s really important. If you care about the riding you have to be there.

What issues are important to you?

Full-day kindergarten, clean energy, and infrastructure. In 2006 the Liberals funded the one piece of subway we’re building now. That’s the direction we should be heading. How do we make the city more workable?

There have been a few controversial decisions made by the provincial Liberal Party—the G20 “fence law” and implementing the HST come to mind. What will you do to capture some non-Liberal believers out there?

Things like the HST, you look at it and overall it’s showing that it’s a good thing. We might have to pay more for some things, but at the end of the day low-income families aren’t being hit as hard. More jobs are being created. I look at it on a more local scale, and ask, is this impacting on businesses, is it helping businesses? Yes, it is. As a business owner myself, I can say the HST is a good thing. Firsthand, as a business owner I’ve read the studies and the studies show that it’s a good thing. There are studies that show that the HST is better for Canada overall.

Why do you think you’re qualified to represent the riding at Queen’s Park?

I studied the platforms of the parties carefully before I made a decision. I’m qualified because I have the experience of ten months of campaigning (as a mayoral candidate). As a business owner, I’ve learned to build consensus and build profitable enterprises. I’m a strong believer in the school of hard knocks and hands-on experiences. I look forward to community building with community groups and leaders.  I also have a great relationship with the councillors at city hall, and I’ll build to create space for the community.

What else should Trinity-Spadina residents hope to see from your platform?

I want to open the idea up about the use of Ontario Place. How do we generate more jobs for people in the community? How do we keep it safe and vibrant in the off-season? Do we need to have the air show in a residential neighbourhood? Could we have it somewhere else? The community needs somebody to hear them. I want to hear all the little issues.

By Katie O’Connor

Peter Bruer has been the manager of the conflict resolution service since 1977. Katie O'Connor/Gleaner News

In a city of small spaces like Toronto, loud and obtrusive neighbours can become more than just a mere annoyance. Conflicts rise as the weather heats up, which is why making nice with them has never been more important.

St. Stephen’s Community House (260 Augusta Ave.) offers a free mediation program for neighbours, housemates, families, and anyone with a conflict in their private life.

The service covers a wide range of issues, from property line arguments to landlord and tenant problems.

“It’s a noise dispute in apartment complexes, it’s the people upstairs who have little kids running around, it’s people shovelling snow onto someone else’s sidewalk,” said manager Peter Bruer. “They are the kind of disputes that don’t get resolved by other means.”

Created in 1985, the program is funded through money from the City of Toronto and the United Way. The service is available to individuals living south of Eglinton Avenue between Victoria Park and the Humber River.

Individuals meet with trained mediators in a neutral location. The mediators work to figure out the root of the conflict, and how it can be solved amicably. “Our process isn’t about who is right or wrong,” said Bruer. “Our belief is that conflict is going to happen, that it’s a part of life.”

Jill Moriarty, interim co-ordinator for the program, said active listening is the most important part of the mediation process.

“You have to give each of the parties the space to be heard,” she said. “It’s very important that they know that they are being heard or understood.”

She said that most people look at mediation as a negotiated settlement, but it’s about finding a solution that’s workable for everyone.

“We don’t just give people their piece of the pie, we try to make the pie big enough so that everybody gets what they want,” said Moriarty.

The program also offers their services for cases that are referred to them by legal clinics and police. Bruer said the service is very successful when people involved in the cases are willing to take part in mediation, but that it can be difficult with cases that are referred to them.

He said that people have to be willing to fix the problem in order for mediation to work. Bruer said they get cases referred to them by legal clinics and the courts, but that if people are unwilling to be there, the mediation often doesn’t work.

He said the cases that get referred to them simply can’t be solved in court and that the program works as an alternative problem-solving method. “It was created partly because the other systems we have—and they are good—but, they are cumbersome. They often just plain don’t work.”

Bruer said the goal of the mediators is to create long-term solutions. “What it does in the long run is create a workable relationship between people.”

Call 416-925-2103 ext. 229 for more information.

By Katie O’Connor

After years of power struggles, the City of Toronto took control of Casa Loma (1 Austin Terrace) from the Kiwanis Club, which has managed the historic castle for almost 75 years.

The city owns Casa Loma, but had contracted out management to the charity since 1937.

In exchange for ending the management contract early, the city will pay the club $1.45 million for artifacts and branding such as the Casa Loma name, and $300,000 in unpaid management fees, said economic development and tourism general manager Mike Williams.

Under the deal, Kiwanis will be able to hold weekly meetings free of charge and up to five charitable events a year.

The city plans to run the facility for 12 to 18 months while it holds community consultations regarding the property.

The deal is just another twist in a tale that has, at times, seen the city and the Kiwanis Club of Casa Loma pitted against each other.

The takeover comes only three years after Kiwanis signed a 20-year contract with the city.

The relationship took a turn for the worse in the summer of 2010 when the city blamed Kiwanis for failing to complete renovations.

Former Mayor David Miller also unsuccessfully demanded the removal of Richard Wozenilek, chair of the Casa Loma board, because of conflict of interest issues.

Asked whether he thought the events of 2010 had anything to do with the contract being ended early, Wozenilek was adamant.

“Without question, it was nothing to do with these current negotiations,” he said. “The economic reality of the situation in our present day has dictated that this is the best eventuality for the castle.”

Wozenilek said he was sad to see the city take over management of the castle, but called it a “win-win” for both the city and the Kiwanis Club.

Over the past few years the castle has struggled to pull in visitors, and was hit especially hard by the recession.

“It’s not a place that Torontonians use to play, to experience culture, to eat, and so on. It could be so much more,” said Councillor Joe Mihevc (Ward 21, St. Pauls), a non-voting member of the Casa Loma board.

Mihevc said the castle needs a management board that understands heritage, tourism, special events, and property management.

“We have to acknowledge from the 1930s to the present era, Kiwanis did a great job keeping the place together. However, they are a social service club, focused on music,” said Mihevc. “We need to make this unpolished jewel shine better in our city.”

Trelawny Howell, the great-grandniece of Sir Henry Pellatt, the Toronto businessman who built the mansion, called the deal one-sided and said that the city was giving massive payouts for mismanagement.

The city should not be paying for the artifacts and trademarks, because they never actually belonged to Kiwanis, Howell said.

Mihevc called the payouts a “sweetener” used to make the deal happen.“Kiwanis saw the writing on the wall, but also needed to have their historical contribution to the castle valued, and this is how it expressed itself in this.”

The deal was rubber-stamped by the city’s executive committee on June 14.

By Síle Cleary

UTS, pictured here with students gathered outside for a Jane's Walk in 2010, will be searching for a new home. Beth Macdonell/Gleaner News

The University of Toronto School (UTS, 371 Bloor St. W.) board is eager to enter into discussions with their academic partner, the University of Toronto, in order to clarify the terms of the school’s relocation plan.

Last month the UTS board was formally notified by U of T that their $48 million refurbishment proposal for their Bloor Street premises had been rejected and that they must relocate by 2021.

“Our current position is that we plan on entering into discussions with U of T on the terms of the relocation plan. We need a clear agreement before anything is finalized,” said David Rounthwaite, chair of UTS building committee.

Councillor Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) reiterated the call for discussions to take place between the two academic institutions. “At the moment we need the UTS and U of T to get together and explore the options,” he said.

“UTS students and family members are a valuable part of the community and I’ll move heaven and earth to keep the school as close as possible to its current location.”

UTS has been a part of the community since 1910, and was established as
a kind of laboratory for U of T’s faculty of education and a testing ground for student teachers.

According to Rounthwaite, the current building on Bloor is structurally sound but has electrical and plumbing issues.

The UTS redevelopment proposal plans to maintain the heritage façade of the building while making significant improvements to the interior, such as the building of new athletic facilities—including two fully-equipped gyms, a 25-metre swimming pool, new heating, air conditioning, and other infrastructure improvements.

After reviewing the UTS proposal, the university informed the school that they would require the entire UTS property to meet their own future academic space needs.

U of T communications officer Laurie Stephens said that the university didn’t want to encumber itself, as they have significant space issues on the St. George’s campus.

“The UTS site on the St. George campus is a valuable site for U of T and we felt that we needed that site for academic purposes,” she said.

While UTS is disappointed that they cannot remain in their current residence, they are confident that they will find a suitable location within the time frame. “I’m positive that we can relocate just as successfully as other institutes have done in the past. Of course, we will lose the connection with the building, but UTS is a living organism,” said Rounthwaite.

The University has said it will assist UTS in the site search process and help with the acquisition, including providing financial and other support.

“We have indicated to UTS that they have ten years to find a new location with the possibility of an extension after the ten years, if required,” said Stephens.

Jennet Poffenroth, teacher and leader of the Solar Inventors Club at Hillcrest. Julia Manoukian/GLEANER NEWS

By Julia Manoukian

The Toronto District School Board has jumped on the green bandwagon with a long-term solution that seemingly kills two birds with one stone, but the upcoming provincial election could bring all this to a halt.

Unveiled May 19, and born at Hillcrest Community School (44  Hilton Ave.), a groundbreaking partnership between the TDSB and AMP Solar Group Inc. would see solar panels installed on school roofs all across Toronto, and the energy generated sold to local consumers. The deal is believed to be the largest of its kind in North America, potentially worth $1.1 billion in green electricity over the 20-year contract.

Hillcrest was the site of the pilot project. For the past three years, the school has sported 52 solar panels on its rooftop. As an environmental leader in the Annex, the school has used the panels as a source of clean energy.

“Up on our roof I think we’re generating more than electricity, more than possible income—we’re actually generating ideas. We’re generating hope, we’re generating imagination, problem solving, and curriculum,” said Jennet Poffenroth, a staff member and leader of the Solar Inventors Club at Hillcrest. This local success became the basis for a new deal and a precursor for the expansion of solar energy in Toronto schools.

The board reported AMP is responsible for repairing 42 per cent of its roofing portfolio and installing solar photovoltaic panels on these rooftops, at a total cost of $120 million dollars. The 66 megawatts of solar energy generated annually from the panels will be sold to the distribution grid for use by Ontario consumers. This is enough to power 6,000 Toronto homes, and will offset a significant component of the board’s $3-billion backlog in basic repairs.

“Our rooftops represent a major untapped sustainable-energy resource,” said Chris Bolton, chair of the TDSB. “By installing solar panels on them, Toronto communities will get clean green energy, 450 schools will receive much-needed roof repairs, and TDSB students will experience an unparalleled real-life lesson in sustainable living.”

Despite the board’s claims that AMP is responsible for all project costs, many members, including Mr. Bolton, remain apprehensive about the deal. “I think it could be considered to be almost too good to be true,” he said at the unveiling. The installments also remain contingent on Feed-in Tariff (FIT) applications, which pay people or institutions for the renewable energy they produce, to be approved by the Ontario Power Authority.

However, with the upcoming provincial election this October, the plan may not survive a change in parliament. On May 10, Ontario Progressive Conservative leader, Tim Hudak, promised in a speech to the Ontario Power Summit to scrap the program in order to prevent Ontario families from paying unsustainable subsidies on their hydro bills for the next 20 years.

“The problem is we still don’t know how many of these projects will be connected to the lack of transparency of this program,” said Progressive Conservative candidate for Trinity-Spadina Mike Yen. “Renewable energy must be at a price Ontario families can afford.”

Regardless of any scepticism, Poffenroth’s optimistic attitude not only inspired her students, who crafted and showcased solar-powered cars, but it echoed through the room, evident by the lasting applause. “It’s a win-win for everyone involved,” commented Chris Spence, director of education at the TDSB. “This school board led the way to realizing a greener future with our highly acclaimed EcoSchools program—now we are doing it again.”

After the company recovers the cost of the roof repairs, the TDSB will collect 14.5 per cent of the energy revenue. Once the contract is over, the school board will have full ownership of the panels.

Although the prospect of a Conservative majority may jeopardize the future of this historic deal, it seems a new and lasting light has been shed on the future generation. “We really learn the difference we can make to help the environment,” said Luke Brenton, a Grade 6 student at Hillcrest Community School and member of the Social Inventors Club, “because solar energy is the future.”