Business owners at Scarborough’s Knob Hill Plaza say it’s being used as an illegal dump
Business owners in a Scarborough plaza say they’re frustrated with recurring piles of illegally dumped trash surrounding their stores.
Nigansha Puvirajah’s family-owned grocery store has been at the Knob Hill Plaza, near Eglinton Avenue E. and Danforth Road, since 1994. But in recent years, she says people have been tossing their trash everywhere.
“It’s been really, really bad to a point where we go out of our own way to clean it up — then we get charged by the city,” Puvirajah told CBC Toronto.
Some business owners, including Ratna Kiri, who runs a clothing store in the plaza, say they have been fined between $300 and $400 for messes they didn’t make.
“The city has to do their part and each owner has to do their part,” Kiri said.
Business owners in a Scarborough plaza say they’re frustrated with recurring piles of illegally dumped trash. CBC’s Britnei Bilhete explains why cracking down on the issue is complicated.
The city says it has multiple open investigations into the garbage dumping at Knob Hill Plaza, and that there have been over 30 property inspections.
Between 2020 and 2024, a spokesperson said the city has cleaned up garbage messes over 20 times.
“These properties are owned and used by multiple owners, while the illegal dumping occurs over a wider area than one specific owner,” said Shane Gerard in an emailed statement.
Unlike many plazas, each unit at Knob Hill is individually owned, with residences on top of each business. Each property includes the area behind and in front of the unit, stretching through the parking lot to the sidewalk.
“These ownership complexities and the long-term ongoing illegal dumping actions, make it more difficult for investigations to result in enforcement measures,” Gerard said, noting the city has boarded up a vacant unit where garbage often piles up.
Who keeps dumping the trash?
It’s not clear who’s responsible for the trash, but Kiri said not all landlords in the plaza appear to be providing a dumpster for their residents — a problem he believes has created a snowball effect.
Kiri said he believes some residents without their own dumpster don’t know how to properly tag their garbage for curbside pick-up.
Garbage collected on the sidewalk by the city needs to have a designated yellow tag that can only be purchased online through the city’s website or at Canadian Tire locations. Each tag costs about $6.
“Once they see one garbage, everyone thinks this is the right place to put the garbage,” he said.
Without security cameras, the local city councillor, Parthi Kandavel, said it’s hard to know who is responsible for dumping their trash along the plaza.
That’s why he wants plaza shop owners to start their own business improvement area (BIA) group. It’s something he said he’s tried to organize, but only seven businesses were interested.
“You could address [the problem] through cameras, through investments, through lighting, through relationship-building with the city, with the police — but it’s something that requires more hands on deck,” Kandavel said.
Creating a BIA for the plaza would require support from the plaza’s 35-40 businesses and the city, he said. And while municipal staff already work closely with BIAs in downtown neighbourhoods, he said other communities may need additional help to get started.
“English is not the first language for some of the business owners,” Kandaval said.
“I think we’ve got to think critically now [on] how do we put in the necessary resources, whether it’s translators or whatnot … to create the social infrastructure required for people to buy in.”
Puvirajah said she’s open to any solution, because her family’s business has run out of ideas.
“A lot of these businesses have been here for over 20 years. It’s really hard to see this place go like this,” she said, specifically worried about how the trash might be deterring potential customers.
“It just slows us down because when you see a plaza, if it’s nice and clean you want to go inside,” Puvirajah said.
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