"There was a two-hour "Pickling Party" on October 30 from 5:30-7:30pm in Dufferin Grove Park. The event was held outdoors near the new building, partly in the semi-darkness. The group hosting the workshop was the garden group from St. Anne's Church. That group has lost their gardening area due to the devastating fire that burned St. Anne's Church to the ground on June 9, 2024.

"This FREE workshop should have been held in the brand-new high-end DGP Clubhouse kitchen. The St. Anne's Garden Group asked about using the kitchen, but they were told it would cost $75 an hour. Too expensive (two hours: $150). This was a community event for their volunteer gardeners and the mostly 'senior' garden volunteers from the Dufferin Grove Garden Co-op.

"So about twenty people set up at the Dan’s Table area beside the (still unrepaired) wood oven and boiled water on a little camp stove to make the pickling brine. As it became darker and darker the group had to make do with lights from the basketball court.

"All the while, the new Clubhouse kitchen remained empty, with all the blinds down. There were two staff inside the building, one in the staff office working on a computer, but they said they couldn’t just open the kitchen. City policy is that there’s a set fee for any community kitchen use, no exceptions."

April 2002: Private use of public space: the permit saga.
Recently, Jutta Mason went to an evening information meeting on the new rules for permits. She found out that a new centralized computer connection called CLASS is being used to index all small, medium and large rooms inside community centres, all gyms (and their dimensions), all playing fields, all small additional structures - rink change houses, picnic tables - that might have a space that could be permitted for money. Nothing is left out, everything must be visible in the CLASS system.

It then becomes the responsibility of recreation workers in every part of the city to type into the computer each minute of time that these spaces are used for city recreation programs. Whenever a room is not booked, it becomes centrally available for rent by a permit group. For fairness of administration, there is a priority sequence for permit approval. Age is the most important consideration, with children and youth (up to age 24) getting the lion’s share of the time. Residents rank much higher than non-residents. As long as the whole permit group comes within the new amalgamated city of two and a half million and not beyond, they can be slotted in anywhere from Rexdale to Scarborough, assuming they don’t mind a little driving.

Not-for-profit groups rank far above those wishing to profit from the space, but they have to be "not-for-profit organizations with a volunteer executive elected at an Annual General Meeting; a constitution, by-laws and/or letters patent; provide financial statements (audited if required)."

All the other groups including community groups that don’t "meet the criteria to be defined as community groups" go to the end of the line for permits. They are lumped with "commercial groups and individuals." This bottom group is entitled to 0 - 10% of permits in any neighbourhood parks and recreation facility (including a park).