A ground-breaking Etobicoke organics processing plant is being expanded to handle our City’s growing garbage disposal issues.

A huge expansion is planned for the Disco Road Organics Processing Facility (OPF), at 120 Disco Road, which processes 75,000 tonnes of organics yearly using state-of-the-art pre-processing system and anaerobic digestion (AD).

AD is a process by which organic materials in an enclosed vessel are broken down by micro-organisms in the absence of oxygen. AD produces bio-gas which can be used to heat City buildings, according to a report.

Many residents may know the Disco site because it also serves as a transfer station, outdoor areas for yard waste composting and a drop-off depot for    household hazardous waste and electronic waste.

The City’s Solid Waste Management Services on March 13 called on an Infrastructure and Environment Committee to expand the Disco Road facility as a more cost-effective measure rather than building a new plant.

“Expanding the existing Disco OPF would be the most cost-effective way to increase the City’s organics processing capacity versus building a new facility,” according to a report.

It said the expansion will allow the City to increase its organics processing capacity at Disco OPF from 75,000 tonnes per year up to 140,000 tonnes per year

“Expansion of the Disco OPF would take advantage of existing infrastructure and known technology, reducing both risk and costs of the project,” according to the City.

The expansion, which has been approved by the City, is expected to cost millions of dollars and possibly hire more local workers.

The City is responsible for the collection, transport, processing and disposal of over 900,000 tonnes of waste a year. This includes garbage, Blue Bin recycling, Green Bin organics, yard waste, oversized and metal items, household hazardous waste and electronic waste that requires a sophisticated network of facilities.

The City collects about 170,000 tonnes of organic material through its Green Bin organics program each year. There are two state-of-the-art organics processing facilities at Disco Road and Dufferin that use innovative pre-processing and anaerobic digestion technology.

The City has seven transfer stations where waste is collected, sorted and then transferred to various processing or disposal facilities, which include the Disco Road Organics Processing Facility, Dufferin Organics Processing Facility, Material Recovery Facility and Green Lane Landfill.

The City in 2016 won a Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) Silver Excellence Award in the Composting category for the Disco Road Facility.

South Etobicoke resident Evgenia Yaremchuk is a former fine art and history professor from Kharkiv, Ukraine, who just celebrated her first year in Canada.

She fled here as a refugee claimant to escape her war-torn homeland, where many of her family members still live.

Yaremchuk loves painting lighthouses from all over the world, in addition to lovely portraits of people, children and pets.

She describes herself as a “lighthouse,” one of the thousands of Ukrainians who resettled abroad leaving everything behind to escape the deadly war in their homeland.

Her lighthouse series of paintings represent places where Ukrainian war refugees have settled around the world, seeking help and helping others.

“It’s difficult to lose your home and life due to war, learn a new language and try to get a job,” Yaremchuk said of her new life in Canada.

She enjoys the peace and safety that this country offers.

“I purchase paintings of lighthouses to help her pay her rent,” said South Etobicoke resident Christina. “She also does lovely paintings of pets, family members and landscapes.”

She can be reached on Instagram at instagram.com/yaremchuk.evgenia

Spring must be here as training has begun for volunteers to protect and monitor endangered baby turtles at Colonel Sam Smith and other parks.

The Friends of Sam Smith Park (FSSP) are training volunteers this month on protecting the baby turtles which make their way from nesting locations to a nearby wetland pond to feed and grow.

The hatchlings are eaten by predators as they make their way from wire protected nesting locations to the pond.

The group has joined forces with the Indigenous led Turtle Protectors of High Park to form Turtle Protectors – Sam Smith Park.

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We started our own programme protecting and monitoring Snapping Turtle nests in Sam Smith in 2023,” FSSP said on its website.

“We were successful in safely helping nearly a hundred hatchlings on their perilous journey to the water in the wetland pond – good news for this species at risk!”

Training sessions for volunteers will continue on April 13 and 20 at the park.

The turtle volunteers are taught how to respond to turtle nesting calls; install a nest protector; nesting site locations; some turtle behaviours and life cycle.

Ontario’s at risk turtle species are the Blanding’s turtle, eastern musk turtle, painted turtle, northern map turtle, snapping turtle, spiny softshell, spotted turtle and the eastern box turtle.

The hatchlings are preyed upon while trying to reach water sources by otters, minks, raccoons, foxes, skunks and opossums.

The Toronto Zoo is seeking almost $5 million for an expansion of a tiger boardwalk to hopefully attract more visitors.

Some $4.8 million is being sought from the City to complete a tiger boardwalk and habitat at the zoo, which is one of the largest in the world.

“The Zoo is requesting that the City reallocate funding from other cost centres to support this additional work,” according to the Board of Management of the Toronto Zoo. “Reallocations will be from projects that are either under budget or have scope revisions resulting in budget variances.”

The Board of Management last October authorized Facilities and Infrastructure officials to enter into an agreement for a Tiger Winter Accessibility, Tiger Boardwalk and Habitat Expansion project.

Zoo officials said the funds will allow them to expand the Zoo’s boardwalk system to connect a Core Woods Hill Boardwalk and the Tiger Boardwalk.

“This connection would improve guest flow and alleviate heavily congested areas during peak season,” according to a report.

It said the addition will provide guests ‘a unique canopy walk experience with a design that protects the environmentally sensitive area found at the core of our site.’

The Board said a separate Africa Village project which was approved in 2024 requires an accessible and elevated washroom connected to the boardwalk.

A memorial was held at the Zoo in August last year after a beloved tiger named Mila, which was moved a Colorado Zoo, had to be administered with anesthesia after it fell from a bench and suffered spinal injuries.

The Toronto Zoo is situated in a 710 acre park that was opened in 1974 and ranks as one of the largest zoos in the world. It replaced the overcrowded and outdated municipal Toronto Zoo at Riverdale.

Among the tigers in captivity at the zoo includes Sumatran tigers Hari and Kemala, who share a space with Amur tiger roommate, Mazy.

The zoo attracts about 1.2 million guests each year.

GO Train service will be back on track at 5 p.m. after Long Branch, Mimico and Exhibition GO Stations were closed for four days due to construction.

The stations will open on March 25 as Metrolinx upgraded the rail network.

The company said Metrolinx’s GO Expansion program is delivering more service across the network, including trains every 15-minutes or better on the Lakeshore West Rail Corridor.

“To support GO Expansion, we are upgrading the rail network and our GO stations to enable more frequent and fully accessible service,” Metrolinx said.

It said during the closure Long Branch’s Track 3 was realigned and the south-west platform widened. Access to the station from Edgeware Drive will resume and station parking lots will reopen.

Metrolinx said micro-piling took place at the station at the beginning of March, which entailed 12 micro-piles being drilled, with a steel bar placed inside the hole and filled with concrete for the installation of temporary rail bridges to maintain rail service during construction.

It said temporary rail bridges will be installed on April 15 and is slated to take two months. Most work will take place from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Customers at Sherway Gardens were horrified to see a massive police presence at the popular mall a couple days ago.

Toronto Police are investigating a second smash and grab robbery of a jewelry store around 8:30 p.m. on March 21.

Toronto-area police are probing at least 12 incidents in the last couple months in which glass display cases were smashed and expensive jewelry grabbed by masked thieves who fled.

It is believed the same high-end Sherway jewelry store was robbed two months ago by the same three suspects.

Police said during the most recent heist three masked suspects entered the store and one man used a hammer to smash display cases.

It is believed another man threatened store employees to prevent the theft from being discovered.

“An unknown amount of property was obtained,” police said.

The three suspects were seen leaving the mall in a white SUV, police and witnesses said.

Luckily, there were no injuries.

The same store was robbed last January 17 by three suspects, who again smashed display cases and stole expensive jewelry.

In that incident the thieves struck around 5:20 p.m. when the store was busy.

Jewelry store robberies, particularly within malls, have been increasing, with numerous incidents reported in Mississauga and Brampton.

Two youths, one aged 18 and another 16, were arrested by Peel Regional Police for a string of similar robbery of jewelry stores in the Brampton and Mississauga areas.

And four others were arrested last February by police after a similar robbery at an Oshawa jewelry store in which more than $100,000 worth of expensive goods were stolen.

All four were young offenders.

Five others are sought by police for the last February hammer-wielding robbery of a jewelry store at Yorkdale Mall.

Last year was one of the hottest on record and it is not getting any better.

The City warns that climate change is causing weather that is hotter, wetter and wilder and the conditions are expected to worsen.

The number of extreme heat days yearly with temperatures above 30°C has already increased from an average of 8 days in the 1950s to about 18 days a year now.

The warnings come from a Climate Change Readiness report by the City’s Environment and Climate Division that was presented on March 13 to an Infrastructure and Environment Committee.

It said for every $1 of insured losses, Canadians pay an additional $3 to $4 on uninsured losses such as time lost from work, loss in property value and environmental clean-up.

By 2025, Canadians will lose about $700 from their annual income due the extreme weather, as supply-chain disruptions increase grocery prices, home insurance premiums go up, and taxes increase to pay for disaster recovery and infrastructure repairs.

It said the dangers of a changing climate could add more than $4 billion per year to the cost of maintaining Ontario’s public infrastructure over the rest of the century.

The report cited the 2023 wildfires led to more than 150,000 Canadians being displaced, and the health cost for Ontario of the harmful air pollution from these fires is estimated at $1.28 billion.

The report states that if global emissions remain on their current path it could increase from 29 extreme heat days by the 2030s, to 54 days by the 2060s.

It said by 2080 Toronto will experience an increase in annual precipitation of 19 per cent, and extreme rainstorms with 30 per cent more than ever, which will lead to flooding, infrastructure damage, injuries, habitat degradation, degraded water quality, soil erosion and disruptions to services and the economy.

“Over the past year, extreme heat, wildfire, flooding, and storm events in Toronto, across Canada, and globally further illustrated how harmful and costly these events can be to residents and the assets and services that support them,” according to the study.

The impacts of climate change unfairly affects people who already have challenges coping.

“The City is leading at the cutting-edge of work to reduce emissions in Toronto,” the report states.

It said the Toronto is working to reduce emissions as more heat pumps are required for homes to run on clean electricity. It is also greening its corporate fleet with electric vehicles that will lead to 45 per cent in emission reduction and the TTC is also planning for a zero-emissions bus fleet by 2037.

The goal of net zero emissions by 2040 is at risk unless the City, other levels of government, residents and businesses support and invest to tackle climate challenge.

“Toronto strives to remain a livable and vibrant City for all,” according to the report. “The potential for climate change to negatively affect the City and its residents is clear.”

City officials reported that from 2005 to 2017 there were four rainstorms, an ice storm, high lake and windstorm events that cost the City $228 million. A recent Ontario study estimated a proactive approach would save $1.1 billion yearly.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada reported dramatic increases in weather-related catastrophic losses over the last decade. It noted 2022 and 2023 were two of the most expensive years for insured losses ranging up to $3.4 billion.

“Toronto Public Health in 2023 identified climate change as a significant and growing health risk facing the City,” the City said.

Construction is underway for a new massive community-based Etobicoke Civic Centre (ECC), which will feature cutting edge technology.

The City’s CreateTO said the contract to construct the centre was awarded last December to Multiplex Construction Canada and work is slated to begin this month.

The 46,500 square metre project is expected to be completed in 2028, with staff moving in by December.

It said Adamson Associates Architects of Toronto, Henning Larsen Architects of Copenhagen and PMA Landscape Architects of Toronto were selected as the winning design team for the project.

“To date, a feasibility study, schematic design and detailed design have been completed,” according to CreateTO. The Centre will have four buildings, with the tallest at 16 storeys.

Once completed the Centre will have a recreation centre, municipal offices, market office space, an outdoor civic square, medical clinic, childcare centre, a café, public art gallery and a new Toronto Public Library district branch.

The recreation centre is proposed to have a gymnasium, aquatic centre, multi-purpose rooms and fitness rooms, according to plans.

Council Chamber will be located on the first floor directly above the main entrance and will be highly visible from the Civic Square. The second level of the building will house a child centre outdoor playground and a wedding chapel roof terrace.

“The new ECC will contribute positively to the area and be the jewel of the Etobicoke Centre,” city officials said, adding a number of city services will be housed there.

It said the Centre will be the cornerstone of a complete community on six hectares of City-owned lands at the former Westwood Theatre Lands, at Bloor Street W., and Kipling Avenue. It will anchor a new residential and retail area with as many as 2,700 homes, 900 of which will meet Toronto’s affordable housing criteria.

The Six Points area was originally a web of roads until the city began work on a new intersection in 2017. This work cost $77 million and involved the demolition of bridges and creation of regular intersections between Kipling Avenue, Bloor Street W., and Dundas Street West.

The spacious Civic Centre will cost about $526 million to build.

Canada Post is warning about the most recent package delivery scam that is targeting innocent online shoppers at this time of the year.

They warn that scammers will send a text message posing as the Canadian postal service, falsely informing recipients that the item they ordered online has reached the warehouse, but cannot be delivered due to an incomplete address.

The fraudulent message then urges individuals to confirm their address by clicking on a provided link.

Once customers press on the link, they are exposed to having their personal information stolen, investigators said.

Shoppers are being told that the message appears as a legitimate Canada Post notice and they are urged to conduct a Google search on the phone number or on a company name if attached.

Police said this is an example of  “smishing,” which is a variation of phishing schemes.

In this scam, fraudsters pretend to be businesses, government agencies, banks, or utility companies urgently requesting individuals to verify personal information such as name, address, birth date, banking account details, and Social Insurance Number.

If you respond, the information can be exploited for identity fraud.

Canada Post said on their website that they see similar messages circulating the region frequently and are reminding customers that such messages and should be deleted.

We will never reach out to you by text message to request credit card or banking information, account information such as your password, or payments to release deliveries and/or see updated tracking information,” the website  states.

Customers are warned to look out for a full 10-digit phone number, not a 5 or 6-digit SMS short code like 272727 or 55555.

They should exercise caution if the message conveys urgency, claiming a delivery is on hold due to unpaid fees or an unsuccessful delivery attempt.

Watch for poor grammar and typos in the message or company name.

Verify the legitimacy of a link by ensuring it directs to the official Canada Post webpage with the domain “canadapost-postescanada.ca.”

And to avoid downloading any files from links in suspicious messages.