same community are faced with a sentiment that is at least superficially
similar. Doug Ford, now Premier of Ontario, is preparing to run a portion of
the new Ontario rapid transit line overground, along rail lines between
Eastern Avenue and Gerrard Street East in Leslieville.
“There is an irony,” said Leslieville resident Kate Hilton, standing
outside the Jimmy Simpson Recreation Centre on a frigid Friday afternoon,
“that this is a neighbourhood that is incredibly supportive of transit,
incredibly supportive of subways, of all the larger goals of getting
Toronto moving. It’s just that this particular stretch of the whole
project makes no sense, and is destructive.”
Just two days earlier, Hilton had helped lead a meeting across Queen Street
at the Ralph Thornton Community Centre, to lay the groundwork for a
Community Action Group to deal with the so-called 2K Corridor of the Ontario
Line. The group’s purpose is to unambiguously represent community interests
along that corridor, which could see significant local impacts from the new
line running between Ontario Place on the lakefront to the Ontario Science
Centre in Don Mills. Most of the route will see trains run underground — but
in Leslieville, the trains will run alongside GO trains on the GO corridor,
widening that corridor to six tracks from three. That’s in contrast to the
Toronto Transit Commission’s defunct plans for a downtown relief line that
would have not served as many communities but would have featured a tunnel
through Leslieville and underneath the Don River. Metrolinx spokesperson
Anne Marie Aikins noted that the decision to go above ground is a
cost-saving measure to allow for the longer route and would also make the
stations in Leslieville easier to access. Hilton argued that the six-track,
above-ground line has potential to make other things more difficult for the
community, raising safety and noise issues (the Ontario Line is expecting to
run trains every 90 seconds in each direction, which means a train will pass
through every 45 seconds or so). There's also the potential for large-scale
property expropriations along the line; and questions about what the future
will be for community assets such as the Jimmy Simpson Community Centre and
park, which abuts the GO right of way. And it is all complicated by the fact
that the GO right of way will also contain new tracks for Metrolinx’s
Regional Express Rail (RER) expansion which, once complete, will be running
more frequent trains there as well. So far, the only community forum for
raising concerns is a Metrolinx-operated Community Advisory Committee (CAC),
which was originally established to deal with the RER plan and has members
from along the entire route.
Darcie Garand is a member of the CAC, and is also working to establish the
new Community Action Group with Hilton. She said that the action group is
necessary — because the CAC, organized as it is through Metrolinx, is too
much a one-way street of information.
“The process by which the CAC runs is organized by Metrolinx,” she said.
“It’s almost a one-way means of communications from Metrolinx to the CAC
... They decide who is active at the meetings, when the meetings happen
and what’s on the meeting agenda. It’s not a true consultative process. It
only looks at the issues that Metrolinx wants to talk about.”
The 2K Corridor Community Action Group is aiming to shift that conversation.
The group’s initial meeting — which had between 100 and 130 people in
attendance — was attended by local political leaders Toronto-Danforth Coun.
Paula Fletcher and Toronto-Danforth MPP Peter Tabuns, who urged residents to
attend upcoming public open houses over the next few months and make their
voices heard. But Tabuns said it’s important to make it clear that
Leslieville doesn’t object to transit. “We have to constantly be clear to
people how much we know we need transit ... but that we oppose things that
do unnecessary damage,” he said. “This can be built underground.” Metrolinx
spokesperson Aikins, meanwhile, said that consultation will be continuing
and it is possible that the project could see modification as a result of
that consultation. “There is the potential that we could modify elements of
the plan based on what we hear from communities, pending further analysis
and review by our planning and design teams. We document feedback and any
actions we take as a result of that feedback in consultation summaries that
are part of finalized environmental assessment reports,” she said in an
emailed response.
STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Reporter David Nickle wanted to hear community
concerns about the above-ground Ontario Line plans, and how Leslieville
residents were planning to deal with them.
https://www.toronto.com/news-story/9814803-toronto-s-leslieville-residents-band-together-to-bury-the-ontario-line/
