E-Blast: ConsumersNext is Changing – What’s Next?

The pressure to build housing , and fast, is growing, and the Province is moving quickly to push projects forward. There’s finally a recognition that getting shovels in the ground takes more than just speeding up approvals and cutting public input. But in their rush to make up for lost time, the Province is now leaning on municipalities to give up something critical: our employment lands. That puts all the thoughtful planning and community input behind the ConsumersNext Secondary Plan at risk.

On April 6, 2023, the Province introduced the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act (Bill 97). One of the key changes in this legislation was a narrower definition of “employment areas” - land specifically set aside for jobs and businesses.

Before these changes, employment lands were protected zones designated for businesses such as offices, warehouses, factories, and tech companies. These lands play a vital role in Toronto’s economy by providing space for stable, long-term jobs. Protecting them helps prevent rising land costs, avoids displacement of businesses, and reduces conflict between industrial activity like trucking or shift work and residential life. Once these lands are lost to residential development, they’re gone for good.

The new provincial rules explicitly removed standalone office, commercial, and institutional uses from the definition of employment lands, opening more of these areas to residential development.

What does this mean for our community?

The Consumers Road Business Park, and the surrounding area near Sheppard Avenue East and Victoria Park Avenue, is one of Toronto’s major job centres. It employs over 18,000 people and is a key hub for office-based employment.

This area has been protected for employment since the early North York Official Plans, dating back to when North York became a city. When I was a child, the south side of Sheppard had a few small businesses and a large drive-in theatre — a far cry from the bustling economic centre it is today.

In the 1960s, the focus was on attracting large companies, often letting them shape the street layout to suit their needs. That’s how we got “Consumers Road,” named after Consumers Gas (now Enbridge). Unfortunately, this approach left us with a disconnected street grid and poor walkability.

When I was first elected in 2003, a housing application had already been submitted in the area due to the proximity of Don Mills subway station. That project became Heron’s Hill. Recognizing the threat to employment lands, I pushed for a secondary plan to protect the area’s core function as a job centre.

In 2015, after extensive community engagement, we launched the ConsumersNext Secondary Plan, a comprehensive framework to guide growth in the area. Through this process, we reached a shared vision: allow mixed-use housing and retail along the edges of Sheppard Avenue and Victoria Park Avenue, extending to the Highway 401 ramps, while protecting the interior for employment uses. To support this vision, we designed a new street network and public spaces to make the entire area walkable, vibrant, and welcoming for both workers and future residents.

The effort paid off. By then, several housing proposals were already in motion along Sheppard, driven by the anticipated Sheppard transit expansion. Surrounding neighbourhoods, particularly north of Sheppard, were eager to help shape the area’s future. The public consultations were among the most engaged and productive I’ve experienced on Council.

The final plan struck a careful balance: housing and retail at the perimeter, protected employment lands at the core, and an improved public realm that tied everything together. That’s the vision behind ConsumersNext.

Faced with the Province’s changes to housing policy and ongoing direction from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the City is using one of the few tools still available to preserve the key principles of the ConsumersNext Secondary Plan.

A report coming to the Planning and Housing Committee next month will recommend re-designating the Consumers Road Business Park from a General Employment Area to a Regeneration Area. While this designation allows a broader mix of uses — including residential, commercial, institutional, and employment — it also gives the City more control over how future development unfolds. In today’s planning landscape, that added control is critical to maintaining a strong employment presence and protecting the walkable street network and public realm that our community worked so hard to shape.

It’s important to understand that the City’s ability to simply say “no” to this change is extremely limited. The Province, through the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT), can approve land use changes one site at a time — even over City Council’s objections. That’s why we must use every planning mechanism we still have to defend the core vision of ConsumersNext.

What we can still fight for, and must protect, is the public realm and street network vision that came directly from our community through the ConsumersNext process.

We all agree that more housing is urgently needed, and the City is just as committed as the Province to building more homes. But we must also stand with our communities to protect unique live-work neighbourhoods like Consumers to ensure they remain livable, functional, and economically vibrant for generations to come. That’s the position I’ll be urging my colleagues to support.

We’re fortunate to have an engaged community around these lands. Through the ConsumersNext consultations, we built strong relationships, including the formation of the Parkway Centre Business Association, a group of dedicated local employers working to improve the area.

I’ll continue to keep you updated as this important process moves forward.