From Councillor Fletchers Facebook page

Pape/Danforth Construction
After hearing from a number of residents on Wednesday morning about the large amount of particulate that was seen on Eaton Ave, Langford Ave and elsewhere in the neighbourhood I reached out to the City of Toronto and Metrolinx. City Staff were also onsite on Wednesday and Thursday to observe the site in person and I also went to see the site myself.
On Wednesday morning the City requested Metrolinx to have their contractor stop work on the Pape & Danforth site until an investigation could be completed and proper mitigation measures could be taken.
Despite the City's request, the contractor continued working on the site yesterday and today.
On Thursday afternoon we were still waiting for the requested information and I asked the City to review the situation to see what additional measures the City could take.
Late this afternoon the City informed Metrolinx that we will be revoking the Road Occupancy Permits for the construction around Pape & Danforth.
Metrolinx has the Provincial authority which would allow their contractor to continue work without City permits. However, I hope this sends a clear message to them that they need to take this issue seriously.
This is not a step that the City takes lightly but was this was a decision that was made based on the seriousness of the issue.
The City has asked for an investigation into what the material was, how the incident happened, and what will be done to prevent a reoccurrence.
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leopetr said:
It definitely felt like Tatooine at Pape/Danforth last week. Seems a little better today
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I know Fletcher isn’t the most popular councillor in the forums but isn’t it not-exactly-trivial news when you have the City issuing stop-work orders to Metrolinx and banning them from getting heavy vehicles on their site via nearby roads?

Not having much knowledge about this stuff I’m genuinely curious as to the potential fallout (pun intended).

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I know on one level it’s a shot across the bow for negotiations on the particulate air pollution. But would the City make itself look stupid by issuing orders they can’t enforce?

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Just seems like something that shouldn’t be taken for granted.
leopetr said:
It definitely felt like Tatooine at Pape/Danforth last week. Seems a little better today
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www.thestar.com

Metrolinx agrees to reduce Ontario Line construction after east-end neighbourhood covered in dust

While Metrolinx has not admitted fault for the incident, the city was clear in a statement to the Star Friday the "significant amount" of dust was "construction-related."
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

Mx seems to have relented, and is modifying its practices in the Pape/Danforth area.

As to the City's ability to enforce on Mx....people just lack courage............Mx can't be penalized for working without a permit, but the City controls the watermains and can shut down the water supply to all Mx construction sites, it can cut off de-watering access to the sewers and it can send in Hydro to cut the power.

Those measures vary from arguably within the City''s scope of authority to questionable legality............but ya know.....a delay while Mx goes to court to get an injunction.........then the City being shocked that all the staff who could possible turn things back on are all on vacation the same week..........could happen.

Before someone says I'm being fanciful (which I am a bit)......... I love my example of the former Mayor of Chicago who closed his version of the Island Airport by having City workers tear up the runway in the middle of the night, without notifying the FAA or obtaining required Federal permissions.

He won, the airport closed.

Sometimes, a little bit of courage goes a long way.
 
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Thanks! I’m a daily Star reader but missed this one.

A City Hall with bigger bolls — haven’t we all wished for that, more than once?

I guess Thermé will be a hydro and possibly gas customer. I imagine they’ll draw and treat their own water, but their sewage will have to go somewhere. Then there’s legacy Ontario Place, where we keep getting told nothing happens without landowner Toronto and watershed regulator TRCA approval. But that’s a site where the province might happily do nothing, and so far there’s no sign of enough local money to rehab the building.

We’ve had some smart, determined mayors with strong council backing. But I can’t think of any who played dirty. Deal, wheel, deal some more, and when that doesn’t work resort to public shaming — that seems to be the playbook, varied only by personal style.

It does send a signal when the premier slashes your council in half in mid-election campaign and the courts (narrowly) give him thumbs up. To your point, though, back then I wanted Toronto to ignore Ford and his law, proceed as planned, and in effect dare him to send in the OPP and halt voting, destroy cast ballots, jail the mayor and impose a trusteeship, just like a tinpot dictator.

Back to Metrolinx: This surely isn't the end of the friction. As documented extensively here, the land around Pape Station is a mess of private & public ownership. It’s the worst of both worlds: Metrolinx expropriated and razed most of the block but left just enough standing, in private hands big and small, to be vexing. Why they spared the medical building on Pape just north of the TTC station, and the two small properties at Pape and Lipton, is a mystery. Why Del Boca Vista’s 49-storey tower application still shows the former 60-space Green P surface parking as an offsetting park amenity, another mystery. How that tower’s foundation might be sunk until the immediately adjacent Metrolinx station is finished in 6 years or so, mystery #3. And #4, how to avoid repeating the technical and legal snarls at the Eglinton Crosstown-TTC interface, when passing one line under another requires respecting tolerances measured in millimetres.

Big projects throw up big problems all by themselves. No point creating your own on the front end.
 
Northern Light said:
Sometimes, a little bit of courage goes a long way.
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While at the outset, Mayor Chow and Premier Ford took pains to mend fences and declare that they would work together - and have done so to this point - my read of the lay of the land is that Ford and Ontario remain willing to play brinksmanship and push the envelope on that entente. That leads to the reality that at some point one has to stand up to a bully who is taking advantage, and Chow must be acutely aware that this will happen eventually.

Is this the issue for Chow and Toronto to draw a line? Perhaps not, I'm not politically astute enough to comment on that, but seems to me that will happen when the time is right.

As to the particulate issue, one would likely go back to the EA and review what it assessed as to construction impacts. And whether this one was noted, or should have been noted, or is outside of the standards applied in the EA or to construction generally. Definitely room for a stop work order and actions in support of that, successful or otherwise.

- Paul
 
Back on the Metrolinx expropriations file: 710 Danforth was the address of the Eton Tavern, pulverized to make way for slurry silos and mixing tanks. Seems the owners haven’t reached a settlement with Metrolinx yet and have asked the OLT for “simplified mediation” — a service the tribunal offers.

I’d heard Metrolinx was lowballing these businesses. The Acropol, next door to the Eton, wasn’t happy and hasn’t found a new location to its liking. So we’ve lost those wonderful spanakopitas — the ones the Maple Leaf cab drivers used to say were better than anything in Athens …. On the other hand, usually reliable sources say Mx was generous with upstairs tenants. This of course is less expensive and less complicated than putting a wrap on the business expropriations.

The 710 Danforth request is at the Intake stage. No docs or dates posted, and as it’s private mediation I’m not sure there’ll ever be.
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Floribunda said:
Back on the Metrolinx expropriations file: 710 Danforth was the address of the Eton Tavern, pulverized to make way for slurry silos and mixing tanks. Seems the owners haven’t reached a settlement with Metrolinx yet and have asked the OLT for “simplified mediation” — a service the tribunal offers.

I’d heard Metrolinx was lowballing these businesses. The Acropol, next door to the Eton, wasn’t happy and hasn’t found a new location to its liking. So we’ve lost those wonderful spanakopitas — the ones the Maple Leaf cab drivers used to say were better than anything in Athens …. On the other hand, usually reliable sources say Mx was generous with upstairs tenants. This of course is less expensive and less complicated than putting a wrap on the business expropriations.

The 710 Danforth request is at the Intake stage. No docs or dates posted, and as it’s private mediation I’m not sure there’ll ever be.View attachment 598350
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Metrolinx has been offering "fair market value" of $0 to many businesses along Ontario Line sites. I dont know what's going on in this particular case, but make no mistake that Metrolinx has been expropriating and "offering" $0 to many businesses.
 
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show the reciepts then lol. no shot someones getting offered $0. that makes no sense.

I think back to that article on those Leslieville homes being expropriated, they didn't bring receipts and they didnt go to the OLT,.2 things which would show youre actually serious rather than just complaining for the sake of complaining
 
I was joking obviously, though I wouldn't put it past Metrolinx to rely on the fact that the local area will be a wasteland for 10 years to reduce their assessed fair market value. But I highly doubt they offered anyone no compensation.
 
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