North York Post April 2023

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10 HOUSING GIANTS OUR PANEL OF EXPERTS ON WHETHER IT’S TIME TO SELL, HOLD OR BE BOLD!

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16TH ANNUAL

REAL ESTATE

ROUNDTABLE APRIL 2023 · VOL. 24 · ISSUE 7

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CONTENTS APRIL 2023

Welcome to this month’s Post.

Sit back & enjoy.

16TH REAL ESTATE ROUNDTABLE

©farfetch.com

An unscripted and unrehearsed discussion involving 10 of Toronto’s leading experts on real estate

STAY ON POINTE THIS SPRING

Jeanne Beker tackles the hottest trend in fashion this season, balletcore

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FROM RELATIONSHIP TO RUNWAY

Fashion Art Toronto founder Vanja Vasic on falling head over high heels in love with her partner, Angel Vilela Gonzalez

FIN-TASTIC FISH AND CHIPS

Anthony Rose samples the city’s most bountiful catch — fish and chips — the perfect dish to ring in spring

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CITYSCAPE

THE POST INTERVIEW

NEWS

BY THE NUMBERS

$1 The cost, in billions, of a Vegas-style casino being built near Woodbine Racetrack set to open this summer.

L-R: Award-winning Blue Jays Central broadcaster Joe Siddall, stars Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero

Catching up with ace Jays broadcaster Joe Siddall

Anything surprising you at spring training this year, Joe?

You know, this might sound like an interesting answer. I haven't been surprised by a whole lot. But the reason I haven't been surprised by a whole lot is because I think this team is fairly set. And that's a great thing.

What makes you most excited about this young team?

I think the most exciting part of the future is the way that the Blue Jays organization has built this team, and it's taken time. But when you get to players the calibre of Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., that basically arrive in the major leagues at the same time and spend their first six years in a Blue Jays uniform, at least, at the same time, that's remarkable.

Did the team disappoint last year?

You know, I thought for sure, if they didn't

make the playoffs, it would have been a major disappointment. I just assumed. And fans should have assumed they were making the playoffs last year, and they did. I've always said, when you enter October baseball, it's really a crapshoot. Anything can happen.

I call it like a one-month tournament for the hottest teams, right? And we saw how it ended and it didn't end very well.

Do you think Vlady is primed for a bounce back this season?

I do. I do. When I look at the top of the batting order, I'm a big fan of saying, “Your horses have to run for you.” And for me, the horses in the Blue Jays lineup are right at the top: It's Springer, Bichette and Guerrero. And you could argue that they all had a bit of a step back last year. When I think of Vlady, I think of that MVP calibre season he had a couple of years ago. And I just think he is capable of that again, because it's a talent that people call generational talent.

And I think they call it that for a reason. Because he just can do things that other people don't do. And Bo Bichette to me is a guy that I think is simply going to arrive this year. I see a batting title possibly in his future. I see an MVP challenge possibly in his future. I think Bo is ready.

What do you think of the new Rogers Centre?

I can't wait to see, just like a lot of players that I've talked to throughout spring training here. Everybody's really looking for-

ward to heading north to see the changes.

The new players can't wait to see not only the new changes, but just the vibe in Toronto and in Canada. They know what it's like now, and they keep hearing from their teammates what it's like to basically play for a country. So I'm anxious personally to see the stadium and the renovations and, more than anything probably, that [gap in the] outfield wall that we keep hearing so much about.

25 The percentage of Drake and Justin Bieber Instagram followers that are fake according to a study.

What impact will that have, especially given the team’s new outfielders?

I think the outfield will be well-prepared.

I mean, they won't know until they get there and see it and do it, but when you have as athletic of an outfield as they have, that's how you prepare for something like this. And I'm not sure if things coincided here, if they knew that they were going to build a quirky outfield like that [adding things like raised bullpens], so they upped their outfield defence, but I think the improvement in the outfield defence was to me job number one in the off-season.

147 The number of years the legendary Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show has been held. This year, a Torontonian will be a judge.

What’s your prediction for the season?

I'm going to say that they win the American League East. And I think they're going to win the American League East with probably 96 wins, if I had to make a prediction. And I say that because they're a very deep team. They're there. They're good inside and out.

—Ron Johnson

111.4 The number of Spotify listeners, in the millions, for Toronto artist The Weeknd, setting a world record.

| POST | APRIL 2023

T

he Toronto Blue Jays are set to toss out the first pitch on another season that could end in another and much-deeper playoff run for the team. Bolstered by a few new and very talented players alongside the core of stars in Vladimir Guerrero, Bo Bichette and George Springer, the team is ready to contend for a championship right now. We checked in with award-winning Blue Jays broadcaster and former big league catcher, Joe Siddall, at spring training in Florida to ask about how the team is shaping up.

$26 The price that Premier Doug Ford admitted he paid to get a haircut at Walmart — he was not a fan.

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A rendering of the condo proposed for 19 Bloor St. W., the One condo at 1 Bloor St. W., and the Aura tower

A block in Yorkville is set to have over 400 combined storeys: is this the future of Toronto?

Isolating. Depressing. This is how one Torontonian described living in a condo in an 80-storey tower at Yonge Street and Bloor Street. Although everyone’s experience may be different, the area is quickly becoming one of the densest in Toronto and more so-called supertall towers are in the works.

A 94-storey “skinny” tower has most recently been proposed for the intersection, just west of the One tower that is also 94storeys. The new tower by Reserve Properties for 15-19 Bloor St. W. will rise 302 metres in height. It would be the fourth tallest tower in Toronto, behind three others that have already been approved – the One, at 338 metres; Sky Tower that has 105 storeys and will be 312.5 metres; and Forma’s west tower, which has 84 storeys and is 308 metres in height.

The latest proposed tower would host 1,262 residential units split between studios, at seven per cent of the units, one bedrooms at 48 per cent, two-

bedrooms at 36 per cent and three-bedrooms at 10 per cent.

There will be 70 parking spots and a bicycle parking space for each unit, as well as a gym and co-working space on the third floor and a lounge and party room on the 10th floor.

Although Yorkville is being built up, the rapid change has some feeling hesitant. Massimo Chiarella lived on the 13th floor of the Aura while in school in 2016–2017, and he said that living in a tall building’s condo is not all it’s cracked up to be.

At the time, the Aura was the tallest tower in the area, but that wouldn’t be the case for long.

Chiarella recalls looking out of his balcony watching the view slowly disappear as a taller tower was being built right in front.

“When I revisited the unit, the view was gone,” he said.

“The view was just another massive tower.”

He said the densification of the area can impact quality of life by having construction around constantly, which, for

him, acted as an alarm clock every morning, waking him up with hammering and drilling.

But that construction is what’s in store for Yorkville for quite a while longer as more towers are approved, along with renovations planned for the lower level of Yonge subway sta-

happen in the area could even be more intense than that of Yonge and Eglinton Avenue, the traffic of which has been at a standstill for years for the LRT transit line.

“There’s no question that there’s going to be a lot more development in Toronto, and it

“When I revisited the unit, the view

was gone. The view was just another massive tower.” tion to boost its capacity to handle the extra density moving in.

Community planning director for the Greater Yorkville Residents’ Association, Paul Bedford, said that densification around subway stations is unavoidable, especially after the province mandated growth where there is transit.

Residents are now bracing themselves for years of construction, Bedford said, with him personally feeling that the amount of construction that will

should be around subway stations,” he said. “But the question is, the magnitude and the scale and the context and the implications and the impacts, all those questions have to be addressed individually.”

He said that although some applications make sense, others are “frankly ridiculous,” pointing to a 29-storey tower proposed for 69 Yorkville Ave., where the Dynasty dim sum restaurant currently sits, or a 61-storey tower at Davenport Road and

NEWS

Scollard Street, which was outright refused by the city.

The latter site was a small piece of land with little breathing room for so much density, City of Toronto staff had said in the report.

Senior city planner David Driedger, who is involved with the Yorkville area, said that Yorkville is broken up into four different zones that dictate the kind of development that should happen within them, scaled from one to four, with one being the most dense.

“This scaling has been put in place to ensure that there is a broader structure to the heights and densities and developments that we’re seeing within the downtown area,” Driedger said.

Bedford, who used to be Toronto’s chief city planner, envisions Yorkville to take shape a lot like a pie, with there being more density around the outer edges – the crust, if you will – and the inner filling being reserved to preserve the area’s village-like character. Already, Yorkville Park is set for an expansion to provide more green space and amenities to the masses moving into the area.

Driedger said that the city’s and province’s policies work to have “complete communities” that hold everything anyone would need on a day-to-day basis to make a livable neighbourhood.

Nevertheless, Chiarella contends that “macro-level planning” just isn’t high on developers’ priority list. They simply want to make the most units for the most money. Community spaces, like Yorkville Park, are ones he came to rely on for a sense of social connection, saying that living in the tower was “inherently isolating” and he didn’t know the names of any of his neighbours.

“If you ask me about any nicer area in Toronto and then pitch the idea of stacking a bunch of towers in there, I’ll probably say no,” he said. “It gets to the point where it becomes worse for everyone who lives in the towers.”

—Eric Stober

| POST | APRIL 2023

FOCUS

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NEWS

NEIGHBOURHOOD

Ryan Reynolds set to build a film studio in Markham

| POST | APRIL 2023

Canadian film star Ryan Reynolds behind new studio project

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A new film studio with backing from Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds and his production company, Maximum Effort, appears poised to be an economic boon for Markham. The city has been establishing itself as a hotbed for Hollywood productions over the past decade.

Construction on the 1.2 million–square-foot studio at 14th Avenue and McDowell Gate is slated to begin in the near future, although a completion date has not been set, according to Variety, which first broke news of the plans. Part of the project’s ownership group, Maximum Effort — which Reynolds cofounded with George Dewey — has joined forces with Markham-based developer the Watford Group on the project. The latter has been courting investors, with half of the required funding already committed.

“Maximum Effort has grown

in ways and directions that we’ve never imagined,” Reynolds said in a statement, as per Variety. “To be launching a fund and building a 1.2 million– square-foot studio facility in Ontario is both mind-boggling and humbling. Regardless, I’m excited to expand our storytell-

“I’m excited

to expand our storytelling.” ing capabilities in new directions and to bring more production work to Ontario.”

Local councillor Isa Lee, who represents Ward 8, voiced support for the studio.

“A film studio would be a great addition for the community and the city. Markham drives technology, innovation

by Josh Sherman

and talent,” said Lee in an email.

“Many homegrown talents have found success within the film industry. I believe this project will put Markham on the map when it comes to entertainment.”

According to the City of Markham, a development application has not been submitted: “The City of Markham has not received a development application for a film studio. However, the City continues to focus on attracting film, TV and digital media investment,” a spokesperson for the city said in an email.

When the facility opens its doors, it will operate as a fully integrated production studio for everything from reality TV and drama series to live action and animated feature films. It could lead to some major productions, as Maximum Effort is partway through a three-year First-Look Film Deal with Paramount.

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| POST | APRIL 2023

New election, same old ideas for city highways

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With so many serious issues facing the city, it is interesting that the declared candidates for mayor find the status of Toronto’s highways the most pressing.

Former city councillor and mayoral candidate Ana Bailão wants to upload the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway to the province. Other candidates will probably call on those same highways to remain within the city’s remit so that they can be tolled. Since neither scenario is going to happen, both are equally safe bets. The reason that these two are nonstarters is because each initiative would need the blessing of the province.

Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney has already stated emphatically that the province does not want the highways that we have to offer and it would, indeed, be a very strange day if the current government agreed to the city implementing tolls. Bailão’s claim that the provincial government will buckle under a mayoral mandate would be laughable if it wasn’t for its disingenuity.

Then there is current city councillor and mayoral candidate Josh Matlow who wants to tear down the Gardiner. This

position is completely consistent with his entire career of fighting decisions that he doesn’t agree with and didn’t support. The fact that a decision has been made has never been a consideration for Matlow. For some reason, he believes that he, and he alone, holds the key to the “right” decision.

What is crystal clear is that Matlow has not recently driven on the Lakeshore between Parliament and Parkside, because one journey on that stretch during the afternoon hours would make him realize that the Lakeshore is so gridlocked it robs people of their humanity.

Tearing down the Gardiner would not add a few minutes to people’s commutes, it would paralyze Lakeshore and cost millions in daily lost productivity. Of course, Coun. Matlow’s solution to the nightmare on Lakeshore is a magical LRT that has no funding.

Hopefully there is a mayoral candidate that emerges with the wisdom to understand the issues they can impact and those they cannot.

KAREN STINTZ is a former city councillor and was a chair of the TTC.

A rendering of the esports stadium proposed for Exhibition Place

What is really going on at Exhibition Place?

It probably never crossed your mind that there is a link between the cutting down of trees in the Osgoode Hall precinct and sports gambling. But I think there is.

Metrolinx is tasked with arranging construction of the Ontario rapid transit line, which starts just north of the Science Centre, linking to the Eglinton Crosstown, runs south through Riverdale, through the Distillery District, then along Queen Street from Parliament to Bathurst, then south to Exhibition Place.

Construction will close this swath of Queen Street for about 10 years, causing enormous damage to the downtown.

Metrolinx says it must construct the Queen/University station within the Osgoode Hall precinct, perhaps the oldest heritage site in the city, hence the need to cut down many dozen mature trees. Other sites have been suggested for the station — the southwest or northwest corner, or in a realigned University Avenue itself — but Metrolinx refuses.

The purpose of the Ontario Line is to provide an alternative way of getting people east of Yonge Street to the downtown, relieving the Yonge Street subway, which will be heavily overloaded once it is extended far into York

Region. It need not extend westerly from Yonge Street, but Premier Doug Ford has insisted that it continue on to Exhibition Place and the privatized Ontario Place.

Why? Because a new esports palace is about to be constructed at a cost of $500 million in Exhibition Place, directly across from the entrance to Ontario Place.

The project was approved in 2020 as part of a grand plan for

“A new esports

palace is about to be constructed at a cost of $500 million.”

Exhibition Place. It contains a 7,000-seat hall and looks like a good place for rock concerts as well as esports competitions, something that has proved very popular.

The company involved is Overactive Media, which calls itself a “sports media and entertainment company.” It claims to own four major global esports franchises.

In Las Vegas, esports has also become part of the gambling industry, and one can imagine that

NEWS

this venue will probably become a gambling venue, much in the way that horse racing is really about gambling.

Sports gambling was not permitted in Canada in 2020, which is probably why members of Toronto City Council never saw this as a possible casino. But in 2021 a private member’s bill passed parliament amending the Criminal Code, allowing such activities.

Premier Ford immediately jumped on the idea and has authorized virtually any international sports gambling company to operate here under conditions that have never been revealed. The Criminal Code still says gambling must be “controlled and managed” by the province and there’s a real question as to whether the province is controlling and managing these firms.

Premier Ford wants this facility to be successful, hence his willingness to spend some $5 or $6 billion in public funds to extend the Ontario Line from Yonge Street to the facility’s front door to ensure lots of people get to it easily.

He sees big bucks for the province. Sports gambling in New York State was valued at $16.5 billion in 2022, with net annual revenue to the state of $900 million. There were 3.2 million unique users that year.

New York State has a population of just over 19 million, compared to Ontario’s 16 million, so the province will probably get total revenues from sports gambling of $750 million, with perhaps 2.5 million annual users.

Some three per cent of all gamblers are seriously addicted — problem gamblers — which means some 75,000 people will be dragged under by this initiative.

And that is why, in my opinion, Metrolinx is so insistent on damaging our heritage and cutting down the trees in the Osgoode Hall precinct. Sports gambling, after all, is more important to the Ford government than any idea of mere heritage.

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SEWELL ON CITY HALL

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| POST | APRIL 2023

THANK YOU TO OUR REAL ESTATE ROUNDTABLE SPONSORS

14

What follows is an unscripted and unrehearsed discussion involving 10 of Toronto’s leading experts on real estate.

In partnership with the Rotman School of Management. Special thanks to our incredible sponsor The RE/MAX Collection.

THE SALES PRO: BARRY COHEN President, RE/MAX Realtron Barry Cohen Homes Inc. THE BUILDER: ODEEN ECCLESTON Co-founder, WE Developments; Broker of Record, WE Realty Inc. THE DESIGNER: BRIAN GLUCKSTEIN Principal, Gluckstein Design; Author THE BROKER: MICHAEL KALLES President, Harvey Kalles THE PLANNER: JENNIFER KEESMAAT Partner, Markee Developments; CEO, The Keesmaat Group THE CONDO KING: BRAD LAMB Developer, Lamb Development; President, Brad J. Lamb Realty THE PLACEMAKER: JAY PITTER Principal Placemaker, Jay Pitter Placemaking; Adjunct Professor, University of Waterloo THE DRAGON: MICHELE ROMANOW Dragon on CBC’s Dragons’ Den; Co-founder, Clearco THE BANKER: BENJAMIN TAL Deputy Chief Economist, CIBC World Markets Inc.

BENJAMIN TAL: Thank you very

much. I'm going to divide my brief comments into three parts.

The first part will be about inflation. The second part will be about inflation.

The third part will be … you got it, about inflation, because if you want to say something about the real estate market, you have to have a narrative about inflation. But I will tell you, at the end of the day, this is not about inflation.

This is about the cost of bringing inflation down to two per cent. This is the target.

You give the Bank of Canada two options.

One is a recession, the other is inflation. They will take a recession any day.

And what's interesting, households in Canada and the U.S. believe that the most credible source of information about inflation is social media. Not a joke. Social media is perceived to be the most credible source of information regarding inflation. So think about it for a second. The Bank of Canada is trying to figure out where inflation is going and what we are thinking about inflation, and we are influenced by social media.

So it means that the Bank of Canada is influenced by social media directly and indirectly.

There's good news. The good news is that the Bank of Canada has a Twitter account. The bad news is that nobody is following them, which means that the Bank of Canada cannot tweet its way out of inflation. They have to show us, they have to make sure that we understand that they mean business, and that's why they're so militant in their language and their actions.

So now let's talk about interest rates because inflation will be going clearly slowly from seven per cent to four per cent by May or June.

That's almost a given. The trick is to move from four per cent to two per cent.

The Bank of Canada is at 4.5 per cent now.

They want to stop. I beg them to stop, because I think they're overshooting. Monetary policy in the U.S. is not as effective as in Canada. The tiny Bank of Canada is more powerful than

the mighty Feds for two reasons. One is our mortgages are for five years, their mortgages are for 30 years.

You have to go back to 2008. The U.S. went through the model of deleveraging during the financial crisis. We didn't because it was not our recession. We were basically second-hand smokers back then, which means that we now have more debt. When you have more debt, you're more sensitive to higher interest rates.

How sensitive? I estimate that one per cent increase by the Bank of Canada is equivalent to two per cent increase by the Feds. But this is not the whole story.

And that's why, when I meet with the Bank of Canada — and I meet with the Bank of Canada very often, unfortunately — I tell them, enough is enough. You are overshooting already. Stop now. I think they would like to stop, and it seems that they're stopping after maybe another 0.25 per cent, and I hope they won't raise rates again because we are very close to overshooting, but it's there.

POST: Barry, with boots on the ground from a sales perspective, what are you seeing?

BARRY COHEN: I'm seeing lots

and lots of confusion. I'm seeing it from the sellers who are trying to pick the high point in which they can obtain. I'm seeing it from the buyers who are trying to pick the low point. And I'm seeing it from the agents, because the majority of the population of real estate agents have never experienced a rate change such as we just endured. And there's really been nothing since the early '90s and the early '80s. So, you know, it’s a problem.

I think our last rate hike was 0.5 per cent.

And what that did was, I believe it signalled to the real estate community that all these rate hikes are over. And it may not be over, but it's certainly a whole lot better.

January's stats were not bad, but February, when we look back at the year, will be marked as the turning point, because we have communities that have not experienced any drop in price. We have other communities that have had as much as 35 per cent. There's price levels where they’re having 20 and 30 offers at

a time.

Now, it might be a combination of agents underpricing, but it's usually more about the market and the demand. That's very true in the $2 million range. But in the higher range, where I work commonly, I'm seeing multiple offers in 35 per cent of my transactions. So people are more optimistic. Condos are lagging behind detached. Detached homes are recovering better.

POST: Brad and Jennifer, the average detached price in Toronto for a house is over $1.3 million, and the average rent for a one bedroom is around $2,300. The city is trying to solve affordability by increasing supply, speeding up permitting processes and allowing for greater density. Is this strategy working?

JENNIFER KEESMAAT: Well,

the first thing I'll say is the strategy hasn't really come to fruition yet. So, as a strategy, adding more supply, we have an incredible mismatch still today with respect to the amount of housing that we're building, and the amount of housing that we need. And it's not just the city that's trying to expedite planning approvals, it's also the province that's trying to do that as well.

We're having conversations right now about things like opening up some of the sacred cows in the city, like single-family zoning, in order to enable more density, more missing middle housing, six-, eight-, 10-storey buildings in those neighbourhoods. In the fullness of time, that will absolutely have an impact on supply. Our transit-oriented communities around our key rapid transit stations, in the fullness of time, will have an impact as well, but we're not really feeling any of that yet.

And the risk right now is that — given what's happening with interest rates and given what happened over the past two years with construction costs during the pandemic — is that there's a lot of developers that are actually sitting and waiting right now at a moment when we need more supply than we've ever needed before.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE 15 | POST | APRIL 2023

THE HGTV HOST: SEBASTIAN CLOVIS Co-Host, HGTV Canada; Principal, Clovis Contracting

POST: As we traditionally do each year, we will kick things off with a state of the market update from the country's top real estate economist, Benjamin Tal.

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2023 REAL ESTATE ROUNDTABLE

convergence of two really significant risk factors, which is that we have a lot of talk about a new approach to delivering housing supply, but it’s not happening yet.

And now that I'm a developer, I'm deep in the thick of it and experiencing that at a very personal level. On the flip side of that, in the real estate market there's a lot of confusion. We are meeting with capital partners, construction partners. Some of them are going full steam ahead, and some of them are sitting back and waiting.

There's a lot of different approaches being taken, but the real risk right now is that some of the policy changes that you're hearing about that are in the pipeline, they're going to take years to come to fruition to lead to a new home being built in the city. And we're so far behind that that presents continued risk. So affordability, is it going to get better in the city in the near future? Absolutely not.

BRAD LAMB: I don't think the city is

making any effort on that strategy. I think the province has more or less put a gun to the city’s head to do something about it. I think because that gun has been put to their head, by changing a lot of the legislation and forcing the city to do some things, they are begrudgingly doing some things. But the average time for me, from buying a property to getting it rezoned for highrise or mid-rise, is four years, which is way too long. Which means that it takes us eight to nine years all in to finish a building, from buying the land and moving very, very quickly to get started. That’s almost a decade from when you buy a property to complete it and give people their keys. It's a disaster, and it's not going to get any better. Developers are — Jennifer is right about this — developers are sitting on sites. They're not buying sites.

They're not spending money.

And so, we’ll have this year and a half, according to Benjamin, of this disaster where the rates are. Plus you can add another two years of supply just because of the delays of getting to the market. So what we're going to have in a year and a half is a monstrous housing crisis where prices are going to be significantly higher.

We're not stopping bringing people into the country. We're bringing, not just 500,000 new permanent residents a year.

It's more like 900,000 people a year [which includes temporary workers, refugees, students], and we can't even come close to building a third of the housing they need.

JAY PITTER: I'd just like to add to the idea of risk. Along with the risk, we should be considering the fact that some of our greatest risk is the lack of political will and political imagination. We don't actually have a strategy on the table right now. We're not getting into the specificities pertaining to what kind of supply we are talking about here. What kind of housing mix are we looking at?

And the fact that the province, which is corrupt, had to step in to force the hand of the municipality to move and advance housing units forward, that's a major risk right there, because you can have policy in place, but without political will and political imagination — and dare I say political intelligence — we're not going to move forward in a good way.

BRIAN GLUCKSTEIN: When we talk about building more condominiums, that is not affordable housing. So when a 600square-foot unit is $900,000, that's not affordable housing. If you want a family to live in the city, they're not living in 600 square feet. Maybe they have to live in 900 or 1,200 square feet. That's $1.7 million. That's not affordable housing, nor are condominiums secure housing for renters. We can build all the condos we want, but that's not secure.

First of all, it's not affordable and it's not secure for people who are going to rent for the rest of their lives, because there is no security that the person owning the condominium isn't going to sell it at some point and can increase it to whatever level they want, whatever is allowable. Between interest rates, maintenance costs, taxes, what an investor has to pay and get from the tenant, we're not talking about affordable housing.

The only way we can build affordable housing is if we build purpose-built rental housing. And the only way we can build that is if the government partners with developers to donate the land and make concessions to the taxes on these buildings, so they can secure low interest rates for the long term. That's the only way we're going to do it. You cannot pay for the land we have in Toronto. And no developer will build affordable housing for a $1,200-a-month apartment or $1,800.

It's not possible.

POST: Michele and Odeen, young people can't seem to win. House prices came down but interest rates went up.

Work from home is now three days in the office, making buying outside of the city a challenge. What are you hearing from this cohort, and what advice would you give them?

ODEEN ECCLESTON: Well,

it's interesting that you mentioned the young people, because about a year ago, of course, as we all know, we were at this peak where it was really unsustainable. It was nonsensical, and it was downright scary in some ways, especially for young people in terms of affordability. And my heart goes out to the young people who decided to jump in at that time. Fast-forward to now, things are more balanced, but for young people, they need the right team. They need to be open to collaboration, and they need to be, frankly, open to sacrifice.

I often encourage my client base to team up young people. I represent sometimes two and three young people at a time, you know, just really dabbling in fractional ownership. It's just get in wherever you can fit in, I tell them, and then sacrifice, it's really about — we're in a world-class city, right? — a lot of young people, if they want to get in, they have to start saving from very young. They might want to be in a particular neighborhood, but just to start investing, maybe invest in the 905, which I'm a huge proponent of.

MICHELE ROMANOW: I think it's gonna be very difficult for young people right now. You are 100 per cent right. It feels like every piece has converged to make it more and more difficult. I think, in the stats that we've seen, almost all young homebuyers have come with parents that have helped them with down payments or family money that has helped them to do that.

But at the same time, I'm an entrepreneur and a founder. Life is always kind of difficult and moving against you. It's one of those things where you have to look where everyone is not going, right? It might not be your perfect dream area. It might be, you know, making a lot of sacrifices to save up. It might be buying a place with other people. It might be airbnb-ing your place when you leave for the weekend. All of those, I think, are very real now for young buyers because interest rates are in very different places. Prices are down hopefully a little bit, but we haven't seen supply come back up.

JENNIFER KEESMAAT: OK, crystal

ball. One thing I know for sure you don't need much of a crystal ball to know this: is that we're getting a new mayor in this city.

That's going to happen for sure. And in the best-case scenario. We'll build on the momentum of the past couple of years. We've been seeing a real shift when we go out to public consultations. The people who don't want new housing are drowned out by people who do want affordable housing in their neighbourhood. People do want rental housing in their neighbourhood, because most people in this city are pretty much one degree of separation from someone who struggles with housing.

So my crystal ball on the planning side, I am hopeful that, in this mayoral campaign, there's some great candidates that are coming forward. My hope is that there'll be a real conversation and debate about the importance of housing so that we can continue on this trajectory of beginning to make it easier to build affordable housing, particularly on governmentowned land but also building incremental housing, those five-, six-storey buildings in existing neighborhoods where it's more likely that we can build affordable supply and also purpose-built rentals. I think we're on the cusp of really significant change, and the opportunity associated with that is that less people will struggle.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

| POST | APRIL 2023

JENNIFER CONTINUED: So we have this

COVER STORY

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COVER STORY

2023 REAL ESTATE ROUNDTABLE COVER STORY CONTINUED

JAY: I just wanna disrupt the sacrifice narra-

tive for just a moment, because, as stated by my colleague here, really, if you're a young person, you can only really get into the market if you come from a family with intergenerational wealth. I was able to, as a young professional and a young single mother, purchase my first home at 30 years old.

My story is not possible in today's market, regardless of sacrifice. I understand the sentiments of sacrifice. I made those sacrifices, again as a single mom at 30 years old, and the fact that within my lifetime that option with sacrifice and hard work is no longer possible that really undermines the promise of the city and our status as a world-class city.

MICHAEL KALLES: Just to talk a little bit SEBASTIAN CLOVIS: From a residen-

| POST | APRIL 2023

tial renovation standpoint, I think that we're gonna see a lot of underpinning happening. Underpinning used to be something that renovators didn't really wanna get into too much. It's pretty dangerous to dig out the foundation of a house, and to make that basement much taller, but there's a lot of companies popping up right now that are doing that. My company is doing it. It's something that's becoming pretty standard. And I also agree with Jennifer in terms of the garden suites and the carriage houses. We're getting a lot of requests about those. So, maximizing that space in the backyard to create housing. I think that's gonna be a huge trend in the next couple of years.

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BARRY COHEN: Before I answer what's coming ahead, just another thought about affordability. Where rates are five per cent, six per cent, seven per cent now, this is an opportunity for new buyers to go to sellers and get seller-assisted financing. That means if they wanna sell their house, let them give you a mortgage. The other thing is that I think back to the first house that my wife and I owned. We rented the entire house out for the income and then rented a smaller apartment. As Brad said, you gotta get into the game. So what's coming? I think you're gonna see marginally lower interest rates, marginally higher prices, and I think that's gonna be the course for this year. And then after that it's gonna start going through the roof.

about the marketplace. The press is having a field day with real estate right now, right?

It's an unfair comparison. I think it's important to focus on where we are now.

Since January 25, when we received the smallest increase from the Bank of Canada, I believe it was from 4.25 per cent to 4.5 per cent, we've had 34 per cent of our listings sell at or above asking. So you're seeing buyers are coming off the sidelines.

But we also have to focus on population.

We've talked about numbers between 500 and 1 million new Canadians' need for where to live, where to eat, and we need to focus on infrastructure. There's a great anecdote. There's a tower that was built, Aura, 80 stories high at Yonge and College, took eight years from conception to completion, and today houses 1,800 people. That population is almost equivalent to how many people move to Ontario every 24 hours. So it gives people an understanding that prices have nowhere to go but up. That's really where we are right now. Even the slightest uptick in demand is going to drive prices up.

BRAD: Can I just make a

quick comment about young people?

When I was 24 in 1986, a long time ago, I got the idea that I wanted to get into real estate. I didn't have any money. I was an engineer. I was making $20,000 a year. My brother worked for IBM, he was making $30,000 a year. My younger brother was finishing his last year of university. So I convinced my brothers to buy something. We couldn't afford anything in Toronto. We lived in Oakville.

So, we went out to London to look. And the three of us, I had saved $1,200 in two

years of working, and I lived at my parents' house. My older brother had a rental apartment, he was actually married, and he had $1,200 in savings. And my dad kicked in $1,200 from my younger brother. And the three of us scraped together $3,600 to buy what seemed like an impossible task for us, a $24,000 townhouse in London, Ontario.

Now, we couldn't afford to live in the townhouse because we didn't have enough money. So, we rented the townhouse for $700 a month. And we kept that townhouse for two years and we sold it for $50,000. And then we had capital of about $30,000. Still couldn't afford anything in Toronto. We bought four townhouses together in London. And that's how I started my real estate career from that one transaction. And it was as exceptionally difficult to do as it is today.

So it's BS that young people cannot get in the market. You can get in the market.

It's lies, OK? You can't buy your dream home at 24 years old. You can buy a tiny box apartment in a small town like Welland.

BRIAN: Don't hold back. Tell us what you

really think.

ODEEN: I think that I land somewhere in the middle between Brad's perspective and Jay’s perspective here. Because I was going to say that it's difficult, but difficult isn't impossible, right? So I agree with you. I think there's a sense of entitlement sometimes with young people, but the bottom line is I'm representing these young people, right?

And I know that it's difficult, but it's possible. And yes, sacrifice is just the nature of it. And in theory, that perhaps shouldn't be the case, but that just … it is what it is.

JAY: Hey, listen. I grew up in public housing, so I know a ton about sacrifice. My grandmother came to this country as a seamstress, worked in a horribly hot hotel laundromat, bought our family's first home in Little Jamaica, as a matter of fact. And then my family ended up moving into public housing.

I definitely understand sacrifice, and I think that you're absolutely correct that there's a generation that may not be willing to make some of the sacrifices that our parents made and our grandparents made.

But what I'm saying is that it's not about giving up that latte and the kinds of sacrifices that need to be made. Even what Brad said about the fact that they couldn't afford to live in that house where they purchased. Some people don't have a family

home to live in and have a secondary home.

So there is still a degree of privilege and family support and intergenerational wealth and knowledge and spatial entitlement even to understand that you have a place in the market. Some of that perspective, that anyone can do it, it's highly privileged and it is not … it doesn't relate to on-the-ground realities in many racialized communities and people who've been intergenerationally poor.

BRAD: First of all, that's an amazing story

and it's very aspirational. I'm not suggesting that every person in this country can own a home. Every person in any country cannot afford a home. There are some people that are never gonna be able to afford a home. And there's a responsibility for us as citizens to try to help them through taxation and building affordable housing. I'm not denying any of that. It's not a realistic illusion to believe that 100 per cent of Canadians can buy a home. There's always gonna be some, probably 50 or 60 per cent, that rent. And we need to do the best we can to provide all kinds of rental housing.

But if you're a young person today and you're willing to work hard and you have a job and you have a reasonable education where you can make reasonable money, expect your income to grow. I'm saying any Canadian in that category can buy a home in this country and eventually get the home of their dreams. It took me 20 years to get the home of my dreams.

BARRY: But you also have

these homes. If you look back to when my grandparents and parents bought, they were building houses with side entries, side doors. They were rented out, and they subsidized the buyer who could now afford to buy a house and rent out the basement.

And, hey, the home became affordable. I think we need to mandate that. It also provides quick shelter for renters who can't get into the city.

POST: Jay and Brian, there's a concern that, with all the new development, Toronto might be losing its charming character. How do we build more housing and preserve the city's history?

BRIAN: Well, we've got some

problems with architecture in this city. I mean, it's unfortunate. We won't get into that one. But one comment I want to make. We have a client that is worth many billions of

2023 REAL ESTATE ROUNDTABLE

are we thinking that we're building these 15 feet from the curb?" The problem is, so much of the product coming on the market is investor-driven.

Investors don't care what the building looks like. Many of them don't even live in the city, let alone care about it. You want to build 80 storeys? Well, your site allows 50 storeys. We'll give you 10 more, 20 more if you push it back, build more green space, schools, daycare centres, retail that's not fast food chains and dry cleaners.

JAY: You know what's terrible for the

charm and the character of our city? The unaffordability. That's not charming.

People who are unhoused. That's not charming. People trading sex for rent.

That is not charming. And so, I think that if we're really invested in protecting the charm and the character of this city, we would resolve those structural issues and really advance intensification in neighborhoods.

The second point that I'll make is that a lot of heritage planners are actually weaponizing this diversity language, say-

Think Toronto’s market is bad? See how we compare against some of the biggest cities worldwide, based on the average home price in each. Averages are based on the most recent housing data available in each city (converted to Canadian dollars).

ing that, you know, we need to maintain the character of Indigenous places and places where racialized people live. To be clear, heritage planning doesn't give a sh** about racialized people and Indigenous peoples. Most of the character that is recognized in the city is linked to cultures that are European.

Using the argument of maintaining character in this moment to block housing development is insidious and disingenuous. And if you ask most people who are racialized if they prefer to have a plaque or keep a building in place or if they would like shelter over their heads, I'm pretty sure that 10 out of 10 or 100 per cent of those individuals would say that they would like housing.

JENNIFER: So I'm gonna pull an Odeen

move here and try to bridge what Jay and Brian just said. It won't be easy, but I'm going to try, because, on the one hand, we want great places with great investment and material quality, and we want a beautiful tree canopy. We want to be Paris, we want to be western Europe. And on the other hand, I think Jay's point should be well taken: that seeing people living in tents, let's talk about character. Nothing destroys the fabric of this city more than knowing that our fellow citizens simply don't have a roof over their head, are cold in the winter, are stuck on the streets and vulnerable to the weather in a winter city.

There's this phenomenal kind of tension between those two spaces of wanting more housing built more quickly. One of the reasons why housing doesn't get built more quickly is because we're fussing over things like what Brian was asking for, setbacks and the tree canopy, and ensuring that we're getting geothermal into our buildings, which is two thumbs up and very good, but it adds time delays, it adds cost delays, it impacts the affordability of housing.

So the question really is, is there some kind of space that we can occupy in between, where we are recognizing that the way we design and build the city is a long-term legacy that we leave our children, but on the flip side, we've done a bunch of things very wrong? We know that, because there are people in our city who are unhoused, and I'm glad that Brad acknowledged that.

BRIAN: OK. I really object to the idea

that you can't have a green city, a lively city with good architecture if you want affordable housing.

MICHELE ROMANOW: My predic-

tion is the city is going to have to get out of its own way. I think many people pointed out some very good things, but you cannot bring this many immigrants in, have this many rules, make it this difficult to build a house, make it this difficult to rezone and not have great civil unrest. And so, even with declining interest rates, which are hard to know if we're gonna get to, you still have pricing that is way too high that is only going up based on where we are on the supply-demand scale. And the second thing is I hope we make use of repurposing all of our office buildings that I don't think are gonna be used 100 per cent for offices.

I mean, we can even share office space now.

MICHAEL KALLES: Well, we've talked a lot about the housing crisis, but I want to spend a moment on talking about housing as an investment. I wanna talk about the fact that, if you have purchased a home and stayed in it for seven years, and you've done so in the last 62 years, you've made money.

And there's a definition of what a great investment is. It's an average return over a longer-than-average period of time, and that is the definition of housing. People who buy stocks … why they call them day traders [is because] they don't stay in them for many years. So I think people have to recalibrate their mind as to what housing is.

And it's not just an investment. You do get the bonus and benefit of living in the home and raising your family.

| POST | APRIL 2023

dollars and started off very poor. And her parents, you know, rented a house, and then they bought a house, and they rented every room, every room. I'm talking the living room, the bedrooms, everything.

She said to me, "We were so excited when we moved into the house of my parents." The father was a tailor. The mother worked in a dry cleaner. And she said, "My sister and I were so excited because we finally got our own room." She said, "Years later, we realized it was the hall."

But as far as the charm of the city, one of the problems we're doing in our city is we're building almost at zero lot lines.

We're building towers that are assaulting us at the sidewalk and we're not setting them back. There's no … you know, you go to Paris and you go to London and you have … I mean, the cafés, we won't talk about the cafes on the street. But that's another story. But there are trees and setbacks and charm and parks and things like that.

And it seems like right now we're building walls of towers down the streets. And every time I see one go up, I'm like, "What

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COVER STORY

2023 REAL ESTATE ROUNDTABLE BRIAN CONTINUED: There should be no compromise. If you are building affordable housing, it should be good architecture. We should have green space, we should have a more lively neighborhood.

BRIAN GLUCKSTEIN: I think we're going to see the ability to expedite laneway housing much quicker, and the official plan will recognize that and make it more affordable. We're gonna see a lot of companies build modular laneway housing, so there's a format for them. I think we're also going to see young people who are not my age and remember 20 per cent and 18 per cent interest rates come to the conclusion that maybe it was an anomaly that interest rates were 1.5 per cent and two per cent and readjust their thinking that three and four and five is the reality and even if it's three, live as if it's five. It's still the best investment.

We're not getting young people investing in equities, but they'll invest in a mortgage.

So, for the future, this may be the best investment they're ever gonna make.

| POST | APRIL 2023

ODEEN ECCLESTON: It's going to

20

get a little bit worse before it gets better.

And I think that we're going to see places that have been declining in the past six months, mostly the 905, take an opportunity to rebound. But for the most part, I think it's going to be much of the same with the inflation until we get to, I think Benjamin said at the beginning, closer to the two per cent. The government's going to do what they need to do in order to curb inflation. So I think that that indicates that it might indeed be an incremental interest rate hike. And then, as I said, it will get worse. But then as they succeed in curbing the inflation, then the market will perhaps even go bonkers again.

JAY: May I just say this very quickly?

There's no such thing as placemaking or city building without negotiation and compromise. So we absolutely do have to compromise. And I'm going to come in the middle where Jennifer is because I'm not saying that we should build affordable housing without thinking about design. It is imperative that, when we're building affordable housing and all housing, especially when we're talking about the context of intensification, we do have to be thinking about things like green space, like active transportation. These are things that directly impact population health and the safety of communities.

And so, I don't think it's either/or. I'm just saying that in situations where people are blocking developments based on their beloved single-family building or home, that is not a good enough rationale, and that people weaponize this idea of character to block housing development.

MICHELE: We need to focus

on what matters here. Heritage shouldn't matter if people cannot afford a place to live. And I'm sorry, guys, this is not Paris outside. This is a slightly different city than that. And so I think we can do things with lots of design, but you kind of have to decide that that is what we are going to do as a city.

And I think that is a lot toward the government too. We haven't built a subway stop in 30 years. We fight over things that don't matter. We have prices going up, we're pricing ourselves like we’re Paris, but we're actually not behaving like it.

POST: We're now going to move on to our video questions, submitted by University of Toronto students. Barry and Jennifer, what is the safest and cheapest place to live in Toronto?

SEBASTIAN: Your mom's house.

JENNIFER: That's actually a really good answer and deeply relevant because, in May, my daughter graduates from university, and she texted me and said, "Mom, I never appreciated this before, but thank you so much for living in Toronto because it's where all the jobs are." She's been ap-

plying for jobs. The fact that she can move back into her family home is a huge advantage that she has found against her classmates who are also competing for jobs. Odeen's comment about shared ownership and fractional ownership, that's actually a very old idea.

And I have many friends who got their foothold in this city or who grew up in a home where their grandparents lived upstairs in Little Italy or in Roncesvalles.

And I'm about to start the intergenerational living piece, I guess, with my kid moving back into the house.

And one other piece that I think is really critical is the point that Barry raised about ensuring that we have secondary units and suites in existing homes. That too has always been a really critical part of home ownership in the city — what used to be called a mortgage helper.

That's how we bought our first house. We had tenants on the main floor, and when we discovered we were having a baby, my husband and his friends worked day and night and put a basement apartment in the house as well so that we would also have that mortgage helper.

Whereas, historically, you were only allowed a single-family home, but now you can put a second home on an existing lot.

That is really unique. That is really exceptional.

BARRY: But it's still illegal to rent out

your basement unless fully retrofitted.

JENNIFER: You have to meet building

code requirements, absolutely.

Small units, which are criticized in a crazy way in this city, smaller homes and condos are, actually, and have historically been for 30 years in this city, a really good way to get a foot in the door into the market. So look at living in a smaller space where you can start thinking of it like the old traditional wartime bungalow.

BARRY: Right. So it's more of a concept

than a geographic area. I think in Toronto, yeah, you're going to have a hard time finding somewhere cheap. But if you look to the GTA, well, then you're gonna go east, west and north. And like Brad said, you're gonna drive a little to get to your house.

BRAD: I think the student probably wants a more specific answer. So the 427, along the 427, Weston Road, Scarborough, Etobicoke. Those are the cheapest areas.

POST: Our second student question is for Benjamin and Michael. How much will the increase in interest rates help prices go down?

BENJAMIN: So, first of all, let me say a

few things because I think it's important.

I look at the faces here. Everybody's concerned. They're here not because they have nothing else to do but because they're concerned. And it's sold out. They are concerned. Everybody's concerned. I'm concerned. We are in a crisis here. We are talking about small things here. We are in a crisis. The next elections will be determined by real estate and health care. Every politician knows that. Last year, we got 950,000 people entering this country [including new immigrants, non-permanent residents, students, foreign students, people from Ukraine on a three-year visa].

This year, it's going to be one million. Nobody, none of them, is carrying their house on their back.

We have to realize that this is a crisis situation. There are demonstrations in Sweden over affordable housing. This is coming here, civil unrest coming here, if we don't wake up. So we are talking about the prices rising or falling by a few per cents. That's meaningless. The fundamentals of this market are crazy, and we have to wake up here. And therefore, what I suggest is that all those solutions are very good, especially the purpose-built rental solution. There's no one solution, there are many of them. I told you before, and I'll say it again, I want to create a situation in which you are 35 years old, you are married, you have two kids, and you're renting.

Nothing is wrong with you. That's the way we should go. And the only way to do it is purpose-built.

Now, if you have a condo versus purpose-built, condo wins any day. I totally agree that the government should be a big part of it. A government that sets the quotas regarding immigrants must be part of the solution to house them. Therefore, incentives to developers, eliminating HST, eliminating development charges — Ottawa must pay for that. The cities cannot do that. This is a national crisis that is leading to civil unrest if we are not waking up. Now, the question was about prices.

And I suggest that over the next few months maybe prices will go down, but that's not the story. Prices went up by 46 per cent in two years during COVID. Now, it's correcting. Without this correction, we'd be in a bubble. So that's a very healthy correction. And every time it goes

2023 REAL ESTATE ROUNDTABLE

MICHAEL: Well, we're in a

situation where between 12 and 20 million people are gonna be coming to our country in the next 10 years. We see that all three levels of government are behind this. But the fact of the matter is, if you look at the development timing, Toronto ranks in the bottom quartiles — 32 months just to get approvals. So we see we're in a desperate situation, but it begs the question, what are we doing? And we have to do something drastic. Drastic because, to answer the question, prices have nowhere to go but up. And if we talk about purpose-built, if you speak to developers, they're saying that the only way they could make things work is at $6 per foot. To put it in perspective, that means if you have a thousand-square-foot unit to rent, it's $6,000 a month. Otherwise, developers can't afford it. So we need subsidies by the government to make this a reality. And Brian brought up a good point. Without purpose-built, there's no security. And that's the only way forward.

BRIAN: Quickly, one of the things we

have to do is stop shaming people that rent. It's all about you're not worthy unless you own an apartment. The mentality has to change with that. People have to have dignity as renters. And we have to have buildings that are designed that way and integrated into neighbourhoods. So, that's the first thing. Not everybody owns. I live in New York also. They live all throughout the city, and they are lifetime renters. But as long as there's dignity to the buildings they live in and the environments they live in, and they're in all the neighbourhoods, that's the way it has to be.

JENNIFER: OK. I'm going be like Daniel Dale on CNN. I'm just gonna do a little, I hope it's not annoying, a little bit of a fact check. So, first of all, Michele, we've built two subways in the past 10 years. The Sheppard subway opened in early 2000, and the extension to Vaughan opened in 2017.

However, you are forgiven for thinking that we haven't built any, because when

you build the wrong infrastructure, no one feels the impact. So the Sheppard subway, not the right infrastructure, cost $3.5 billion.

We have an organization at the city called CreateTO and an initiative from the former mayor called HousingTO that was all about building affordable housing on government-owned land. But there was one problem. There was an incentive for the developers to provide a payback for the land. So, inevitably, not a single one has been built. What happened was developers came in and they squeezed and tightened and made an offer for the land. So there would be a $10 million offer or a $30 million offer, whatever it might be, which inevitably minimized the amount of affordable housing. I feel this very personally because we responded to one of the request for proposals as a company, Markee Developments, where we're focused on building purpose-built housing and maximizing the amount of affordable housing that we build. And in our response, we put zero, just as Brian has indicated, for the price of the land, and we were providing 50 per cent. Of 634 units, 50 per cent were going to be at 50 per cent of market rate, so a deep level of affordability.

But we didn't win the bid. You know why we didn't win the bid? Because in the scoring criteria, there was a category for the price of the land. So we were calling the bluff of the city and saying, “You want to maximize the amount of affordable housing, but you've actually established criteria for these projects that minimizes the amount of affordable housing that gets delivered.” That's the level of nuance at which I would argue all levels of government are failing on delivering what they say they want to deliver with respect to affordable housing. It's happening at CMHC [Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation]. We'll see what happens at the province. We don't know yet. But hopefully, whoever the new mayor is in Toronto is going to get into the weeds and figure some of this stuff out, because what politicians are saying they want and then the mechanisms they have to deliver those things are completely misaligned with a $1 billion Housing Accelerator Fund that was announced [by CMHC] 12 months ago.

How much of the money do you think has been distributed? It's literally called the Housing Accelerator Fund. Not a penny.

BRAD: Sorry, can I just pipe in

here? The cost of delivering a high-rise building in Toronto is $1,200 a foot, $1,100 to $1,200 a foot, including the land. The land is between $250 and $300 a foot. The HST is around $300 a foot. If you take free land from the city, as Ben said, you forgive HST, you forgive development fees, you're pretty well there. This is easy to do. It's just that our greedy, tax-hungry government doesn't wanna do it. Affordable housing is not hard to do. It's all about cost. If you can deliver housing at $500 to $600 a foot in mid-rise or highrise in Toronto, problem solved. So it is about pressuring your councillor, your mayor, your local Ontario politician and your federal politician to do this. It's gonna cost all of us. We all have to pay. But it's better than walking down the street and getting stabbed in the stomach because there's a homeless person there that has no place to go. So we all have to pull together and push our governments to do this. It's not tough to do.

JAY: I won't belabour this point, but I can't let it go. Let's not vilify unhoused people.

There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that unhoused people are violent or will stab people in the stomach as you're walking down the street. So let's just set the record straight there.

POST: Sebastian and Brian, now that the pandemic renovation boom and the housing market are slowing, how are people adding value to their properties? Has anything changed?

SEBASTIAN: Sure. I think it depends what kind of value you're talking about. If you're talking about adding monetary value to your house, because you want to sell it or you want to flip it, then that question's been asked a million times, and it's always the same answer. You know, it's kitchens and bathrooms give you your best return on investment. It's kind of a common thread, but I don't think flipping is something that can really be done very easily. In today's world, the housing prices are way too high for all of the different reasons that everyone has spoken about here today.

I also think it's a detriment to what's going on. The affordable housing that Jennifer was talking about, the bungalows, they're all gone. I remember growing up in this city and seeing bungalows all over the place. They all have toppers on top of them now. They've all been flipped.

JAY PITTER: I think that to my col-

league Benjamin’s point, we have a serious issue with civil unrest ahead, and you can already hear there's anti-immigration sentiment that is brewing in this moment, because we're not housing people who are here already and that is getting projected onto newcomers, many of whom are racialized. But I also think this contestation of the single-family home and the car as being the dream is ahead. We are at a place in history where we have realized that we should stop talking about the dream house. I think the dream is to have a city where everyone belongs, where everyone has basic necessities that are provided to them.

BENJAMIN TAL: I think the inflation panic will ease. I think that the short-term interest rates, the prime rate, variable rates will remain relatively stable during the course of the year. But the five-year rate will start easing slowly.

If we get a recession, in my opinion, it will be a wannabe recession because the unemployment rate won’t rise.

And remember, the consumer is sitting on $350 billion of excess savings that will buffer the economy from a real recession.

Assuming that the Bank of Canada will not overshoot, the rate of change will slow, and by summer I think that the market will stabilize. More supply will come into the market, but I don't see the rate at which it has been declining as sustainable.

| POST | APRIL 2023

down, I cheer. It's good. It's good for everybody. But it's not going to solve our affordability crisis.

Projects are being cancelled. The demand is there. You don't have to be a genius to see what will happen to prices two years from now. This is going to get worse and worse and worse.

COVER STORY

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE 21

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2023 REAL ESTATE ROUNDTABLE

BRIAN: Well, I agree that that whole concept of buying and flipping is really done.

And what's happening is that the amount of money you have to add to upgrade to the next level has become prohibitive for

most people. So, they're looking at their house and saying, “OK, I can't just move up $400,000 or $500,000. I have to almost double the amount to make a difference.”

So, we're seeing people redesign their houses for their lifestyle and their family and not necessarily on the value. We're also seeing people that are modifying their houses to multi-generational houses that are accessible for their older parents or grandparents so that they can age in place in their houses. So that's one of the big trends we're seeing today. We're creating apartments for their parents or their grandparents. They may have elevators in them. You know, an elevator is $25,000 for a house.

I mean, it's in the whole scheme of a renovation to make a house accessible. So we're not seeing people say, “Oh, I'm gonna get a new kitchen because my house is gonna go up $400,000.” That's done. It's about, “I'm staying here.” And many people are saying, “I wanna age in place.

How am I going to age in place in this house? How am I going to get into the front door? How am I going to get into the shower? How am I going to get around the house?” So we're seeing that is the renovation of people aging in place, and multi-generational homes is a big factor, whether it's a 50-year-old couple and their children or a 50-year-old couple and their parents. That's what we're seeing today.

POST: Michele and Jay, the downtown core has not come back. Many tech companies are downsizing and office building vacancies abound. What should we do about these buildings and are people still going to want to live downtown?

MICHELE: The downtown has not come back. We were one of the very smart companies that rented 55,000 square feet of office space right before the pandemic.

And so, we've subleased a bunch of the space now. But I don't think it matters who you are. I mean, Shopify's subleasing their office space right now. I think all of us are now using our office space as hybrid working spaces where people are coming in, and we're gonna brainstorm, or we're gonna be in the office on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. But that's definitely changing when you're doing the

There are many people in our city who don’t have basic shelter and a roof over their heads; with that in mind, Post City, Streets of Toronto and the Rotman School have made donations on behalf of our panellists, our

math on, well, what would I do to come downtown twice a week? I think this conversation is really focused on what it's going to take to make housing affordable.

That is really, really important here and we should be using these office buildings in different uses. I mean, an office is pretty close to a house, right? It has heat and HVAC, and you can change all sorts of things if, you know, the city allows you to do that.

JAY: So, my practice devel-

oped the proposal which will guide all cultural districts right across the city. And we also are coming to the end of the development of the Little Jamaica Cultural District Plan. I'm sure a lot of people in this room are familiar with the transitoriented — it should be TOD — transit-oriented development, but a lot of people experience transit-oriented displacement, which is a term now used to describe the ways in which transit, which should be a public good, can displace businesses as well as residents. And so, in talking to those communities in terms of downtown revival — and I know Little Jamaica's not right downtown, but I think it is a good example — one of the meetings that I had recently with BIA leaders was about the fact that a lot of those business owners along the retail corridor are now flipping those businesses into housing because there's such a housing crisis, and you can get immediate money with a housing rental and how that is a really dangerous trend because when you turn retail into housing, you jeopardize the local economy.

So a lot of local neighbourhoods are facing this crisis when you think about revitalization and recovery. So what I am seeing is that, you know, retail, I agree that we definitely need to repurpose some of those bigger buildings and think about mixed-use. I think mixed-use is where we should be heading for all things. And I also think that it is important to protect those small storefronts that really are the lifeblood of local neighbourhoods as well — so being able to have a nuanced approach that holds both of those priorities.

readers and our sponsor, The RE/MAX Collection, to Sistering, an organization supporting unhoused women and trans people in Toronto, and to Red Door Shelter, which provides sanctuary for families.

BRAD LAMB: I think Toronto is the best

city in the world to live in. I think there's a lot of tremendous things that are happening here. I think it's a very bad idea to repurpose large-scale office properties. They cost as much as a highrise condo to build, but the revenue is about 30 per cent less. We're gonna need them again. We currently can build about 30,000 homes, 35,000 homes in the GTA. That's it. Why is that it? Because we don't have tradespeople.

I'll be the bearer of bad news here. There is no midterm solution for a housing crisis.

We're in it now. You go to any country in the world and to the tier one city in those countries, front page news is the same problem.

We have people from other countries that need to get out because it's a terrible state in those places, and they're coming to countries like Canada. We can't not take them in.

So there's no solution to doubling from 30,000 to 60,000, because it's a skilled job to be a carpenter or a plumber or an electrician. There aren't the people and the will to train these people to get it done.

So you don't wanna hear this, but we have another nine months of this nonsense with interest rates. It will pass. There'll be minimal damage to the real estate market as there has been now. I think real estate prices are going to start to rise. I think the bottom was December. I think anyone who sells a lot of real estate will probably echo that: that the darkest days were December.

January's a bit better. February is a lot better.

We'll see what happens this spring. After that, we have a housing shortage. And unfortunately, right now, if you go to a new sales centre in Toronto and wanna buy a condo, it's $1,600 a foot. In five years, it's $2,000 a foot. That's what our future is, and we can't stop it. I'm sorry.

| POST | APRIL 2023

SEBASTIAN CONTINUED: So the idea of, you know, buying a house or renovating your house and trying to get the minimum investment you could put in for the maximum profit that you could make is kind of a part of the problem, and it's why we're here in the first place. And so, you know, adding value to that home is something that I could give you a ton of advice on, but I'm not gonna tell you how to do it because I don't think it's the greatest thing. But with the clients that I have, you know, as of recently, the value that they're trying to add to their home is in terms of the experience that their family is having within the house itself. And I think that's very important.

And if you wanna talk about adding value to your home for your family, then it's very easy. All you have to do is think about where you spend the most time in your house and what the problems are with that area, and how you can improve it. And then think about, what's the eyesore?

What's the thing that's bothering you the most inside of your home? And then think about what's the thing that just doesn't work inside of your house. And then you can create a whole list of things that you write down and grade. You grade it in terms of which one of those things will make you the most happy if you fix it. And you cross reference that with your budget.

And then you know where to start your renovation, and you know how to add value to your home.

And I think that all of the renovations for that matter that I've been doing in the last two years, they're all about customization. None of them are about generalization. I think those general renovations that people were doing when they were just trying to punch in a kitchen, just in case they sell the house, they don't wanna build something that's too custom for them, because they wanna get the maximum resale.

I think those days have kind of come to an end. And so, it's all about customization in today's world. And I think that's how you can add good value to your home.

COVER STORY

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| POST | APRIL 2023

The perfect spring trend has arrived — balletcore.

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SPRING PROFESSIONAL REGISTRY CRITICAL ILLNESS INSURANCE WITH RETURN OF PREMIUM

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| POST | APRIL 2023

Dr. Edwin Lewandowski, Dr. Elvira (Ella) Mostyn, Dr. Haley Frydrych

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BIO Dr. Lewandowski is a graduate of New York University (NYU) College of Dentistry. He has worked as an instructor at the NYU Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto Faculty of Dentistry as well as in a hospital based dental clinic. Dr. Mostyn obtained her dental degree from The Faculty of Dentistry at James Cook University, Australia. Dr. Haley Frydrych received her dental degree from U of T.

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THE BIG TICKETS

CURRENTS

L-R: Drag queen extraordinaire Violet Chachki, Canadian Opera Company set to premiere new production of ‘Macbeth’

by Ron Johnson

| POST | APRIL 2023

April fools, drag queens, murder and the circus

27

SPRING PROFESSIONAL REGISTRY EYE STRAIN AND HEADACHES: NEW TREATMENT OPTION

Dr. David Black

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Eyestrain and headaches have long been an issue for many people and have worsened by our increasing use of screens. Having an up to date glasses prescription can help but often that alone doesn't resolve the problem. And what about people who don't have a prescription?

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With the advent of new eye alignment

measuring technology and the optical industry’s first contoured prism lenses, Neurolens, we can not only measure with precision these eye misalignments but we have a lens that can correct for them! The amount of prism in the glasses is tailored specifically to your eye measurements. And with the contoured prism design, more prism is provided where it is needed most, when viewing objects at close distances like computers, phones and tablets.

A local patient commented on his recent experience with these glasses, "The glasses are actually amazing. I can tell the difference. I didn't even realize before that I would bring my head/neck closer to the screen or page I was reading and now my neck is more relaxed. My eyes are definitely less sensitive to light than before... and no more migraines/major headaches since!!!"

To discover if you are a candidate contact your Optometrist.

CONTACT Eyes on Sheppard 90 Sheppard Ave. East, Suite 100A, Toronto

Tel: 416-733-4444 www.eyesonsheppard.com

WHAT IS YOUR ORAL HEALTH ROUTINE?

| POST | APRIL 2023

Dr. Eden Noyek

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BIO Dr. Eden Noyek grew up in the GTA and attended Wilfrid Laurier University where she earned her Honours Bachelor of Science Degree in Health Sciences with high distinction. Dr. Eden. completed her studies in Dentistry at Western University. She is a member of the Ontario Dental Association and the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario.

April is Oral Health Month, a good time of year to take stock of your oral care routine and understand how proper oral health can have an impact on your overall well-being. This April, consider the preventive steps you can take to make sure your mouth and the rest of your body are healthy throughout the year.

Good oral hygiene is important for many reasons. Sore or bleeding gums, missing teeth, infections, and oral pain can all affect your. ability to eat and talk. These problems can have an influence on the type of food you eat and the enjoyment you get from eating. They can also make you feel self-conscious and limit your ability to socialize. Plus, while we often think of our mouth as a separate part of our body, research reveals a connection between our oral health and certain chronic diseases, such as stroke, heart disease, and diabetes.

Along with watching what you eat, you also want to practise proper oral hygiene habits.

These habits include keeping your mouth clean by brushing and flossing every day. When you’re brushing your teeth, use a soft-bristled

toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste. Brush your teeth and your tongue twice a day for two minutes. Make sure you clean the outer, inner, and chewing surfaces of your teeth.

Of course, brushing is only part of the routine. You also need to floss once a day to remove food particles and plaque where toothbrush bristles can’t reach, including between the teeth and under the gum line.

While brushing and flossing your teeth at home are important for removing plaque, you can’t remove tartar on your own. You need to keep up with regular dental visits. Many people will need to see their dentists every six months for a routine cleaning and examination.

During the cleaning, your dental professional will use special tools to remove tartar from your teeth. Your teeth will then be polished to help remove surface stains and flossed to make sure all areas are clean. During the exam, your dental professional will check for cavities, inspect your gums, and examine your tongue, throat, neck, face, and head for signs of swelling or redness.

CONTACT Dr Matthew Orzech & Associates 491 Eglinton Ave W Suite 101 Toronto, ON M5N 1A7

eglintonavenuewestdental.com 416-481-9131

FEATURE

CURRENTS

PORSCHIA THOMAS, FRENCH TOAST VINTAGE

KEZ GARBER, PAPA LOVE VINTAGE

DANIEL, DESIGNER, RABEK

LUNA LINDSAY, CREATOR, MOONWIX

Wearing a vintage velvet blazer, dress from H&M and chunky platform boots, accessorized with gold jewelry.

Wearing Y2K vintage camo pants and a ’70s thrifted T-shirt. Accessorized with a chain belt bought at the Hippie Market, a leather belt with real silver and a handmade harness.

Wearing thrifted purple pants with a 2011 Golf Wang shirt. Accessorized with a self-made hat from Rabek and Marni x Veja sneakers.

Wearing a duster jacket from Toronto vintage shop Nouveau Riche Vintage, a vintage cami and jeans from H&M. Accessorized with a beret from Heirloom Hats and L’Intervalle boots.

DON’T JUST SELL VINTAGE, LIVE IT!

| POST | APRIL 2023

Some of the hottest looks in town are being purchased at Toronto’s vintage markets. Meet eight vintage vendors and designers who are dressed for success and get some outfit inspiration. by Emma Johnston-Wheeler

BOBBY RAFFIN, THREE PIECES SHOP

CECILIA, REGAL FLARE

TAHRIK RODRIQUES, DESIGNER, LOOK

GENEVIÈVE SMITH, GIFTS OF THRIFT

Wearing original reworked snake embroidered pants and a scarf reworked into a tank top.

Accessorized with measuring tape, gold hand earrings and a Christian Dior ring.

Wearing a self-thrifted outfit intended to be comfortable for the market. She chose the purple blouse because it’s one of her favourite colours, and flowy overalls for easy movement.

Wearing an original Look bucket hat with chunky yarn sewn into the brim, Look chunky yarn tie-dye T, a Zara blazer and JW Anderson x Uniqlo sherpa trap pants.

Wearing a cashmere sweater and pants from a Paris flea. Accessorized with sunglasses, custom El General cowboy boots, a Big Top Shop custom bag and 60-year-old vintage socks.

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CURRENTS

DAILY PLANET

‘Right-brain’ thinking inspired an age of protests like this one

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| POST | APRIL 2023

Honestly and Fairly Representing individuals and their families

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416 528 9093 | 1396 Eglinton Ave W, Toronto

Earth Day began on April 22, 1970 — 53 years ago. Since then, the human population has more than doubled, from 3.7 billion to almost eight billion. Our drive toward endless population and economic growth has led to the destruction of massive swathes of pristine forest through clear-cutting, burning and flooding for agriculture and industry, and millions of species have been pushed to extinction.

Political and business leaders would do well to take time to consider how we got here. The rise of the Industrial Revolution gave science and its servant, technology, the power to move mountains. Linear, analytic “left-brain” thinking became dominant over the collaborative, holistic thinking associated with the brain’s right hemisphere. Economics became the dominant “science.”

The First World War positioned the U.S. as the world’s leading economy, but trouble in the agriculture sector and stock markets brought it crashing down, sparking the Great Depression.

Production and mobilization during the Second World War brought the U.S. and other countries out of that calamity. After the war, manufacturing, especially in America, turned from tanks,

boats, guns and planes to cars, refrigerators, TVs and toasters — many designed to have limited lifespans.

In the 1950s, consumerism and credit kept the postwar economy burning. But to maintain it, we had to get hooked on growth, to feed our debt.

Then the ’60s hit — “rightbrain” thinking rose against the “left-brain” creep of the preceding decades. It was an age of rebellion from those who rejected injustice and lifted up noble ideals.

It gave birth to an explosion of music and the civil rights, feminist and peace movements and to the environmental movement, sparked by Rachel Carson’s influential book Silent Spring in 1962. They rose in part from a transformative shift to balance the “left-brain” dominance of western thinking.

More than 50 years after the first Earth Day, let’s rededicate ourselves to the power that harmonizes “left-” and “right-brain” thinking. Let’s not fall into the trap of trying to solve the great problems of this world with only half a brain. That’s what got us into trouble in the first place.

DAVID SUZUKI and Tara Cullis

GREAT ESCAPES

by Rebecca Hesse

Take the time this spring to discover a new hobby! Check out these four Ontario getaways ideal for you to pursue a unique learning experience or improve a skill you’re passionate about.

keeping, and enjoy honey tasting while there. To extend your visit, opt to camp amongst the Cedars, sleep in a fun-filled 1,6000 ft. forest loft, or spend a night in a charming meadow cabin. freija.ca

Learn the art of cooking in a Regency-era maison

Fine tune your outdoor photography skills

Hone your inner Julia Child with a French-inspired getaway right on the shores of the St. Lawrence River with one of several culinary experiences. Join acclaimed chef Cynthia Peters in the Maison Maitland kitchen and learn several international recipes to elevate your next dinner party. On the full-day adventure, start the morning on a guided excursion to collect fresh ingredients from nearby farms and shops. Upon return, enjoy a hands-on cooking class, lunch, wine tasting and more learning in Cynthia’s kitchen garden. Overnight at the historical Georgian-era manor in

From coast to coast, Canada is known for having spectacular outdoor scenery — so there’s plenty of inspiration to spot through the lens. For shutterbugs looking to sharpen their skills, consider joining one of several multi-day excursions with Helen E Grose Photography. Offering immersive small-group experiences in places like Algonquin, Muskoka and further afoot, these guided adventures will give you a hands-on opportunity to learn and share outdoor photography tips and tricks. While some getaways include camping, other excursions invite you to

A nature sanctuary in Grey County offers a beekeeping retreat

one of two reimagined carriage house villas. maisonmaitland.com Uncover the secrets of beekeeping in Grey County

Perhaps you’ve heard some buzz about beekeeping in recent years — from urban apiaries to hobby hives, promoting healthy bee populations is in everyone’s best interest. If you’ve ever been cu-

rious about how beekeeping works, you’ll want to take a road trip to Freija for an unforgettable experience. Located in the heart of Kinghurst Forest, a 100-acre nature sanctuary, Freija specializes in nature and science-based learning opportunities. Spend an afternoon learning about the fascinating life of bees, gain an introductory understanding of bee-

book your own accommodations. helengrose.ca Escape to the country for a writer’s retreat

For those with a zeal for literary life and who seek creative connection, quality writing time or gentle guidance from other wordsmiths, try joining an intimate group getaway like the Spring Thaw Retreat hosted by Firefly Creative Writing. Spend three days in a rustic Northumberland Farmhouse with eight other guests and two writing coaches. Connect over meal prepping, enjoy a balance of quiet reflection and writing time, and dive into group workshops where idea sharing and feedback are encouraged.

Choose to overnight in private farmhouse rooms, cabins or even a camping experience. fireflycreativewriting.com

| POST | APRIL 2023

4 Ontario getaways for laid-back learning

CURRENTS

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CURRENTS

GROWING UP TORONTO

The Office writer brings new comedy to T.O.

| POST | APRIL 2023

Anthony Q. Farrell’s TV writing career started out with a bang — writing on one of the most popular shows of all time, the U.S. version of The Office. Now, 10 years after the show ended, Farrell is bringing the workplace comedy back with CTV’s Shelved, with a distinctly Toronto twist.

When he moved back to Canada from L.A., he spent a lot of time in Parkdale. There, the idea for Shelved was born.

“I feel like it’s a very Toronto show, very specific to this place, and I think that separates it from other shows,” he says.

Based on the real life Parkdale Library, the show follows an eclectic cast of librarians and patrons, where everything from the set to the hyperlocal references is immediately recognizable to a Toronto audience, but also a pretty universal reflection of librarians. “Librarians are

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REPORT CARD STUDENT:

Anthony Q. Farrell GRADUATED:

Brebeuf College School BEST SUBJECT:

Math WORST SUBJECT:

Geography CURRENT JOB:

TV writer

Anthony Q. Farrell’s new comedy is based on a Toronto library

kind of service workers; they’re trying to make their community as strong as possible,” Farrell says.

“I’ve developed a few workplace comedies in my day, and one of the things I was looking for is a place where the characters who work there and the

characters who move through the space are interesting,” Farrell says.

Though Farrell worked on the show that is often considered the blueprint for workplace comedies today, he doesn’t feel any pressure from it. “I’ve learned that I can’t please every-

by Julia Mastroianni

body. There is no universal joke, but if it makes you laugh, it’ll make someone else laugh,” he shares.

Making people laugh was the genesis of Farrell’s career. He realized in elementary school during speeches that he loved standing in front of his class and making them laugh. That transformed into a love of theatre at Brebeuf College School, where he had roles in the school-wide Dracula and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat performances. But it was another high school experience that the showrunner says helped him along in his career.

“When you become a showrunner, it's not just about the writing, it's about managing people. And so a lot of those skills I learned from being the president of my student council.”

Farrell has been flexing his

showrunning muscles well before Shelved, with a resume that includes Secret Life of Boys, Overload & The Underwoods and the second season of Run the Burbs most recently.

Having been in writing rooms before where he was the only person of colour, Farrell makes a point of telling the writers in his rooms that they don’t have to represent everyone.

“When I run a room, I try to remove as much fear as possible,” he says. “You don’t have to have all the answers. And having as many voices as possible makes the show more authentic, and also funnier — what’s funny to you might not be funny to someone else.”

Although Shelved is just on season one, Farrell sees a long future for the show. “Why not go Simpsons with it? You’re never going to run out of stories in a library. It really is limitless.”

HOW THEY MET

CURRENTS

judges and ended up walking in a few shows that year. When the pandemic hit and Fashion Art Toronto had to go virtual, we would location scout together in some incredible places. We got to go on private tours of the ROM, the Science Centre, Ripley’s Aquarium and Union Station when they were completely empty of people and tourists. It was a very bonding experience.

We are presently not holding open houses.

We welcome you to book a private tour.

The kids

Vanja: I have a daughter from my previous relationship.

Angel Vilela Gonzalez and Vanja Vasic

Navigating the runway & a relationship in style Despite being one of the world’s most fashionable cities, Toronto has a rocky relationship with Fashion Week. But from all the commotion around the fall of the original Toronto Fashion Week over the loss of sponsor IMG, a scrappier, more forward-thinking Fashion Week emerged — Fashion Art Toronto (also known as FAT).

Founded by Vanja Vasic in 2005, it has filled a gap in Toronto’s fashion scene, offering an opportunity for Canadian designers to showcase their work within a hybrid arts event. And in an industry that is notoriously exclusive, FAT is a true celebration of designers and models with diverse body types, gender identities and backgrounds.

Ahead of FAT’s spring 2023 event in April, we caught up with Vanja to hear how she met her partner, Angel Vilela Gonzalez, and how fashion plays a big role in their relationship.

spent the night dancing and flirting.

How they met

We’ve had a very strong chemistry with each other since the beginning, and we’ve had lots of memorable moments since then.

In the first months that we met we were doing in-person model castings for Fashion Art Toronto, and I made him try out as a model. He impressed the

The first date

We spent a lot of time texting and getting to know each other before our first date. We went on a date two weeks after we first met. He took me to Barrio Coreano for dinner and drinks.

I remember the butterflies I had

Balancing careers and a relationship

We have a great schedule where we set aside time each week to be with each other and we always make our dates intentional. The rest of our time is spent on our work, his schooling and our families.

C elebrating 43 years

Shared hobbies and interests

We both love fashion and dressing up. He loves the big fashion brands, and I’m into local Canadian designers. We love exploring and going on road trips, discovering restaurants and wineries together, dancing and listening to music and, of course, shopping.

“I saw her dancing

when I first saw him waiting for me outside of the restaurant before I arrived. He was such a gentleman and very gorgeous.

We could hardly eat our food, we were so consumed in each other.

Fashion as a couple

We’ll check in with each other about our outfits, especially for big events. Just to get the, “Looks good” or “Maybe try it with this necklace.” But we have our own individual and very distinct style, which is one of the reasons we work so well together. We appreciate that about each other. He’s definitely more sporty in his approach to fashion and I’m more sleek. Sometimes we’ll co-ordinate our outfits to match just for an extra bit of fun and playfulness when we go out.

The secret to success

We have great chemistry and passion, which keeps the romance alive. We support each other in our daily life with work and family. We make time for lots of cuddles and laughter.

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| POST | APRIL 2023

across the room and was instantly drawn to her.”

The courtship

Angel: We met at Toronto club El Convento Rico. I saw her dancing from across the room when I first walked in, and I was instantly drawn to her.

Vanja: He offered me his hand to dance, and I was hypnotized by his eyes and his charm. We

Kindly call the school.

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CURRENTS

PARENT TO PARENT

Summer countdown: Parents share their tips for first-timers A typical summer in Ontario sees about 500,000 kids attending over 400 accredited camps. From the mandated closure of overnight camps due to COVID-19 in 2020 to the significant restrictions in 2021, camp numbers plummeted.

In 2022, camp numbers were close to normal again, but the mark of the pandemic still shows: first-time campers are now older, there’s a demand for shorter sessions and overall higher anxiety levels for parents and campers.

I recently spoke to new camper parents about their mounting worries around sending their kids away, why they’re challenging their fears, and what they’re doing to prepare for it.

Every single parent I talked to asked some variation of “How will I know how my kid is doing?” and “What if they really need to tell me something?” Several told me: “I know ‘no news is good

Parents say knowing when to expect updates helped them relax

news’ but I really just want to know, especially at the beginning, that they’re doing OK.”They told me that knowing when to expect updates and reassurance that they’d be contacted in an emergency or if their kid was really unhappy helped them relax.

The second most common

concern parents voiced was about their kids’ social well-being: “What if they don’t know anyone?” and “I just want to know they’ll make friends” and “What do you do if kids are mean?” They told me that hearing how camp handles these things is reassuring (one parent with a negative past

camp experience advised, “Don’t believe a camp that says, ‘All the kids here are nice’”).

Many parents are talking with their kids about how to put themselves out there in new social situations and finding opportunities to practice those skills at home.

Parents who know their kids have trouble making or keeping friends at school are setting their kids up for camp success by seeking professional social skills support for their kids and sharing strategies with camp. Parents whose kids don’t know anyone feel better when their kids can meet some other new campers before camp.

And finally: health and hygiene. Parents talked about kids’ quirks that might go unnoticed by 17-year-old camp staff, ranging from dry skin that cracks and bleeds without daily moisturizing to lying about toothbrushing and more than one kid who becomes

“The staff are extremely adaptable and are dedicated to providing a safe and healthy environment for the kids.”

Camp Wabikon “The connections I made with people at camp have been incredibly powerful and meaningful.”

Emma Ryan

Joshua Haberer

Counsellor 2018-Present

Camper & Counsellor 2010-2022 + Program Director 2023

What advice would you give new campers to get the most out of their time?

Make an effort to try new activities that you don’t normally get to try at home or school.

This is how you find new hobbies and interests. Also, it allows you to make new friends and spend time with friends you’ve already made.

What are you looking forward to doing this summer?

This summer I will be returning to Camp Wabikon as the program director. I am most looking forward to providing a great program for all the campers and staff with the goal of them having the best time of their lives. I’m excited to give back to a camp, that gives me so much by helping others have the same positive experiences that I had as a camper and counsellor.

What are you looking forward to the most for Summer 2023?

This year we have limited restrictions after COVID-19. We can fully embrace enjoying new activities, returning to the splash pads and engaging in larger group activities. Each day is filled with new experiences, new challenges and new memories.

| POST | APRIL 2023

MARA KATES has an MSW in child, youth and family services and is director of Camp Arowhon.

HAPPY CAMPERS - A LOOK TOWARDS SUMMER 2023

Prestige School Summer Camp

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painfully constipated when they don’t eat enough fibre. Most parents said they are practicing independence in these areas at home (great plan) and asking camp to assist and keep an eye on these things.

I tell parents that toothbrush policing is not a service we provide, so they need to either train their kid to comply with reminders or be OK with a dirty mouth. For the other two, I’d suggest daily visits to the camp Med Centre for moisturizer/Restoralax as preventative measures.

Despite their fears, the parents I talked to were unwavering in their belief in the importance of the camp experience for fostering independence, social skills and a break from the all-encompassing reach of technology.

How does your camp support the mental health and well-being of campers and staff? Our camp counsellors are educated about the importance of mental, emotional and social health and have been properly trained on managing issues that may arise, so our campers have a safe and rewarding camp experience.

What is your favourite camp activity, and why? I really enjoy the field trips. Bringing the campers to the zoo, aquarium, the farm, etc., is one of the best tools that we can use to provide campers with first-hand experience and stimulate their interest and motivation.

What are your favourite camp activities, and why? Personally, my favourite camp activity is the canoe tripping program. This allows campers and staff to immerse themselves into the beautiful wilderness and lakes of Temagami. The tripping program provided me with the opportunity to develop close bonds with my fellow canoers, disconnect from technology, be physically active and connect with nature.

In your own opinion, what are the benefits of camp for kids? I think that giving kids an outdoor camp environment that is not at all school related is so important for growing up. For me, camp has always been a place where kids can truly be themselves which helped me a lot with building my self-confidence.

SUMMER CAMPS & PROGRAMS

Our guide brings together some of the city’s finest camps and programs.

It’s our hope that the guide will help your children achieve their dreams, make new friends and gain an appreciation of nature.

Prestige School

Prestige School’s Summer Camp Program is just the fun, activity-filled, yet educational summer that your children are looking for! Our camp, which offers a wide variety of exciting activities that keep all kids engaged, educated, and entertained, starts on July 4th and ends on August 25th, 2023. Our sports program includes Outdoor Games, Basketball, Volleyball, and Soccer. We also offer educational programs such as English, French studies, Spanish, English as a Second Language, and Logic Boosters. We also provide activities such as Fun Science, Computer Design, Computer Animation and 3D Modelling, Drawing, Painting, Sculpting, Chess, Baking and Nutrition. Campers attend exciting weekly Field Trips throughout the summer and visits to the Swimming Pool/Splash pad. The camp runs from Monday - Friday from 8am - 6pm. Hot lunch is provided daily. Door-to-door transportation is available. Summer School Credit Courses for gr. 9-12 now offered.

CAMP TYPE: Day Camp AGE RANGE: 3-19 years TOTAL ENROLMENT: 50-70 CAMPER/STAFF RATIO: Varies SESSION LENGTH: July & August SESSION COST: $430 per week

CAMP DIRECTOR:

Olga Margold

CONTACT: 416-250-0648 prestigeprivateschool.ca

2 Convenient Locations: Toronto Campus: 21 Eddfield Avenue (Sheppard & Yonge) Richmond Hill Campus: 11 Headdon Gate (Bathurst & Major Mackenzie)

416-250-0648

| POST | APRIL 2023

PRESTIGE SCHOOL SUMMER CAMP

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SUMMER CAMPS & PROGRAMS Camp Wabikon

For over 75 years Camp Wabikon has provided youth from around the world with an exceptional overnight summer camp experience. Located on an island in beautiful Temagami, Ontario our site adds to the magic of your child's stay. Our qualified, dynamic Staff team leads a safe, fun and educational program. Campers love the freedom of being able to choose their activities each day using our personal choice sign-up system. Each camper is encouraged to try all of the activities offered at camp, including a cabin group canoe trip. We also offer an outstanding 6-week Counsellor In Training (CIT) program for 16 & 17 year olds. We are a family owned and operated business that takes great pride in the work we do. By limiting camper enrolment to 150 everyone at Wabikon feels like part of the family. Join us for a summer you’ll never forget!

Hockey Camps International

Since 1976, Hockey Camps International has provided hockey players the opportunity to attend innovative and exciting hockey programs. We offer specialized camps and clinics throughout the year for all ages and skill levels. Our programs include creating skill development programs for entire organizations and teams as well as specialized programs for players of all levels. Our goal is to provide each player with a positive learning experience emphasizing sportsmanship, team concepts and skill development. All components of our programs are designed to create a fun, healthy and competitive atmosphere where players can improve their hockey skills. The Camps personnel consists of highly qualified instructors with years of experience at various levels of hockey including Professional, Junior, U.S. and Canadian Universities. Camp Director, Steve Tschipper, Hons. BBA – Over 30 years of Coaching/Teaching & playing experience including clinics across Canada, U.S.A., & Europe.

CAMP TYPE: OVERNIGHT CAMP AGE RANGE: 6-17 TOTAL ENROLMENT: 150 CAMPER/STAFF RATIO: 3:1 SESSION LENGTH: 3 weeks SESSION COST: $3,750

CAMP DIRECTOR:

Matthew Bernardo

CONTACT: 416-483-3172 www.wabikon.com

CAMP TYPE: Hockey/Summer/Day AGE RANGE: 5 to 15 CAMPER/STAFF RATIO: 7/1 SESSION LENGTH: August/weekly. 9am to 4:15pm (Before & After Care Available)

SESSION COST: $265 or $495/week

CAMP DIRECTOR:

Steve Tschipper

CONTACT: (905) 889-6902

info@hockeycampsinternational.com

Now accepting registration for our

SUMMER CAMPS 2023!!

Sign Up Before April 15th to save $40 Save an additional $40 for multiple weeks and siblings.

| POST | APRIL 2023

Full & Half Day Camps from 9:00 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.

Before and after camp care available Specialized Programs for Beginners, House League, A, AA, AAA Level.

3 hrs. daily ice time with instruction in skating dynamics, individual skills, team play and scrimmages. AND the 32nd Annual“STANLEY CAN” game to be played at the end of each week. Parents are welcome!

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Contact us at info@hockeycampsinternational.com or (905)889-6902!!

CHECK OUT ALL OUR PROGRAMS AT www.hockeycampsinternational.com

SUMMER CAMPS & PROGRAMS Bayview Glen Camp

Since 1962, we have created unforgettable Summer memories for thousands of children as one of Toronto’s longest-running day camps. Bayview Glen offers enriched age-appropriate programs for campers 4-6, specialty camps for campers 7-12, and a Leadership program for campers 14 & 15. We also offer an inclusion program for campers requiring additional support. 1-Week or Multi-Week registration packages are available to join us on the centrally located, secure, leafy, and air-conditioned campus of Bayview Glen School. Campers will enjoy sports fields, a theatre, tech/robotics labs, art studios, gymnasiums, outdoor space, and more. Specialty camps include art, basketball, soccer, musical theatre, dance, magic, coding, and robotics. We even offer off-site specialty camps like sailing and lake days! Convenient bus depot pick-up & drop-off points throughout the GTA! Join us and make unforgettable Summer memories!

Toronto Mandarin School

Toronto Mandarin School, the leading Mandarin language school in the GTA was founded in 2001. We offer a wide variety of Mandarin language programs for children, teens, adults & businesses. For more than 20 years, we have been committed to providing a fun and practical learning experience while helping students to learn Mandarin easily and quickly.

Happy Mandarin Summer Camp is one of our most popular programs for children aged 2.5-14 years old. We emphasize a full immersive learning experience to maximize the language exposure for our students. The camp includes Mandarin classes and is packed with lots of fun STEAM project-based activities such as art and science, music and drama, olympic math and outdoor sports. Field trips are held once a month. Lunch, before and after-school care are available on site. Camps are available at 6 locations: Downtown and Midtown Toronto, North York, Mississauga, Scarborough and Richmond Hill.

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Y e a rs

of Excellence

CAMP TYPE: Day Camp AGE RANGE: 4-13 TOTAL ENROLMENT: N/A CAMPER/STAFF RATIO: 4:1 (average) SESSION LENGTH: Weekly & Multi-Week SESSION COST: Varies

CAMP DIRECTOR:

Daniel Garfinkel

CONTACT: 416-449-7746

www.bayviewglencamp.ca

CAMP TYPE: Day Camp AGE RANGE: 2.5-14 years old TOTAL ENROLMENT: 250 CAMPER/STAFF RATIO: 8:1/20:1 SESSION LENGTH: July-August SESSION COST: $350-$380 per week

CAMP DIRECTOR:

Jennifer Chang

CONTACT: 416-304-0260

www.torontomandarinschool.com

S North York | Mississauga | Scarborough Downtown | Midtown | Ric chmond Hill www.toro ontomandarinschool.com Call: 416-304-0260 | Em mail: info@torontomandarin nschool.com

| POST | APRIL 2023

Mandarin Immeersion STEAM Prograams All A Age G Grouups

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WE WILL BE OPEN EASTER WEEKEND Fri. Sat. Sun. Mon. Call store forr Easter Hours.

Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 6pm - Sunday 12 to 5pm Visit us at www.inhomelighting.ca | Email: inhomelighting@rogers.com

Join our Email List to find out about Events and Proomotions fashions@peeppertree.ca

| POST | APRIL 2023

Manufacturers Clearance Centre

38

TASTE TEST

FOOD

FIN-TASTIC FISH & CHIPS Taste Test judge Anthony Rose samples the city’s most bountiful catch — fish and chips — the perfect dish to ring in spring.

WINNER

f i sh

erel pick

+ chi

ps

Prized

WINNER

Not your

’s r e h fat

NEW TAKE ON FISH AND CHIPS “This is a good-looking sandwich. I like it quite a bit. It’s so great. It’s very well done, simple, delicious, totally different from anything else. I like their take on the chips with the addition of the fingerling potatoes, and the branzino is a nice change from the usual fish options.”

Miznon, 1235 Bay St., $18

HAKE IT EASY “This tastes like it might be frozen — which isn’t a bad thing. I'm not against frozen in general. The hake is firm and flaky and an unconventional choice. The batter is a little on the soggy side, but it still holds together really well. The tartar sauce is heavy on the mayonnaise, which I enjoy, and the fries are just OK.” High Street Fish and Chips, 55 Underhill Dr., $30

COMFORT FOOD CLASSIC “This tastes very old school.

The batter is quite good, crispy, delicious and thin. The halibut is meaty and much richer and healthier than the other options, which I appreciate. I like these fries; they’re kind of on the sweet side.”

Olde Yorke Fish & Chips, 96 Laird Dr., $21.50

ANTHONY ROSE This Michelinrecognized chef is the creative force behind Fat Pasha, Schmaltz and Fet Zun.

FISHLESS FILET “Well this is certainly different!

I’ve never had a vegan take on fish and chips. The banana blossom is a really cool idea and tastes unlike anything I’ve had before.

The onion rings and fries are nice and crispy, and the tartar sauce, which is vegan as well, has a nice acidity to it.”

Off the Hook Fishbar, 749 Broadview Ave., $18

FRESH AND DELICIOUS “Very crunchy, and the haddock tastes fresh. The batter is very aromatic, and there’s not too much of it — it’s nice and thin.

The fries are really good too — crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Nothing here is overly greasy, which I appreciate.”

Smash Kitchen & Bar, 4261 Hwy. 7 E., Unionville, $20.50

nt c O n poi hips

A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK “This is pretty! The Miss Vickie’s batter is crispy, super crunchy and very delicious. I love the coleslaw and the creaminess of it.

Overall this is a solid dish. It’s really flavourful and hearty, and the halibut is perfectly cooked.”

Fresco’s Fish & Chips, 201 Augusta Ave., $25

| POST | APRIL 2023

TRADITIONAL “This is light and crispy, and I love the addition of the pickerel. I never order pickerel or halibut. I usually go for cod or haddock because I want two pieces, and it’s very expensive, but this is amazing. The fries are really good too. Everything tastes fresh and homemade.”

Sea Witch Fish & Chips, 636 St. Clair Ave. W., $19

39

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| POST | APRIL 2023

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FEATURE

FOOD

Mesmerizing Japanese mashups Chefs are combining Japanese cuisine with everything from Argentinian to Italian and Peruvian to create a new brand of fusion fare all their own

By Jennifer Schembri

Toronto’s Japanese food scene is on fire. If you don’t believe us, just take a peek at Toronto’s recent Michelin Guide selections and you’ll see not one but five restaurants specializing in Japanese cuisine that made the list.

Not to be outdone, an impressive crop of Japanese restaurants are combining a mish-mash of cuisines to tantalize us with bountiful flavour combinations that fit surprisingly beautifully together.

AP

Late last year, celebrated Montreal chef and television personality Antonio Park treated Toronto to the opening of his AP. restaurant namesake Housed atop the Manulife Centre with breathtaking views of the Toronto skyline, the restaurant delves into the underof realms explored Latin-influenced Japanese and pan-Asian cuisine, with some Canadian flavours sprinkled in too. Park, who was born in Argentina to Korean parents and moved to Paraguay and Brazil before settling in Canada, has taken the lead in spearheading the menu and sourcing many of

the high-quality ingredients showcased in each dish, including much of the fish, which comes from Canada’s east coast.

Park’s menu has been refined to give it a Toronto sensibility. “I wanted to do something that speaks my heart, and my heart said to respect the Japanese technique and culture and history of the country. For example, we use fresh wasabi, brew our own soya sauce and rice vinegar,” he says. “Everything is done by the book, and then I twist it to my world, which is Argentinian, Paraguayan and Brazilian.”

The South American influence is in full effect from the cold start, which sees dishes like the Park ’Slaw moulding the bold flavours of mango and papaya with the subtleness of Japanese daikon and plum dressing. Typically served with chicken, the spicy and tangy green sauce aji verde has made its way onto many dishes, including the shrimp tempura and crab croquette. Even the cocktails have been remixed: check out the Kanzen martini made with the addition of Toki whisky. 51st Floor, 55 Bloor St. W.

Chotto Matte

At Chotto Matte, a busy and bustling restaurant in the Financial District, Nikkei cuisine is on offer. Simply put, nikkei is a combination of Peruvian ingredients and Japanese techniques that revolutionized the South American country more than 100 years ago. According to chef Mitsuharu Tsumura, a Peruvian chef and a pioneer of nikkei cuisine, Japanese immigrants showed Peruvians how to

appreciation of fresh produce and intense flavours, where guests can taste the smoky magic of the dishes cooked on the robata grill.

Standout dishes include the chuleta de cordero ahumada, a marinated and smoked lamb chop in a Peruvian chili miso, and the wagyu strip loin in a truffle teriyaki sauce. Priced at $185 per person, the à la carte nikkei deluxe menu includes sashimi and maki, black cod aji

“Everything is done by the book,

and then I twist it to my world, which is Argentinian, Paraguayan and Brazilian.” drizzle lime juice on top of raw fish before serving it, and voila!

Ceviche was born. Another notable trailblazer in the nikkei movement is Nobu Matsuhisa, who began using elements of the fusion cuisine in the 1980s and created one of the most recognized Japanese restaurants in the world.

Back at Chotto Matte, executive chef Jordan Sclare — a purveyor of Asian cuisine — showcases a menu with a deep

miso, grilled octopus and, to end the feast, a dessert platter that can only be described as deliciously decadent. 161 Bay St. Azabu

At hip Markham eatery Azabu, guests will experience an inventive riff on elevated Japanese cuisine that features an abundance of Korean, French and Italian flavours.

Menu items, like the yuzu tomato caprese salad, have re-

ceived an update via a Japaneseinspired twist: the addition of tart yuzu adds an aromatic fragrance and brings a zesty flavour to the dish, while traditional Italian ingredients, like bocconcini cheese and fresh cherry tomatoes, still play a central role.

Popular izakaya dish mentaiko udon combines the delicious seafood flavours of Japan with the decadent creaminess of Italian pasta dishes. Made with udon, cream sauce broth, seaweed cream and spicy mentai, it’s then topped with roasted seaweed for a savory almost bacon-like flavour (carbonara, anyone?).

Also on the menu is the French classic steak tartare alongside oven-baked welk — a snail commonly found in seafood platters at brasseries in France (where it’s known as bourgot).

Executive chef and owner Tae-Shik Kim brings the best of eastern and western flavours to Azabu, thanks to his stints working in top restaurants in Japan, Korea and Canada.

5 Glen Cameron Rd., Markham

| POST | APRIL 2023

Clockwise from left: Dishes at AP, sakura-inspired sushi at Chotto Matte, Azavlax platter at Azabu

41

FOOD

NEWS

Black+Blue makes its exciting T.O. debut

The steak house’s favourites include prime rib and caesar salad

by Jennifer Schembri

A celebrated, upscale steak house is coming to lacking in steak houses. He hopes Black+Blue Toronto later this month by way of Vancouver, will fill that void. with plans to “bring excitement” to the downOffering diners the golden age of steak — “the town core. magic of the 1950s, the charm and dazzle of Black+Blue is a hip and bustling restaurant on ladies and gentlemen with big cocktails and ciAlberni Street, considered to be the Rodeo Drive gars in hand” — Yacoub says the restaurant’s deof Vancouver, and is owned by the Glowbal Res- sign is old meets new. taurant Group. Known for its modern takes on “Everything from the music and style of servthe classic steak house, chic carnivores have ice will make you feel as if you are in a classic continued to descend upon the threerestaurant, however it is modernized,” he level space since it first opened more says. “Being able to seamlessly do both TORONTO than a decade ago. is a difficult and delicate balance, and BEGINNINGS The incoming Toronto location we’re proud we can accomplish this CEO Emad Yacoub is in prime steak land — First Camagic.” was once the chef de nadian Place in the city’s bustling The 9,000-square-foot two-stocuisine at the King Financial District. rey space will also include a 2,000Edward Hotel.

For Emad Yacoub, CEO and square-foot patio. founder of Glowbal Restaurant The menu will feature the crème de Group, the opening is a homecoming of la crème of meats including A5 and Misorts. yazaki wagyu, certified Kobe beef, as well as a “A few things most people may not know premium selection of steaks that are aged in about Glowbal Group’s early beginnings is that Black+Blue’s salt cooler — the only restaurant in my first venture was actually in Toronto,” he says. Canada that treats its meat in this style.

“I opened a café on Yonge Street — Brownstone Chef curated seafood options are also in abunBistro in 1999.” dance including selections of sushi.

He believes that although Toronto has always Black+Blue is located at 130 King St. W. and been the mecca of food, the downtown core is is set to open mid-April.

POST CITY X DIAMOND & DIAMOND

Ridesharing and Personal Injury Law Tips from Jeremy Diamond and Sandra Zisckind of Diamond & Diamond Lawyers JEREMY DIAMOND

| POST | APRIL 2023

Jeremy Diamond is a lawyer and member of both Ontario and Florida Bars. Jeremy practices in the area of Plaintiff personal injury litigation.

42

While some of us might prefer Uber and others prefer Lyft, there’s no denying that ridesharing services have become an integral mode of transportation for many Canadians.

Many of us think of Uber as a quick, easy, and generally safe way to get from point A to B. But motor vehicle accidents happen daily, and Uber drivers are not exempt from this risk. What happens when you’re injured as a passenger and customer of a ridesharing service? Diamond & Diamond Partner, Joshua Himel, shares some insight into how personal injury law applies when using ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft.

Are you eligible for compensation if you’re injured in a rideshare accident?

Although these services have grown to be a regular transportation option for many Canadians, far surpassing taxis in popularity, it wasn’t always like this. Uber was only introduced to Canada in 2012,

and it took a while for the law to adapt and catch up to the new service as it grew in popularity.

“It was like the Wild Wild West when Uber first came to Canada.

No one knew how the law applied in rideshare accidents - not passengers, not drivers, not Uber, and not lawyers. We were making up rules as we went until the law finally caught up,” says Joshua Himel, Personal Injury Lawyer at Diamond & Diamond.

At first, there was a lot of confusion around liability for accidents that occurred during rideshare trips, but in 2016, Ontario’s insurance regulator cleared up some of the confusion by approving a blanket fleet policy for private vehicles transporting customers for payment through a ridesharing platform. This change ensured that Uber drivers were covered under the company’s policy for any accidents that might occur while they were actively using the app. If the driver was not using the app, then

their own insurance policy would cover any accident.

“If you’ve been driving for Uber all night, but you turned off the app for 5 minutes to grab a coffee and happened to get into an accident during that time, then Uber’s insurance wouldn’t cover you — your own insurance policy would,” says Joshua Himel.

As a passenger, can you sue your Uber driver if they’re responsible for an accident? Can you sue Uber as a company?

If you’re in an Uber and the car gets rear-ended through no fault of the driver, you would not be able to sue the driver or Uber. In this case, you would sue the other driver who was at fault, like you would in any other motor vehicle accident where you were behind the wheel. However, if the accident is the fault of your driver, then you would file a lawsuit against them.

There are some situations where you might sue both the driver and

Uber. In most accidents that take place during rideshare trips, both the driver and Uber will be named in the lawsuit.

The policy coverage limit is the same regardless of how many passengers are in the vehicle when the accident takes place, meaning that if it is a serious accident, this coverage can be spread thin. In this situation, the injured parties might go after both Uber and the driver to seek full compensation for their injuries.

If you’ve been injured while using a rideshare service and would like to learn what options are available to you, don’t hesitate to reach out to Diamond & Diamond today at 1-800-567-HURT to schedule a free consultation.

1-800-567-4878

NEWS

FOOD

CUSTOM BUILT BEAUTY At York Mills and Bayview

An array of Italian dishes from Zuzu, Gusto 54 Restaurant Group’s Janet Zuccarini

Top Chef star opens namesake resto After much success with some of the city’s most beloved eateries, including Gusto 101, Gusto 501, Trattoria Nervosa and Chubby’s Jamaican Kitchen, the Gusto 54 Restaurant Group has added yet another Italian eatery to its lineup.

Zuzu, located in Toronto’s Regent Park community, was born as a nod to Gusto’s humble beginnings and Top Chef star Janet Zuccarini's father, Giacomo, who brought the first Italian espresso machine to Canada.

Along with providing a welcoming addition to the restaurants in the area, Zuzu’s business model also has a charitable com-

ponent and offers various community programs to support the local area. For example, the Mini Chefs program, which is part of Gusto 54's charitable arm called Gusto Gives Back, provides students with a unique and fun foodbased learning experience to understand the fundamentals of nutrition.

An esthetic that’s a nod to 1950s Italy is reflected in Zuzu’s interior design, and it exudes a warm and welcoming atmosphere that channels the convivial spirit of Italian cafés. The restaurant seats 100, with an additional 60 seats on the outdoor patio.

On the menu, diners can ex-

pect to find classic Italian cuisine but with a modern twist. Much like in Italy, it’s characterized by antipasti, salate, primi, pasta, secondi and dolci. Some of the musttry dishes include the cacio e pepe arancini; baked ziti; and chicken Milanese. To top it all off, Zuzu’s rum-soaked baba pastry is a sweet and boozy dessert that’s perfect for sharing.

Over at the bar, Zuzu’s wine and beverage director, Matteo Floris, and his team have crafted a beverage menu that echoes Zuzu’s approach to food, offering modern takes on Italian classics.

Zuzu is located at 555 Dundas St. E. —Christine Hogg

This beautiful 5 + 2 bedroom home is situated on a large lot with a lush, landscaped garden. The home features marble floors and hardwood throughout, giving it a luxurious and elegant feel. The living spaces are open and airy, with plenty of natural light pouring in. The kitchen is a chef's dream. The grounds provide privacy and seclusion, making it the perfect place to relax and unwind.

Featuring a gorgeous pool ideal for entertaining.

Little Italy gets astounding new bakery has opened after dealing with pandemic-related closures and regulations, and all their establishments are tucked mere steps from each other at College and Bathurst Street.

"The restaurant and the bar were successful at the very beginning," she says. "We did not want to expand nor to do a franchise, but we always wanted to do something else that relates to our background, so we decided to open a bakery close to the restaurant and the bar."

Bauer says visitors can expect freshly baked sourdough bread and baguettes, alongside savoury danishes, such as the tarte flambée, a sort of flatbread originally from Bauer’s and Hoerth’s French hometown. She also notes that seasonal specials will occasionally make an appearance.

—Erica Commisso 655 College St.

This home is a unique blend of luxury, comfort, and elegance.

Please call us to book a private viewing.

Catherine Himelfarb-Borden, Sales Representative, Managing Partner, 416-975-5588 and Eleanor London, Sales Representative, 416-488-2875.

Price upon request. | POST | APRIL 2023

"For me, food and cuisine is all about memories.

And my best memory is the smell of naan from my grandmother’s kitchen, where I was born and raised," says Martine Bauer, who along with Maxime Hoerth and Jonathan Bauer recently opened Bakery Pompette in Little Italy. "It’s very important to me to share this memory with my kids, so my favourite thing to bake is everything that reminds me of where I come from."

Bauer hails from Mauritius, then found herself in Paris before settling in Toronto. She has since made a name for herself as the chef and co-owner of Bar Pompette and Pompette, one of the most popular French restaurants in the city. Now, with Bauer at the kitchen’s helm, the brand has expanded.

Bakery Pompette is the only eatery the group

43

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| POST | APRIL 2023

Let Centre Street Deli cater your family Seder this year so that you can finally enjoy being together!

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Lao Lao Bar is the city’s buzziest new eatery A new restaurant celebrating the The 110-seat restaurant infood, drink and culture of Laos cludes a lounge with a “speakeasy has moved in to fill the cuisine vibe,” a 20-seat patio, private dingap left behind when Sabai Sabai ing and wheelchair access to the Kitchen and Bar closed months main upstairs dining area. ago. In February, the same “The design of the restaurant owners opened Lao Lao Bar, and was really inspired by our love for if the initial demand is anything Luang Prabang,” Luong says, acto judge by, it’s sure to be just as knowledging the “beautiful arfamed as their previous venture. chitecture” and French influence According to co-owners Seng of the heritage city. Walnut hues Luong and Jason Jiang, the tran- and an installation of handmade sition from the notable Thai hot jute lamps represent the owners' spot was easy because of travels and create an inthe customer base timate dining atFRENCH they've already demosphere.

INFLUENCE veloped. “We built Even the The restaurant’s dea really good trust family-style servsign was inspired by with our guests,” ing follows tradithe ancient city of says Luong. “The tion. Guests are Luang Prabang. timing was just perencouraged to share fect for us to jump on everything, putting this project and show the focus on connecting Toronto what Laos food is.” with others, say the coThough they spent most of owners. One specialty, the nam their lives raised in Canada, Jiang khao, is a crispy deep-fried coand Luong were both born in conut rice that’s tossed with Laos. The restaurant was in- cured pork, lime juice, fish sauce spired by the traditional dishes and herbs. On the plant-based the owners were raised on. menu, a favourite is the tapioca “We’ve always maintained dumpling — but with a twist! very strong ties to our heritage, to Lao Lao Bar has substituted the our culture, and food specifically,” ground pork with shiitake mushsays Luong. “Having a deep con- rooms, eaten inside a lettuce nection to the food and the cul- wrap. ture, we’ve always felt that Laos Lao Lao Bar is open seven food was very underrepresented days a week at 5 St. Joseph St. outside of Laos in general.”

—Megan Gallant

NEWS

FOOD

L-R: Michael Kane, David Victor, Corrine Spiegel, David Chaim, Michael Ruby

North of Brooklyn’s new dining space, one of the many pizzas on offer

North of Brooklyn opens old school pizzeria in North York North of Brooklyn, the hugely popular Toronto pizza spot has headed even further north than its name suggests, recently opening a flagship location in North York.

Located on Avenue Road, just north of Lawrence Avenue West, the new spot just happens to be close to another highly acclaimed ‘za spot: Maker Pizza, by celebrity chef and personality Matty Matheson.

The North York location exudes a community feel with a bright and airy interior, complete with large front windows that look out onto the busy, business-lined street. The inti-

mate 22-person space was designed by architectural firm MRDK and features a mix of long wooden tables, chairs and old school-inspired red leather booth seating with oak wood details and low hanging, industrial lamps, striking the perfect balance between homey and hip.

Patrons can expect the same delicious pies, salads and appetizers including fan-favourite the Killer Bee, topped with calabrese sausage, jalapenos, pickled red onions, oregano and honey, in addition to a selection of craft beers and wines that pair well with pizza. It’s also rumoured that oven-baked

chicken wings might make an appearance in the near future, so stay tuned!

People might remember North of Brooklyn’s rise to global acclaim after Dave Portnoy, of Barstool Sports, visited the city last spring for a Toronto edition of “Barstool Pizza Review” and gave North of Brooklyn’s slice a stellar score of 8.4.

Of the new locale, owner Josh Spatz says, “We were looking for a location in midtown and loved the community feel on this particular stretch of Avenue.”

North of Brooklyn is located at 1728 Avenue Rd. —Raquel Farrington

THE BANO OFFEE PIE The perfect combination of banana custard, buttery caramel, and fresh whipped cream!

If you’re looking for some good homemade food after a late night out, a new restaurant just outside the city is offering an upscale take on African fare.

It’s gaining social media popularity for being one of the few places open until the early hours of the morning.

Located in Vaughan, Monarch serves up popular Nigerian dishes but in an atmosphere that’s hard to find in the city. “We have a lot of African restaurants [in the GTA] but not a lot of upscale, fine dining restaurants with good food,” says the owner, Ibrahim Adekale.

With years of hospitality and entertainment experience and the closure of his previous nightclub due to COVID-19, Adekale already had plans for his next project when the opportunity to acquire a

space in central Vaughan came around. Inside, Monarch offers two storeys, with the fine dining area downstairs and a lively shisha lounge upstairs.

On the menu, customers can find homemade traditional food like jollof rice, alongside signature dishes like the Designer Stew, one of Monarch’s most popular and hearty dishes, at an affordable price point.

But it’s not just the dishes that are being praised on the social channels, as customers appreciate Monarch’s late night hours, offering food until 6 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays — making it a new hot spot for a quick bite after a night at the club.

Monarch is currently open at 23 McCleary Crt., Concord, with a grand opening expected to take —Megan Gallant place in the summer.

Visit us at 2638 Yonge St. across from Sporting Life!

Scan for the full assortment

| POST | APRIL 2023

Late night spot comes to Vaughan

45

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• Painting

SKYLIGHT PROFESSIONALS

• No Permit Required • No Tax Reassessment • No Set Back Issues Just a nice garage at a fraction of the cost of replacement

• Picture Hanging

Innovative, Quality Work, Competitive Prices

Call: GREGORY

Garages rebuilt at substantial savings over replacement (single/double)

VA AC Services Professional HV

• Plumbing & Electrical

416-409-4503

Ready to fall over?

IRA’S HANDYMAN SERVICES

Complete Building Envelope Residential & Commercial

Customer Satisfaction is Paramount!

GARAGE LEANING?

647-767-0164

• Deck & Fence Repair • Furniture Assembly • Interlock Repair • Shingle & Flat Roof Repair

“Small Job Specialist” irathehandyman@hotmail.com

416-274-6942

Commercial RTU & Residential

6 47-962-3146 • Decks • Fences • Basements Taping • Dr ywall Ta Wo ood • Metal/W Framing

WILDLIFE EXPERTS Squirrels

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FINLAY TOPP CONTRACTING

MUSIC LESSONS

3INCE

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Join our lively and congenial daytime conversational French classes for adults.

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Raccoons Repairs to Leaky Skylights New Installations High Quality Workmanship & Excellence Free Estimates • Licensed Seniors’ Discount

416-820-3852 Eavestroughing & Siding Experts

Quality Workmanship Guaranteed

5” Seamless Eavestrough Soffit / Fascia & Siding Free Estimates Seniors’ Discount Licensed

416-820-3852

OVER 30 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN

Heating, Air Conditioning, Fireplaces, Hot Water Tanks and Boilers.

Rental Programs also available.

CALL: 416 930 5371

ROOF REPAIR EXPERTS

Birds sProfessionally Repaired sRoof Repairs Free Estimates s Licensed Seniors Discount

416-248-0211

MISSING SHINGLES MINOR/MAJOR LEAKS

SQUIRREL & BIRD PROBLEMS FREE ESTIMATES NO JOB TOO SMALL SENIOR CITIZEN DISCOUNT LICENSED

416 820 3852

Make your home Comfrortable

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416-830-6492

LICENSED Electrical Contractor t PBOFM 4ervice 6QgrBEFT t PPPMT BOE )PU UVCT t Troubleshooting t AppliancFT )PPL 6Q

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Tyton Homes is Built on The Principle that Every Customer is a Client for Life.

ROOF MAINTENANCE

RACCOON PROBLEMS

10% Seniors Discount

Bathtub Caulking

ROOF REPAIR

EAVES & DOWNSPOUT REPAIR

* Commercial Roof Top Units * Air Conditioners * Furnace * Boilers and Radiators * Hot Water Tanks

Shower & Bath Clean & Grout Tile Repairs Sealing & Caulking Bathroom Remodeling

416-826-0574

Over 25 Years Experience Providing a Full Range of Renovation & Building Solutions

FREE KITCHEN DESIGN • Renovations • Additions • Basements • Kitchens • Bathrooms • Custom Homes • Design & Permits w w w. t y t o n h o m e s . c o m

| POST | APRIL 2023

learning

IS IT LOOSE, WOBBLY, STICKING, CROOKED, LEAKING, CRACKED OR BROKEN? DOES IT NEED REPAIR?

6477--688-3310 47

PLUMBING

High quality home renovations & improvements

4 1 6- 2 74 - 69 4 2 www.buildbrigade.ca

PLUMBER

JOHN BELL PAINTING

“Thank you for what most painters promise but few deliver.” R.L.

647-894-1673

s s s s s

FULL PLUMBING SERVICES

Burst pipes

Faucet install

Drain snaking

Plugged toilets

Bath/Kitchen Reno

Blocked kitchen sink Camera Inspections Waterproofing

SAVE $50 JOBS OVER $500

Shower Restoration of Toronto U ` ,i Û> U À ÕÌ ,i«> À U Ã viVÌÉ ii« i> U ,i« >Vi >Õ } U >ÀL i * Ã } H Àii ÃÌ >ÌiÃH

Please Call David

416-787-8084

showerrestorationtoronto.com info@showerrestorationtoronto.com

AYLEN ART ROOFING INC.

Flat rate up front pricing

647-308-6005

Repair & Replacement Faucet Sink Toilet Shower Laundry Main Valve Leaking Pipe Backup Drain FULLY LICENSED & INSURED 24HR. SERVICE MET. LIC. # PH23521

416-876-6679

Your Local Family Business

WaterWorks

PAINTING

Plumbing Inc MET LIC 15791

Plumbing Leaks & Blockages ZĞƉĂŝƌƐ Θ /ŶƐƚĂůůĂƟŽŶƐ tĂƚĞƌ &ŝůƚƌĂƟŽŶ Damp Basement – Waterproof Bathroom Renos Seniors Discount

25 500+ REVIEWS

DŝĐŚĂĞů zƵīĂ Master Plumber

416-489-9633 WaterWorksCanada.com

Tom Day Plumbing & Drains

0AINTING 0APERING $RYWALL 3TUCCO &AUX

Clean & efficient work done on time.

416-491-1010

Over 25 Years Experience!

Excellent Interior & Exterior Work!

I do the work myself - NO subcontracting

Perfect References: You can pick anyy customer # from myy business book in thhe last 25 years to confirm!

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| POST | APRIL 2023

48

Licensed & WSIB Insured

30 Years’ Experience

Call Fred

647-522-2030

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24 hr. service

Grandma’s Garden

Blueprint Design Decorative Planters Landscape Lighting Seasonal Clean-Ups Garden Makeovers & Maintenance Vision. Design. Build.

647-274-2048 grandmasgarden.ca

Hendrik Tree Service

ELECTRICAL

MBX

SPRAY FOR GYPSY MOTH CONTOL

ELECTRIC 30 Years Serving Your Community!

• Basement & Exterior Wiring • Knob/Tube Removal & Rewiring • Service Upgrade - 100/200 amps • Motor Control & Troubleshooting BONDED & INSURED ESA/ECRA #7000314 CALL MARC: 416-910-1235

Free Estimate All Work Guaranteed

What does your garden need this year?

DEEP ROOT FERTILIZING Rejuvenate Your Trees

Faucets, toilets, sinks, etc. installed. Blocked toilets, backed up drains, basement back ups.

External & internal drain excavating. Complete washroom renovations.

Welcome Spring!

Tree Trimming

Over 40 Years Experience

joe.bellissimo@yahoo.com

LANDSCAPING

TREE REMOVAL

Bello Pa Painting g

Joe Bellissimo 416-737-7232

CITY TROPICALS INC. Lucomm Electric Inc. is a fully licensed and insured electrical company.

As an Electrical Safety Authority Licensed Master Electrician, Przemek Podruczny is ready and able to take care of all your Commercial and Residential electrical needs.

Licensed Electricians.

FREE Estimates.

Unbeatable Prices.

Renovations, alterations, basements, industrial, commercial & residential.

Upgrade all 60-100-200-400 AMP Services

Root Ball Removal

647-238-2661 Customizing in Small Landscape Projects: Perennial Gardens Fences & Decks Lawn Care & Garden Rejuventation

Metro Licence E1998 Lic# 7000825

Please call Bob

(647) 896-4154

Featured On:

Servicing North Toronto for 20 Years

Living Plants for Public and Private Spaces Tropical Plant Maintenance/Sales Consultation, Design & Installation Pruning & Synthetic Plants

FREE ESTIMA AT TES Bus: 416-422-4707 Fax: 416-422-4701 cti@citytropicals.com 593 Mortimer Ave. Toronto M4C 2J6

PARK AVENUE DESIGN INC. Interlocking & Landscaping • Flagstone / Stonework • Driveways / Patios / Walkways • Sprinkler Systems • Lighting • Ponds & Waterfalls • Retaining Wall FOR FREE ESTIMATES CALL SAM

416-805-8934

SHASTA

GARDEN DESIGN

Design & Installation Planting & Pruning Garden Maintenance Complete Garden Makeovers

416-522-7288 Free Consultations shastagardens@hotmail.com

49

| POST | APRIL 2023

LOOKING BACK Before you go... take a gander at some of the city’s historical April moments!

Follow along on Post City’s Instagram @streetsoftoronto this month for more.

APRIL 2023 EDITION

On April 4, 1990, Toronto-born singer-songwriter The first baseball game in the newly opened Alannah Myles’ hit song “Black Velvet” hit number Maple Leaf Stadium at the foot of Bathurst Street one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. The was held on April 29, 1926. The Maple Leafs would breakout song won Myles both a Grammy rally to defeat the Reading Keystones in extra and three Juno Awards. innings before a rain-soaked crowd of 12,781.

On April 3, 1947, the Silver Rail at Yonge and On April 18, 1942, the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup, defeating the Detroit Red Wings Shuter became the first Toronto bar with an LCBO liquor licence. Although beer had been served in a seven-game series. It’s been 55 years since in taverns since the 1930s, liquor and mixed the last time they brought home the Holy Grail. drinks weren't readily available downtown.

50 Could it finally happen again? Only time will tell!

© Instagram @hellorose

| POST | APRIL 2023

The Great Fire of Toronto of 1904 destroyed more than 100 buildings in downtown Toronto on April 19 of that year. It was the second such fire for the city in its history and remains the largest fire ever to have occurred in Toronto.

Late actor and comedian, John Candy married Rosemary Margaret Hobor at St. Basil's Church in Toronto on April 28, 1979. Until his death in 1994, the couple enjoyed over 15 years of love and shared two children.

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FOR SALE 321 DAVENPORT

48 BRUCE FARM DR.

PRICE UPON REQUEST. 87’ x 145’ LOT, 5+2 BEDS AND 7 BATHS, APPROX. 7,522 SQ. FT. + BSMT.

FROM $2,525,990.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION. ONLY A FEW SUITES REMAIN.

$2,495,000. 50’ X 324’ LOT (WIDENS TO 160’), 3 BEDS & 2 BATHS, APPROX. 1,565 SQ. FT. + BSMT.

SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

2 & 4 HARRISON RD.

60 FENN AVE.

288 ST. CLAIR AVE. #TH 3

WINDFIELDS PARK HOME

SOLD FOR 100% OF ASKING IN 17 DAYS!

R E A L

E S T A T E

RECEIVED 7 BULLY OFFERS AND SOLD FOR 138% OF ASKING IN ONLY 2 DAYS!

B R O K E R

REPRESENTED THE BUYER.

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