Community Benefits Coalition Virtual Community Meeting

By Dawar Naeem
(Dawar is a volunteer journalist with Focus Media Arts Centre).

Regent Park Neighbourhood Association’s Community Benefits Coalition (CBC) and Toronto Community Housing (TCHC) introduces Tridel as the developer partner for phase 4 and 5 of the Regent Park Redevelopment.

A virtual meeting was held on June 9th, 2021, by Toronto Community Housing (TCHC) and the Regent Park Neighbourhood Association’s Community Benefits Coalition (CBC), to introduce Tridel as the development partner for phase 4 and 5 of the Regent Park Redevelopment.
The meeting, hosted by Regent Park residents, Walied Khogali and Feclicia Whyte, was well attended by the residents and community members of Regent Park.

The meeting begun with an address by MPP Suze Morrison, who expressed the importance of the voice of the community in any development plan. City Counsellor Kristyn Wong-Tam also addressed the attendees.  Wong-Tam spoke on the City of Toronto priorities for the redevelopment of phase 4 and 5 - which was to build community assets first and significantly increase the number of rent-geared-to-income units.

Peter Zimmerman, a senior representative of TCHC highlighted the 12 Principles of Revitalization and TCHC’s commitment to Anti-Black Racism.  Peter also shed light on the importance of revitalization for the Regent Park community. Fellow representative from TCHC, Joyce Ho, presented a summary of affordable housing units built during the revitalization period. According to Joyce, 1263 Rent-geared-to-income (RGI) units and 399 new affordable rental units was built to date. Joyce also highlighted the community engagement in the selection of Tridel for the completion of phase 4 and 5 of the revitalization of Regent Park.

Community Benefits is a tool to help community members leverage investments from the development of capital projects for local priorities.  RPNA Co-chair Marlene DeGenova and resident Ismail Afra spoke about the formation and history of the Community Benefits Coalition (CBC) and the Community Benefits framework. They presented the mission of the Community Benefits coalition, which is to maximize the value of community benefits for phase 4 & 5 of the Regent Park revitalization and to negotiate a strong Community Benefits Agreement (CBA). Additionally, Kumsa Baker, a representative from the Toronto Community Benefits Network spoke about the Community Benefits with regards to social, economic and environmental development. According to Kumsa, the main beneficiaries of community benefits will be the marginalized and disadvantaged community members for whom the revitalization is critical.

Regent Park Resident, Miguel Avila-velarde highlighted the accomplishments of the Community Benefits, highlighting the efforts towards increased community participation, creation of Community Benefits Framework and the recently organized and co-hosted TCHC community benefits town-hall.

Andrew Delzotto, Bryan Sherwood, Maggie Hall, Asal Afshar, and Danielle Feidler, all representatives of Tridel, spoke about the company’s 26.8 million community benefits allocation and a commitment to working with the community to build a great Regent Park. They also committed to providing residents with careers, mentorship and employment in the constructive industry in collaboration with Bolt Foundation, whose team was introduced by Raly Chakarova.

The meeting’s closing notes, provided by residents Deany Peters, Walied Khalogli and Marlene DeGenova was about the importance of community engagement in the RPNA Community Benefits Working Group.  The meeting concluded with some questions and answers amongst the presenters and attendees.

The overall message of the meeting, was that over the course of the next year, TCHC and Tridel will be working with the RPNA Community Benefits Coalition and other stakeholders of Regent Park to identify priorities for community benefits for phase 4 & 5, and that community involvement and engagement in this process is important.