Toronto community groups demand more input on transit projects at Queens Park protest
CBC
Dozens of demonstrators from seven community groups across the city were at Queen's Park Wednesday speaking out against the way Metrolinx and the provincial government approach transit planning.
The groups are calling on the province and its regional transit agency to make the health and well-being of local communities a priority and to listen to them when it comes to building transit projects in their neighbourhoods.
"Our voice has been lost in this transit planning process," said Eon Song on behalf of Save Jimmie Simpson, one of the groups at the protest. He said the groups might have different goals but all want environmental reviews for projects and for Metrolinx to do meaningful consultations with communities.
The current plans for the Ontario Line, the Yonge North Subway Extension and GO expansion will harm the communities' greenspaces, small businesses, schools and homes and was done without public or stakeholder consultation, the groups wrote in a news release.
The groups said legislation introduced in the fall of 2020, the Building Transit Faster Act, and Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZO), which allow the government to authorize development regardless of local rules, have been used to overrule cities. The government of Premier Doug Ford has used MZOs more frequently than any other government recently in power to push through projects.
Save Jimmie Simpson
A grassroots community group in Riverside and Leslieville asking for the section of the Ontario Line running through its community to be built below ground in order to protect the health and environment of the community, including the neighbourhood's Jimmie Simpson Park.