Deferral of Development Charges for Regent Park Community Health Centre - by Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, seconded by Councillor Joe Cressy

The Public Gallery wrote no story on this item. What follows is the city’s own record of what happened to it, as filed: nothing on this page is summarised or scored by us.

The decision

2021-05-05 · Toronto City Council · adopted

As filed

City Council on May 5 and 6, 2021, adopted the following: 1. City Council authorize the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, in consultation with the Chief Building Official and Executive Director, to enter into an agreement in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor, to defer the payment of development charges for Regent Park Community Health Centre based on the general terms and conditions as outlined in other deferral requests, including any amendments to previously executed agreements, as necessary, relating to the payment of development charges.

Show the rest of As filed, 163 more characters as filed

2. City Council direct the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer to review this matter as part of the development charges by-law review process currently underway.

On the agenda

As the city filed it

Regent Park Community Health Centre has been providing primary health care, harm reduction, and other essential services to its community for almost 50 years and has been operating out of its 465 Dundas Street East location since the late 1990's. Since 2019, Regent Park Community Health Centre has been providing services to persons in need to consume drugs under the supervision of professional staff in a community healthcare setting to prevent catastrophic deaths from drug overdoses.

Show the rest of As the city filed it, 2,071 more characters as filed

The space, on the ground floor of the Dundas Street East building, within which the program is operating does not accommodate the unique requirements of the Consumption Treatment Services program since the program was not designed for in the original building. In March 2019, Regent Park Community Health Centre started the planning of a renovation of the space to bring existing facilities into compliance with the Ministry of Health Space Standards as well as with other related building and facility/program standards such as Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, CSA Heating and Ventilation for health care facilities, infection prevention and control standards, etc. In January 2020, the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care informed Regent Park Community Health Centre that it would provide a capital grant to support the planning and renovation of the space. Despite the project not requiring by-law amendments for parking, use, density, etc. or any additional City services such as water supply, drainage, etc., the project application is requiring Regent Park Community Health Centre to pay both Education ($242.60) and Development ($7,464.66) Levies. The Regent Park Community Health Centre believes that these funds could be better used to contribute to the renovation project, for example, to underwrite the costs of the minor adjustments to the existing building so that the Consumption Treatment Services program can continue to operate this life-saving services while the renovation is in progress. The Downtown East neighbourhoods we serve remain Toronto's epicentre of the opioid overdose crisis that continues to devastate individuals, families and communities across our City. We, therefore, respectfully ask to be exempted from the development levies imposed for our project. This Motion is urgent as without this deferral, Regent Park Community Health Centre would not be able to continue to operate this life-saving services while the renovation is in progress, and the development charges are due before the next City Council meeting.

Staff recommended

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, seconded by Councillor Joe Cressy, recommends that: 1. City Council authorize the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, in consultation with the Chief Building Official and Executive Director, to enter into an agreement in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor, to defer the payment of development charges for Regent Park Community Health Centre based on the general terms and conditions as outlined in other deferral requests, including any amendments to previously executed agreements, as necessary, relating to the payment of development charges.

Show the rest of Staff recommended, 163 more characters as filed

2. City Council direct the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer to review this matter as part of the development charges by-law review process currently underway.

On the record

The item as the City filed it

More from this meeting

The whole meeting