Queen West businesses plead with the city to delay track repairs until after holiday season

The City of Toronto has shortened its schedule for repairing streetcar tracks on Queen West following a plea from local businesses, but owners say it’s not enough to save their holiday earnings.

Crews are set to replace TTC streetcar tracks between Spadina Avenue and Niagara Street starting Thursday. A road closure along Queen Street had been planned to last three weeks.

City staff tell CityNews they now anticipate finishing construction on Dec. 6 rather than the original date of completion, which was Dec. 15.

Businesses that have already struggled over the last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic had asked the City to delay the construction until after the holiday shopping season altogether.

In a letter to Mayor John Tory, one business owner said any construction that begins now, “will irrevocably harm businesses.”

In-person shopping was not allowed last holiday season due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“There are already so many vacant stores and restaurants and this will exacerbate things much, much further,” read the letter from Janet Wright, who owns Floor Play Socks.

She told CityNews she and other business owners have been watching the fortunes of shops along Queen Street, east of Portland Street, where track construction has already been going on.

Ricardo Rueda owns the wine bar La Flaca at Queen and Strachan, where construction work has already started. When asked by CityNews if his business has seen a decline in people coming by, he said there is hardly anyone coming in.

“It’s been completely closed off,” he said. “People are avoiding the road. You can’t even pass walking … we can’t even get our deliveries for our products.”

Back at the sock store, Wright said she has already laid off seasonal workers in anticipation of lower volumes of customers during the consturction. She explained that her shop relies on holiday shoppers to survive.

“There’ll be no parking. There’ll be no TTC. There’ll be no cars coming down here. So how are people supposed to get to us? They can’t. They’re going to shop in the malls,” said Wright. “They will not be able to get to us or if they do, it would be few and far between.”

They were asking for the construction to be delayed until at least December 27 or early 2023.

City staff said a delay until the new year was not possible as it would create more traffic impacts and push back other construction projects planned for 2022.

“Inclement weather will also make it difficult for crews to remobilize again in the new year, causing significant delays,” staff added in a statement.

Staff also said the City would be partnering with local BIAs to promote shopping during the construction in the Queen West area.

“We were assured that this would be done by the beginning of November. Here we are starting, November 18,” said Wright. “There are five weekends left of Christmas shopping … and this will affect three of the five weekends.”

She said her message to Mayor Tory is, “You promised to help small business, and you’re doing everything in your power right now in this neighborhood to hurt small business.”

“Inclement weather will also make it difficult for crews to remobilize again in the new year, causing significant delays,” they added in a statement.

The City also said they would be partnering with local BIAs to promote shopping during the construction in the Queen West area.

“We were assured that this would be done by the beginning of November. Here we are starting, November 18,” said Wright. “There are five weekends left of Christmas shopping … and this will affect three of the five weekends.”

She said her message to Mayor Tory is, “You promised to help small business and you’re doing everything in your power right now in this neighborhood to hurt small business.”