The Ben Mulroney Show - Rogers Stadium -- a cultural and financial necessity or a nuissance for locals?

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

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Visit BetterHelp.com slash Mulruni today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash Mulroney. You're listening to the Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thanks for joining us on Tuesday, August 26th. I hope everybody had a great day yesterday. Let's repeat it today, shall we? Day two at Rogers Stadium for Oasis.

The second and final day, the second and final concert, took place yesterday. And I cannot believe that Greg Brady went again. Like, what he missed the first time? And don't say it was the weather. I don't get it. I'd say he's built, he's built different. But that, what we want to talk about now is the impact that Roger Stadium is having on the neighborhood. The residents around that area are complaining about noise pollution and traffic.

Let's listen. It's been loud. It's been hard and it's been a long summer, I guess. It's been difficult, especially when you have work on Monday. Monday morning and you have a concert Sunday night going until 11 o'clock. Closing the windows makes no difference. What used to be a 10-minute trip for me to go shopping in the area is now 45 minutes each direction. Traffic is something that we didn't ask for. We were not told about. We were promised that we would hear next to nothing. We were told that special tests were done and there would be no free concerts. Well, unfortunately, that hasn't been the case.

the fact that like they said, they're trying to do the gates, they're trying to add more security, they're trying to mitigate the sound after a certain hour. They made some improvements to try to make the cars flow faster, but that really doesn't cut it for us. A city of Toronto needs to be bold, needs to lead the way, and say, okay, enough's enough, they have to realize that they need to accommodate the residents. And that's not just lip service. They actually need to make changes. And if we have to change the bylaw, even if it's a bylaw specifically just for Roger Stadium,

Yeah, I mean, this is going to be a problem for the residents for the next five, well, four years after this one. It's a temporary facility for five years so that we as a city can host some of the biggest bands in the world. We would not have gotten Oasis. We would not have gotten Chris Brown. Who else did we get? Cold play, right? That we wouldn't have got them. We just don't have the facility for it.

They don't want to play the Rogers Center downtown. There's fewer seats, but also the sound is terrible. The acoustics are terrible. It's not building. for that. It's not built for that. And so it's, look, it's not a, here's the problem. It's not a net negative. It's not like, we were talking earlier. It's not like the complaints that people have over a homeless shelter being dropped in the middle of their neighborhood. And the people of that neighborhood saying, you're going to ruin my, my property value. Yes, life is going to be

a little tricky a few nights during the summer. But there's a lot of tax rates. revenue that's coming in. There's a lot of economic activity because of it. You're dropping tens of thousands of people into a neighborhood that most of them don't live in. Some of them are going to decide to get there early. Some are going to stay late. Some are going to spend money beyond that concert. So there is a positive knock-on effect for the neighborhood. But I do understand. This is something that changed the neighborhood. Mike, you were at the concert night one, how significant is the footprint and the impact of Rogers Stadium? It's huge. I mean, the stadium itself is massive. You know, it is a temporary stadium. So it doesn't

look like something like the Rogers Center or Scotia Bank Arena. It's not like that. It is a temporary facility. And how loud does it get? It gets extremely loud. But it's open air. That's the thing. There's nothing that breaks up the audio. There's no trees. There's nothing. It's not. And It's also not one of those stadiums. Like, say, in Michigan, they have, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, they have their big football stadium. But you barely even realize it's there because it's built down into a hole. Right.

And so it's only about two stories above ground, but it seats 100,000 people. Yeah. Look, this is really tricky, right? This is a, because part of me thinks, look, if you bought a house in that neighborhood near a decommissioned airport, like, you had to assume that at some point somebody was going to do something with that land. And once this stadium is gone, the residents are going to have a whole another problem. The redevelopment is going to be construction for years.

And it's, because based on what we're saying, it's going to be a mixed-use urban design. 28 million square feet of residential space, 7 million square feet of commercial and cultural facilities, nearly 74 acres of parks and open space. This is going to be a whole new neighborhood that's going to drop into the city. And if you're complaining about just these one-time events, consider once this stuff is in, they're there permanently. And all the people who live there are going to be with all their vehicles and everything. The infrastructure around there has to support that 24-7.

Yeah. And so if people are concerned about their property value, what's going to happen to your property value when all of a sudden there's, God knows how many new homes that are just dropped next to you? All of a sudden, it's a lot easier to find the house you want in the neighborhood. And so the law of scarcity doesn't apply anymore. And so I know that it's a problem. But when this construction starts, this is going to be a bigger problem.

Yeah. And you made a good point. This is the only event venue in Toronto that is capable of hosting these mega acts. Because the Rogers Center in downtown, the Skydome, it was not really built for it. I mean, it's a great venue. Scotia Bank. Yeah, Scotiabank is...

It's too small. I mean, there's certain people who will do Scotia Bank. But by and large, you've got to... The biggest bands in the world need to be playing a stadium like that. Yeah, think about all the bands. There's a lot of bands actually playing the stadium that I was surprised that they got 50,000. K-pop bands.

Okay, I'm not a K-pop guy. But people that are playing it that I had no idea. And that's a huge amount of money. Yeah. It's massive. A ton of money. So what can be done if we... If we take these concerns seriously and we're not getting rid of the stadium,

what can be done? And I think James Pasternak, Toronto City Council, who represents that area, was suggesting that maybe they start a little earlier. Can't do it. They can't do it because, well, I'll give you the example from Coldplay. I started a cold play from Oasis the other night. They started basically when the sun went down. Their show is, it requires dark.

These incredible screens, the widest screens you've seen, super crystal clear, a great show. But you can't really see them when the sun's up. Also, all the lights on stage and everything, it doesn't have the impact. The opening band, Cage of the Elephant, was excellent. But it was just a bunch of guys standing on stage and jumping around and stuff. It doesn't have the same feel. I'll tell you, the thing that would bug me is not the noise, because that's, it is what it is, right?

I personally, if I was living there, I would do my best to work around it. I would go out or whatever if I didn't want to hear the music. It would be the traffic. The dissent of that many people and that much congestion on streets that were not built for it. They seem to have worked to make that a little better. It was quicker to get in and out than it was at the beginning of the summer. And also for people taking the subway, you know, Greg Brady talked about how he did it. But he left before the last night's concert.

He left before the last song. So he wanted to beat the traffic. He wanted to beat the crush. And yet there's a lot of walking. there. Yeah. It is a big, I mean, it's an airport. Think about it. Did you, did you, uh, did you count your steps? I think it, it had to have been, I was a row 37. It had to have been, uh, like at least four stories, five stories, at least to get up there. With all your backs and forths, how many steps?

Oh, God. I have no idea. I, I'm sure it was 20,000. Yeah. So I, like, I feel for the people of the area. I really do. But now that we've talked about, I realize this inconvenience is nothing compared to what they're about to go through. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. The, nothing. The dust, the noise, the construction, all of it is going to be worse than this could ever be. Care for what you wish for, right? Yeah, yeah. I feel bad. I feel bad for them, but it is kind of what it is. So after the break, we want you to give us a call at 416-870-6400 or 1-3-8-225 talk. The question is going to be, how do we balance the needs and the rights of the owners of these homes

who have staked their claim to a particular neighborhood? They've put roots down. They have invested money. They have invested their lives, their emotions. How do we balance that with the very real needs of a city that sort of transcend any one individual? So that's coming up. 4168-60-60-400 or 1-3-2-25 Talk. This is the Ben Mulroney Show. Toronto Today with Greg Brady on 640 Toronto.

I am not Greg Brady I most certainly am not Greg Brady We're talking And we're talking about something That's very near and dear To Greg Brady's heart And that is Rogers Stadium He's been twice in the past two days

For the Oasis concerts Much to the chagrin of a lot of the people Who live in that area They are saying that the noise Has been more than disruptive The congestion, everything It's a problem for the residents But the question that we're putting to you

Are listeners at 416 870-6400 or 1-8-225. Talk to temporary concert venues like Roger Stadium bring more benefit to the city through tourism and culture and economic activity. Or do they unfairly burden nearby residents with noise and disruption? That's the question. And let's start this conversation with Frank. Frank, happy Tuesday. Ben, how are you, buddy? Well, thanks. Listen, like I was saying to your screener, I just kind of have sitting here, the city of Toronto are the whiny Karens of the world.

Toronto really is. You've got a venue that brings in tourism, that brings in money, brings in business. And you sit there and you complain for an event that happens over a five-hour period on a weekend. Not every day. It's not like it's going for eight hours every day, seven days a week, 365. Then you've got a right to complain. Look, I absolutely, I absolutely take your point. You know, this is not the same thing as, say, having a home in a nice neighborhood where you decide you're going to put down roots and this is where you want.

Your identity is tied up and as is your equity. And then all of a sudden, the city comes in and says, and right next door, we're going to put a homeless shelter. Like, it's not the same thing. Right. You had said earlier, the redevelopment is going to, you're going to, you know, the redevelopment is going to, to be years of chaos. Years of chaos. I work in the construction industry.

I know exactly what's going to happen when that's redeveloped. And you're complaining about something that brings in tourism that brings in money for a few weeks out of the summer because starting at the end of September, it's pretty much going to be quiet

until next May, next June. Stop complaining. Frank, thanks so much, my friend. I appreciate it. Thank you. Frank coming in hot right off the top of the show. Let's start. Let's bring Rob in. Rob, what, what, add to this conversation for me, please.

Ben, so we live, my, my front windows, stay at Lodger Stadium. Oh, really? Oh, so you're one of the residents. The front of our house faces, um, the stadium. And we have no objection to the stadium. And believe me, a lot of the neighbors here hate us for that, because we've been approached by several different groups trying to, uh, noise recordings and things to, for the noise levels and we've refused.

The concert started at 7.30 and they're over by 11. One thing that a lot of people don't realize that don't live in the neighborhood is that the Veld Festival, which has held the single long weekend that just passed. That is Friday evenings, all day, Saturday, Sunday, and all day

Monday. The base coming from there and down to your park shakes our windows. Okay? Now, we put up with it because it's summer. A lot of young people go there. So we support it. But again, that's over by 10 p.

Okay? Yeah. So we're fine with it. Yeah. There's traffic in the area. I agree. How bad is the traffic? I'll tell you right now.

It's not too bad because people that live in the neighborhood here, we've gotten a little decals we put in our front of our cars. Yeah. And the police let us through. So it's fine. And when it rained for Chris Brown about 10 days ago, yeah, the traffic was worse because of the rain. But again, at the end of the day, if you want concerts in Toronto, like everyone is saying, we sat outside and we listened to Oasis and cold play. But that's why I was thinking, if I live there and all of a sudden I was right next door to the biggest bands in the world, and I like those bands, I would want to listen. Thank you. Thank you for the call. I appreciate it. And look, I appreciate the frustration that a lot of the residents are feeling. But I don't think that their argument is going to go very far. And by the way, I've said the same thing about the residents of Toronto Island. You don't get to, just because it looks like you live in the country, you're not living in the country. You're living in downtown in the biggest city in Canada, which means,

if we want to put an airport there, the airport's going in. And I know that the pro airport people lost the Jets battle a few years ago. It's going to come back at some point. And when it does, they're going to win because the next generation of jets are going to be even quieter. And the economic activity that will be spurred from having them there is going to be impressive. And the city is not going to be able to say no. And the people of the island are going to have to recognize that they are very fortunate to be able to live a country-like lifestyle in downtown Toronto.

But you do not live in Muscoca. And if you did, you might have a like to stand on, but you don't. And I would say the same thing. If you buy a home close to a decommissioned airport, stuff's going to happen on that property that is different than anywhere else because it's a giant tract of land. It just is what it is. But I want to put this caveat out there,

I don't want anyone thinking I'm being heartless. I do appreciate the motivation. I understand the instinct to be a little bristled, but I just don't know that you're going to get a lot of buy-in from anybody who appreciates what's happening there for the city. Time now to welcome George to the Ben Mulroney Show. George, I hope you're having a great Tuesday. I'm having a great Tuesday, Ben.

I think they should just cancel the concerts altogether. I'll tell you why. because they're polluting the environment. It's a carbon footprint. You're hurting thousands and thousands of people there. They're leaving garbage, all the traffic from the cars. If I'm forced to drive an electric car by the time, you know, 20, 35 rolls around, and eventually they're going to tax me from having an empty bedroom in my house,

the government. Is the government taxing the tickets, every ticket sales, they go? They should tax them heavily. We've got so many fields up north. They can herd these people. people there, if they want to go for two hours or three hours for a concert, you know, people are fighting for the wrong things. Open up your eyes, people.

There's more things to worry about than fighting for a concert. All right, my friend, I got to say goodbye. Thank you so much. And look, we're going to talk about this a little bit later in the show, but this, our, our guest right there talked about having his spare bedroom tax. That's not happening. But it could because Australia is kicking around the idea of, of, uh, of taxing people in their homes if they have an empty bedroom in a way because they have a housing

crisis there too. And they think the best way to do that is to get empty nesters to leave their home. And taxing their empty bedrooms is a way to do that. I think it is an affront to anyone who's ever invested in a home to do something like that. It's an idea that has been floated around online for a couple of years now, suggesting that this. is the next thing the liberals want to do and people have suggested actually they've actually looked into it and maybe they have but if you if you have if you have mishandled the housing file for a decade you don't get to turn around and say the solution rests or one of the parts of the solution rests in taxing people who own homes they didn't create the problem you did get

us out of it and keep us out of it build some more homes that's all you got to do and I appreciate It's harder than what I just described. But I am not part of the problem. I own my house and it is what it is. And you can't then turn around and say, well, your kids have gone to college. So we need you out of that house. You don't get to tell me what to do. You don't get to tell me what to do with my home.

You don't get to take my money because my kids are away at college. Yeah. If that comes, if some version of that happens, I think you're going to have some really upset people. Oh, people are going to be losing their minds. But you have to think all the problems that we have, all the solutions, you say, okay, well, you have to solve it. The only way they're solving it, and you've seen this is by, well, let me see,

let's raise taxes, let's get more money from the middle class. Let's bankrupt them if we can because let them pay for all of our mistakes. And then down the road, oh, yeah, we're going to have problems with people retiring because they're not going to have any retirement income. the money that they're using to fix the problems they created is our money. Bottom line. Whatever they do, we're paying for it. And look, we already pay two land transfer taxes in the city of Toronto.

Why is it not three or four? If I swear to God, if somebody comes to tax my rooms, and how are you going to enforce that? How are you going to know if I have an empty room? And what if I turn it into an art gallery, like an art studio? What if I've turned my kid's bedroom into an art studio Or I've turned it into a podcasting space You know you know I'm telling you

If that comes down the pike There are going to be real problems for whoever Whoever brings up that brilliant idea All right Seniors in Ontario are facing shocking high fees In their retirement homes One man's monthly cost jumps 60% How much will you pay for advocates are calling for caps

But will the government act? Anywhere, this is The Ben Mulroney Show. In the 70s, four young women were found dead. For nearly 50 years, their cases went cold. I'm Nancy Hicks, a senior crime reporter for Global News. In the season finale of Crime Beat, I share how investigators uncovered shocking evidence of a serial killer. And hear exclusive interviews with the killer's family. Listen to the full season of Crime Beat early and ad-free on Amazon music by asking Alexa to play the podcast Crime Beat.

Welcome back to The Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you so much for joining us. We want to talk about the precarious position that a lot of seniors are finding themselves in in the province of Ontario. The rising cost of living in a senior residence is troubling. So there's an example of a gentleman by the name of John Simmons, 96 years old. He saw his monthly fees at a Whitby senior's residence jump nearly 60% between 2021 and 2025. So they went from $2,700 a month to over $4,000 a month. He was forced to downsize.

And there are a whole bunch of reasons why this is happening. We're joined now by Chandra Pazma, an NDP MPP, who takes issue with this. Madam Pazma, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. Okay, so what is the issue? Why are these costs allowed to rise with impunity? So it's really the Wild West for fees in senior retirement residences and care homes. They have only one limitation on what they can charge for fees,

and that is that they have to provide 90 days written notice before increasing the fees. but there's no limit on how much they can increase fees or how many times a year they can increase fees the way there is for rent under the Residential Tenancies Act. There's no requirement that the fees be tied to the services that are being provided. And there's no requirement that the fees for the same services be the same for different individuals living in the home. So they can literally charge whatever they want to whomever they buy as long as they provide 90 days written notice. So it's a tale of two systems, right? We have a public system, and we got the private, these are private homes, right?

And that's what we're really focusing on here. But correct me if I'm wrong, senior citizens, generally speaking, are a vulnerable group of people, of Ontarians. We would look at that, we would look at that group and say, they need special care. The government needs to take more time to make sure that they are not being taken advantage. of and this screams taking advantage of absolutely so we are mostly talking about people who are living on fixed incomes so they're not working they're living on pensions or CPP and OAS many of them need care of some degree or another which is why they've moved into these retirement homes or care homes so you know when when retirement homes started it was more of a lifestyle thing where someone

might move in because they wanted to be in a senior's community with activities around them. But what we've seen now is that there's much more of a shift to them being a replacement for long-term care. You know, we don't have enough long-term care beds. So people are going into a retirement home to receive a higher degree of medical care. It's a replacement for home and community care that might keep someone in their own home longer. And so these are people who are not necessarily choosing this because this is the lifestyle they really wanted. They're choosing it because it's the place that they can get care that meets

their needs. But we also know that for a senior losing your home and community has a greater impact than it might for somebody who's middle-aged or younger, we know that it reduces their lifespan. And so it's really unfortunate when we see people being forced out of their homes by steep fee increases or when people have the stress of knowing that they might see their costs increase significantly, and then they might lose their home in their community, their friends. Yeah. Well, look, the act of moving in to an assisted living situation for anyone requires a,

it's a pill to swallow, right? You're going from leading a completely independent life to having to acknowledge that you need assistance. That's a big pill to swallow. So once that senior citizen has crossed that bridge, the fact that, that circumstances would would rip them out of this place that they have worked to make a home in at that late stage in their lives is it's just it's unnecessary absolutely and i do want to be clear that there are good retirement homes and senior care homes it's not all of them who

engage in this predatory behavior you know i've met staff who are great caregivers who provide all kinds of wonderful activities for seniors, seniors who love their home and feel that they really have built a sense of community. But there is literally no protection against predatory care providers. And that's what we need to change. Yes. So, Madam Pasmuch, what do you want to change? What is the call to action here?

So I've tabled a private members bill along with some of my colleagues that would regulate fees in seniors' homes the same way that rent is regulated. So you would only be allowed to increase it once. year by a set amount. The fees would be tied to the services that are being offered and seniors couldn't just be offered packages. They would be allowed to say this is a service that I need but this other service isn't something that I need and you would see seniors paying the same rate for the same service. So generally protecting them against predatory fee increases or you know fees being set at a predatory amount to begin with. The other thing that the bill does is it

eliminates the use of marketing discounts or it says you need to very clearly spell out. This is a marketing discount. This is how long it will apply. This is what's going to happen to your fees when the marketing discount ends because we've seen a lot of seniors who were almost suckered into signing a lease with one of these care homes because they're told this is the rate, but they're never told this rate will end. And, you know, we can double your fees when we decide to end the rate. So what we need is we need clarity and we need fairness in how these fees are regulated.

Look, you know, and I'm glad you level set with us that there are good actors in this space as well. But, you know, for the worst actors, if this is their business, right, if their business is the care of seniors and they are profit-driven, exclusively profit-driven, there is something really distasteful about, extracting as much profit as you can out of senior citizens. To me, there's just, it's a, it's a bridge too far. Well, absolutely. You know, we're talking about the people who built our province, who gave their lives in service to our province, and they deserve a dignified retirement.

Everybody does. But when you are extorting seniors for profit and putting their homes as blackmail against them to try to get this money out of them, That's completely unacceptable. That's not allowing people to live with dignity and respect. But is there somewhere in this country where a province has gotten it right? I don't know that other provinces have gotten it right, but I think in Ontario we've gotten it right insofar as we cap rent.

So, you know, we do recognize that there are bad actors who want to hold people's homes over their heads of blackmail for getting money out of them. And we say at least, you know, until Doug Ford came into power in 2018 and removed it for all buildings constructed after 2018. But we do recognize that people need a degree of protection against that. And we need to recognize that the same applies to seniors. I can't believe it hasn't happened. Like I said, just a few minutes ago, if we've got all these protections for renters and we've got protection for homeowners and we've got protection for every group, seniors are a vulnerable group. they should be at the front of the line when it comes to the government keeping an eye on those who may

behave in a predatory fashion towards them. And the fact that it hasn't happened, it's a big blind spot. Yeah, absolutely. To me, it's absolutely shocking that the government hasn't taken action because it's so little action that's required on their part. You know, this isn't a big expense for government. No. This is about changing the rules. Have you had any conversations with the other parties in the house?

Yes, so I raised the situation in my riding where two care homes have engaged in this. In one case, an elderly gentleman saw his fees increased by more than $30,000 a year, which, you know, I think even those of us who are working full-time couldn't afford a $30,000 increase in our housing costs from one year to the next, but the minister of housing at the time, Paul Calandra just dismissed the question and said, you know, the company, isn't doing anything wrong. Well, legally speaking, the company might not be doing anything wrong, but I think morally the company is doing something very wrong. I agree with you. I agree. You and I have found common cause, and I want to thank you very much for raising this and for bringing

it to the attention of the listeners here on the Ben Mulroney show. We definitely appreciate it. Chandra Pazma, NDP, MPP. Please come back anytime. I would love to. Big Brother is back. Let's break it. This summer the game gets hotter, the alliances get trickier, and the blinds, brutal. Just a roller coaster of backstabbing and craziness.

New house guests, new twists, same epic drama. Bro, I'm gunning for you. You're my number one target. Who can you? You trust when everyone's watching. Game on, baby. Big Brother, all new Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays on Global. Stream on Stack TV.