Longtime Thorncliffe Park business owner struggling to stay in community amid Metrolinx expropriations

Wajid Iqbal has shaped his family's life around living in and operating a small business out of Toronto's Thorncliffe Park neighbourhood, but construction related to the Ontario Line means his family may need to change everything soon.

Iqbal, owner of iPlus Business Centre, which provides a multitude of services including tax services and real estate, has been a mainstay of the neighbourhood since 2007.

When businesses in Thorncliffe Park began to be expropriated for construction related to the Ontario Line, he thought, with no word about his building, that his business at 28 Overlea Blvd. was spared. But last month, he learned from his landlord that all tenants of his building would need to be out for good at some point later this year — cutting short his lease by six years.

"I never thought that I would move out of this area," he said. "I'll have to build my business again."

With so many businesses needing to move, he said he's had no success so far finding somewhere to go within the neighbourhood.

"My family's upset. They all moved with me here. And now we have to move somewhere else."

He said he feels certain he will lose business if longtime customers have to drive to see him. He worries he doesn't have the energy he might have had early in his career to market his business' new location enough to attract customers his way.

And according to a recent report, Iqbal is far from alone. The Canadian Urban Institute looked at the importance of supporting communities during major transit infrastructure projects, and used Thorncliffe Park as its case study. The report was commissioned by the City of Toronto with funding from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. It only gave recommendations to the city on how it could better support small businesses, rather than making recommendations for the province, who is responsible for the transit project, as the city was the report's recipient. 

The Ontario Line is a project of the provincial transit agency, Metrolinx. Multiple businesses at 2 Thorncliffe Park Dr., who were told earlier in the process their strip of businesses would be expropriated, told CBC Toronto they could not discuss details of the agreement on record.

The Ministry of Infrastructure directed all questions about the report to Metrolinx. A spokesperson for Metrolinx said in a statement "In the event we need to acquire property to support a transit project, Metrolinx works to ensure tenants and owners do not experience a financial loss."

The spokesperson would not share details of any agreements saying each case is considered independently to "ensure the right solutions" for each owner and tenant.

One of the report's core recommendations is to establish a Business Improvement Area — an association of commercial property owners and tenants who work in partnership with the city to create a thriving business area and neighbourhood — for Thorncliffe Park.

That's because the city— home to over 80 BIAs — has created funding streams only available to BIAs or other recognized groups like registered charities, but not individual businesses.

In 2022, Toronto City Council authorized a new Transit Expansion Construction Mitigation grant program using $1.38 million in funding from Metrolinx and the federal government. The program would assist BIAs and businesses associations impacted by major transit construction projects with business engagement, marketing, research, needs assessments and more.