This is one of those stories that sounds impossible until you read it. The City of Toronto has adopted a TCHC proposal to build  35 and 20storey towers, in addition to a cluster of mid-rises on a site where the applicant's own contractors confirmed lead at 30 times the residential safety limit, plus mercury, cadmium, arsenic, and methane above the provincial screening threshold. No Record of Site Condition has been filed with the province. The City did this on March 25, 2026, on a Decision Report that did not disclose any of this to the Planning and Housing Committee, yet the deputants did.  They ignored it.

The site is 21 Windermere Avenue, the former Swansea Mews. A block from High Park. Two blocks from Lake Ontario. Directly above the aquifer that drains into Grenadier Pond, a Provincially Significant Wetland.

The applicant's own consultants already told us what happens when you pile-drive into 10 metres of contaminated peat next to a wetland: further investigation is required to delineate the soil contamination, and the contaminated water cannot be discharged into the sewer system without treatment. The investigation has not been done. The treatment plan does not exist. The Toronto Star has reported our concerns on April 30. The Province has opened a file: MECP case 357-2026-1214.

There is a better plan, and it has been sitting on the table since 2024.

It is called Swansea Park - SwanseaPark.ca , and is the work of a licensed architect, a 20-year Swansea resident. It delivers more affordable homes, faster (about two years to build instead of four to five), cheaper for the taxpayer, and it is environmentally sound — by design, the layout and landscaping cap and contain the site contamination instead of disturbing 10 metres of toxic peat next to the Lake. It was never independently assessed against the City's tower plan. The 108 families displaced from Swansea Mews on May 27, 2022 have never been shown it.

The Ward Councillor who chaired the meeting that approved the towers, the soon to be retired Gord Perks, also sits on the Toronto Community Housing Board whose application this is.  He will not live with the consequences. Future residents, neighbours, and Lake Ontario will !!  Perks wants a Site Plan Approval before the required Record of Site Condition before he rides out of town.  What do you think?

This affects every Torontonian who drinks tap water from Lake Ontario, walks in High Park, or believes their City builds on facts.

The Record of Site Condition is the wedge. Until it is filed, no shovel can lawfully go in the ground, and the better plan gets a fair hearing. Ministry McCarthy, of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, is investigating this troubling matter. Minister Flack at the Ministry of Housing needs to step in.

 Please sign, share, and send a short note Environment Minister McCarthy:

To: minister.mecp@ontario.ca (Minister Todd McCarthy, Environment) Cc: minister.mah@ontario.ca (Minister Rob Flack, Housing); premier@ontario.ca

Subject: Re: Case 357-2026-1214, 21 Windermere Avenue

"I support the Ministry's investigation regarding this site. I am asking the Province to pause Site Plan Approval until the Record of Site Condition is filed and the contamination is properly addressed. The 108 displaced families, the taxpayers, and the Lake deserve a development built on a complete record."

[your name] [address / phone]

Please sign, share, and send a short note to Housing Minister Flack:

To: minister.mah@ontario.ca (Minister Rob Flack, Municipal Affairs and Housing) Cc: premier@ontario.ca; minister.mecp@ontario.ca

Subject: 21 Windermere — OPA 888 / ZBA 238-2026

"I am asking the Province to pause Site Plan Approval at 21 Windermere and to direct a thorough assessment of the Site. The City's planning instruments were adopted on March 25, 2026 with no Record of Site Condition on file (parallel MECP Case 357-2026-1214). The 108 displaced families, the taxpayers, and our Lake Ontario deserve a development built on a complete record."
[your name] [address / phone]

The full evidentiary record is at SwanseaMatters.com. The Ministers need to act.

Thank you for helping us to be heard!