Our River, Our Roots
Why Now
The Humber River has flooded three times in five years. Its waters carry chronic urban pollution, road salt accumulation, and occasionally it is poisoned by localized chemical or fuel spills.
This summer, we have had heatwaves, a severe northern wildfire season, and signs that climate change isn’t waiting—it’s living off our housing, utility, and grocery bills.
This policy doesn’t wait for permission. It treats the Humber River as a living system and its health is now inseparable from our food, our livelihoods, and the survival of this community.
Waiting for climate change to claim the last tree, the last fish, and the last stream is not a plan for tomorrow—these are calls to action.
How Does This Impact Me?
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Direct access to paid, resume-building employment through the Youth Climate Corps and local stewardship jobs, offering career pathways in green tech and conservation without requiring a degree upfront.
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Increased local property values and quality of life through the Humber Valley Commons, while new multi-use paths provide safe, active commuting options that reduce car dependency and living costs.
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Reduced flood risks and basement flooding protection for your family home via "Sponge City" absorbent infrastructure, alongside free, accessible green spaces for affordable family recreation.
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Enhanced mobility and social connection through smoother, safer multi-use paths that are easier on joints, plus access to "Food As Medicine" programs that lower grocery bills and support healthy aging.
First 100 Days
Day 20: Initiate “Sponge City" program to map priority streets for absorbent infrastructure.
Day 45: Engage Secretary of State (Labour) and North Etobicoke MP, John Zerucelli, to formalize the Youth Climate Corps pilot as part of the national initiative, securing funding and aligning program design with federal expectations for youth employment in climate mitigation and emergency response .
Day 60: Begin consultations on the future of the Humber Valley golf course into a natural public asset (park, wetland restoration, or community space).
Day 90: Implement local food, land, and water stewardship initiatives (employing 10 young people in air, food, land and water stewardship).
Road Map
(1-4 Years Projects)
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This pilot program treats healthy food like medicine. In Ward 1, local farms, food banks, stores, and health clinics are teaming up to share delivery vans, storage space, and buying power—cutting waste and costs. Doctors can "prescribe" fresh produce, prepared meals, or grocery boxes to people with conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure. We're turning city land into a community-owned grocery store, with a teaching kitchen run by Humber College and local health workers. Neighbors can get paid internships, learn cooking and nutrition skills, and eventually become co-owners. The goal: make good food affordable, keep people healthier, and build local jobs.
Major Activities:
Set up the teamwork and logistics – Get all the partners (farms, stores, clinics) on the same page about ordering, storing, and delivering food so that meals and groceries reach the people who need them without wasted time or spoiled produce.
Open the teaching kitchen and start "food prescriptions" – Launch the cooking and nutrition hub with Humber College and the community health centre, where dietitian trainees run classes and doctors hand out vouchers for fresh fruits and vegetables to high-risk patients.
Create local jobs with a path to ownership – Hire residents as paid trainees, train them in food handling, cooking, and store operations, and give them a clear route to becoming co-owners of the grocery co-op, keeping money and skills in the neighborhood.
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The Humber Valley Commons Conversion transforms Toronto's 40‑ha Humber Valley Golf Course into an eco‑park and community commons that closes the 800‑m Mid‑Humber Trail gap, restores riverine ecology, and pilots commercial urban agriculture on underused City land.
Inspired by Seoul's stream restoration and Korea's iCOOP food clusters, the project pairs nature prescriptions (PaRx), a community mini‑forest, and an edible trail with retained clubhouse facilities. A formal Notice of Motion will initiate Alternative Parkland Use for 20% of the site as an "Eco‑Park Pilot," while a Council motion will explore expanding the Eco-Park to deliver climate resilience, active mobility, and local economic benefit within a single, replicable commons.
Major Activities
Secure approvals & policy alignment: File Notice of Motion for Alternative Parkland Use (20% Eco‑Park Pilot) and move Council motion to permit commercial urban farming on City parcels, ensuring regulatory support for food access and ecological restoration.
Design & construct core infrastructure, parklands, and sports amenities: Close the 800‑m Mid‑Humber Gap via two pedestrian bridges; develop multi‑use sports fields, courts, and modular year‑round recreation zones; install stormwater wetlands, traditional medicine gardens, and passive trails; and retrofit the pro shop and clubhouse to accommodate new park services and community gathering spaces.
Integrate food and nature as clinical interventions: Align the edible trail and commercial urban agriculture plots with PaRx and Food as Medicine social prescribing pathways, enabling healthcare providers to prescribe not only park visits but also hands‑on foraging, harvesting, and cooking workshops; embed seasonal produce from City‑farmed parcels into community nutrition programs, with clinical outcome tracking to validate reduced food insecurity and improved mental and metabolic health.
Launch community and health programming: Activate year‑round gathering spaces with agroforestry education, plant mini‑forests, and link all activities to the Etobicoke Greenway (2027), ensuring sustained public engagement and ecological stewardship.
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Humber Connects reorients the vision from Seoul-style vibrancy to a grounded, accessible, and resilient corridor. The initiative acknowledges the Humber's narrow, flood-prone ravine and aims to overcome long-standing physical barriers — especially the 800-metre Mid-Humber Gap, where cyclists and pedestrians face a dangerous road detour or steep steps . Success is defined by completing the trail, improving winter safety, stewarding the river's sensitive ecology, and foregrounding Indigenous presence and stories.
Three Major Activities for Effective Execution:
Bridge the Mid-Humber Gap: Prioritize funding and expropriation (including from the Humber Valley and Weston Golf courses) to construct the pedestrian-cycle bridges and cantilevered boardwalk needed to close the 800-metre gap. Ensure all trail infrastructure is flood-resilient and accessible year-round .
Activate Winter and Ecological Resilience: Adapt the Arboretum as a true winter hub with passive solar heating and natural cooling , using it to host winter events and as a community hub for ecological monitoring and climate adaptation research, building on its existing role as a climate change laboratory .
Centre Indigenous Storytelling and Presence: Replace commemorative plaques with living, community-driven storytelling spaces. Ground all cultural programming in the guidance of local Indigenous knowledge keepers, directly engaging with the film Presence: Life in Little Thundering Waters as a model for centering Black and Indigenous relationships to the river and resisting erasure .
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Toronto will establish a Youth Climate Corps (YCC) pilot in Etobicoke North, employing young adults in paid green jobs that advance municipal climate goals while addressing critical workforce gaps in the net-zero transition.
YCC crews will deliver integrated projects across four environmental domains:
Air—supporting TransformTO and clean transportation initiatives
Land—Green Streets, converting Humber Valley golf course to an Eco Park and urban forests
Water—implementing stormwater management in Black Creek and Humber River catchments to prevent flooding from intensified development
Solar—scaling community-owned energy grids modeled on the Goodmark Solar Project, a 133 kW cooperative array in Rexdale.
This pilot demonstrates how targeted youth employment can drive climate resilience, local food security, and community energy sovereignty.
Major Activities
Air: Deploy YCC crews to support Clean Roads to Clean Air program implementation, including electric vehicle charging infrastructure audits and tree-planting campaigns that expand urban canopy cover to improve air quality and cooling.
Land: Coordinate with Parks and TRCA to assign YCC participants to wetland restoration, native planting, and trail maintenance at Humber Valley Eco Park, integrating community science monitoring stations along the leisure zone.
Water: Direct City Capital Planning to allocate funding for sewer separation and stormwater infrastructure in the Black Creek and Humber River catchments, with YCC crews assisting in green infrastructure installation and flood mitigation mapping.
Solar: Partner with SolarShare, Bullfrog Power, and RESCo Energy to develop a community grid cooperative on city-owned facilities (e.g., Rexdale Community Hub, recreation centres, parking lots), using net metering to sell power back to Hydro. Submit a request to TCHC Board for a portfolio update prioritizing tenant-led solar co-ops across Rexdale properties, modeled on the Goodmark Solar Project's commercial rooftop array, and commission a feasibility study for scaling this model to community-serving buildings.
