Awareness & Enforcement for Unnecessary Noise Toronto Police Traffic Services The City of Toronto and the Toronto Police Service hear from residents who are concerned by the noise from vehicles that have been modified, altered or used in a way that is excessively noisy. Loud and excessive noise can be characterized as noise that is a nuisance to the general public, taking into consideration the nature, location, time and proximity of the source to residents and members of the public. Examples may include a loud auto stereo or car, truck or motorcycle exhaust emitting sound to the extent it disturbs patrons at a restaurant, nearby residents or other motorists on the roadway. Poor and

To all GYRA board members: Tonight the Mayor held a press conference in front of the Yorkville Fire hall (I attached a few photos). The focus was to address excessive noise and in particular excessive muffler noise. While it obviously affects our greater Yorkville neighbourhood, it also affects numerous other areas throughout the City. This initiative as you know has been a long time in coming and we’re grateful to Mayor Tory for stepping up to address this issue, which btw, was one of his campaign promises. Toronto Police Traffic Services will be responsible for this initiative and starting October 1st, when the new Noise Bylaw comes into effect, will also be working with Municipal L

Join the Toronto Noise Coalition. See the “Join the TNC” tab on our web site TorontoNoiseCoalition.ca. Use the “Contact Us” tab on the web site to provide your help on: • Outreach to residents across the City for our updated survey. • To tell us about your noise issues, what is happening, what the resolution was etc. to help with our review of the new bylaw and enforcement program. • To contribute your ideas and suggestions so we can be more effective. • To join our steering group. Help fund our communications budget, any contributions appreciated. Make your cheque out to Federation of North Toronto Residents Associations and mail to 52 Addison Crescent, Don Mills M3B.

We continue to advocate for a better noise bylaw. We make use of opportunities, such as the recent interviews about noise in the City on Metro Morning. Our main focus will be to report at the time of the ML&S staff 2020 review on our views on the effectiveness of the new bylaw and enforcement plan. We will also be updating our 2106 survey.

Municipal Licensing and Standards is to develop an implementation plan that includes finalising the primary response model, updating the policy and standards operating procedures for noise investigations, creating a noise technical manual, and enhancing back-end technology systems, as well as enhancing information to the public through 311 and the City website. They are also to report in the final quarter of 2020 on the implementation, success and any outstanding issues from the changes to the noise by-law including, but not limited to: new measurement standards, the new hierarchy of limitation provisions, impacts to the construction industry, patterns and trends in complaints and resolution

PUBLISHED JUNE 9, 2019 Noise is a defining feature of city life. The din of traffic. The blaring of sirens. The rumble of industry. This commotion is an accepted state of being. Even the most grating and unnecessary sonic pollution – from motorcycles to leaf blowers – is considered a nuisance rather than something more serious. The dial is starting to turn. The issue of noise is evolving into a public-health question. Noise has been linked to heart disease and high blood pressure. It has been shown to affect the ability of children to learn – and adults well know the difficulty of concentration in a noisy office. “Excessive noise seriously harms human health,” says the European office of th

Despite our effort since 2016, Toronto’s new Noise Bylaw, adopted by City Council on April 16 (to come into effect October 1, fails to meet our needs. The goal of the new bylaw unfortunately has a “one size fits all” approach. It focuses on making simpler regulations that are easy to enforce. The result is a bylaw and enforcement program that provides even less protection from unwanted sounds, issue that an effective bylaw can help address. Among our concerns are that the new bylaw deleted the General Provision that ensured we can make complaints about unwanted noise, not limited to what the bylaw prohibits and puts the onus on us to make complaints rather than on the noise maker to comply.

Our objectives been supported recently in the June 10 Globe and Mail editorial, “Its Time to Turn Down the Volume”, that raised the concern that Canadian cities are slow to recognize the seriousness of noise as a health issue. The New Yorker also reported on the fact that excessive noise is an issue for all, noting the New York City Noise Code as a progressive example of how to help. Is Noise Pollution the Next Big Public-Health Crisis?