Special Update

Waterfront

‘No Airport Expansion’ Will Preserve Our Waterfront

Many of you were among the thousands of Torontonians who stood up against jets and Doug Ford’s expansion plans for Toronto's Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.

This week, the federal government listened to our concerns and halted those plans. To celebrate, Mayor Chow and Deputy Mayor Malik have proposed a motion to make the ferry to the island free for all children and seniors this August. I hope you get the chance to visit.

I was pleased to speak at the celebration of the newly expanded Biidaasige Park.

Latest Biidaasige Park Expansion Anchors New Waterfront Community

This week, the new western section of Biidaasige Park was officially opened, featuring an expanded network of trails, gathering places, and a restored riverfront, which will ultimately provide over 40 hectares of waterfront parkland.

With the re-naturalized Don River now reconnected to the lake, and the new island Ookwemin Minising, gifted by a circle of Indigenous Elders and knowledge keepers, our spectacular revitalization of the Port Lands will continue with plans for new and affordable housing.

Protecting Renters

Renovictions Bylaw

Along with housing activists and advocates, I fought for this bylaw for many years, and it finally came into effect a year ago.

We can now protect tenants and existing affordable housing from unfair, profit-driven renovictions based on misleading information so landlords can increase rent.

The bylaw has proven effective, protecting tenants while allowing landlords to complete necessary repair work.

The Renovictions Bylaw came into effect in July 2025.

Strengthening RentSafeTO 

I'm so proud to have supported ACORN and other tenant groups to ensure that City Council made improvements to the RentSafeTO program.

This includes the addition of new colour-coded signage in June 2026, which showcases each building's RentSafeTO score. Other improvements include decreasing the threshold for remedial action, which allows the city to complete repairs and put the charges on the property owner's property taxes, and adding more bylaw officers. 

Supporting Tenants at 100 Cosburn

I brought together tenants of 100 Cosburn, city staff and property managers to address potential evictions and financial hardship resulting from a retroactively approved Above Guideline Rent Increase (AGI).

Retroactive amounts owed by many tenants were removed, which erased significant financial burdens for those impacted and prevented the potential eviction of many in the complex. 

Building Affordable Housing

Breaking Ground at 1111-1117 Danforth

108 Affordable units and a new theatre at 1111-1117 Danforth are on the way!

This morning, I was proud to break ground with Mayor Chow at this site. The building will have over 100 affordable units and be the new home of Le Théâtre français de Toronto, the preeminent French language theatre in Toronto.

This morning’s groundbreaking represents the culmination of many years of hard work to bring together project partners and secure city funding. 

Ookwemin Minising Island

As part of the Port Lands redevelopment and future housing, I successfully pushed for an increased target of 30 percent affordable housing on the island, to ensure it's a place where everyone can live and feel welcome.

Don Summerville: A New Way of Building Affordable Housing 

The Don Summerville affordable housing project, part of the revitalization of the Toronto Community Housing site at Queen and Coxwell, has been completed and our new neighbours have moved in.

In 2018, I pushed for the original plans to make this a planned mixed-income revitalization. The site now includes an additional 280 affordable and market rental units above the initial plan, including 32 units that will be operated as a rent-geared-to-income co-op for artists.

With Mayor Chow & other project partners at the "topping off" event for the Don Summerville project in June 2024.

Riverdale Co-op

I worked hard to secure approvals and funding for the newly redeveloped Riverdale Co-op, including a $5 million contribution through the community benefits agreement for Riverside Square.

Traffic Safety in our Community & Standing up to Metrolinx

Protecting the Pape School Community

Trustee Sara Ehrhardt, MPP Tabuns and I have been working tirelessly to advocate for the Pape School Community as construction began right outside of their playground fence.

We asked for minimized hours and a higher fence to protect students. They were forced to relocate to Jones School, where we worked together to ensure that the city created a safe school bus zone on Jones.

Public School Trustee Sara Ehrhardt and I meeting with residents at Pape School.

Truck Safety Plan

After a pedestrian was tragically struck at Pape and Mortimer by an Ontario Line truck, I moved a motion which forced Metrolinx to make several improvements to how they were operating their heavy trucks in our community.

Thanks to over 1,200 residents who signed my petition to support these measures and to Trustee Sara Ehrhardt, who has worked tirelessly with the local schools to help force Metrolinx to develop a truck safety plan.

Station Naming 

Following feedback from the community and BIAs, I moved motions to request that Metrolinx name Cosburn Station as ‘East York’ Station and Riverside Station as ‘Leslieville/Riverside’ Station. Honouring the history and integrity of each community will be important for this new transit line.

Truck Side Guards  

The city now requires side guards on all commercial trucks contracted by the city by 2027. These are in place to protect pedestrians and cyclists. The city has also retrofitted its fleet to help protect cyclists in the event of a collision.  

Improving Our Parks

New Pickleball Courts 

Dedicated pickleball courts have now opened at the Main Sewage Treatment Playground at Eastern and Emdaabiimok.

This is one of the city’s largest dedicated pickleball facilities.

Celebrating 11 new purpose-built pickleball courts at Emdaabiimok and Eastern with Mayor Chow & local pickleball players.

We also renamed it as the Ashbridge’s Bay Sports Hub so that it better reflects the amenities for players across the city.

Commemorating & Celebrating

RH McGregor Pride Crosswalk 

A new Pride-themed crosswalk has become a reality with my motion this week at City Hall to recognize and support the LGBTQ+ community permanently.

This comes after a Pride flag attached by students to the school fence was deliberately destroyed by fire. Thanks to the RH McGregor community who reached out to me to support a rainbow crosswalk.

Our community will always stand up against hate and intolerance of any kind, and will always ensure that everyone is welcome.

Dundas and Jones Murals

For years, I witnessed and heard about persistent graffiti issues on the garages on Dundas between Pape and Jones.

I championed this project with the city’s street art team to deliver vibrant murals to deter vandalism

Naming Laneways

We commemorated community icons and historical figures by naming laneways in our community after Luella Price, Captain Hawley, Valerie Mah, Sister Gwen Smith, Sunday Mews, Lippert Lane and Kit Hood Lane.

Celebrating the newly named Luella Price Lane last summer. It runs from Greenwood to Redwood, north of Gerrard.

Celebrating 50 Years of Small Business

I was pleased to work with neighbourhood BIAs in July to celebrate 20 businesses in Toronto-Danforth that have thrived for 50 years or more.

Many of them have been passed down through generations of family members, while others have carried on their establishment’s name and traditions, and all were recognized with scrolls.  

These are just a few of the things we’ve accomplished by working together this term, and there are so many more than I have space for here.

To every resident who has been in touch with my office and worked with us to help fix a local problem, whether it’s fixing a pothole, improving a park, or anything else, I want to say thank you for helping to make your community a better place.

At City Hall

This term at City Hall was eventful, with the first-ever mayoral by-election bringing Mayor Chow to office.  

Over the last four years, I served as Chair of the Infrastructure & Environment Committee, Deputy Speaker, and on the Executive Committee.

I also served on the Planning & Housing, Economic & Community Development, Audit Committee and Service Excellence committees, as well as on the Board of Toronto Community Housing, Toronto Music Advisory Committee, and as Chair of the Film, Television and Digital Media Board.  

During this term at City Hall, I worked on improving the way the city dealt with major snowstorms. This year we were put to the test, and the improvements we made helped ensure that we performed far better.

We’ll continue to make improvements and incorporate lessons learned into our planning for future years.  

Through my work on the Service Excellence Committee, I also focused on improving 311. That included finally integrating the parks and recreation division into the system and changes to how your requests are tracked so that you can get more information and updates on exactly what is happening.  

Finally, through my work on the Economic & Community Development Committee, we made a fundamental shift in how dangerous dogs are monitored and enforced. A new postal code-based map and proactive enforcement on all dangerous dogs were among some of the changes. The decrease in incidents is a promising trend which demonstrates progress on keeping people safe.  

I want to say a few thank you’s before I finish.  

First, thank you to my hardworking staff. They put in long hours, including on evenings and weekends attending community meetings and events, and always working to help and support residents.

They are the engine of my office, and I am grateful for their dedication to helping people.  

Thank you to Mayor Chow and many of my council colleagues for their support and dedication to this city.  

And finally, thank you, the residents of Ward 14 Toronto-Danforth, for all of your ideas, questions, advice, trust and support.

I look forward to continuing to hear from you throughout the summer and fall.  

Working for you,

Paula Fletcher
City Councillor
Ward 14 Toronto-Danforth

PS: You can view all of my previous updates here.