Mayor's Note: April 25, 2026

Little Norway park has been a part of our city for decades.

Kids, parents, grandparents, neighbours… spending their long summer days outside, together.

On any given weekend, this park is full. Baseball leagues, soccer matches, fitness classes, kids in the wading pool, families on the grass.

This is not an empty piece of land. This park is alive. It is loved. It belongs to this community.

And the province wants to pave it into a parking lot.

On Thursday, the Provincial Government introduced legislation to seize this land — without our consent, without a plan, without even telling Torontonians what they intend to build.

We haven’t seen a proposal for airport expansion.

When a government doesn’t like the answer it gets from 3 million people, and just takes what it wants, that’s not democracy. That’s a power grab.

And here is what should frighten every Toronto resident: if they can do this to Little Norway, they can do it to any park, in any neighbourhood, in this city.

Yesterday, Toronto City Council fought back. We passed motions to challenge this legislation — including pursuing legal action — and to notify every resident in this neighbourhood directly.

We are not done.

To the province: you do not get to erase this park without a fight.

To the people standing here today, and to every Torontonian: we need your voice. Talk to your neighbours. Show up. Make noise.

This park belongs to you — and we are going to keep it that way.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Yours,

Mayor Olivia Chow

Sign the Petition

I have known about 500 Dawes Rd. for years. Many publications have covered the conditions at the building, and Toronto Life did an in-depth investigation into the landlord in 2023.

In August last year, I visited in person. Residents were skeptical, and rightly so. The local councillor has been absent. I went from unit to unit, invited into people’s homes. They did not express embarrassment or shame, but despair and anger.

Unsafe balconies with broken railings.

Walls crumbling from perpetual water damage.

Mice droppings causing leptospirosis.

A mother crying over her son’s asthma attacks.

A flooded basement for over a year.

Mold.

Finally, the City is able to step in. Remedial Action is a tool that we have not been able to use before, because of the legal hurdles and lack of political will from past Mayors and an absent local councillor. Over my term I have been pushing this work ahead, and my recent motions at City Council were able to get us over the final obstacles. We have challenged the landlord in court, and won. We are fining the landlord $200,000, and are starting over $100,000 in repairs that she will also be charged for.

This case is precedent setting. We will be able to take more landlords to court, and use Remedial Action at other buildings.

I will not tolerate slumlords in Toronto.

I’m advancing the Scarborough East Rapid Transit Line.

50,000 people who live within walking distance of this line.

Right now, getting to the U of T Scarborough campus means taking a subway to Kennedy, transferring to a bus, and enduring a commute that is far longer than it needs to be.

Scarborough residents have put up with that for decades. They deserve fast, reliable, affordable transit — and they deserve it now.

When we push hard, we can get deals done.

Now is the time to turn up the volume on Scarborough.

We have already invested $18 million in design work for this line. Today, I am asking Council to add another $10 million to keep that work moving forward — because the stronger our design, the stronger our case when we sit down with the province and Ottawa.

We have our one-third of the funding ready.

We have the community on side.

We are pushing ahead on design.

We need the provincial and federal governments to join us.