On March 10th, ULI Toronto hosted its 6th annual regional dinner for the professional land-use community, celebrating the synergies between the private and public sectors at the Arcadian Court in downtown Toronto. A number of chief planners, executive directors, and senior planning and development officials from around the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area were in attendance, including officials from the City of Toronto, City of Hamilton, City of St. Catharines, Simcoe County, City of Kitchener, City of Pickering, and Metrolinx, among others.

The event began with Chief R. Stacey Laforme, Chief of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, sharing the Land Acknowledgement and  two poems that he wrote.

“A lot of people think that the Indigenous people are here to help with climate change and save the world, but that’s not our job. Our job is to help you reconnect to the world around…so that with the many gifts we all bring to the table, that we all play a part in making sure that we do our best to save the planet,” he said.

Following Chief Laforme, the Honourable Caroline Mulroney, Minister of Transportation and Minister of Francophone Affairs, spoke about the provincial government’s dedication to smart transportation planning. “We need to think differently and take bold steps if we are to meet the demands of the future. Under our government, we are making historic investments in transit infrastructure,” she said. These investments include the subway transit plan in Toronto which proposes 4 new subway lines, representing a 50% increase in the length of Toronto’s subways. “Last month, I introduced the Building Transit Faster Act; legislation that, if passed, will cut bureaucratic red tape and the roadblocks that have held projects up in the past,” said Mulroney. This includes a partnership with utility companies to expedite utility relocations as well as modernizing the Province’s authority to assemble project lands.

Introducing the panel discussion, Ken Greenberg, Principal of Greenberg Consultants, discussed the region’s car-dependency and how a much-needed paradigm shift is finally arriving. Viable all-day, two-way GO service will become the armature of the next generation of growth in our region,” Greenberg said.

The Honourable Kinga Surma, Associate Minister of Transportation, moderated the transit-orientated communities panel, which included Tim Cane, Director of Growth in the Town of Innisfil, Steve Robichaud, Chief Planner at the City of Hamilton, and Catherine Rose, the Chief Planner for the City of Pickering.

“One of the things that’s very important is the way that transit infrastructure can help create the demand and pre-conditions under which intensification and opportunities can thrive,” said Robichaud. “Once you draw that line on the map that identifies a transit corridor, investment decisions start, and it becomes very important as to how we support those investment decisions.”

Along its planned east-west transit corridor, the City pre-zoned the transit corridor to encourage investment. Rose described how the opening of the pedestrian bridge connecting the Pickering GO station led to an increase in desirability and marketability for residential units in a nearby phased development due to the convenience and accessibility of the GO station.

“Council consistently heard within the community the features that were important to them and unanimously endorsed a vision called the Orbit, centered around the proposed GO station, with the concept of TOC [transit orientated community]. This new model allows us to do much more with the space we’re in,” Cane said.