From Airbnb to Vision Zero, here’s what you might have missed at Toronto city hall

Thestar.com
July 25, 2019
Jennifer Pagliaro and David Rider

City hall is eerily quiet after a final, busy council meeting before the summer break. After frequent gridlock during a very drawn-out agenda, councillors are off to do whatever councillors do in the summer for the first time since their ranks were halved. It’s been a pretty hectic 274 days since the 2018 election. We’ve got everything you need to know about this past meeting and what to keep watch for when regular business resumes this fall.

The last council meeting before summer break

It’s that time of year where meetings have mercifully concluded, but before they did, council gathered for a marathon session reminiscent of the days with twice as many councillors, punctuated by an irritated Speaker Frances Nunziata’s constant reminder of how many items were still left to go. Here’s how that went:

• Vision Zero: Toronto’s less-than-effective effort to make streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists was a thread through several debates and decisions. Council voted to reboot its version of the Sweden-pioneered effort. “Vision Zero 2.0” focuses on measures including reducing speed limits on specific arterial roads. Cycling advocates applauded another reboot, of Toronto’s bike network plan, setting the stage for new protected lanes on Bloor St. W., Danforth Ave. as a pilot project, and potentially University Ave. Debate about sidewalks, and the lack thereof in some Toronto neighbourhoods, spawned stories and columns about the mostly suburban phenomenon.
• Housing separation: Council voted to create a new corporation to oversee Toronto Community Housing’s seniors’ buildings, which is meant to improve the lives of some 27,000 seniors. We’ll be following a planned pilot project for 10 of the buildings and monitoring the eventual handover for any hiccups.
• Trouble with authority: Some councillors scolded the TTC after a recent probe by the city’s ombudsman into the investigation of a young Black man being forcibly detained by enforcement officers. Council’s only Black member, Michael Thompson, said on the chamber floor: “We live in a city where we talk about diversity and we use that; we proclaim how proudly we are of that fact. Yet in this city, young Black kids, are being impacted by those we put in authority.”
• “Drivers for hire” to get training: The 2018 death of Nicholas Cameron in the back of an Uber amplified calls for council to revisit its 2016 decision to remove mandatory training for taxi drivers, and impose none on “drivers for hire,” when it legalized ride-hailing services. Cameron’s mother called new requirements for training approved by council last week, with details still to be determined, a “small win.”
• Anyone home?: Jennifer, using analysis from Councillor Josh Matlow’s office, looked at the number of new development applications for housing of more than 10 units since the Ford government imposed new planning rules and found just one, 50-unit building has been applied for in four wards that are typically development hotspots.

Next up on the city hall playlist

It’s never too soon to take a look at the fall agenda, which will be shadowed by a pending budget debate. Expect matters tied up in court/at tribunals to be unravelled and age-old policy fights to return:

• Council cut decision: Any day now, we are expecting a decision from the Court of Appeal on the Ford government’s move to cut the size of council nearly in half in the midst of the 2018 election. A lower court judge sided with the city that the legislation was unconstitutional. The province appealed, bringing the case to a five-judge panel at the appeal court. The decision is unlikely to have any immediate effect -- the city is asking that the legislation be struck down for the 2022 election -- but would also leave the province open to imposing a new system under new legislation. We’ll have the latest whenever the decision drops.
• The fight over Airbnb, etc.: Before council gets back to its regular schedule, there will be a tribunal hearing over regulation for short-term rental companies like Airbnb starting Aug. 26. Though council voted to regulate the industry in 2017, those rules have yet to come into effect with appeals at the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT). We’ll update you on how that hearing plays out.
• Transit in limbo: Toronto’s transit blueprint got short-turned by Premier Doug Ford’s plan, which has major differences. City taxpayers would be on the hook for billions of dollars to build Ford’s $28.5-billion vision, but council wrapped for the summer no closer to knowing details about the future of Toronto transit or Ford’s plan to upload Toronto’s subway system.
• A signature park: Now that the mayor’s plans for a massive Rail Deck Park have cleared the first of two legal challenges, a staff report on how to actually build the thing (and how much to pay for it) is expected at council this fall. The second tribunal hearing in this case is not scheduled until late next year.
• The 2020 budget: Ford rescinded most of the deep cuts his government imposed on Toronto in the April budget. The city doesn’t know what’s in store for 2020. Council’s often warring factions unified against Ford, but that could end soon. “If we face (new) cuts there will be serious (council) debate about whether we backfill that funding in 2020, or whether we let those services disappear,” says budget-watcher Councillor Gord Perks. “Those discussions have to start taking place in the fall.”
• Get involved at city hall

After working on a story about how obtuse and intimidating many processes at city hall can be and what the city could do about it (look for that file soon), Jennifer thought it might be helpful for you, your neighbours, coworkers and bocce opponents to be armed with this how-to guide to making your views known at city hall.

The most important thing to know is that to show up you don’t actually need to show up at city hall. There are lots of ways to contact your councillor or a committee dealing with a particular issue by email (or snail mail, if that’s your thing, but seriously stamps are expensive) or by just picking up the phone.

For a step-by-step (with pictures!) of submitting comments on an agenda item, follow Jennifer’s Twitter thread here.

Can Doug Ford expand Toronto transit without input from the city and federal governments?

Maybe.

This is tricky. Ford says his Toronto-area transit expansion will cost $28.5 billion, with his government paying $11.2 billion and the rest coming from Ottawa and cities including Toronto. If the other governments balk, he says Ontario will “backstop” the total tab. Funding it all is possible but politically difficult, given desperate descriptions of Ontario finances. For jurisdiction, Toronto could reject Ford’s plan in favour of its pre-existing transit blueprint but, as we’ve noted many times, the province can overrule Toronto on almost everything. Not so with federal matters -- but regional transit is a provincial responsibility. Hopefully, the answer will be clear soon. After our colleague Ben Spurr reported the Ford government had missed its own deadline for finalizing details of the Ontario Line, a key part of the provincial plan, the Ford government sent it to city officials on an express train.