Design options released for tentative Bloor Street project

By Marielle Torrefranca

The City of Toronto has released a series of bike lane designs for its proposed pilot project on Bloor Street between Shaw Street and Avenue Road.

There are three main options: the removal of all on-street parking on Bloor Street for bike lanes (this design was not carried forward due to lack of parking and loading); buffered bike lanes between curbside parking and traffic lanes; and curbside bike lanes protected by buffers or bollards. The latter two options both retain car parking on one side of the street or the other.

Option B, version 1: Bicycle lanes are separated from the roadway by
narrow buffers in both directions. Buffers can consist of bollards in one direction where feasible. However, as there is no buffer between the bike lane and on-street parking, cyclists would have to watch for opening
vehicle doors, and vehicles merging into traffic or exiting traffic.
Option B, version 2: Bicycle lanes in both directions with a buffer between cyclists and parked motor vehicles. This allows for room between cyclists and open vehicle doors. East of Spadina Road: Larger road east of Spadina Road allow for buffered bike lanes in both directions, buffered from both traffic lanes and motor vehicle door zones. Courtesy City of Toronto

The designs include optional variations, as the roadways differ along the corridor. For instance, the roadways are larger by about three metres in width east of Spadina Road. Other constraints include limited roadway space and competing uses, reduced parking, and possible motor vehicle traffic delay. The designs are available on the city’s website and open to feedback from the public until Jan. 15.

Option C: Bicycle lanes are separated from the roadway by motor vehicle
parking. One parking lane could be on the same side of the street
for the entire corridor or alternate between both sides of the street.
The door zone would be buffered, with bollards where feasible. East of
Spadina Road, bike lanes in both directions would be separated from
the roadway, with buffers in the door zone. Courtesy City of Toronto

The city’s goal is to choose the safest option that is still harmonious with surrounding businesses and motor vehicles.

“Seventy-three per cent of Torontonians say lack of cycling infrastructure is holding them back from riding more often,” said Jared Kolb, executive director of Cycle Toronto, one of the stakeholders of the project.

Currently, there are no dedicated bicycle lanes on Bloor Street.

“Ultimately our number one priority is creating a safe connected network in Toronto, and Bloor Street can be a real backbone,” said Kolb.

“I don’t ride on Bloor [Street]. It’s too dangerous,” said cyclist Dave Cronsilver, who has had his fair share of collisions with motor vehicles. Although the avid cyclist is nursing an injured arm from his most recent tangle, he said he is still keen to get back on his two wheels — if it were safer.

Staff Sergeant James Hogan is the manager of the community response unit for Toronto Police Division 14, where he also runs the bike crew. After cycling downtown for more than 20 years, he said bike traffic is changing on Bloor Street.

“From my observation, it’s a challenge for cyclists and motorists to coexist there,” said Hogan. “Like other streets, there seems to be more and more cycling activity, and I certainly see that where there’s almost bike traffic jams.”

Hogan said the chosen bike lane design should aim to provide better safety, clarity, and continuity.

“It’s just not clear what the best and safest place for the cyclist to be is,” he added.

The pilot project, still subject to council approval, has been more than 20 years in the making. City council has been commissioning studies on Bloor Street bike lanes since 1992.

Kolb said he hopes there’s enough of a critical mass to give the proposal an extra push this time around, as they’ve been working to create a stronger community voice through local residents, schools, and businesses. And, the David Suzuki Foundation has also recently become involved.

As the trial may result in a 50 per cent reduction in parking along Bloor Street, the Bloor-Annex and Korea Town business improvement areas (BIAs) are looking to measure the economic impact of the bike lanes on their members. New bike lanes can especially have an impact on parking and loading for businesses.

The University of Toronto, in partnership with the Toronto Centre for Active Transportation, is conducting an economic study on what impact, if any, bike lanes on Bloor Street will have on the area’s businesses. Research began in October and will cost $22,500. The BIAs and the Metcalf Foundation have contributed to the funding.

As for next steps, the city will pick a design option this winter and develop detailed design and costs. In the spring, a second public consultation event will be held, accompanied with another online survey. Should council approve the pilot project proposal in the spring, the bike lanes could be installed by the summer.

Upon approval, of course.

Application to be reviewed in context of study

By Annemarie Brissenden

Residents attending an open house dedicated to the Bathurst Bloor 4 Corners Study Area were keen to focus on Westbank Corp.’s proposed Mirvish Village development instead of commenting on Toronto City Planning’s draft policies for the City of Toronto’s Official Plan.

So much so, in fact, that Liora Freedman, the planner overseeing the process and leading the meeting, had to keep redirecting the audience’s attention to the task at hand: commenting on the proposals that, if approved, will govern future development at Bathurst and Bloor streets.

“This is not a meeting on Honest Ed’s, this is a 4 Corners meeting,” Freedman patiently kept replying to questions regarding the height and density of the Westbank development.

That said, City Planning’s presentation — posted online — includes a draft policy direction summary that states, “Development applications within the Study Area, including the current one for the SW quadrant, will be reviewed in the context of the Bathurst-Bloor 4 Corners Study principles and policy.”

It also notes that, “The south-west quadrant has a larger Mixed Use area which is large enough to accommodate a built form beyond mid-rise in some of the area, with potential for taller buildings, and also achieve other planning objectives including appropriate transition to Neighbourhoods.”

For some in attendance, though, it was difficult to reconcile those two statements with what had been discussed in earlier community consultations.

“Twenty-nine-storey towers doesn’t meet the design principles from previous meetings,” said an audience member. “There is a disconnect between what was talked about in the early days and the exhibits presented here today.”

The November open house was only the latest in a series of community consultations that have contributed to the development of area-specific policy amendments to the Official Plan.

The culmination of the first stage was when Toronto City Council endorsed a policy objective characterizing Bathurst-Bloor as “a diverse, historic, and walkable hub of activity”, and emphasizing the fine grain, small-scale character of this gathering place at the heart of four neighbourhoods. In the second stage, council endorsed a series of principles relating to public realm, movement, heritage, land use, and built form. The focus of this third stage is to develop policy direction for each of those five categories, which will ultimately become an Official Plan amendment.

The draft policies under consideration include coordinating unified streetscaping, acquiring new park land, improved pedestrian crossings and new mid-block connections, sufficient stepbacks for new developments on the main street buildings, no residential uses allowed on ground floors, as well as the encouragement of cultural and office uses.

Some Markham Street specific policies include the preservation of the volume of house-form buildings (including historic roof forms), discouraging cantilevering or balcony projection above buildings, and reinforcing the house-form scale and character south of Bloor Street to maintain the street’s special character and sense of place.

The draft policies for built form, particularly on the main streets, directs that base buildings should ensure a minimum of five hours of continuous sunlight over midday from spring to fall, that taller buildings should minimize the duration of shadowing on public streets, and that taller elements should be designed to be consistent with the smaller scaled, fine-grained built context of Bloor and Bathurst streets.

These draft policies are based on a series of principles that “emerged from a year of meetings”, explained Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina), “and will guide any changes at these four corners”.

“We can all be involved in how our city grows, really how our neighbourhood grows,” added Mike Layton (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina).

Cressy stressed that the 4 Corners study doesn’t just reflect the importance of the intersection — “anything that changes at this corner will change the neighbourhood” — but is aimed at ensuring “we are not just adding density, but creating a livable neighbourhood”.

Despite the focus on the 4 Corners study, many in the audience kept returning to the Westbank proposal, raising concerns about the potential increased traffic such a development would bring, the impact construction would have on the surrounding area, and whether the city’s physical infrastructure would still function with the added pressure of the increased density.

But many of these questions went unanswered, as the meeting was not about the proposed development, which would — planning officials at the meeting reminded the audience — be the subject of many future community consultations.

The comment period for the draft policies ends Jan. 15, after which the planning department will finalize the Official Plan amendment and present its report to community council, followed by a public community council meeting. City council will then render its decision on the proposed amendment, and third parties will have a period of time to appeal any decision to the Ontario Municipal Board, after which the amendment will be in effect.

To follow the study, please visit www.toronto.ca/planning/bathurst.htm.

An arbitrator has sided with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) ruling that the rent the mental health hospital and research facility pays to the landlord of its College Street location be based on its value as an institution.

Its landlord, Brookfield Asset Management, had notified CAMH during a lease renewal process that it had valued the land at $100 million based on the highest possible use, and would increase the institution’s rent considerably. However, the arbitrator, Ken Stroud, pegged the institutional value at $55 million.

Much was at stake in the arbitration. CAMH would not have been able to afford such a significant increase in rent, threatening the institution’s ability to deliver critical medical care. Its College Street location is home to the province’s only 24-hour mental health emergency department, which treated 9,000 people last year, up from 3,500 just five years ago.

Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina), who organized a petition to support CAMH, suggested the City of Toronto would not support any application to change the site’s zoning, and accused Brookfield of acting in bad faith. Several neighbouring residents’ associations — including the Grange Community, Huron-Sussex, and Harbord Village — also actively opposed the facility’s potential displacement due to a crippling rent increase.

—Corrina King and Brian Burchell/Gleaner News

Celebrate the life and times of Anne Mirvish at the Anne Mirvish Gala at University College at the University of Toronto on Jan. 24. The gala is a fundraiser for the Anne Mirvish Performing Arts Scholarships, which support students who are studying the performing arts at the University of Toronto.

Organized by two of Mirvish’s closest friends, Professor Pia Kleber, who ran the drama program at U of T for many decades, and artist and scenic designer Astrid Janson, the gala will highlight her eclectic style through an exhibit of 100 outfits accompanied by archival photos, film, and music. U of T drama students past — including Maev Beaty, Yanna McIntosh, and Lisa Ryder — and present will model the clothes, and all garments and accessories will be available for sale by live and silent auctions.

Mirvish, who died at the age of 94 in 2013, was, along with her husband “Honest” Ed Mirvish, a much-loved Torontonian who left a lasting impact on the greater Annex neighbourhood. An artist herself, she was the driving force behind the creation of Mirvish Village, a haven for artists and small business owners inspired by a similar block on Gerard Street East.

To learn more about the gala, buy tickets, or get a sneak peak of the outfits on parade, please visit annemirvishgala.weebly.com.­­

—Annemarie Brissenden/Gleaner News

Preparations underway to settle Syrian refugees

Chrystia Freeland (MP, University-Rosedale) addresses a packed town hall on refugees at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre on Dec. 23. Many local groups are privately sponsoring Syrian refugees, who are expected to start settling in the Annex in the coming months. Courtesy Benjamin Bergen

By Summer Reid and Annemarie Brissenden

As waves of Syrian refugees continue to arrive at Toronto Pearson International Airport to great fanfare, grassroots organizations from the Annex are anxiously waiting to welcome the families they have sponsored as they continue to raise money and prepare for the new arrivals.

“The enthusiasm and the contributions have been pretty overwhelming,” said Emily Gilbert, a member of Palmerston Welcomes Refugees (PWR), a group of neighbours who united to sponsor a Syrian family.

The Palmerston neighbours have already exceeded their goal to sponsor one family and are well on their way to raising enough money to sponsor a second from Syria.

Students at Palmerston Avenue Junior Public School were part of the team and made cards, collected coins, and hosted bake and T-shirt sales, all to raise money for the cause.

Over $75,500 of their initial goal of $92,800 has been raised, reported fellow group member Monica Gupta, and PWR expects the first family to arrive some time in the coming weeks.

Another local group, the Major Street Refugee Initiative, is close to reaching its goal of $50,000, and will host additional fundraising events this month to close the gap.

The preparations aren’t solely limited to fundraising, however.

LoveArabic, an organization based out of the Centre for Social Innovation’s Bathurst Street location, has come up with a novel idea to help ease the communication barrier between Canadian and Syrian families: a video blog to be launched in February that will teach followers Arabic phrases in the Syrian dialect.

“Rania and I discussed the idea together and we knew it would be something we could do well,” explained LoveArabic’s Waleed Nassar, who co-founded the organization with his wife Rania Zaki.

The couple and their two children moved to Canada from Egypt in 2012, and Zaki — a teacher in the Toronto District School Board — has organized Arabic language and culture classes since 2014.

Nassar added that “it would also be a way to thank all of the Canadian families who are involved in privately sponsoring refugee families.”

Private sponsorship is uniquely Canadian.

“We are the only country in the world that has private sponsorship,” said Alexandra Kotyk, project manager for Lifeline Syria, at a December town hall on refugees organized by Chrystia Freeland (MP, University-Rosedale). The program dates to 1979, when Canadians privately sponsored 35,000 refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. “This is the best thing that private Canadians can do again.”

The town hall was an opportunity for community groups to share resources, get guidance from settlement experts like Kotyk and Huda Bukhari, the executive director of the Arab Community Centre of Toronto, and hear from Mohammed Aboura, who recently arrived from Syria courtesy of private sponsorship.

“It’s not easy to start your life over from scratch,” related Aboura, who loves poutine, sings “Oh Canada” in English and French, and canvassed for Freeland during the last election.

Some of the biggest challenges facing refugees include finding housing for large families, resuming one’s education without transcripts and similar records, recovering from trauma, and finding the appropriate medical care.

It’s also important, agreed Kotyk, Bukhari, and Aboura, to give families the space to make their own decisions.

Bukhari explained that “sponsorship expectations are not always the same as expectations from families themselves. Sometimes sponsors get offended if families give away donated furniture to buy their very own, for example.”

It is all part of the natural process of moving on, stressed Kotyk, urging sponsors to reach out to organizations like hers if there are settlement issues.

“Syrians are a very proud people,” noted Aboura. “We thank you for your help, but want to get back on our feet as soon as possible.”

Some sponsors spoke about at-risk refugees from other countries, particularly Iraq, whose applications haven’t yet been processed, and asked whether the delay is because they are “Iraqi, not Syrian”.

The Syrian settlement program is “not intended to give the impression that it’s causing delay for other streams,” responded Arif Virani (MP, Parkdale-High Park), Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration.

He added that Syrian refugees are being settled in Canada in addition to those streams that were already, and continue to be, in process, undertaking to review the files of those who were at the meeting.

It was a reminder that Syrians are not the only group of people who need support.

“There are issues that we need to address at home,” said PWR’s Gilbert. “It would be great to see some of this enthusiasm around the issues to do with First Nations, for example.”

The newly minted Minister of Finance, Bill Morneau, wasted no time in announcing rules further restricting the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) ability to “backstop” loans to homebuyers. Effective Feb. 15, 2016, purchasers of homes whose purchase price exceeds $500,000 will be required to put at least 10 per cent down, which is up 5 per cent from what it was under the previous Conservative government. This is the federal government’s latest attempt to dampen a housing market that is widely seen as vulnerable to a radical readjustment, especially in the event of an increase in interest rates.

The initiative pays lip service to the problem of a grossly inflated real estate market that some believe the previous government had a big hand in creating. The new 10 per cent down payment requirement is misleading as it applies only to that portion of the purchase price over $500,000. For example, when purchasing a $700,000 property, the buyer must put down 5 per cent on the first $500,000 of the price and 10 per cent on the remainder — effectively only 6.4 per cent overall.

The CMHC is a federal government vehicle that allows homebuyers to enter the residential real estate market by guaranteeing that the banks will be paid in the event that a loan defaults. Initiated in the 1940s, it accommodated a post-war housing boom, and many of the homes built with CMHC-backed mortgages still stand today.

It can be observed now, however, that CMHC policies, taken together with historically low interest rates, have not only failed to regulate the real estate market effectively, but served to overstimulate home prices, making home ownership in Toronto inaccessible to most, a situation entirely contrary to the agency’s raison d’être.

In 2006, the then newly-elected government of Stephen Harper introduced, through the CMHC, the now infamous mortgage instrument consisting of zero down and 40-year amortization. This created a market imbalance wherein the buyer pool was radically expanded. It also had a more pernicious impact that will be harder to counter: it created a culture of debt. Indeed, CMHC policies removed the fear of debt and created a market where neither buyers nor banks (because the government guarantees the debt) have much skin in the game. This policy was unfair and remains so to those who have real cash in hand, so a buyer with a 20 per cent or more down payment pays the same mortgage rate as a buyer with a 5 per cent down payment. Perhaps paradoxically, the person with the larger down payment will require an on-site physical appraisal of the property, whereas one with a CMHC-insured mortgage typically does not.

In last month’s Focus on Homes section the average price for a house in the Annex was a little over $2 million. Out of 13 properties, only two were priced at less than $1 million. If you own one of these insanely priced Toronto homes, you have access to an incredible amount of cash in the form of home equity loans. According to the Accredited Association of Mortgage Professionals, 2.15 million people have home equity lines of credit. Borrowing against home equity can be done at a much lower rate than using a credit card, but it basically converts your principal residence into an ATM. One’s ability to service this debt, and the underlying mortgage, would be severely hampered by an increase in interest rates and so the problem of increased and disproportionate valuation is made manifestly worse with home equity loans.

Morneau’s intervention follows others that the previous government instituted in recent years. According to the Toronto Real Estate Board, house sales in the 416 area increased by 8.8 per cent in 2015, while inflation was at 1 per cent over the same period. The real estate market is becoming increasingly surreal while the economy struggles.

Morneau describes his approach as nuanced, but we would call it paltry, and perhaps an admission that there is no gentle way to get this under control. The ship is headed for the rocks, and a more radical course change is required.

Harris Huron alum

Red House, Winter by Lawren Harris. Courtesy Hart House

Re: Red House, Winter by Lawren Harris (December 2015 Cover)

Thanks Gleaner for that lovely Lawren Harris cover. In addition to the local ties and contributions mentioned in the article, Harris was also an alumnus of local Huron Street Public School.

Happy New Year,

—Simon Wright

Sales Representative

Wright Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage

Filming Harris in the Annex

Re: Red House, Winter by Lawren Harris (December 2015 Cover)

We filmed last Wednesday at the University of Toronto, and I saw your Gleaner outside the Arbor Room. The cover of your issue looks absolutely beautiful!!

You have hooked into a local story, as Harris lived on St. George Street, went to Huron Street Public School and St. Andrew’s College (when it was in a house in Rosedale), and attended U of T, though only for one term — his math professor noticed the drawings in Harris’s notebooks and suggested that he leave to attend art school (that math prof deserves a posthumous Order of Canada for changing the course of Canadian art).

How Harris’s paintings have come to define our sense of place and time…the winter season. So very fine choice!!

One note: Lawren S. Harris didn’t teach at Central Technical School. I believe his son, Lawren P. Harris, attended Central Technical School and taught at Northern Secondary School. He may have taught at Central Tech as well, but I am not sure.

—Nancy Lang

White Pine Pictures

Editors’ Note: Anecdotal evidence suggests that Harris pater taught in Tech’s art department, but we are prepared to be wrong. Please email us at gleanereditor@gmail.com if you can help us solve this or any other local conundrum.

Meeting the prohibitive cost of child care first-hand

Mike Layton and wife Brett Tryon with their new baby Phoebe Layton, whose arrival has made the councillor more committed than ever to making the city affordable for families. Courtesy Hugh Campbell

By Mike Layton

It’s 5 a.m., it’s dark, and I just changed my baby’s diaper. Why won’t she go back to sleep? Is she hungry? She’s been fed. Maybe gassy? She’s been burped. What do I do now?

Phoebe just celebrated her one-month birthday and our lives have already completely changed.

We changed our home. We moved out my wife’s art studio to accommodate the nursery. We changed our eating habits. There are no more complex meals cooked late at night after evening public meetings. Simply leaving the house has become an elaborate affair.

One of the most significant changes for me has been my perspective on how the City of Toronto (and other levels of government) provides (or doesn’t provide) services that support families. I was always sympathetic to the needs of parents, but I am now beginning to have first-hand experience in the matter.

Health care, child care, recreation programming, and accessibility are just a few that I’ve been confronted with recently. More than ever I am thankful to live in a country with universal health care. The cost of a birth alone would have buried my family in debt. I’m sure pediatrician costs would have been equally as financially devastating.

Fortunately, my wife is able to take parental leave for 12 months (sadly the life of an elected official is not as accommodating for new parents), but after that we will be hit with a new monthly expense, almost as large as our monthly mortgage payments: child care.

In 2014 David Macdonald and Martha Friendly wrote a telling report for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives called The Parent Trap: Child Care Fees in Canada’s Big Cities.

Infant care provided by the city costs $107 a day (and it’s going up in the 2016 budget), which at $2,140 a month amounts to over $25,000 a year. In Quebec, it’s just over $7 a day, or $150 per month and $1,800 per year. That means we pay $23,000 more a year in Toronto for infant care than they do in Montreal or Quebec City.

The city does provide around 25,000 subsidized spaces but there are also over 17,000 children on the waiting list for the subsidy. Once subsidies and other forms of care are accounted for, the average infant care cost in Toronto amounts to $1,676 per month — still an incredible amount compared to Quebec’s $150 per month, or even Winnipeg’s $651 per month.

Both the Harper and the Trudeau governments are committed to the Universal Child Care Benefit rather than helping to provide affordable child care. Their $160 monthly cheque covers about 1.5 days of monthly child care costs. That’s merely a drop in the bucket that does little to help families pay for child care.

My family is fortunate enough that with changes to our spending and our mortgage we can make the cost of child care work. It will be tight, but we can make it work. But what do other families do? What if we had two kids in child care? What about single parents? What about those still paying off their student loans?

As kids get older, while some things get easier and less expensive, other things get harder. My nieces will miss swimming classes at the community centre this season because my sister couldn’t get online fast enough to register them — the classes seemed to fill up in minutes. There just aren’t enough spaces offered.

Pushing a stroller through uncleared snow and around improperly placed recycling bins reminds me of a slalom course. We’re often forced onto the street to find a clear path. We don’t own a car, so subway accessibility is key but Christie station doesn’t have elevators yet.

While kids now travel for free on the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), too many stations and streetcars are inaccessible. Rather than increase property taxes more our last and current mayors are turning to user fee increases. Child care, TTC fares, swimming lessons, dance classes, sports field rates, and much more will go up for families in 2016.

We can make life more affordable in Toronto for everyone if we commit to increasing property tax rates just a bit more: at approximately $1,000 per year lower than the average, ours are the lowest in the region.

Each 1 per cent property tax rate increase is about $27 a year for the average household but brings in over $26 million in revenue to the city. Using taxes helps us to share the costs of public services like child care and transit, but sadly our mayor isn’t willing to go this route and is turning to user fees and transit fare increases — so individuals will continue to pay much more or services will be cut.

Throughout January we will be debating the 2016 city budget and I plan to make affordability and accessibility for families a huge part of the conversation. This is something we need to make an issue of at all levels of government, so that by the time Phoebe’s generation has children, we have made life better for her family and everyone else’s.

Read the Centre for Policy Alternatives’ paper on child care at www.policyalternatives.ca under the section on publications by the National Office.

Mike Layton is the city councillor for Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina.

Bloor St. Culture Corridor participates in strategy consultations

The Royal Conservatory of Music’s executive director of the performing arts, Mervon Mehta, supports the Ontario government’s open approach to developing a cultural strategy for the province. Courtesy of the Royal Conservatory of Music

By Heather Kelly

The diverse arts organizations that make up the Bloor St. Culture Corridor are playing an active role in setting the province’s cultural priorities by participating in a series of town halls and online forums, and by responding to requests for comment. The consultation process was driven by the Ontario government, which is developing its first-ever culture strategy, a set of principles that will guide the province’s future arts investments.

“The culture industry is such a critical part of the riding,” said Han Dong (MPP, Trinity-Spadina). “I want to ensure we have our say in the creation of the culture strategy, and that everyone has a chance to give input.”

The 19 arts and cultural organizations from Bay to Bathurst streets that make up the Bloor St. Culture Corridor educate, inspire, and entertain more than three million people annually, generating approximately $630 million for the area each year.

It’s a trend that is borne out across the city: 70 per cent of Torontonians regularly attend, volunteer, or donate to the arts. Four times more tourists come to Toronto for culture than for sports, and overnight culture tourists outspend other visitors by two to one. Arts and culture contribute more than $11 billion to Toronto’s gross domestic product each year.

“People often don’t realize the huge role that the culture sector has,” said Dong. “It is an important part of downtown living. The Annex is a good example — walk along Bloor Street and there is so much flavour there.”

A collaborative partnership formed in 2014 to highlight the cluster of arts and culture destinations on Bloor Street West and promote their events year round, the wide range of Bloor St. Culture Corridor organizations — which include the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, and the Gardiner Museum, among others — represent nearly all of the priorities defined in the culture strategy discussion paper.

At the heart of that strategy is an understanding, as stated in the Ontario Culture Strategy discussion paper, that “culture shapes and profoundly enriches our lives and communities. Engagement in cultural activities strengthens empathy, cross-cultural understanding, and sense of community.”

Or, as Dong put it, “You cannot have a harmonious and productive society without culture as a fundamental aspect.”

The proposed guiding principles include creativity and innovation; quality of life and economic development; diversity and inclusiveness; respect for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples; public value and accountability; informing investment in the arts and cultural industries, libraries, museums, cultural heritage, arts and music education, cultural diversity, digital content, youth engagement; and, fostering a sustainable culture sector.

Members of the Bloor St. Culture Corridor said they participated in the consultations to show support for the process, network with the province’s other culture producers, and remind the province of the contributions their organizations make to Ontario’s arts industry.

Mervon Mehta, The Royal Conservatory of Music’s executive director of performing arts, went to a town hall “to show support for the open and inclusive process, to make sure that support for music education was on the agenda, to ensure our voices were represented, and to support the sector”.

“I was particularly interested in discovering what fresh ideas colleagues across all the arts are discussing,” said Tim Crouch, marketing manager at Tafelmusik, who added he also hoped for a better dialogue with the provincial government.

Finally, the executive director of Alliance Française de Toronto, Thierry Lasserre, said, “It is always important to be part of public meetings to inform, get informed, and meet colleagues and officials.”

The Ontario government will release its report based on the public consultations some time this year. In 2014-15, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, which oversees the province’s arts and culture investment, spent approximately $800 million on culture.

“The arts engage our senses, inspire our imaginations, and challenge our minds,” states the discussion paper on cultural strategy. “They animate our communities and help make Ontario the place we want to live.”

For further information on the Bloor St. Cultural Corridor and Ontario’s cultural strategy, please see www.bloorstculturecorridor.com and www.ontario.ca/page/ontarios-culture-strategy respectively.

Heather Kelly is the Founder/Director of the Bloor St. Culture Corridor, the Director of Marketing, Performing Arts at The Royal Conservatory of Music, and CEO of HKC Marketing.

An environmental case for less meat on the table

In Australia, labelling for egg cartons must state if the eggs come from caged hens. Photo by Terri Chu

By Terri Chu

With the holidays behind us and some of us going vegetarian until we recover from the gluttony, it is a good time to reflect on the environmental and social impact of the meat on our table.

As the environmental atrocities related to our food chain become better known, there are organizations working in ad hoc ways to educate people on those offences. California has popularized “meatless Mondays” in an attempt to reduce (way too high) meat consumption, as it is far more environmentally damaging to feed the world on meat than on vegetables (or insects). Would it be too much to ask to see both levels of government confront big agriculture?

In the 1990s, the Chrétien Liberals boldly took on big tobacco, requiring that companies include grotesque images on cigarette packages. History would prove this to be an enterprising move and countries around the world have since adopted a similar approach in an effort to curb smoking. This was when Canada took decisive actions beyond smiling words. Canada became a world leader and can do so again. Given the amount of information we already have about animal cruelty in commercial meat farming, I think poignant reminders will go a long way toward curbing our consumption of animal products.

If we brought food labelling in line with cigarette labelling, meat consumption (and the carbon emissions that go with it) would likely plummet. Imagine your next pack of bacon with an image of pigs in cages and the text “This pig was raised in cages that produce xx amount of carbon per pound”. Since some dieticians believe Canadians eat about three times more meat than the average daily recommendation, this could also have a good side effect for the public health care bill.

A friend and I were grocery shopping in Tasmania. She took a look at the cheap eggs on offer, spotted the word “caged” and said “that’s why they’re so cheap”, and moved on past them.

Caged eggs in Australia must be labelled as such (not just without the words “organic” or “free range” or “natural”…whatever that means).

Egg producers are aggressively advertising lately and a friend pointed out the conspicuous lack of hens in the photos. Why aren’t there pictures of hens? It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that they are mostly in battery cages in conditions we would rather be blind towards. A disclaimer stating “These eggs were laid by hens in battery cages” on the packaging could do a lot for how we treat our cheap food.

Labels paralleling cigarette packaging would certainly be a salient reminder of the cost of cheap food. There would still also be a market for cheap food, but my hope is that it would shift demand towards small, more humane farmers who let their pigs roam free.

Please don’t mistake me for a hog-hugging, vegan hippie. I believe meat substitutes are often more environmentally (and health) harming than eating meat in some cases, as substitutes that resemble animal products are often made from petrochemicals. I have yet to see a good environmental (let alone health) case for them.

As we learned with cigarettes, consumer information is half the battle. When the consumers are informed, they make different decisions than when they aren’t. The federal and provincial Liberals really do have an opportunity to work together and stand up to big agriculture and help Canadians make more informed food and environmental choices. Meeting our Paris Agreement obligations means more than just going after big polluters; Canadians also need to know the impact of their shopping decisions if they are to contribute meaningfully.

Terri Chu is an engineer committed to practical environmentalism. This column is dedicated to helping the community reduce energy, and to help distinguish environmental truths from myths. Send questions, comments, and ideas for future columns to terri.chu@ whyshouldIcare.ca.