Here’s a summary of approved Section 37 spending in Ward 13 during 2024, totalling $4.93 million (funds meant to be spent on public art, parks, housing and heritage conservation). There is no longer any annual reporting to summarize Section 37 spending by ward. Approval of individual amounts is recorded in innumerable City Council motions; notifications of these expenditures are buried in an e-newsletter “City Council – Items of Interest” sent by Councillor Moise a few days before each month’s City Council meeting. (Learn more about section 37.)
- Jan: $300,000 ($300 k) to rename Yonge-Dundas Square
- March: $230 k in community improvements: $80 k for Corktown-themed tree guardstree guards and $150 k for planters to enhance disused parking laybys on Bayview Avenue
$3.2 k for bike parking, $1.8 k for heritage street signs and $205 k for St. Lawrence Market Neighbourhood BIA projects (planters, street banners, street furniture)
$660k for
bump outs on St. Joseph St ($150k), $350k for Barbara Hall Park Dog Off-Leash Area ($350k), mural above Wellesley Station ($80k), and two murals on St. Luke Lane ($80.5k)
$40 k for painted pedestrian crossings (rescinded in June) - May: $375 k for Dixon Hall, 58 Sumach (apparently, in addition to the $500 k given in March 2023)
$500 k for Elizabeth Fry, 215 Wellesley E
$433 k for a Regent Park Storage Shed and Zamboni Storage Hut
$850 k for public realm upgrades and park expansion into the Labatt Avenue Right-of-Way, see note 1 - June: rescinded $40 k to Revitalize Trans Flag-Coloured Pedestrian Crossings
$315 k to shift 519 Church garbage storage from north side to the back of the building (modifying previous 2021 motion) - July: $816 k for Inglenook school streetscape improvements
- Oct: $20 k for custom vinyl-wraps on 6 garbage receptacles in Old Town Toronto BIA
- Nov: $707 k to help pay for rebuilding the Glen Road Pedestrian Bridge
This seems like a large sum of money which doesn’t appear on the city’s annual budget; are there any rules limiting how Section 37 money is to be spent? There was previously a bridge at this location; the city decided to replace it – does that qualify as a “community benefit”?
(See Ward 13 spending in prior years.)
Participatory Budgeting allows Ward 13 residents to suggest and then vote on how funds are spent within their community. In 2024, the Councillor decided to make $750,000 available for neighbourhood enhancements within each of the 6 zones in Ward 13. This is funded via Community Benefits Charges (CBCs), which replaced Section 37 density bonusing, effective August 2023.
As of Jan 2020, Ward 13 had a Section 37 unspent balance of $84 million! Since then, substantial (but unknown) amounts have been added to this balance, as developers started work on previously approved developments. Ward 13’s large Section 37 balance also earns interest each year. From 2020 to 2023, developers continued to sign more Section 37 agreements, as new projects were approved. Some (unknown) amounts of Ward 13 Section 37 funds have been spent. But no consolidated reporting of amounts collected or spent, since 2020. In addition to Participatory Budgeting projects voted by residents, Councillor Moise also requests City Council approval to spent Section 37 funds on projects that he decides.
Notes
- From 1-25 Defries St planning report: “The proposed public park on the south side of the site adjacent to Labatt Avenue will be connected with a planned public park on the Labatt Avenue right-of-way, which is a currently a dead-end. These two connected parks will connect to a public open space area on the east side of the building, which provides a required 10-metre buffer from a proposed long-term stable top-of- bank of the Don Valley. This open space buffer area will be publicly accessible and include a pedestrian/cycle path that will lead to a path down the slope of the Don Valley to Bayview Avenue where it will connect with a planned sidewalk along the west side of Bayview Avenue that will extend south approximately 300 metres to an existing sidewalk on Bayview Avenue south of Queen Street East.”