Priority Lead Water Service Replacement Program among items on agenda at East York meeting
East York residents are invited to a town hall meeting on Thursday, July 17, to discuss city programs that will help homeowners with their home improvement projects.
Ward 31 Beaches-East York Councillor Janet Davis will be hosting the meeting from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Danforth Mennonite Church, 2174 Danforth Ave.
City staff will be educating community members about the Priority Lead Water Service Replacement Program and the Home Energy Loan Program (HELP).
“The (lead pipes) issue has been covered in recent news and I want to make sure that people are aware of these programs so that they can potentially take advantage of them,” said Davis.
Davis says that an estimated 45,000 homes in the Greater Toronto Area still have lead pipe systems.
Priority homes are single-family homes built before the mid-1950s. Homes built after that time period, apartment buildings and other multi-residential buildings with more than six units do not have lead water services.
The M4K postal code area in East York has been identified as one of 17 priority areas for the City’s Priority Lead Water Service Replacement Program.
Each year, the lead replacement program targets 1,500 water systems that contain lead pipes. However, the program only replaces city-owned water systems, leaving property owners responsible for the replacement of lead pipes on the private side.
Davis said that the city provides homeowners with free lead water testing services and free filtration devices for priority homes, but it is not enough to encourage them to follow through with replacing their lead pipes.
“The number one reason why they don’t follow through is the cost,” she said. “I believe if we (city council) want to protect the best interest of the public and protect public health, we should provide the programs to help.”
The HELP program officially launched its three-year pilot program last March as a low interest loan program to help homeowners finance their energy efficiency improvement projects.
The program currently doesn’t support lead pipe replacement, but Davis says she’s already working on a report to include it in the HELP program.
“I’ve been fighting for this one for eight years and it’s exactly the model I was using,” she said.
“I’m hopeful this time about being able to get approval. It won’t cost the city anything because the program is already in place.”
Davis says the report to include lead pipe replacement to qualify for the HELP program will be reviewed by city council on Aug. 13, 2014. She invites concerned community members to attend the meeting so they can express their views about the issues.
For inquiries about town hall meeting, contact Davis’s office at 416-392-4035 or councillor_davis@toronto.ca .