Toronto’s updating its land-use plan — have your say

Employment areas are places designated specifically for economic activity. They provide “locations for diverse employment options, keep the production of goods and shipping close to where people live, help maintain and grow the City’s economy and help achieve a balance in the growth of population and employment,” according to the city. In 2020, Toronto’s employment areas held over 400,000 jobs, which was about 25 per cent of all jobs and about 87 per cent of all manufacturing jobs in the city.

With the new PPS, municipalities are allowed to remove lands from employment areas at any time, no longer requiring a municipal comprehensive review and permits to converting the land to other uses, such as housing development.

Geoff Kettel, President of Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods, expressed concern that the changes will negatively impact neighbourhoods that include employment areas.

“ In my area, we're already seeing developers coming in and wanting mixed-use [buildings] willy-nilly [with]  39-storey towers being requested right next door to the employment area,” he said.

He added that such buildings would negatively impact traffic and parking. Without requirements for parking spaces, streets will be packed with parked cars across the road from new residential buildings, Kettel explained.

He urged city staff to come up with some criteria that would “stand the weight at the Ontario Land Tribunal.”

Rory McNeil, senior planner at the City of Toronto’s Planning Division, told Kettel that the city shares his concerns, but “we currently have a number of policies about how applications have to conform and be compatible with employment areas.”

Judy Gibson, a south Etobicoke resident and a co-chair of a high school parent council, said that the province removing the concept of urban growth centres (such as Etobicoke Centre, Yonge-Eglinton Centre, North York Centre, Scarborough Centre, etc.) from city planning would impact school enrolment. There are parts of the city where school enrollment is declining and other parts where schools are over-enrolled, she said.

“ How will the city direct growth towards infrastructures: schools, daycares and transit? Real transit, because GO train stations are not real transit yet,” she asked, adding that GO trains only take you as far as Union Station.

“How will you direct growth to the areas of the population where schools are under capacity and where there is the opportunity for growth to go?” she added.

McNeil responded that it remains a “core facet” of the Official Plan to concentrate development around transit.

“My point still is there’s no direction of where that growth goes…what's happening now is the growth is going wherever willy-nilly, wherever anybody wants,” she said.

She added that city planners should “look at where the growth opportunity [is] based on where there's infrastructure and where the schools’ populations are declining" versus areas that are growing rapidly already.

McNeil said that the city can consider the feedback to ensure that school enrolment is included in city planning.

Other changes discussed:

• Toronto now has to use provincial population and employment forecasts for planning purposes rather than its own forecasts.
• The PPS includes a new emphasis on early engagement with Indigenous communities on issues of cultural heritage and archaeology.

How can you chime in on the discussion?

A public open house will be planned for September 2025 and a report to the Planning and Housing Committee and City Council will be sent in the fall.

In the meantime, you can send your questions or thoughts to Rory McNeil at Rory.McNeil@toronto.ca and Ali Darouiche, Acting Project Coordinator Official Plan & Legislation Unit at the City Planning Division, at Ali.Darouiche@toronto.ca.