Environmental concerns

I have been a tentant in Riverside for over 10 years. I have a ground-level apartment in a low-rise property a block away from where the proposed Ontario Line will be developed. I, like tens of thousands of other tenants and condo dwellers in Riverside/Leslieville, have no yard on our properties, so we rely on the public park system for our green space. I love this community and hope to at some point purchase a condo property in either Riverside or Leslieville.

There is no question that the residents of Toronto support public transit. I myself don't have a car and rely on TTC and GO Transit to get me around the GTA. However, we also value community consultation. The Ontario Line was presented to the community through a press conference by the Premier of Ontario, throwing out years of work by the City of Toronto and local residents on the Relief Line

From downtown to Pape Station, we as residents had worked very hard with the city figure out the best alignment and the best technical approach for limited environmental impact. Consultations had also begun on the Releif Line North, from Pape Station (Danforth) up to North York. Those options were very mindful of the ecological concerns of the north part of the Don River, including options that never crossed the econoloically sensitive area and if anything would serve a wider reach of Toronto residents.

Then the provincial government turned over, threw out the plans and studies and came up with their own plan, announced, with zero consultation. In fact the so-called "open houses" they held were not to collect consultation, but to see what community concerns were so they could mitigate with "yes we know" instead of actually engaging.

That has been the beginning of problem after problem. We have no idea how the double crossing over the Don River will affect wildlife. We have no idea what having so many trains run though Riverside's residental neighbourhood every 90 seconds will do to properties and residents with noise and vibrations. We've been told now for two years to just trust those who are planning. But they want to start cutting trees down later in 2021. We assume this is the vegetation on Metrolinx property, but we are afraid we will lose trees on City of Toronto and residental properties with zero notice. If these trees go without a full impact assessment, what happens to the wildlife that travel the tracks?

Unfortunately, those who are planning have no demonstrated any concern for the environment the Ontario Line is running through. We wake up one morning to find McCleary Playground taken over by large an loud trucks for what I assume to be a study of land composition. Equipment thrown over playground equipment. No signage or barries for children's safety that goes on for weeks. We finish our work day and go out to skate and play on the snowpiles in Jimmie Simpson to have a loud vaccuum truck (Metrolinx themselves confirmed the noise was higher than their decibel promise) right next to the outdoor area, with debris flying onto the arena and snow piles. Again, zero warning or signage or preparation for the community. These engineering contracts would have been signed weeks or months in advance - plenty of time to develop proper signage, barriers, and proper notification to the local MPP, local City Councillor, local parks department.

If they aren't able to be basic decent neighbours and be mindful of environmental concerns in this pre-preliminary stage, how are we to trust they will be mindful of all these concerns without a proper impact assessments? They clearly don't understand the community they are working in, and should be if they want to push this large transit project through.

The Don River and surrounding environments / flood plains (including the park network where Metrolinx is proposing to go above ground in Riverside) are home to many natural wildlife. How will the wildlife be managed through construction and then operations? How will construction above the Don River 2x ensure debris doesn't pollute the waters? How will having two bridges over the Don be designed to be mindful of how operations imact the Don River ecolocial system after decades of work rehabilitating it? How will the noise and vibrations be mitigated to maintain a certain quality of life for humans, our domestic pets, and wildlife? How will cutting down down the large trees on City of Toronto lands and private property impact air quality while we wait for the promise of fresh saplings to grow? What species of trees will they be replaced with - native trees or faster growing foreign trees where we end up with the issues Peel Region had when the boaring ash beatle destroyed their ecology? And where will the new trees go anyways after we lose land to more railway tracks? How is it possibly safe for living and for air quality for this volume of transit (current GO + GO expansion + Smarttrack + Ontario Line) running through a residental zone? Can we even enjoy what's left of our parks or will sound, vibrations, and pollution keep us away? 

Metrolinx is also being deliberately obtuse by saying they can't bury the Ontario Line under the current tracks. Which is not what the community is asking for, we're asking for it to go back to the orginal Toronto plan under Pape/Carlaw avenues where the Ontario Line can also better serve the large condo developments who would most benefit from rapid transit at their front door vs a mid- to low- rise residental area. This was all part of the original City of Toronto plan to mitigate all the concerns the community is having. While the GO expansion and SmartTrack are likely still going to happen, we can deal with that separately and not also deal with subways running through every few minutes in addition to the trains becuse they will all be underground through this part of the line.

Please ensure all impact and environmental concerns are met for this project. We need to ensure all these issues are looked after properly not just as an end result, but also through the construction process.

Thank you.