An Equitable Distribution of Canada Day Celebrations Throughout the City - by Councillor Lily Cheng, seconded by Councillor James Pasternak

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The decision

2024-03-20 · Toronto City Council · amended

As filed

City Council on March 20 and 21, 2024, adopted the following: 1. City Council direct the General Manager, Economic Development and Culture and the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, to review all City-run and funded Canada Day events across the City, including a review of the equitable distribution in terms of population and geography, and report to the April 30, 2024 meeting of the Economic and Community

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Development Committee, on a plan to celebrate Canada Day in the inner suburbs on an annual basis, starting with Canada Day 2024, subject to receiving full funding from the Federal government.

On the agenda

As the city filed it

Canada Day is an important opportunity for community members to gather. Many have memories of BBQs and fireworks. In Willowdale, community members used to have the chance to gather on Yonge Street and watch fireworks launched off of the North York Civic Centre. In a community where the visible minority population is 83,000, including newcomers and immigrants, and 74,000 residents have a mother tongue that is neither English nor French, it is important to bring people together to share meaningful experiences.

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After COVID, the City stopped Canada Day fireworks in Willowdale which had previously happened for 20 years and focused its investment at the waterfront. It's been said that Toronto is a city that is one-hour away from itself. Willowdale is very far from the waterfront. I know many of my constituents are not able to benefit from these investments, especially families with younger children for whom the added travel time at a late hour would make it difficult. As a high growth centre, Willowdale has done a lot of heavy lifting adding thousands of units of housing to Toronto and welcoming many tax paying newcomers into our city. While fireworks are offered in other neighbourhoods from various sources of funding including different City divisions, Willowdale has been left out. We would like to understand the distribution of Canada Day events, regardless of funding sources, across the city to better understand the equity of this distribution based on population and geography. We would also like to understand the feasibility of restoring Canada Day celebrations to Mel Lastman Square to serve the present and future hundreds of thousands of people who will be moving to the North York area. As our city grows, we need to have a plan to foster stronger connectivity outside of the downtown core that already has a lot of events and programming.

Staff recommended

Councillor Lily Cheng, seconded by Councillor James Pasternak, recommends that: 1. City Council direct the General Manager, Economic Development and Culture, and the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, to review all City-run and funded Canada Day events across the City, including a review of the equitable distribution in terms of population and geography, and report to the April 30, 2023 meeting of the Economic

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and Community Development Committee, on a plan to celebrate Canada Day in the inner suburbs on an annual basis, starting with Canada Day 2024.

On the record

The item as the City filed it

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