With the Christmas season approaching many of us will be gathering with family and friends to enjoy the festivities. It is also a time to reflect on our community. We live in one of the best communities in Toronto. We have a strong active community association and residents who take pride in our community and care about it.

One of the facilities we have in our community is the Metro Toronto Legion Village located on Lawson Rd.. This facility is about to undergo a major change. The name has been changed to the Tony Stacey Center for Veterans Care and they are launching a major fund raising campaign. The existing building does not meet the Ministry of Health guidelines for nursing care and it would be difficult to remodel it to meet current standards. As a result a new building will be built on the site with a completion date of 2006. More information on this new facility is contained elsewhere in the newsletter.

The City of Toronto is proposing to widen and rebuild Colonel Danforth Trail. In May 2003 the city held an Open House to discuss the proposal with the residents. Many of them are upset with the plans the city have presented and the impact it will have on the removal of trees and character of this street. A committee of concerned residents has been formed to work with the city on a plan that is acceptable to the residents. Colonel Danforth Trail is a unique street in our community and it would be a shame to see most of the trees along this street removed just because the city have standards for their roads which would alter the overall character of this street.

On October 16th, 2003 the OMB issued a decision on the prehearing held on September 10th, 2003. In the decision the board advised that they were satisfied with the Ministry of Environment audit of the site and that environmental issues would not be considered by the board. The Ministry of Environment and City of Toronto do not plan to attend the hearing scheduled for January 5th, 2004. Without their participation we could not continue to press for warning clauses for potential house purchasers or for air monitoring during construction. As a result the CCRA is withdrawing from the OMB hearing. It is unfortunate that we had to take this action in the final stage of the hearings related to the Manson site but we had no choice. Our MPP Mary Anne Chambers arranged a meeting for us with the Ministry of Environment staff. On October 29th Joe Pileggi, Bill Dempsey and I met with staff to discuss the Manson situation. We went over the issues with them and expressed our concern and frustration with the outcome of the OMB hearing. The staff agreed to look into a couple of issues we raised but because of changes at the ministry over the last few years they did not seem optimistic that the Ministry's position would change.

All of the executive join in wishing you a Happy and Joyous Festive Season and Best Wishes for the New Year.

Jeff Forsyth
President