A Federal Impact Assessment is Necessary: Will the Neighbourhood Continue to Function During and After the Ontario Line?

The Riverside community (including areas referred to as South Riverdale and Leslieville) is an established and vibrant “15-minute neighbourhood” - a community perfectly positioned to attract development and welcome Canada’s growing population.  This Riverside community will experience the full impact of the proposed above-grade Ontario Line, both during and post-construction.  The line will impact the safety, human health, and economic conditions of this neighbourhood: in short, the line will impact whether and how the surrounding area will continue to function as a neighbourhood, if at all.  These impacts have not yet been assessed or quantified, and no mitigation plans have been developed to ensure that the neighbourhood continues to function as a place where people can live and work during and after the Ontario Line’s completion.  Please conduct a federal impact assessment to fill this gap in planning - it is only through deliberate prioritization of safety, human health, and the economy in the planning and decision-making for this project that this section of Toronto can reliably continue to support residential use and remain in a position to attract future residents.

For context, I have attached an image that illustrates the need for assessment: the Riverside community is essentially a rectangle bounded by Gerrard Street East and Eastern Avenue to the north and south, Broadview Avenue and Leslie Street to the east and west.  This rectangle of land is bisected…literally cut in half, by the rail corridor.  This project’s construction will quite literally, physically, divide the commercial streets and the neighbourhood in half.  This entire community lies within 1km of the rail line; the schools and parks, and hundreds of residences, are within 200m of the rail line.  Once construction is complete, the impacts of its significantly increased operations will be felt and heard in every corner of the neighbourhood, all day long.  What mitigations must be implemented to ensure the project’s impacts on safety, human health, and the local economy can still allow for people to sleep, work, go to school, and play in Riverside?  A federal impact assessment can prioritize mitigations that will enable this section of Toronto to continue to be a place people want to live.