A recent damning Toronto Parks audit could have been talking about the perpetually littered state of the Georgia Walsh playground at Trace Manes Park.
But first, let me digress. If people didn’t litter in the first place, there would be no litter. Sounds simple enough, right? Why do people treat public spaces with less respect than they treat their own homes? I wish I knew the answer.
City parks and ravines represent 13 per cent of all land in Toronto. The municipality spends approximately $190 million on the parks branch with $57.5 million of that dedicated to summer park maintenance. There are around 700 permanent and temporary workers in the winter and more than 1,300 in the spring and summer.
Since, as a taxpayer, I am paying their salaries, here is what I would like to know and have posted on the City website for community reference:
1. How often and when does Trace Manes Park get cleaned?
2. What gets cleaned: the splash pad? playground? bushes? behind the bench seats? around the litter bins? the entrances? along the fence lines?
3. How often and when are the litter bins emptied?
4. What are the cleanliness standards and how does management ensure they are being met?
I have asked for this information many times and have been told it cannot be provided. Why is it a secret? Maybe this is why.
The audit revealed two major issues: The parks branch does not regularly monitor whether its service level standards are being achieved, and there are discrepancies between GPS records and maintenance activity logs created by employees.
To remedy this, the auditor general’s office made the following recommendations:
1. Use technology to improve scheduling and tracking;
2. Boost supervision of employees;
3. Establish performance expectations, and review service standards.
Hopefully these actions by the City will improve the ongoing litter situation.
But as a community what are we willing to do? Be more conscious about not littering? Pick up litter when we see it rather than walking by it? Organize community cleanup days? Call 311 to identify litter issues?
As Jane Jacobs said, “People don’t litter where there is no litter.” Surely, we can do better.
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