Tory checks in on Toronto Islands, encourages Torontonians to visit this weekend

Mayor John Tory checked in with islandresidents Thursday morning and issued an "enthusiastic invitation" to the rest of the cityto visit the Toronto Islands this weekend.

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"It's going to be a fantastic weekend, these businesses are having a hard time, they've lost a lot of business and I can tell you that since the park has reopened and the ferry service resumed, they haven't made the numbers that they were making on an average weekendin August or September of last year," he said.

Much of the Toronto Islands was closed for most of summer due to significant rainfallcausing heavy flooding,warped docks, washed-out walking paths and recedingshorelines.

Bill Freeman lives on Ward's Island and has been an island resident for 30 years. He says he feels fortunate that his home remains in good shape after the summer of heavy rains and flooding.

"We had a lot of help from the city, they came in and they put these big sandbags that really protected our house," he said.

Freeman said the flooding ultimately broughtisland residents together.

"The islanders have always worked together, we're a community that's been threatened in different ways and we've always helped each other and stayed together," he said. "That's one of the advantages of living here is you can rely on your neighbours and they can rely on you."

Tory said he also wanted to thank the workers who helped protect the island and clean it up in the aftermath of the flooding.

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"They had to be deployed in emergency circumstances but I think it prevented a lot more damage from being done, to the island and of course to the residents," he said.

City staff have started to remove 45,000sandbags, though Tory says some will remain where they are because it's unclear howhigh the water will be next year.