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The April 8 meeting is a virtual pre-hearing meeting to decide who is a Party or Participant at the proceedings and what the issues are. A hearing will then be scheduled for a future date. Attendance for Participant applicants is recommended but not mandatory.
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Anyone can be a Participant if they have “standing”, meaning they are impacted by an issue. This could be that you live in a neighbourhood with a public school, your kids go to a public school, or your community uses the school grounds for outdoor recreation. You will be asked at a later date to submit a more detailed submission. The more Participants we have at the April 8 meeting, the more impactful it will be. We also encourage Residents’ Associations to register as Participants.
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Fill out the Participant Status request form. Follow our tips and sample letter for the Participant Statement in the next section. Email a copy of the form to the relevant parties as indicated below.
Filling out the form:
Tribunal Case No. OLT-26-000113
Date of CMC Hearing: 2026/04/08
Representative info: leave blank
Checkbox: leave blank
Participant Statement: see tips in next section.
Once you fill out the form, you must email copies on the same day to:
Tribunal Case Coordinator
City of Toronto representatives
Applicant & Appellant representatives
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Your statement should essentially state the reasons for your interest. It should relate to planning issues (future enrolment issues, lack of green space for the community), not be an emotional appeal. State why this issue impacts you personally. Include school names if you can, how school grounds are used by the community. You can also include photos of the open spaces/green spaces.
Below is a sample letter which you can customize.
Sample Participant Statement:
I am requesting Participant status as a member of the local community who will be directly affected by this appeal.
I live near a public school affected by the “Avenues” Policy in OPA 862 [name school if you wish]. The potential sale and redevelopment of the school could reduce long-term capacity for accommodating future students in growing neighbourhoods. [I have children at the local daycare / public school and they would have nowhere to go. Or, the neighbourhood children would have nowhere to go.] As Toronto adds hundreds of kilometres of mid-rise density to its streets through the Avenues plan, we will need our schools even more.
There is a second reason why the redesignation of school lands would negatively impact my community. Our public school provides essential green space, open space and playgrounds that are used by all. [add detail here if you want, community gardens, concerts etc.] Living in a dense urban city, we already have insufficient park space per person. We need to expand, not reduce, our open spaces. As the city becomes denser, and more and more people live in apartments, we will need these spaces even more.
I would like to provide a written statement to the Tribunal which shares a local resident’s perspective.
Thank you,
[name]
Additional inclusions to individualize the letter:
I fully support the City’s decision in 2025 to protect our schools and ensure each neighbourhood and community has a say in the future around these valuable resources.
Other than family, stable neighbourhood schools are key to raising future citizens that can contribute to Canadian society.
Growing children and young adults need neighbourhood spaces to socialize and gather, especially if living in smaller apartments/condos with limited common areas.
Toronto's Parkland Strategy recommends expanding Toronto’s parks and green spaces, including to “partner with the school boards to expand and/or create new shared park/open space opportunities that would benefit both the City and the school boards in enhancing both the quality and quantity of park space available for community use.”
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The deadline for requesting Participant status is March 29, which is 10 days before the pre-hearing date of April 8.
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The meeting will be held virtually at 10am on April 8. The OLT has put aside ½ day.
Video link:
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/638422541
Access code:
638-422-541
Info from the OLT:
VIDEO CONFERENCING SOFTWARE
The event will be held using GoTo Meeting. The appellant(s), applicant, municipality or approval authority, and those persons who intend to request party or participant status, are asked to log into the video hearing through the link provided above at least 15 minutes before the start of the event to test their video and audio connections. All persons are expected to access and set-up the application well in advance of the event to avoid unnecessary delay. The desktop application can be downloaded at https://global.gotomeeting.com/install. A web application is also available at https://app.gotomeeting.com/home.html. A compatible web browser for this service is Chrome.
Persons who experience technical difficulties accessing the GoToMeeting application or who only wish to listen to the event can connect to the event by calling into an audio-only telephone line: +1 (647) 497-9373 or 1-888-299-1889. The access code is 638-422-541.
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We are a small handful of volunteers and will be participating ourselves at the meeting. We will do our best to answer emails but we may not be able to respond to requests for help.