East York residents concerned about upcoming basement flooding work given ‘dysfunctional’ O’Connor Drive project

By LI HO

Residents voiced their concerns to City of Toronto officials at a public meeting last Thursday night in anticipation of the final construction project in a flood prevention program in the north end of East York.

The Nov. 21 meeting saw more than 30 residents and neighbourhood association representatives in attendance as well as city staff who are leading the Basement Flooding Protection Program (BFPP) in the O’Connor Drive and St. Clair Avenue East area.

The meeting at O’Connor Public School was held at the request of Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford to hear the concerns of the community before a contract for the project is awarded.

Justin Van Dette, with the Parkview Hills Community Association and O’Connor Bermondsey Business Association, voiced his displeasure over the management of the program so far, pointing to the mess that had been the O’Connor and St. Clair area for years while the work went on.

“The thing that is so frustrating with the O’Connor Drive project is how long it took and the lack of communication,” said Van Dette at the meeting. “The whole thing was really poorly rolled out, poorly operated, poorly constructed and that contractor should be fired.”

The City of Toronto’s BFPP is designed to mitigate the risk of basement flooding during heavy rainfall in certain neighbourhoods. 

A major rainfall event nearly 20 years ago caused widespread flooding in basements across Toronto. As a result, an environmental assessment was undertaken which identified the area of O’Connor Drive and St. Clair Avenue East as the first of 67 areas in the city in need of sewer upgrades and improved overland drainage solutions.   

Rolled out as three separate contracts, the first project was completed in 2021. It involved storm sewer upgrades on a segment of Glenwood Crescent and sanitary sewer upgrades on a segment of St. Clair Avenue East.

The second and ongoing project, which started in the fall of 2022, is now one year past the original estimated completion date, frustrating many community members who were present.

However, due to changes in the scope of the project once it was started (including added watermain replacement once excavation revealed the state of the existing watermain) the scheduled date for the end of the project was adjusted to September of 2024, said the City of Toronto in a statement sent to Beach Metro Community News after this story was originally published online. In its statement, the city said the second project is two months behind schedule, rather than one year, due to the change in the end date to September of this year.

The work done so far includes the replacement of storm sewers on segments of O’Connor Drive and Bermondsey Road, and the replacement of the water main on O’Connor Drive. Above-ground improvements are being carried out to the streetscaping, green infrastructure and traffic signal activation.

In an interview with Beach Metro Community News, Van Dette called the second project “mismanaged and dysfunctional.” 

“People are angry and frustrated because of how long it took. People don’t want to see a repeat of that,” he said. “We have been presented with timelines for this (upcoming final project), and a lot of people are sceptical that they will stick to those timelines.”

Normand Haas, another attendee at the meeting, said, “We just learnt so much from the experience we had with the O’Connor project that we just don’t want the same thing to happen to our sister neighbourhood.”

The final project of the BFPP is slated to begin in the spring of 2025. It will focus on the Topham Park neighbourhood of East York and will be undertaken in four consecutive phases, beginning with a segment of St. Clair Avenue East.

Improvements will be made to storm and sanitary sewers on St. Clair Avenue East between Glenwood Crescent and Squires Avenue as well as other nearby residential streets. The city will also replace the water main and improve intersection safety along Westview Boulevard. A rain garden is planned for the median of Valor Boulevard. 

The timelines given by the city for the four phases are:

Phase 1 (seven months): St. Clair Avenue East

Phase 2 (nine months): Westview Boulevard, Amsterdam Avenue, Joanith Drive

Phase 3 (three months): Merritt Road, Valor Boulevard, Furnival Road, Topham Road

Phase 4 (three months): Squires Avenue, Squires Court, Peard Road, Glenburn Avenue

Bradford pointed out during the meeting that he wants to see city staff be more engaged with residents on this upcoming work. He felt that the execution of the first two projects “has not been great.”

Rachele Joseph, manager of the BFPP, said city officials are “actively looking at ways we can improve” and “provide more checks and balances.”

During the question-and-answer period of the meeting, residents repeatedly brought up the issues of traffic congestion and traffic safety that plagued the neighbourhood while the work was taking place on O’Connor.

Residents pointed out that the reduction in traffic lanes on O’Connor Drive resulted in traffic overflowing onto side streets, with no enforcement by traffic police.

Ella, 9, who boards her school bus at Westview Boulevard and Gardens Crescent area, said she feels “afraid to cross the street” because of cars which come close to hitting her. 

“There are other kids that are so much smaller than me who have to deal with the traffic,” she said.

Her mother, Bridgette, explained that it is a four-way stop intersection but cars roll right through. She pointed out that during construction on O’Connor Drive, cars would frequently take Westview as a shortcut, with some travelling well above the speed limit of 30 kilometres per hour.

On a related note, residents shared their frustration with congestion caused by the lane reductions on O’Connor and St. Clair during the construction period. They also questioned why they would observe closed traffic lanes but no sign of work being carried out.

The city’s transportation staff were not present at this meeting to address residents’ specific traffic concerns, however, Joseph said her team works closely with transportation services and “we have staff taking detailed notes of these questions”. 

As to the inconvenience that residents would no doubt be facing in the spring, attendees wanted to know who would address their concerns or complaints.

Joseph said, “We do have a central hotline for the field ambassadors so you shouldn’t have any issues contacting the city.” 

The role of the field ambassador is to act as a liaison between the community and the contractor.

Bradford pushed back on the accountability or lack thereof of the field ambassadors, underscoring the “case-in-point example of the sort of customer service that (the community) gets from the field ambassadors” who are getting paid but not following through satisfactorily.

“We have got to hold these guys to a higher standard,” said Bradford.

In an interview with Beach Metro Community News after the meeting, Bradford pointed out that the field ambassador, like the contractor, is also a third-party contracted by the city. It is unclear at the time of writing which company will provide the services of the field ambassador for the final project.

“It’s a good idea in concept but the execution leaves a lot to be desired,” said Bradford.

He said that city staff “need to be more engaged with the field ambassadors to make sure that they are holding the contractor to account.” 

Van Dette suggested during the meeting that whoever is appointed as the field ambassador to this final project should join the various community Facebook groups as a way of staying informed and addressing complaints.

Joseph noted that this final project has yet not been tendered and therefore a contractor has not been identified.

In response to requests by attendees, Bradford agreed to arrange a follow-up meeting for community members next spring, prior to the commencement of any work.

He said he would have representatives from the contractor and the city’s transportation department on hand to answer any questions residents may have at that time.

“We need better oversight from the City of Toronto of these contractors to make sure they are actually delivering a better level of accountability,” said Bradford.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been changed to include additional information from the City of Toronto regarding changes to the original end date of the second and ongoing project which was started in the fall of 2022.