Item - 2020.EC14.6

The Economic and Community Development Committee recommends that:

1.  City Council request the City Manager to evaluate the construction, maintenance, and operational impacts of the proposed above-ground Ontario Line on Jimmie Simpson Recreation Centre and Artificial Ice Rink and develop a strategic plan to determine how best to mitigate the impacts on these facilities and on the level and quality of City services currently delivered by the City of Toronto to residents using these facilities.

In April 2019, the Government of Ontario announced plans to build the Ontario Line and in August enacted Regulation 248/19. This resulted in the Relief Line South as well as all other TTC transit expansion projects being taken over by the Ontario government and Metrolinx. The Initial Business Case for the Ontario Line proposes the line to run above ground in the current heavy rail GO corridor from the Don River to Gerrard Street – approximately a 2 kilometre stretch – which includes parks, green space and the Jimmie Simpson Community Centre.

On October 29, 2019, Toronto City Council passed motions directed to Metrolinx regarding safety concerns and community impacts of the Ontario Line, including the protection of parks, local services and community centres.

And on January 29, 2020, City Council called for the Province and Metrolinx to undertake a full, formal Transit Project Assessment Process that would consider alternative technology, station locations and alignment, including putting the Gerrard to Don River section underground.

Sadly at their Community Advisory Committee meeting of May 13, 2020, Metrolinx said they are not considering burying the section of the Ontario Line from East Harbour to Gerrard as requested by the community and the City of Toronto, but are only looking at an above ground line in the current heavy rail railway corridor. That railway corridor directly abuts Jimmie Simpson Community Centre and 7 parks.

An above ground line will run perilously close to the Jimmie Simpson Community Centre which serves as a community hub for recreation programming with a variety of programs for everyone from preschool to older adults. The back wall of the recreation centre is right on the edge of the rail corridor. Residents in Riverside and Leslieville are deeply concerned.

While the City and the neighbourhood will continue to press Metrolinx to bury this 2 kilometre section of the Ontario Line the City has to also start contingency planning to protect/move/rebuild the Community Centre in the event that Metrolinx forges ahead.