Toronto Wildlife Centre coming to Ward 25!
A key role of Toronto Public Health in the battle against COVID-19 has been to use current evidence and local data to inform decisions about interventions and measures to keep our residents safe and healthy. This summer, the City of Toronto launched the COVID-19 monitoring dashboard, which provides a progress assessment for the local COVID-19 response in our city. The dashboard is available at toronto.ca/covid19. Active cases are displayed by neighbourhood.
Toronto Wildlife Centre
I had the pleasure of joining the Toronto Wildlife Centre (TWC) to visit the new M*A*S*H* (Mobile Animal Surgical Hospital) in Ward 25. Located on Steeles Ave. East in Rouge Park, the M*A*S*H* will use portables as well as a historic barn and heritage home to care for animals until the new permanent facility is built.
The TWC promotes the peaceful coexistence of people and wildlife, and provides medical care to sick, injured and orphaned wild animals with the goal of releasing healthy animals back into the wild. Once the new facility is completed, this site will serve as Canada’s largest animal hospital. I will keep you posted on their move to Ward 25 so we can welcome TWC to their “furever home” in the coming months.
Update on 633 Coronation Drive
I continue to monitor the application before the provincial government regarding Coronation Organics Processing Incorporated. While there continues to be no application before the City of Toronto, I have been working with city staff to review and provide comments on the traffic study completed by the proponent as part of their provincial application. Preliminary discussions with city staff indicate the traffic study has many shortcomings. I look forward to their full review of the traffic report, which will be shared with the proponent and the province.
As part of the application to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks, the company has also published an acoustic study, which can be found on the Environmental Registry. It is open for public comment until October 10. I encourage you to review the study and provide feedback directly to the province at ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-1444 and ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-1446.
I have also asked Minister Jeff Yurek to require the proponent to host a public meeting and work alongside the city’s Transportation Services division. Both of these requests have not been met. I continue to oppose this project and will advocate our community’s opposition to the provincial government.
Priority Bus Lanes
Toronto wants to improve bus service with new priority bus lanes along the Eglinton East corridor. These lanes are not intended to limit turning of personal vehicles. The corridor runs from Brimley along Eglinton, Kingston Rd. and Morningside to the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus. The priority bus lanes will be reserved for buses and bicycles 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and will be identified using red paint and signage.
Keeping in Touch
My office can be reached by phone at 416-338-3771 or by email at councillor_mckelvie@toronto.ca. We can also meet with residents at our constituency office by appointment. Please sign up for my weekly e-newsletter at jennifermckelvie.ca. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter via my handle @McKelvieWard25.