Etobicoke residents demand answers after unfinished City of Toronto street project

Several residents who live on Coney Road and various side streets off of Royal York Road north of The Queensway in Etobicoke have been doing what they can to boost curb appeal.

“We take a lot of pride in our front yards and work every spring to spruce things up,” said homeowner Wendy, who asked that we not use her last name.

But their work can only go so far this year following a road construction project launched last summer.

“[It] included this road and various others around here being paved along with some of the driveways between the sidewalk and the road,” she said.

During the project, crews had to dig deeper culverts along the sides of the street and in some cases tore up existing grass on homeowners’ properties.

“Mine is one of them,” Wendy said.

“I understand that the City has the ability to go onto my property and do work that needs to be done, and they did that and I accept that, but they never came back to re-sod the culverts or our yards and now we’re left with just dirt.”

Notices sent out to Coney Road homeowners indicated the work was to be completed before the end of 2024.

“I don’t want to wait for them anymore because I’ve been waiting for them since last fall. It’s now beyond early spring and they haven’t come back to do it,” she said.

Wendy and a group of other neighbours said they tried to get answers from City of Toronto officials.

“I called 311 a couple of times to try to get somebody. They had trouble even locating the project,” Wendy said.

“I also contacted the field ambassador. He said he would get back to me. He has not.”

Frustrated, they reached out to Speakers Corner

“We appreciate you coming out because really the goal here is just to get the work done,” she said.

In response, Coun. Amber Morley told CityNews she escalated the issue with both the contractor hired by the City of Toronto and municipal staff.

“I am pleased to share that City staff have confirmed that this work will start this week and be completed by June 16, weather pending,” she said.

Just days after Speakers Corner looked into the issue, Wendy said she had a visitor.

“The consultant rep. came by our house and asked what we wanted done. (They) said they are coming this week to do the work, looks like you got their attention,” she told us in an updated text message. 

“It’s just a bit disappointing that the City doesn’t respond when residents of the city like myself want to know what’s happening with things that are going on in their area.”

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