The Toronto Region 2 2 The Toronto Region 2.1 TRCA’s Jurisdiction 5 2.2 TRCA’s Watersheds and Waterfront at a Glance 7 2.3 Issues, Challenges and Opportunities 9 2.1 TRCA’s Jurisdiction The jurisdiction2 also includes small areas that drain directly to Lake Ontario, such as Frenchman’s Bay. The Lake Ontario shoreline portion of TRCA’s jurisdiction Under the Conservation Authorities Act, TRCA has spans approximately 60 kilometres from Marie Curtis regulatory jurisdiction over nine watersheds and a Park in the west, to the Ajax waterfront in the east, and portion of the Lake Ontario shoreline. Containing all or extends into Lake Ontario to a point defi ned by the parts of eighteen different municipalities, it is one of the Territorial Division Act. However, it excludes some of the largest of the 36 conservation authorities in Ontario and central waterfront that is under the jurisdiction of the is certainly among the most urbanized with the highest Toronto Port Authority. population and population density. Draining from the Oak Ridges Moraine, Peel Plains,DRAFT South Slope, and Figure 2.1 illustrates TRCA’s jurisdiction and labels its six Iroquois Sand Plain, TRCA’s watersheds are: participating or member municipalities: • Etobicoke Creek • City of Toronto • Mimico Creek • Regional Municipality of Durham • Humber River • Regional Municipality of Peel • Don River • Regional Municipality of York • Highland Creek • Township of Adjala-Tosorontio • Rouge River • Town of Mono • Petticoat Creek • Duffi ns Creek • Carruthers Creek The Living City Policies 5 6 28 D U F F E R I N S I M C O E 2 Adjala-Tosorontio Mono 9 The Toronto Region Toronto The The LivingCity OP Mono Mills Palgrave K R I D G E S A M O R A Policies I O N E King Caledon East Aurora DRAFT Goodwood Whitchurch-Stouffville Uxbridge Bolton Nobleton Oak King City Ridges D U R H A M Sandhill Humber River Richmond 4 0 0 Stouffville Watershed ³‚ Hill on d 4 0 4 ale ³‚ C OP4 8 Claremont Kleinburg Rouge River Watershed Duffins Creek Watershed L Maple Y O R K EE Pickering P Unionville Greenwood ton Vaughan Markham p Woodbridge OP7 am Br Don River Watershed 4 0 7 ³‚ Petticoat OP7 Thornhill Creek W e s t 4 0 7 ³‚ Watershed Bramalea TRCA_[ 0 Mimico Creek OP1 Head Office WatershedMalton Ajax ‚ 0 ³ 4 1 Highland Creek Carruthers Watershed 4 0 1 Creek 4 0 1 ³‚ ³‚ Watershed 4 0 9 ³‚ T O R O N T O Frenchman's Etobicoke Creek Bay ‚ ³ Watershed 7 40 4 2 7 1 ³‚ ‚ 4 0 ³ Legend ga Humber Bay Oak Ridges Moraine Greenbelt Plan Boundary au s Watershed Boundary Niagara Escarpment Planning Area ‚ ³ s n 3 i o 40 ss ilt N i Toronto Inner Lake Iroquois Shoreline Urban Areas - Existing and Approved (TRCA Jurisdiction) M O M Harbour ur rbo River / Stream Rural Areas (TRCA Jurisdiction) T Ha ter L Ou to Urban Areas ron Local Municipal Boundary A To H Regional Municipal Boundary Rural Areas L A K E O N T A R I O Kilometres ‚ ³ 0 5 10 E W Q Figure 2.1: TRCA Jurisdiction The Toronto Region 2 The following twelve local municipalities that are of the three regional municipalities, just less than half located either wholly or partly within the jurisdiction are of the jurisdiction remains rural and agricultural. The also labelled in Figure 2.1: jurisdiction lies in an ecological zone of transition straddling two forest regions: the Great Lakes-St. • Town of Caledon Lawrence forest in the north, and the Carolinian forest in • City of Brampton the south. Natural cover is mainly deciduous and mixed • City of Mississauga forest, interspersed with smaller tracts of wetland, native • Township of King meadow, and Great Lakes coastal habitats. • Town of Aurora • City of Vaughan Prior to European settlement and clearing for agriculture, • Town of Richmond Hill it is estimated that forest covered approximately 90 per • Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville cent of southern Ontario, including TRCA watersheds. • City of Markham Today, natural spaces in the TRCA jurisdiction are • Township of Uxbridge largely confi ned to the deeply-incised valley systems • City of Pickering of the urban landscape and the rural and agricultural • Town of Ajax landscapes of the northern portions of the watersheds. In comparison to downstream reaches that are predominantly urban and urbanizing, the natural 2.2 TRCA’s Watersheds at a Glance landscape of TRCA’s rural areas is generally characterized by headwater streams, wider, shallower valley corridors, TRCA’s jurisdiction is as diverse as it is large. Landscapes and more wetlands. The natural cover that is found in the and land uses vary widely across our watersheds, from rural areas is especially important to protect for the long the headwaters to the Lake Ontario shoreline. Although term, given that the highest groundwater recharge rates the Toronto region takes in the most urbanized core and headwaters, vital to downstream reaches, are found of the City of Toronto and the surrounding suburbs here. Other than the Oak Ridges Moraine and a small DRAFT Lake Ontario waterfront trail Bond Lake Caledon East Boardwalk Scarborough Bluffs The Living City Policies 7 2 The Toronto Region portion of the Niagara Escarpment, remnant natural Moreover, there is diversity across TRCA’s jurisdiction in habitats and landforms that help shape the character of terms of geophysical, land use, and policy characteristics, TRCA’s jurisdiction include: such as: • The nine rivers and their tributaries, much of • Headwater areas, subject to provincial land use whose valleylands function as vital green corridors plans such as the Greenbelt, Oak Ridges Moraine, within the urbanized area, including the Humber and Niagara Escarpment plans (see Figure 2.1) River which is a designated Canadian Heritage which contain pockets of urbanized areas, but River; are mainly natural and rural or agricultural, with • Rouge Park, the second largest urban natural that character protected in varying degrees by heritage park in North America, and now a corresponding provincial legislation; National Park; • Agricultural and rural areas south of the Moraine • The shoreline of post-glacial Lake Iroquois, a major and Greenbelt, and outside of lands currently rise in elevation that extends from west to east designated for urban development—the so-called across the region, inland from Lake Ontario. The “whitebelt” lands from the provincial Growth Plan Lake Iroquois Shoreline delineates the shoreline for the Greater Golden Horseshoe; of ancestral Lake Ontario formed approximately • Urbanizing areas, consisting of lands that are 12,500 years ago when lake levels were up to 60 within designated urban or settlement areas, metres higher than the present lake level. In many which are currently being developed or are areas, urban development occupies both above committed to development; and fi nally, and below the Shoreline feature. Yet, in its eastern • Built out areas including the City of Toronto and reaches, due to its often sandy nature, signifi cant the southern portions of the surrounding regional height and steep slopes, the actual narrow linear municipalities of York, Peel and Durham, which are feature has not been extensively developed; subject to the Growth Plan and will experience • The Scarborough Bluffs, Toronto Islands, the major redevelopment and intensification in the mouth of the Don River (where major fl ood coming decades. remediation and restoration of the natural mouth of the River is taking place); and other Lake As one of the most rapidly growing and ethnically Ontario beaches and bluffs, and coastal marshes in diverse city-regions in North America, TRCA’s the Duffi ns, Carruthers and Humber watersheds; jurisdiction was home to some 3.4 million people • Forests and wetlands in the provincially in 2011 (Conservation Ontario, 2012), compared to designated Greenbelt lands that are adequate to approximately 1.2 million in 1951. The impacts of the support fl ora and fauna species and communities urbanization taking place to accommodate this growth characteristic of the region beforeDRAFT European are evidenced in historical Ontario Ministry of Natural settlement, some of which are now rare or Resources records, settler reports, and other sources, endangered; which show that over 120 species, including elk, bobcat, • Tallgrass prairie and oak savannah communities, atlantic salmon, yellow bullhead, wood turtle, calypso now rare in North America, such as those in High orchid, and indian paintbrush, are no longer found in Park in the City of Toronto; the region. This happened primarily through the direct • The urban forest, or urban canopy, consisting loss of natural cover, due fi rst to the conversion of forest of valleyland and tableland trees, street, park, lands to agricultural uses and later to urbanization. The and yard trees all in an urban setting, which remaining natural cover was affected through changes make an important contribution to the beauty in water quantity and quality, soil compaction, invasive and ecological function of the urban landscape; plants, and recreational use. the older ravine system, under pressure from increasing population due to intensifi cation targets, is bolstered by this green infrastructure. 8 The Living City Policies The Toronto Region 2 2.3 Issues, Challenges and connected through the urban landscape to the Opportunities Lake Ontario shoreline by a locally protected, viable and enhanced Natural System; and 2) to ensure that the increased impervious surfaces Although greenfi eld portions of TRCA’s watersheds are resulting from urban intensifi cation and the still undergoing development, a prevalent trend in land development of new greenfi eld lands do not use change affecting the jurisdiction is redevelopment result in increased fl ooding and erosion hazards and intensification of existing urban areas. This brings to upstream and downstream communities and challenges such as constructing housing and upgrading infrastructure.