Monique Drepaul--advocate for new directions in Toronto Transportation

Profile of Monique Drepaul -Executive Director
Eglinton Way Business Improvement Association
A small business advocate, Monique combined her Business and Marketing education to raise the profile of two Business Improvement Areas (BIA) based on Eglinton Avenue in the City of Toronto. Initially, she worked as a Coordinator for Fairbank Village BIA.  However, 2 years ago, she simultaneously worked for both Fairbank Village BIA and The Eglinton Way BIA and represented both BIAs at many of the early Eglinton Avenue consultations during the street planning and LRT process. Currently, she is Executive Director for The Eglinton Way BIA and demonstrated support for the Eglinton Connects project by presenting a deputation at both Council Committees earlier this year.


Monique’s prior experience includes working for the Supply Chain Management Division for the Ministry of Government Services and volunteering on the Community Police Liaison Committees for both 13 and 53 Divisions.

As a resident and non-car owner, Monique has a vested interest in the complete streets vision for Eglinton Avenue. She has lived and/or worked on and around Eglinton Avenue in Wards 15, 16, 17, 21 and 22 for almost ten years.

Monique Drepaul represents her BIA on TCAT panel in Toronto.

The Toronto Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT) held its 7th annual active transportation policy conference - the Complete Streets Forum - on October 6, 2014 in Toronto.

The Complete Streets Forum is an influential event that brings together hundreds of professionals, decision-makers and community members from the Greater Golden Horseshoe and beyond.The Forum provides a unique opportunity to share research, best practices, and creative solutions for designing and implementing Complete Streets - streets that are safe, accessible and enjoyable for everyone.

Monique Drepaul spoke as a panel expert (giving the BIA's perspective) for TCAT's Complete Streets Forum yesterday. Below is a description of the panel.

Building Champions for Complete Streets: 
Lessons learned from the Eglinton Avenue Planning 
+ Urban Design Study 

Jennifer Keesmaat (Moderator), Chief Planner, City of Toronto
Monique Drepaul, Co-ordinator, Eglinton Way Business 
Improvement Association
Alex Heath, Associate, Swerhun Facilitation
Jared Kolb, Executive Director, Cycle Toronto

Paul Kulig, Principal, regionalArchitects
planningAlliance and Brook McIlroy co-led the Eglinton Planning
and Urban Design Study, which addresses 19 km of the corridor,
providing key recommendations for Travelling, Greening and
Building Eglinton. Through a brief presentation that focuses on
the Travelling theme, the presentation and panel discussion will
speak to how a meaningful engagement process can build
champions to not only plan and design, but also ensure the
implementation of complete streets.

The panel will speak to the central characteristics of the
participatory process, which included visioning, consulting early
and often with the public, and being responsive to issues as they
are identified, both with internal and external stakeholders.
Panelists will share issues that were identified during the Study,
deliberate choices that needed to be made, engagement
methods and tools that were most useful as part of the planning
and design process, as well as key outcomes and current
challenges to tackle moving forward.