Woodgreen Ravine Background

As some background to the Woodgreen Ravine issue, here is a copy of my letter to the editor of the Scarborough Mirror in 2006. Woodgreen Ravine is located behind the 43 Division Police station at Lawrence and Manse Road.

THE FOLLOWING LETTER WAS SEND TO THE SCARBOROUGH MIRROR ON MAY 21, 2006, IN RESPONSE TO THEIR EDITORIAL OF MAY 17, 2006.

Thank you for your Editorial of May 17, questioning the manner in which City council has treated the Manse Road property in contrast to Wanita field.

That the City of Toronto’s Policy and Finance committee has unanimously approved the sale of the Manse field, as an affordable housing project, without any debate is beyond belief. I am pleased that the Wanita property has been approved for purchase by the City as an act of considerable environmental prudence; but the Wanita property, although important as the headwaters of Centennial Creek, is essentially a field of grass and there is no comparison with the rich biological diversity of the Manse property.

Mayor Miller has just recently been honoured as one of the Greenest Mayors in North America. Where was his voice, where was his influence being felt, during the Policy and Finance Committee’s deliberations? That is, if a vote without any debate can be considered a deliberation.

It is not too late for the Mayor to use his considerable influence on behalf of Scarborough residents as he did in defense of downtown residents who were threatened by an expansion of the Island Airport.

It is not too late for City Council to have a closer look at how it came about that environmental concerns have become pitted against social concerns in this distant area of Toronto, when there was no need for such a battle.

It is not too late for WRP, as a religious community, and Habitat for Humanity, as a social community reliant on the good will of our citizens for its support, to refuse to allow a callous manipulation of their moral cause to be used to do environmental harm to the community in which they propose to build. First, do no harm, people. It isn’t as if there are no other City properties available for their project, where their work would, in fact, enhance the environment. The three-year battle they have been thrust into by the City has served only to delay providing affordable housing to those desperately in need.

It is not too late for the residents of Scarborough to stand up with the people in the Manse community and demand of City Hall the same level of serious concern for their environment and the quality of their life as are accorded to those who live in the Downtown core.

Scarborough is comprised of generous and tolerant people. The West Hill area in which the Manse property is located has already one of the densest areas of subsidized housing in the City, while suffering a comparative lack of appropriate social services.

This is a project that makes no environmental sense, no social sense and no moral sense.

It is not too late for reason to prevail here; but it does require people to stop and listen and think. Before it is too late.