The City of Toronto is reviewing how it uses its city-owned golf courses. Three of those golf courses interrupt multi-use trails through parks and ravines. Walk Toronto has written to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee to support converting parts of those courses to parkland to remove these interruptions to the trail network, while maintaining some municipal golf facilities in the remaining areas.
In particular, the staff report recommends converting some of the Dentonia Park golf course to parkland, which would enable connecting the Taylor-Massey Creek and Warden Woods trails. However, the local city councillors came out against this plan. As a result, Walk Toronto’s Dylan Reid gave a deputation at the committee meeting in support of the Dentonia Park plan.
- Read Walk Toronto’s communication to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee (PDF)
- See the agenda item
- Read Dylan Reid’s deputation, below.
Deputation to IEC on item IE27.6, January 11, 2022
My name is Dylan Reid, and I am here representing Walk Toronto. Walk Toronto is a volunteer advocacy group dedicated to making Toronto a great city for walking.
Walk Toronto strongly supports the proposal to turn part of the Dentonia Park golf course into a public park, while maintaining a smaller golf course. The Dentonia Park golf course currently interrupts the city’s ravine trail network, separating the Taylor-Massey Creek trail from the Warden Woods trail.
Bringing part of the golf course into the public park network will enable the city to extend the Taylor-Massey Creek trail and link it up with the Warden Woods trail, creating a continuous trail from inside Scarborough all the way to the downtown waterfront that provides a free space for recreation for the nearby communities and for all Torontonians.
We certainly support the value of golf, which encourages walking, but the proposal would maintain an affordable golf course suited to learners and casual players, and suited to an urban environment.
The pandemic has shown the value of free, accessible park land, and spaces for walking in nature, for Torontonians, especially those who live in multi-unit residences and do not have access to private yards. The proposal to convert part of Dentonia Park golf course into parkland would create more space that can be accessed for free, for a variety of recreational purposes. It would create a safe, off-road route for such recreation that links Scarborough and East York. It is particularly appropriate because the immediate community around it is identified as high on the Equity-Deserving Index and in need of additional free public facilities.
The proposal would also support the City’s new ravine strategy. The City is investing considerable time and money to establish ravine trail connections where they are missing, such as the new East Don trail. It would be a tragedy to overlook this unique opportunity to continue the work of connecting up Toronto’s ravine trails, with a much simpler project.
The proposal for turning part of Dentonia Park into public parkland is a compromise that maintains access to a City golf course while providing new free public parkland and connecting up a gap in Toronto’s ravine trail network. We urge the committee to support it.
Thank you.
