Mayor Chow, you stood up for the Airport. Swansea is still waiting — where are you?
Last week, Mayor Chow demanded the Province return the Toronto Islands to the City.
She said: "Return our waterfront to us."
She filed an urgent motion at Council on July 27, 2026.
She wrote publicly: "We have researched the impacts on housing, the environment, congestion, and more. Council has formally opposed the unacceptable overreach. We still do."
She is right to demand it.
21 Windermere Avenue is City-owned land too. It is a Toronto neighbourhood too. And the concerns about housing, environment, and consultation are the same or worse.
The site sits on documented contamination:
Lead at 30.4 times the Ontario residential standard
Methane above the provincial screening threshold
Contaminated groundwater that cannot be discharged without on-site treatment
Species at Risk at Grenadier Pond, 50 metres away
On consultation, the contrast is stark.
The federal government held a professional public consultation on the airport. Over 87,000 people responded. 87 percent opposed the expansion. The federal Transport Minister listened, and rejected the plan.
At 21 Windermere Avenue, the "consultation" was conducted by Bousfields, the developer's own hired consultants. It was a public relations exercise.
More than 1,500 residents signed a community petition demanding real consultation. It was delivered to City Council on February 26, 2026, on the public record. Council rubber-stamped the demolition and rezoning on March 25, 2026 anyway. The Toronto Star reported it happened "without debate."
On July 24, 2026, three senior City leaders were formally advised, in writing, of the contamination at 21 Windermere Avenue: Mayor Olivia Chow, Jag Sharma, Deputy City Manager for Development and Growth Services (the senior official overseeing housing and planning across the entire City) and Doug Rollins, Executive Director of the Housing Secretariat (the office directly responsible for this file). Six business days later, they have said nothing.
The community also wrote to the Ministry of the Environment on the same file. Paul Celsie, District Manager, acknowledged within 24 hours and committed to a written response by August 14, 2026.
The Province acknowledged the community within a day. The Mayor's office has said nothing.
Federal and provincial elected representatives have been formally copied on the correspondence, including:
Alexa Gilmour, NDP MPP for Parkdale–High Park
Karim Bardeesy, MP for Taiaiako'n–Parkdale–High Park–Roncesvalles
Rob Flack, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing (Ontario)
Todd McCarthy, Minister of the Environment (Ontario)
Gregor Robertson, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure (federal)
Steven MacKinnon, Minister of Transport and Internal Trade (federal)
You can help. Contact them directly and ask them to act.
Swansea is a Toronto neighbourhood too. Our community needs the Mayor's attention as much as the waterfront does.
See the full record at www.SwanseaMatters.com — the Environmental Assessment, the full Dossier, and the timeline of every letter, every response, and every silence.
This petition is about the contamination. It has 420 signatures.
Every additional signature is a message to City Hall that this community, and the 108 displaced families who have been waiting more than four years to come home, will not be quietly ignored.
Please sign and share with five neighbours. Post it to your street's WhatsApp, your church, your parents' group, your workplace. Remind Mayor Chow, we are here too
Thank you for your support of our environment and democracy in Toronto.
With Gratitude
Swansea Neighbourhood and SwanseaMatters.com community