Good morning fellow supporters.

I know I've been asking a lot of you over the past few days but we are so close to achieving our goal we can't stop now. 

It's seems clear THYC has found success in backroom meetings with some councillors but we still have a chance to bring the issue out of shadows of by letting all councillors and their staff know our position.

So at the bottom of this update you'll find all TO City Council Members and the chiefs' of staffs email addresses. If you can please take a moment to read through my email below and then send out an email in support of ending THYC's lease it would be much appreciated. If you have personal experiences with the club please share those experiences.

Please address  the email to your own city councillor so they know their constituents love the Humber and will be negatively impacted if THYC is allowed to remain. This is especially true of you are in Council Holyday's riding (Etobicoke Center), as he clearly feels his constituents aren't paddlers.

______________________________________________________________________________

Hello City Councilors & Staff,

I am contacting you to follow up on my previous email regarding voting to reject the amendment brought forth at the Governance Committee Meeting on March 8 to extend Toronto Humber Yacht Club's lease at 101 Humber Valley Road.

It is quite clear THYC has hired lobbyists to present their case to City Councilors and it would appear they've landed on a few key arguments.

As I am a volunteer working within the community, I don't have the budget to hire lobbyists so I'm hoping you will accept this email in loo.

1/ The club's long history on the shores of the Humber River.

I will grant you the club does in fact have a long history on the shores of the Humber River. So much so that apparently Councillor Holyday's grandfather was once a member.

It's unfortunate the leadership team elected to run the club beginning in 2019 chose to deviate from the club's historic role in the community instead opting to engage in an aggressive expansionist agenda as outlined in my first email such that they have made a mockery of the storied histories of past members. I'm sure Council Holyday's grandfather would be turning over in his grave if he were aware of the damage the club has done to the public property they occupy as well as to the club's reputation in the community. They turned a once happy and welcoming community hub into a dark scary place in order to hide their actions from community members at large.

2/ THYC's promises to change their ways and work with the community.

I had the privilege to be invited to speak on this issue on NewsTalk 1010 with Jim Richards on Monday afternoon and happened to stay on the line to hear a club representative speak as well. 

It should be pointed out there were a lot of misrepresentations in his piece.
-He mentioned the club did not increase the portion of the property covered in hardscape. This is clearly proven false by a comparison on the image in my original email which shows a significant increase in hardscape on the property
-He stated the club has stayed within the boundaries of the leased property. In the winter of 2023-24 the club cleared a significant portion of brush/woodland without appropriate permits to the east of their driveway in order to increase the size of their already expansive parking lot. It should be noted that as of this morning this space is still cordoned off with fencing and is being used to store members' JetSkis.
-He mentioned the club reprimanded club members who acted unsafely on the water last season. The community was promised a zero tolerance approach to members being unsafe on the water yet when I provide photographic evidence of members being unsafe, not only did they remain members of the club but their behavior on the river did not change.

Now to address the actions he said the club might undertake
-Ban JetSkis for using THYC's wet dock. The wording is very important. Note he did not mention banning JetSkis from the property, simply the docks. This leads me to believe the clubs intention is to have JetSkiers store their PWC on the property and then use the public boat launch in Kingsmill Park knowing full well they will overrun that launch. This wording would also allow the JetSki rental operator who used the club property as homebase last year to continue in the same manner this season.
-Remove some of the patio stones the club installed along the entirety of shoreline the club occupies so yacht members could erect gazebos at the foot of their slips. You will notice he did not mention removing the gazebos.

I do want to address a few other things mentioned by the club's representative.
The club is limited as to what it can accomplish because it is a volunteer run entity. It should be noted the club had no problems finding volunteers to install hardscape to increase the size of their already expansive parking lot. The club had no issue finding volunteers to install patio stones along the entirety of the shoreline upon which to erect gazebos. The club had no issue finding volunteers to clear a section of bush/woodland to increase storage space for JetSkis. YET the club shouldn't be expected to rectify the damage they themselves caused because they are a volunteer based organization.

The club makes promises to become a more welcoming place for paddlers. It should be noted that prior to the current club leadership team coming into power (2019) there was a sizable paddling community within the club. They even had a dragon boat group store and launch from the property. One of the first moves this leadership team undertook was to squeeze out the paddlers so the club could install more yacht & JetSki docks along the portion of the shoreline previously allocated to the paddlers.

If you have made it this far into this message I hope you can see the need for you to vote against Council Holyday's amendment to allow THYC to remain on the property at 101 Humber Valley Road and give the community what they desire, make the Humber River a safe place for all river users!

Thank you very much for your time and consideration in this matter. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me any time!

Regards,

_________________________________________________________________________

Councillor_Crisanti@toronto.ca,
Councillor Morley <Councillor_Morley@toronto.ca>,
councillor_perks@toronto.ca,
councillor_nunziata@toronto.ca,
councillor_pasternak@toronto.ca,
councillor_perruzza@toronto.ca,
councillor_colle8@toronto.ca,
Councillor_Bravo@toronto.ca,
Councillor_Malik@toronto.ca,
Councillor_Saxe@toronto.ca,
councillor_matlow@toronto.ca,
Councillor_Moise@toronto.ca,
councillor_fletcher@toronto.ca,
Councillor_ChernosLin@toronto.ca,
Councillor_Burnside@toronto.ca,
councillor_carroll@toronto.ca,
Councillor_Cheng@toronto.ca,
councillor_bradford@toronto.ca,
Councillor_Kandavel@toronto.ca,
councillor_thompson@toronto.ca,
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Councillor_Myers@toronto.ca,
councillor_ainslie@toronto.ca,
Councillor_Shan@toronto.ca,
councillor_holyday@toronto.ca,
mayor_chow@toronto.ca,

integrity@toronto.ca,
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Asli.Mumin@toronto.ca,
Mark.Strifler4@toronto.ca,
Audry.Murphy@toronto.ca,
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Rachel.Scott@toronto.ca,
Andy.Stein@toronto.ca,
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Tom.Gleason@toronto.ca,
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Antonette.Dinovo@toronto.ca,
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Ben Cohen <bcohen@thestar.ca>,
naama.weingarten@cbc.ca