Midtown Hygge Events: Bringing our Community Together to Support Mental Health & Well-being During These Challenging Times Hygge (hoo-gah) (n.) is a concept, originating in Denmark, of creating atmospheres that promote warmth, well-being and staying present. Now, more than ever, I believe it’s important to create Midtown’s Hygge online events to bring us together as [...]
At the last City Council meeting I supported sending City Legal and City Planning to oppose Rockport's 733 Mount Pleasant development application that was appealed to the provincial Local Planning Appeals Tribunal (LPAT). The City has carefully reviewed the proposal for a 27-storey tower on a site that was originally identified as a midrise site [...]
In December, my motion on activating a new community space for youth in our Oakwood-Vaughan neighbourhood passed unanimously at City Council. Since then, I've been working closely with our Social Development staff on finding a youth agency and new space in the community. While we continue to explore every avenue with City Staff and our [...]
City Planning is proposing an amendment to the Official Plan and a proposed zoning approach for an amendment of the City-wide Zoning By-law, to establish a city-wide approach to public safety for new development of sensitive or high occupancy land uses in proximity of rail infrastructure. The amendments are the result of the Development in [...]
This public health emergency has quickly turned into a humanitarian crisis with seniors in long term care accounting for nearly 70% of Ontario's COVID-19 deaths. To save lives and better support our long term care workers, seniors and those living with accessibility challenges in our province, I kicked this year off by launching a campaign [...]
In the recent years, it has become apparent that access to high-speed internet is necessary for residents to equitably participate in day to day life. Geographically, almost all of Toronto can connect to home internet, but not everyone has sufficient service. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted gaps, vulnerabilities and the need for internet services to [...]
Last spring, I began advocating to City Staff on the exciting prospect of using curb lanes in Toronto for outdoor dining to address the indoor capacity restrictions restaurants and bars were facing due to the public health emergency. I was thrilled to see this initiative come alive and transform our streets into vibrant and safe [...]
I’m pleased to announce that the advocacy from so many of you last summer resulted in meaningful action at Council this past week. Council approved a pilot project that will see teams of mental health professionals become the first response when Toronto residents are in crisis. It is estimated that the Toronto Police Service responds [...]
Members Motion- by Councillor Josh Matlow, seconded by Councillor Paul Ainslie Recommendations City Council request the City Manager to report to the June meeting of Executive Committee on options for Scarborough transit that includes a: Technical assessment of moving forward with the Scarborough LRT, including length of construction time and new platform location at Kennedy [...]
Summary: As Toronto's Seniors Advocate, to better support the health and safety of our seniors and to ensure that large scale and deadly outbreaks in Ontario's long-term care homes never happens again, I'm requesting that you consider and adopt the following recommendations: stabilize the long-term care workforce, accelerate vaccine distribution and increase efforts to promote [...]
