On July 24, 2025, City Council unanimously passed a motion to provide $1.5M in funding for a new design and plan for the Vale of Avoca to address its accelerating erosion, its trail network and accesses and for ongoing maintenance. This is an important step in meeting the City’s own vision outlined in its 2017 Toronto Ravine Strategy, which acknowledged them as a unique natural feature among global cities constituting 17% of the City’s area.
Read more: Century-old Toronto trail to get $35M rehab funded mostly by neighbourhood groups – CBC, July 25, 2025.
Vale of Avoca: background on ravine rehabilitation effort
The Midtown Ravines Group (MRG), a consortium of 10 residents’ associations in the Midtown area (the DPRG is one), continues to work with the City and the Councillors whose wards span the area, to drive for a full restoration of the Vale of Avoca, a historically noteworthy and ecologically significant ecosystem in our area which is experiencing major erosion challenges, deteriorating trails and an onslaught of invasive species.
In March, in a meeting of the Vale of Avoca Working Group with the City, Councillors Matlow and Saxe and a representative of the Mayor’s office, we found strong support for our Community Vision which you can find outlined in the Issues and Solutions tabs of the Vale of Avoca website. Since the March meeting, we have asked the City to accelerate its work towards a fully costed Master Plan – a holistic view of the for the necessary construction and erosion control in the ravine.
We expect that a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the design work will be issued by early fall and that the selected consultant would require something on the order of 18 months to complete the design, including the time required for public consultation.
Given the constrained situation of City finances, it seems clear that establishing a private/public partnership is the only way that we will see the work completed relatively expeditiously. The MRG, already registered as a not-for-profit organization working in compliance with ONCA requirements, is in the process of applying to the CRA for charitable status so that we may begin to raise funds for this highly worthwhile project, coming during a period when unprecedented development is foreseen for the area.