City council votes to fast-track Gardiner construction

Toronto city council voted unanimously to speed up construction on the Gardiner Expressway on Wednesday afternoon. 

The accelerated timeline means the ongoing work could be finished by April 2026, rather than April 2027, officials said.

The fast-tracked construction will help reduce travel times and "support Toronto's continued economic growth," the city said in a news release Wednesday. 

Also on the agenda this week are addressing last week's flooding and drawing up a rat reduction plan.

Council began tackling the issues at a session that started Wednesday morning and could stretch until Friday. This is the last council meeting of the summer before a break until October, with councillors set to meet only once in early September to discuss important matters.

Here's what to watch for during the session: 

Council hits the gas on accelerated Gardiner plan

Councillors began considering a plan from city staff to speed up work on the Gardiner Expressway on Wednesday morning. That came hours after a joint announcement by Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria and Mayor Olivia Chow revealed the province will provide up to $73 million if construction is done 24/7. 

Work started in March to refurbish the 60-year-old highway and portions of its elevated structure that run through the city's downtown core. The $300-million construction project is part of a larger multi-billion dollar effort to save the aging structure and will require lane closures over next three years to complete, snarling traffic for commuters.

The accelerated proposal includes extending working hours, adding additional crews and equipment, as well as providing temporary lighting for additional night work. 

Several councillors questioned city staff on increased noise that may affect local residents if construction is accelerated. 

Staff said they have already received noise complaints as construction progressed from the west end to the more residential areas in the east end.

Coun. Brad Bradford questioned Chow on why the fast-tracked approach wasn't the original plan brought forward. 

Chow responded that the procurement was done in 2022, prior to her time in office and before the city received the provincial funding boost. 

"Procurement was done in October 2022 while you were there – while you were busy collecting emails for your campaign, maybe," she said to Bradford.

The jab was a reference to a recent report from Toronto's integrity commissioner that Bradford broke ethics rules by improperly using constituent emails for campaign purposes during the 2023 mayoral byelection. 

Chow added she's "been working very hard right now" to secure funding to rebuild the Gardiner faster. 

"These deals don't just fall off from coconut trees," she said. 

Before Wednesday's council meeting, Bradford has been critical of how the city has approached the latest phase of the project, stressing that it involves a busy western portion of the expressway between Dufferin Street and Strachan Avenue. That should have necessitated a different plan, he has said.

"You can't have a cookie-cutter off-the-shelf approach and do the same thing you did on other sections that didn't have the same type of traffic volume," he said on Tuesday.

City manager to produce rat action plan by next summer 

Councillors carried a motion Wednesday directing the city manager to develop an action plan to reduce rats in Toronto. 

Some councillors have said major construction projects and climate change are contributing to a growing pest problem.

Councillors on the city's infrastructure committee earlier this month asked a broad swath of city department heads to create the strategy. Coun. Alejandra Bravo said that the large volume of construction projects around the city are disturbing rats, causing them to emerge from underground tunnels and burrows.

"Let's get ahead of it and have a construction plan that actually deals with rats before they come into our neighbourhoods and into our communities," Bravo said. 

The committee is directing the city manager and medical officer of health, among other top civil servants, to report back by next summer with a rat action plan. Councillors are also asking the city manager to consult with other North American cities on their approach to rat reduction. 

Bravo said Peel Region and the City of Ottawa have created rat reduction strategies. So too have cities like New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C. She said Toronto can learn from all of them as it creates its own unique approach.

The city says 311 calls about rodent issues left unaddressed by property owners or landlords have been increasing.

There were nearly 940 property standards-related rodent service requests to the city in 2019. Those numbers dipped during the pandemic, but jumped back up to over 1,400 complaints in 2022. They increased again in 2023 to nearly 1,600 calls. 

Up to the end of June this year, 311 has received almost 780 calls.

Chow asks staff for storm water flooding solutions

Chow and Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie have asked city staff to report back on storm water mitigation programs in light of the impacts of last week's storm. City council is also set to debate that motion this week, with an eye to helping identify more ways to help homeowners and businesses avoid flooding.

Chow said earlier this week she wouldn't rule out the city taking additional steps to help those affected by the severe storms, including food banks which have suffered damages and the unhoused who have been impacted by the storm.

"The flood is hard on everyone, especially those that don't have a home, especially those that need to find food in a food bank," she said. "So, we'll see what we can do to assist that."