Golden Mile and Weston-Mount Dennis: How ILEO supports community-led change

Two neighbourhoods— Golden Mile in Scarborough and Weston-Mount Dennis in the city’s west end— are quietly reshaping what inclusive redevelopment could mean for Toronto’s future.

The Golden Mile’s skyline was to be transformed by seventy-five condo towers and a subway line; however, today, the bulldozers are largely sitting idle, which hasn’t stopped community advocates from moving forward with plans to ensure their residents benefit from change, whether the buildings are built or not.

The Inclusive Local Economic Opportunity (ILEO) initiative, co-convened by United Way Greater Toronto and BMO Financial Group and supported by a network of public and private partners, aims to ensure the two neighbourhoods are benefiting residents already living there. The idea is that after billions of dollars have been spent on housing and infrastructure, it is crucial to ensure locals have access to jobs, services, and reasonably priced housing.

In Scarborough’s Golden Mile, ILEO was initiated in 2018, in anticipation of significant redevelopment. With a subway line extending and condo developments poised to bring more than 35,000 new units to the Golden Mile, ILEO instituted five pilot projects intended to ensure residents were front and centre of the narrative.

One of the programs is a community-owned construction company, a joint-venture with the global infrastructure company Aecon, which has already generated over $5 million in revenues and dozens of jobs for residents. Through partnerships with employers like Sun Life, another pilot, Good Jobs, connects residents to career pathways in sectors ranging from finance to skilled trades.

ILEO also advocates for participants to be paid a living wage, ensuring that these aren’t just jobs, but opportunities for long–term economic sustainability.

The momentum is undeniable. Entrepreneurs from ILEO’s Storefront Starter program recently participated in the One of a Kind Show.

As redevelopment slowed down, ILEO is now pivoting its focus. “There’s so little redevelopment happening, not just in Golden Mile, but citywide,” said Tasleem Thawar, Director of Strategic Initiatives for United Way Greater Toronto.

“So we’re now asking, what types of services and supports are we able to bring into the neighbourhood?” said Thawar, “Without waiting for the cranes… we are going to build economic opportunity around the people who are already here.”

One significant aspect of the project is building relationships between residents and the developers, so when development occurs, community members are already connected to be able to access jobs, contracts, and space.

On the opposite side of the city, in Weston-Mount Dennis, the next chapter of ILEO is starting. While the community is looking into a smaller development footprint—approximately 26,000 units are anticipated—the neighbourhood has the conditions for inclusive redevelopment.
 
“Mount Dennis is a very different place,” says Thawar. “There is a more established population, high levels of political engagement, and it is a transit hub with three major lines crossing. There is so much possibility here.”
 
The approach to Mount Dennis is based on lessons learned from the Golden Mile. ILEO is assessing existing economic opportunities, listening carefully to residents, working with community organizations, and piloting concepts that can scale.
 
The objective remains the same: to ensure that residents can benefit from the billions in public and private investments planned for the neighbourhood.

In the end, the bigger picture is not just buildings. It is about creating systems that work for people. That includes involving employers and developers from the start of the process and ensuring that training programs lead directly to jobs. It is making sure that every building plan includes affordable units.

Thawar is hopeful that ILEO could be replicated beyond these two neighbourhoods.

“What we hope is that this way of working—residents, developers, public agencies working together from the get-go—spreads to other communities right across the city,” she said.

“We’re just one part of a much bigger movement that has been building for a long time.”