An Indigenous-led coalition is once again calling for a 1.5km stretch of the long-awaited Eglinton Crosstown West Extension (ECWE) to be buried to protect local green space.
Local youth agency ENAGB, along with community and park associations, will halt construction with a blockade that could last “days or months” if demands are not met, the coalition said in a press release.
“This is serious. And I personally don’t want to start blockades, but if I have to, then I may have to,” said ENAGB Local Youth Agency Executive Director Cynthia Bell.
“Today we just want to prove to Metrolinx that we have an impact on their construction if they don’t come to the table.”
Local councillors, elders and youth joined Stop the Trains in Our Parks and the Mount Dennis Community Association on Saturday for a protest at Eglinton Flats, an area in the Humber floodplain that has parks and green spaces that Metrolinx plans to build for ECWE.
ECWE, an extension by Metrolinx to bring the Eglinton Crosstown LRT an additional 9.2 kilometers further west, is billed as a continuous rapid transit line from Toronto’s east end to Mississauga that is expected to provide 37,000 trips daily.
The groups raised concerns about the potential impact on nearby youth programs and the removal of “thousands” of trees to make way for the elevated track between Scarlett Road and Jane Street as early as this spring, the release said.
It’s the latest move to convince the transit agency to abandon its plan to tunnel underground instead of through it. This past summer, residents asked Metrolinx to reconsider the elevated track because of its impact on park use and vulnerable species in the area.
The project will not “encroach” on ENAGB territory: Metrolinx
Indigenous youth agency ENAGB, also known as Eshkiniigjik Naandwechigegamig, Aabiish Gaa Binjibaaying, which means “A place to heal our youth, where did we come from?” says it provides cultural, employment programs and other programs for Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth in Toronto .
He hosts some of them on a plot of land near the Humber River that has been licensed by the City of Toronto. If the above-ground construction continues, the release said, current and future plans for the space are in jeopardy.
“We’re going to fight, you know, for what we think is right,” said Kiana Johnston-Palmer, a young person with ENAGB, a local youth agency.
“That’s what we believe in — it should go underground.”
Residents and advocates gathered at 101 Emmett Avenue on Saturday to protest Metrolinx’s plans to build an elevated track on the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension through the local green space. (Spencer Galichan-Lowe/CBC)
A Wednesday letter to the ENAGB Local Youth Agency from Metrolinx chairman Donald Wright said ECWE “will not encroach on the ENAGB parcel of land” and that Metrolinx is committed to working with the agency to “mitigate other construction impacts.”
But Bell says that’s not enough.
“We’re not sellouts,” Bell said.
“We still have to protect our relatives – the plants, the animals, the trees, the river, the environment.”
Metrolinx is doubling down on a higher plan
A statement from Metrolinx to CBC Toronto confirmed the transit agency is moving ahead with its plan for an elevated track in the area because construction in an identified flood zone that has “experienced historic levels of flooding over the years” poses unique challenges to underground construction.
“This would be more complex, more time-consuming and more disruptive to the community than an elevated option,” the statement said.
Eglinton Flats is located in the floodplain of the Humber River, home to several threatened or endangered species and parks. (Mount Dennis TV/Youtube) He notes that he has “incorporated feedback” from the community and has limited tree removals on the south side of Eglinton Avenue West and is committed to working with ENAGB and the community for their input.
The agency’s demands were also communicated to the Ford government, the coalition said in a statement. York South West MPP Michael Ford campaigned to help residents make their case on the issue during the last provincial election.
“Our government has been and will continue to engage and consult with communities about the project and work together to see how we can deliver it in a way that maximizes benefits and minimizes impacts as far as possible,” said a statement from MPP Michael Ford’s office.
The project, expected to cost more than $4 billion, is scheduled to be completed in 2030-31. In its last public update in October, Metrolinx said construction of the front wall for Kipling Avenue and Islington stations would be completed in the spring of 2023
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