Some Yorkville homeowners upset by proposed 11-storey long-term care home addition
CBC
A long-term care home in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood has cleared one more hurdle to add desperately needed beds to its property, a move that's been praised by housing advocates but opposed by locals concerned about the impact on the neighbourhood.
An 11-storey addition to Belmont House was approved at a Toronto and East York Community Council meeting last week. If approved by Toronto city council next month, the project will add more than 200 spaces to the facility at a time when Ontario faces a shortage of more than 40,000 long-term care beds.
Housing advocates say the addition, which will include 168 long-term care beds and 30 assisted living units, will help tackle a growing crisis and decrease Ontario's waitlist.
"It's a win across the board," said Mark Richardson, technical lead at HousingNowTO. "We need 9,000 long-term care beds just within the city of Toronto alone. This is an option to reuse a space."
Ontario's population is aging fast, he said, and extra LTC space is needed wherever it can be found.
A 2024 report conducted by health economists found the number of people aged 75 and up in the province is expected to rise by 350,000 by 2029.
But the plan has drawn heavy opposition, particularly from people living on Belmont Street.
At last week's council meeting, many neighbouring residents raised concerns that the new build would slow traffic during construction, remove green space and bring unwanted shade onto other houses on the street. Several said the addition was also out of character with the historic homes in the neighbourhood.
"This building is big, ugly and has no business being built so close to residential homes," Scott Cameron, a homeowner on Belmont Street, told council at the Jan. 14 meeting.
The ABC Residents Association, a volunteer group in the Yorkville neighbourhood, wrote a letter to city planner Carl Geiger on behalf of concerned homeowners in December, asking that the addition be built on another part of the Belmont House property, away from residential housing.
"We are concerned that the input from nearby residents about the significant impacts and possible alternatives to the current proposal have not been fully appreciated or addressed," co-chairs Ian Carmichael and John Caliendo wrote in the letter.
They say the addition should be built on the Davenport Avenue side of the Belmont House grounds. But the city, and the lead architect, say that's not possible.
Architect Robert Davies of Montgomery Sisam, the firm leading the project, told council that the current plan was the only feasible option for adding more beds.
Davies said the firm has been studying the site since 2002 to see how more LTC beds can be added, and the current plan is the only one that fits all Ministry of Long-Term Care requirements while also fitting into the existing operations of the facility.
It was just a few months ago that U.S. President Donald Trump told the world he doesn’t want Canadian cars.
Flu cases across Canada are on the rise and may push hospitals to their limits over the holidays and into the new year, leading health officials in regions across the country to warn people not to visit emergency rooms unless it's absolutely necessary.
More than 30 years after Canada's military allowed women to serve in combat roles, it's now specifically designing uniforms and body armour to fit their bodies.
The holiday season has arrived in Thunder Bay, and that means reduced hours, or closures, for businesses, city offices, and other amenities.
As Toronto’s food scene continues to grow, some in the industry say the pool of professional chefs hasn’t kept up with demand.
Police have charged a truck driver from the Hamilton area in a hit-and-run crash that killed a tow truck operator who had been stopped while helping a driver on the side of Highway 401 outside Woodstock, Ont.
Power has been restored to most of Haines Junction after a problem earlier on Monday at the local generating station.
A 56-year-old man will return to court on Tuesday for a charge of second-degree murder, laid in a case London police have called an act of femicide.
The chairman of the committee leading Newfoundland and Labrador's independent review of the Churchill Falls memorandum of understanding with Quebec is backing the impartiality of his three-man team.
The province has taken a major step toward restarting its onshore natural gas industry.
Allan Legere, serving a life sentence at a maximum security prison in Alberta, has been denied a request for full parole.
Winnipeg’s Granite Curling Club has asked a judge to decide whether the City of Winnipeg can ignore a provincial decision about residential housing slated to rise next to the club.
A Saskatoon woman says she watched her neighbour's police standoff play out in real time on social media.