Five things to watch at Toronto city council

Thestar.com
Sept. 30, 2020
Jennifer Pagliaro

City council meets starting Wednesday for the first time after a summer break, and there is a packed agenda.

The Star’s city hall bureau will be monitoring the meeting and reporting on votes, interesting debates and more.

Here’s what we’re watching:

• Solving a housing crisis: The city has two major housing reports on the agenda this month -- one on how to implement a landmark 10-year affordable housing plan to build 40,000 new units and the second on a shelter strategy amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Of key concern with both, as always, is how to fund that new housing. Meanwhile, the city has responded to an ongoing lawsuit saying that despite the claim its shelters were all physically distanced in June, there were still 32 beds that didn’t meet those standards.
• New COVID-19 restrictions: Toronto saw new daily case counts nearing 400 on Monday, prompting medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa to recommend new restrictions on bars and restaurants, as well as extending existing rules for social distancing, masking and health and safety in apartments. Council will vote on whether to enact those changes.
• Renaming Dundas St.: After staff recommended consulting the public on changing the name of the streets and other city assets named for Scottish politician and lawyer Henry Dundas, both a descendant of Dundas and the artist who started a petition made their case to the executive committee for why the name should stand or not. Expect some debate at this meeting as councillors decide whether to wade into what could be a precedent-setting decision to confront calls for anti-colonial and anti-racist placemaking.
• Delaying ranked ballots: The outgoing city clerk has said it won’t be possible to prepare for the possibility of ranked ballots in the 2022 election thanks to COVID-19 and deadlines to hold public consultations. But advocates are asking for council to find a way to push forward and not put off what they say is a more democratic system for another four years.
• A vacant Scarborough seat: Last week, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected Jim Karygiannis’s last attempt to appeal his ouster from city council. That means his Scarborough-Agincourt seat is now vacant and council, by law, must decide whether to fill it by appointment or hold a byelection.

The council meeting starts at 9:30 a.m. and continues Thursday.