Even before our incorporation on Sept.1, 2025, we have been “on the case” and making huge strides from engaging residents to preventing future noise at the global level. Here are just some of the highlights:

Organizational Highlights:

The Board met every month, tackling how to build NMN to be a best-in-class advocacy organization while managing the storming, forming and norming that every organization goes through. We also had our first AGM, which was well received and attended. Thanks to John, Richard, and Sue for their steadfast support and wisdom. Check out our website for updated bios: https://nomorenoise.ca/about-us/

The Board and I welcomed 15 Leads and Advisors last Fall, and as is natural, some changes have taken place. In the near future, we will be communicating how people can join the Leadership Team and shadow Board members as we get ready to build our succession plans. If you want to be a part of an exciting new type of advocacy organization and movement, please give this some thought. Thank you to all of the volunteers who make our work possible and the best it can be.

Self Sustaining:

We couldn’t be where we are without the financial support from many of you. But we know that the better way is to become self-sustaining through a hybrid social enterprise model. We aim to create revenue from sales of tRackets (see below), consulting services and memberships. Noise News will always stay free. More on this in future editions.

Donations:

We continue to build trust and engagement with people and foundations. Many thanks to national charity Small Change Fund, our partner on the Creating Less Noisy Cities project – we wouldn’t be where we are without their generous support. A big thank you as well for the generous gifts from Tamara Bernstein (through the Zita and Mark Bernstein Family Foundation), Johanna Lawson and Greater Yorkville Residents Association, and to ABCRA for their support over the years.

Members / Subscribers:

We grew by over 800 members, many of whom came from our email campaigns. We hope for that to be the lowest growth number ever as we gain more Toronto supporters, and extend our reach into other Ontario communities and across Canada.

We are also building membership tiers so that people can have extra support and contact with us. We are doing this carefully and including a Pay it Forward or building a community fund to make sure we stay accessible to all, we know that noise pollution impacts vulnerable communities more.

Collaborations:

We are super pleased to be deepening our collaborations with Quiet Communities (QC), the largest anti-noise organization in the US. We alerted them to automotive manufacturers influencing global vehicle policy at the UN to make EVs louder for vanity, not safety. Thanks to the work of the EV Noise Working Group, QC is now an accredited NGO with the UNECE and we have been invited (as QC members) to participate in the Task Force on Vehicle Sound. We fly to Barcelona mid-October to present to the group on the health impacts and resident experience of vehicle noise. Check out their July/August newsletter for more info.

We continue to partner with the University of Toronto (Dr. Richard DiFrancesco) providing Senior Geography students with excellent professional work experience for a credit. We are welcoming two more this year, bringing our total to 12!

We were “born” at Civic Tech Toronto and thanks to a group of volunteers and good leadership they built tRacket noise sensors. We were happy to assist in a wider pilot of the technology with 16 sensors going to University of Waterloo (Dr. Carrie Mitchell) in her CIVIC project, 4 to the University of Toronto (Jessica D’eon) who is studying the correlation between air and noise pollution. The rest have gone to individuals in our organization.

All 40 sensors have been distributed and we will let folks know how the pilot goes and when we will have more for sale.

Community Engagement and Media:

Over 12 media interviews you can check some of them out here: https://nomorenoise.ca/about-us/media/

3 Sound Walks: It was lovely to meet folks in person in December and for the Jane’s Walks in the Spring, all were very well attended! Bookmark October 25 for the next one!

Many Meet-Ups and Drop-Ins covering Environmental Impacts on Wildlife, Who protects us from Noise in Canada and a few others. Check out our recorded sessions on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRcIfilpOO_OZjMQwRpSQvQ

City of Toronto:

We have served for two years on the External Working Group for the Night Economy for the City and have committed to another two. Thanks to Jeff I., who is joining me in this group, bringing your concerns directly to this group, who often can be the noisemakers. We are threading a thin line; we love music and culture, indeed it makes us human. However, the sound needs to be kept in the place it was intended for and if outside, managed to protect the health and well being of residents in the area.

We have had 5 monthly meetings with Leo Butko, Manager of the Noise Team and brought Sound Vue (noise cameras in NYC) and Sorama (which visualizes and measures sound) for presentations directly to the noise team. By bringing the technology to them, they are aware of the solutions and can speak confidently about them to other staff and elected officials.

We continue to build positive relationships with the City’s various departments and divisions by being respectful, polite and bringing solutions to the table.

Civic Engagement:

We also continue to push the city and elected officials for change. In the last year, we ran 12 different email campaigns, which enabled our supporters to send emails to politicians and key political staff about important noise issues. These campaigns were about implementing noise cameras, motor vehicle noise, stationary noise sources, leaf blowers, fireworks, and noise from Rogers Centre and the proposed jets at Billy Bishop Airport. Our supporters sent over 21,000 emails! That is an immense and powerful amount of public contact that these leaders might not have received otherwise. We extend our sincere thanks to all of our supporters who have participated in email campaigns so far! They are certainly moving the needle and helping get noise on the political radar.

For our ongoing Stationary Noise Campaign, Leaf Blower Campaign, and Fireworks Campaign, we collaborated with concerned and experienced citizen groups to ensure the content was perfect. Our thanks go to the members of Gasbusters, as well as Dianne, Jessica, and Abigail.

We also ramped up our outreach to City Hall Committees and Toronto City Council, sending in 19 emails about important topics such as improving 311 service and response for noise complaints, jet ski noise, Toronto’s nightlife, and data centre noise.

Summary:

I am super impressed at how far we have come. Yes, I personally have worked hard, but you have also shown up to support and work alongside me. We are in a time of protest and change, which is opportunity. We look forward to seeing and hearing success in the future - it is looking and feeling very positive! Thanks for being on the journey with us.