Light Manufacturing Incubator @ Dufferin and Queen

To strengthen Toronto’s urban manufacturing ecosystem and support the next generation of product-based entrepreneurs, Chris spearheaded the creation of a light manufacturing incubator designed to accelerate commercialization and growth for early-stage makers and producers.

Planned to open in 2020, the incubator was envisioned as the anchor tenant in a groundbreaking development—the first mixed-use building in North America to integrate residential rental housing above dedicated manufacturing space. The lower five floors were reserved for production uses, with the incubator occupying the first two floors and the remaining three dedicated to manufacturers scaling out of the program or seeking access to shared resources.

The project represented a novel approach to preserving and evolving industrial space in dense urban environments, offering a scalable, sustainable model for embedding manufacturing within the fabric of the modern city.

Digital Main Street Wifi Toolkit

To support digital transformation on Toronto’s main streets, Chris led the development of a Wi-Fi Implementation Toolkit for Business Improvement Areas (BIAs). The resource was designed to help BIAs navigate the technical and logistical aspects of deploying public Wi-Fi networks—simplifying a complex process and enabling more connected, digitally enabled neighbourhoods.

By demystifying infrastructure requirements and streamlining decision-making, the toolkit empowered local business districts to strengthen their digital footprint and better serve residents, businesses, and visitors alike.

Small Business Taxation - Discussion Paper

Following the Deputy Mayor’s Roundtable on Small Business, Chris led the City’s Small Business Council Advisory Body in the development of a discussion paper examining the property tax challenges facing main street entrepreneurs across Toronto.

The paper identified three core taxation issues disproportionately affecting small business owners and illustrated their real-world impacts through profiles of local operators. By grounding the policy analysis in lived experience, the paper helped humanize the financial pressures reshaping Toronto’s commercial main streets.

This work informed ongoing municipal discussions about equitable taxation and reinforced the need for tailored policy tools to support small business sustainability.

To view the discussion paper visit here.

Client Relationship Management System Development and Deployment

To modernize service delivery and improve client tracking across Toronto’s Small Business Centres, Chris led the design and implementation of a new Salesforce-based CRM platform—supporting more than 28,000 entrepreneur interactions annually.

Chris oversaw the full project lifecycle: from defining user requirements and selecting the platform, to customizing the system, managing developers, and contributing to hands-on configuration. He also led staff training and change management efforts to ensure seamless adoption across the City’s three centres.

Within a year of launch, the platform had generated over $150,000 in staff time savings and significantly enhanced the City’s capacity to engage, track, and support entrepreneurs accessing municipal programs.

Tommy Thompson Park Restoration with Coca-Cola

While at TRCA, Chris partnered with Coca-Cola to support the company’s global water neutrality goals through local ecosystem restoration. Working closely with Coca-Cola’s sustainability team, he helped identify and evaluate restoration opportunities that could deliver measurable water savings in the Greater Toronto Area.

Chris applied Coca-Cola’s water neutrality framework to TRCA-led projects and worked with technical staff to quantify impacts and align outcomes with corporate sustainability targets. His efforts culminated in a successful proposal that led Coca-Cola to invest $500,000 in the creation of a nine-hectare coastal wetland at Tommy Thompson Park—an initiative that advanced ecological restoration, improved water quality, and demonstrated the potential of public-private environmental collaboration.