Another senseless and tragic death at the Fiera Foods factory

On Wednesday September 25^th Enrico Miranda died tragically on the job at Fiera Foods. He was crushed to dead by a machine while cleaning it. This is the fifth death at Fiera Foods since 1999.  The first victim was , a 17-year old temp named Ivan Golyashov who was killed when a dough mixer was activated while he was inside cleaning it. Then in 2011 it was Aydin Kazimov who was crushed to death by one of Fiera’s trucks. Two years later, Amina Diaby a 23-year-old woman was killed at Fiera Foods when her Hijab was caught in a machine and strangled her to death. In 2016, a man in his 40s was pinned to death at Fiera Foods while getting stuck between a loading dock and tractor trailer. After five horrific deaths Fiera Foods is still operating in North York at 50 Marmora St. 

After Amina’s tragic death a writer for the Toronto Star, Sara Mojtehedzadeh, went undercover as a temporary worker at Fiera Foods to investigate. Mojtehedzadeh found that about 70% of Fiera Food’s workforce was hired through work agencies as temporary workers. This is alarming. In Canada only 14% of workers are temporary. The workers at Fiera Food’s are also not hired for seasonal work which is usually why some companies go through agencies during high-demand seasons. The investigation also showed that temporary workers receive very little training, just a 5-minute briefing, do not get paid for sick days, are discouraged from complaining, are deemed easily replaceable, work long shifts with no paid breaks, and are paid under the table in cash through payday lenders. Workers do not receive pay stubs nor a record of their employment. 

This tragedy hits close to home as both my parents have worked as temporary workers for factories before, as I am sure many people in our community have. Fiera Foods benefits from desperate workers who are just trying to survive in our country and Fiera Foods is one of many companies that prey on immigrants and workers of colour who might be too afraid to speak up because they know it might cost them their jobs. 

No one should go to work and lose their life. The Star found that “Fiera has been slapped with 191 orders for health and safety violations over the past two decades, for everything from lack of proper guarding on machines to unsafely stored gas cylinders.” Yet they still operate. When the Star arrived on the 25^th of September, they found that production had not stopped, and workers had not been sent home amidst the tragedy that caused Mr. Miranda’s life. 

On Tuesday October 1^st, organizers gathered outside the Fiera Food factory and handed workers pamphlets about unionizing. Security guards asked worked to throw away their flyers at the door. The following day more organizers and over 100 members of the community protested with banners asking for accountability. Workers were asked to not come to the day shift and were not paid for the day. No further details have been given by Fiera Foods regarding the death of Mr. Miranda. They have only stated that “As a company, we are heartbroken and have been focused foremost on supporting the family and our employees through these first few difficult days. At the same time, we are fully co-operating with Ministry of Labour inspectors as they review the accident.”

A GoFundMe Campaign has been started to help cover the costs of the funeral of Mr. Miranda. You can donate at https://www.gofundme.com/f/funeral-help-for-tay?fbclid=IwAR0RKDPR2tuP2ZKQsY3DJNo9EqpzoyAHFn__TV8suPb47_GIddDn6FY1JNs

Redevelopment of Wilson Station's parking lot - the saga continues

On August 14, 2019 York Centre Councillor James Pasternak hosted a working group meeting to discuss the proposed redevelopment of Wilson Station’s Main Commuter Parking Lot at 50 Wilson Heights Boulevard. The lot was deemed ‘surplus’ land by the City’s development agency, CreateTO, and was selected by Toronto City Council to include in the affordable housing initiative, Housing Now. 

The meeting was organized by the Councillor Pasternak’s office in response to concerns raised by community members related to the loss of parking at the June 2019 Housing Now Community Meeting.   

During the meeting, City of Toronto Planning and CreateTO staff provided an overview presentation. It included: a recap of the Housing Now proposed development; a summary of City Council direction on parking for Housing Now sites; an analysis of existing usage of the parking lot; and three potential parking scenarios being considered in any future development. 

To justify the selection of the Wilson Station lot, City staff presented some helpful data. For instance, they provided the result of a recent licence plate survey, which indicated that of the total 866 parking spaces, only 25% (219 spots) are used by York Centre residents. The remaining 75% are used by folks outside of the community, including the 41% of spots which are used daily by commuters from the Greater Toronto Area. 

CreateTO staff also indicated that rebuilding all 866 spots underground a future development would be unfeasible given their estimate that each space would cost $85,000 ($75 million to build 866 spots). Adding in financing and operational costs, the public would need to pay $35+ per day in order to break even.

City staff revealed that future redevelopments would include one of three parking scenarios for community members: 1) provide exclusive public parking (no dedicated residential parking space); 2) provide shared parking (residential and public parking space); and 3) provide no public parking.

Although only a dozen community members attended the meeting, participants asked detailed questions and provided clear feedback to the Councillor and city staff. I’ve summarized some of the community’s feedback below. 

General Feedback 

• Participants acknowledged that both affordable housing and commuter parking are very important issues and the community should not be presented with options that make them feel like they must choose one or the other. 
• Community members voiced that the TTC needs to be part of this discussion. There were participants at the meeting who would consider taking transit rather than driving to the station, however many people felt that TTC service is unreliable and infrequent.
• Some felt this is a safety concern – especially at night when some have to wait alone at a bus stop.

Process Feedback 

• Participants  expressed that low turnout at the meeting should not be taken as a sign of a lack of concern about this issue. Others in the community are interested and have concerns but were either unable to attend or were not aware of the meeting. 
• Participants urged the Councillor and CreateTO to do a better job at publicizing community meetings, including advertising in the local newspapers; posting a development sign in the parking lot (while has since been done); and handing out flyers at Wilson Station.

Parking Scenario Feedback 

• Participants suggested removing a scenario all together (i.e. “provide no public parking”) since it was considered unreasonable and unfair to the community.  
• Participants urged city staff to keep some or all of the existing surface lot by reconfiguring the development plans or moving the Housing Now site to a new location like Downsview/Sheppard West station.  
• Some community members expressed interest in expanding and improving the parking lot at Downsview/Sheppard West station to accommodate the loss of parking at Wilson Station.
• Participants also offered some creative solutions. Such as, using a permit system to preference local residents in public parking spaces built in future developments at Wilson Station and discouraging the use of the lot from people outside of the area by increasing the cost of parking at Wilson Station (by a couple dollars), possibly as a pilot project.

There was another Housing Now Community Meeting on September 16^th  from 6 P.M to 9 P.M at the Church of Resurrection (1 Tippett Road). I will continue to cover this issue over the coming months – feel free to read my previous articles to learn more.

The redevelopment of Wilson Station’s main parking lot: A brief overview

Aerial view of the Wilson Station parking lot.

Wide streets with right-of-ways, narrow sidewalks, and parking lots. It’s no secret that our sprawling city was designed to accommodate vehicles – often at the expense of pedestrians, cyclists, and surface transit. 

But today, Toronto is at a crossroads. To improve our quality of life and to ensure an equitable city for generations to come, we need to accommodate a quickly growing population in an increasingly unaffordable city. In part, this means adding density to our neighbourhoods by giving up space dedicated for vehicles to build public amenities, retail, and housing at both market and affordable rates. 

Of course, one of the most significant barriers to doing so is the scarcity and high cost of land in Toronto. But to tackle this challenge, the City has established an agency called CreateTO (formally Build Toronto) to assess the development potential of Toronto’s ‘surplus’ real estate, including the three commuter parking lots at the Wilson Subway Station. 

At its peak, there were a total of 2,110 parking spots dedicated to commuter parking at Wilson Station. Today that number has shrunk to nearly 1,000. This has left many commuters often lining-up to access parking or even being turned away in frustration by the “lot full” sign. 

In 2016, CreateTO sold the Wilson West Lot (610 parking spots) to a developer who transformed the land into retail space. And in 2017, the Wilson South Lot (541 spots) was sold and turned into a mid-rise condominium. Commuters were assured that the reduction in parking spots would be offset by additional spots at Yorkdale Station and at new stations along the recently extended Yonge-University subway. 

Now, CreateTO has turned its attention to the final remaining parking lot at Wilson Station, the Wilson Main Lot at 50 Wilson Heights Boulevard. The agency sees the redevelopment as an “…opportunity to create a new pedestrian focused complex…[with] an affordable housing component within the development”. This is supported by the City’s ‘Housing Now’ initiative to redevelop multiple city-owned properties into “affordable housing within mixed-income, mixed-use, transit-oriented communities”. 

But the local community is split on the issue. 

On one hand, people accept that Toronto’s streets are clogged with vehicular traffic and that the future of our transit system can’t be based on parking lots, but instead based on connecting people to our transit system in more efficient ways. These people recognize the necessity of transit-oriented development, especially building affordable housing near our subway stations. Supporters also point to data collected by CreateTO which suggest that the parking lot at Wilson Station is not serving local residents, but rather, 70% of spots are being used by commuters from the Greater Toronto Area, places like Woodbridge and Kleinburg.  

On the other hand, people see the redevelopment of the parking lot as yet another attack in the longstanding “war on the car”. And while some, including York Centre Councillor James Pasternak, acknowledge the need to build more affordable housing in Toronto, they believe the selection of a commuter parking lot is “ill-advised”. “It would be far more prudent to build [affordable housing] on [a] site where you are not disrupting hundreds of commuters and creating anxiety in the community,” he said at a public meeting to discuss the proposed development. Furthermore, some community members have expressed concerns that have nothing to do with parking, but rather a lack of a strategic planning for the infrastructure required to accommodate an increase in population, such as local schools and parks. 

Councillor Pasternak has set up a working group for community members to discuss the proposed development at 50 Wilson Heights Blvd. and to address the concerns raised regarding parking capacity and accessibility. The first working group meeting will be held on August 14^th at 6:30pm at the 6:30pm-8:30pm at Beth David B’nai Israel Beth Am, Sisterhood Hall. 

This is a developing story which I will continue to cover over the coming months.

Uploading transit: Province’s proposed transfer of future city transit is ‘restrictive’

Since the start of 2019, the phrase ‘subway upload’ was frequently used to describe the provincial government’s plan to take-over responsibility for the construction and operation of new TTC projects. In particular, the province has emphasized the City of Toronto and the TTC’s inability to build transit for decades despite the completion of recent large-scale projects such as the Line 1 extension.

With the introduction of the Ford government’s ‘Getting Ontario Moving Act’, the City of Toronto, TTC, and city residents have a much clearer understanding of what ‘upload’ means. The bill, as identified by Toronto City Manager Chris Murray, grants “broad authority to the province and places significant restrictions and obligations on the City of Toronto and TTC.”

The current transit system will remain the responsibility of the City and TTC, but all future transit projects will be under the direction and ownership of the province via Metrolinx. Metrolinx is a crown agency that's responsible for developing transit infrastructure across Ontario tasked with projects such as implementing the PRESTO fare system and constructing the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

Additionally, the Minister of Transportation must approve all work by the TTC or City of Toronto on transit projects that are “in close proximity... or substantially similar” to Metrolinx’s projects such as those identified in Ford’s transit plan for the city.

In cases where the City of Toronto and TTC work on a transit project, the province can require them to transfer assets such as real estate to Metrolinx “with or without compensation.” In short, the provincial government will have near total say over what the TTC and the City can do regarding future public transit projects.

As a result, significant ambiguity remains over cost sharing for the maintenance and operation of future transit within Toronto and more prominently, the City and TTC will be highly unlikely to have much influence in how Toronto’s transit will be built going forward.

The rationale for severely restricting the roles of two of the largest stakeholders, the TTC and the City of Toronto,  in Toronto’s public transit is puzzling as they will be responsible for its daily operation and directly accountable to local commuters. Rather than a rehash of talking points regarding a lack of transit within Toronto, the City and TTC deserve a better explanation from the province as to why they are being sidelined if it is in the best interest of city residents.

Linking North York: a case for extending the Finch West LRT

Toronto residents likely look at current TTC maps and notice the gap between the northern portions of Line 1 Yonge-University. In its initial planning stage, the Finch West LRT would have linked Finch Station to Humber College’s North Campus instead of its current plan to end at Finch West Station, but constructing the full line was deemed too costly at the time. Since then multiple proposals have been put forth regarding how to best link the two segments of Line 1 operating in North York. Extending the Finch West LRT would be a better allocation of funds over spending money on an inner suburban subway that lacks the density required for a subway line.Some have argued for an extension of Line 4 Sheppard westward from Yonge to Sheppard West station, but this proposal encounters several issues when compared with a LRT extension. Constructing subways are more expensive per kilometer of track built and are more costly to operate in the long run given the cost of maintenance upkeep. Subway stops are also comparatively further apart given their high construction costs which can limit access to transit in less dense regions like North York. Furthermore, while subways can carry the greatest number of passengers more quickly, they require high population densities to support their use. The Sheppard line has two of the TTC’s least used subway stations and the line’s current daily usage rates only place it slightly above the 36 Finch West bus.Conversely, a surface LRT can be built at a lower cost per kilometer on a dedicated right of way with more stops so it is more accessible North York residents. A good comparison here is city council’s decision to go with a $3.4 billion single-stop subway extension to Scarborough Town Center instead of a multi-stop or multi-line LRT network in Scarborough that could have substantially cut commuting times for far more residents.In the TTC’s most recent Corporate Plan for 2018-2022 outlining their envisioned transit network, the Finch West LRT is shown reaching Finch Station. Hopefully, this means that council will make the right decision when the time comes to link the North York segments of Line 1.