Thread by @GraphicMatt

Toronto Council meets today! Mayor John Tory has decided to put an item about transit and the Eglinton East LRT at the top of the agenda.

It’ll stream live here. I will tweet some tweets about it.

I had a full preview of the agenda in this week’s issue of @CityHallWatcher. In addition to transit, also expect some debates about the vacant home tax (2nd on the agenda), shelters, bike lanes on Yonge Street in North York & more. graphicmatt.substack.com/p/chw101

Council votes 22-3 to continue the backyard chicken pilot project.

Council votes 24-1 to request the federal government lower the maximum interest rate chargeable by payday loan stores from 60% to 30%. Rest of an item on payday loan store regulations carries via a voice vote.

Council votes to add some Board of Health items to the agenda, including the COVID equity plan the board approved Monday.

Council has moved onto this month’s transit debate. Responding to question from Councillor Lai, staff say timeframe for completion of the Eg East LRT is now likely 2030 or 2031. Cost has gone up because of changes to Scarborough subway design and elimination of Sheppard East LRT.

There are 44 items left on this agenda after most items were adopted on consent.

Councillor Josh Matlow asks Derrick Toigo, executive director of the Transit Expansion Office, about resurrecting the Scarborough LRT. Toigo says it’d be difficult given existing work and provincial control. “Derek, this whole journey has been difficult,” says Matlow.

The lunchtime news.

https://twitter.com/gordperks/status/1339234881595973633

Waiting for Councillor James Pasternak to say the words “North York Relief Line.”

Councillor Josh Matlow is first speaker on the transit. “None of what the public has been told for years has seemed to be true,” he says, pointing to years of transit announcements that weren’t real and went nowhere. “Scarborough residents were sold a bill of goods.”

Councillor Jennifer McKelvie has a motion that asks for more talks with the province re: the location of a storage facility for Eglinton East, and a future extension.

McKelvie’s motion carries 25-0. And the transit update item re: Eglinton East LRT and Waterfront Transit also CARRIES 25-0.

Up now: a vacant home tax. Should Toronto have one? I think yes. thestar.com/opinion/contri…

Quick break from recapping this Council meeting to renew my @torontolibrary card online. ✅

Lots of discussion during staff questions about where Toronto should set its vacant tax rate. Staff aren’t recommending a specific rate today, but Vancouver was pretty quick to grow their rate from 1% to 1.25% to 3%.

It costs the City about $1 per household to send a mail-out, so sending out a notice about the vacant tax would cost almost $1 million. Bailao wonders if the new tax info could just be included on property tax bills. Staff say that probably wouldn’t be visible enough.

There’s something kind of funny about the notion of mailing a notice about a vacant home tax to a vacant home.

Filion asks about definition of a vacant home: what if someone only lives in their home one day a month? Staff say definitions will come later, but idea is home is vacant if it’s empty for six months of a year, total. One-day-a-month dude would still be a vacant homeowner.

I think there’s some concern about this vacant tax hitting, like, a hypothetical person who goes to Florida for four months in the winter and then their cottage for two months in the summer. But again, actual implementation details to come later.

Councillor Michael Ford, noting that he is usually against taxes, says he is “cautiously supporting” moving forward with this vacant tax. He’s interested to see what staff come back with. He’s worried about “unintended consequences” like taxing snowbirds, but will support today.

Lunch break is upon us. Council will return at 2 p.m. to finish off this debate on a vacant home tax.

At the COVID presser, the mayor says he won’t support a looming motion from some councillors to have the city expropriate vacant apartments for use as emergency housing.

Council is back. There are 47 items left on the agenda. After some item wrangling, we should get to a vote on moving forward with the vacant home tax. Stream is here:

Back to the vacant tax debate. Councillor Holyday has a motion directing that the City provide “a clear statement on the public policy objective” of a vacant home tax.

Holyday is concerned about the tax. “I would argue that many of these places have elected not to put their home into the market for very good reasons, and they’re going to be paying this money.”

Councillor Cynthia Lai, a former realtor, says she’ll support going forward with the tax but has some concerns about implementation: “This cannot be a tax that targets offshore buyers,” she says. She wants to make sure real estate market isn’t hurt by a vacancy tax.

“How many buildings WOULDN’T we have to build if 9,000 vacant condos came onto the rental market?” asks Councillor Shelley Carroll.

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam has a motion. She wants staff to look at allocating revenue from the vacant home tax to affordable housing.

Councillor John Filion has some motions: one that asks staff to look at ways to get data on whether homes are primary, secondary or investment homes. And one to look at declaring homes that are occupied illegally as vacant properties.

Filion is asked by Ford what he means by “illegally occupied.” Filion confirms that his motion is mostly about rooming houses.

Digging this tie-and-cardigan look.

Councillor James Pasternak expresses concern that the tax will hit people who buy a property for a family member to use in the future. They could have to pay a vacancy tax in the interim, he says. Unrelated: does anyone know where I could buy very tiny violins in bulk?

Good deal, but would prefer to shop local.

Mayor John Tory, a big supporter of the vacancy tax, is the last speaker. He says he hopes there comes a day when the tax doesn’t raise a single cent, because everyone is actually renting or living in their homes.

Councillor Holyday’s motion asking for a “clear statement on the public policy objective” of the vacant tax CARRIES 22-3.

Councillor Wong-Tam’s motion asking for staff to report on allocating revenue from vacant tax to affordable housing CARRIES 21-4.

Council votes 24-1 to APPROVE moving forward with the design of a vacant home tax, with potential implementation in 2022.

(All other motions related to the vacant tax carried via show-of-hands, for those keeping score at home.)

Council is now debating a report about COVID-19 recovery. Councillor Wong-Tam moves for staff to develop a downtown economic plan, with a focus on intergovernmental programs that could provide wage subsidies, cost relief, etc. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

Councillor Stephen Holyday holds up a map on the back of his business card and asks Wong-Tam to define downtown. Wong-Tam explains TOCore project defined downtown as Bathurst to Bayview, the lake to Bloor - 51% of Toronto’s GDP in that zone, she says.

Holyday is concerned that a downtown economic strategy would only help businesses downtown. Wong-Tam argues the downtown area has unique circumstance and unique need.

Nunziata is also upset with the Wong-Tam motion. “You feel that downtown is more important than the suburbs? We pay taxes, we have businesses that are closing. You have all the development charges and Section 37 charges downtown — we don’t.”

Councillor Shelley Carroll suggests changing the wording in Wong-Tam’s motion from “downtown” to “Central Business District” because the word “downtown” seems to make some people mad.

Wong-Tam says “Central Business District” is too narrow for what she wants. Downtown is more expansive than the CBD. Carroll says the “downtown” wording is causing some “angst” among suburban councillors.

Pasternak: “As far as bad motions go that serve to divide the city, this has to rank as one of the worst I’ve seen in ten years.”

Things are breaking down here quick. Nunziata is heckling from the speaker’s chair. Pasternak scoffs at Wong-Tam’s answer to his question: “Thank you for the lecture.”

Wong-Tam reiterates she values the entire city, but she thinks a downtown-specific strategy would be helpful.

I think Carroll is probably right that this is mostly a semantic thing. If the motion was for an economic strategy specific to “Toronto’s main streets and central business district” this would probably sail through.

Ridiculous that the notion that downtown might be different, and have different needs than the suburbs, is such a point of conflict, though. Seems obvious!

Councillor Michael Thompson brings peace. On his recommendation, Wong-Tam agrees to withdraw her motion. She’ll work with Thompson on a revised version that’ll be attached to another COVID-19 item tomorrow.

End of interlude.

Now: Councillor Mike Layton moves for a report on how new federal funds can accelerate building retrofits and maximize carbon reduction efforts.

Full text of Layton’s motion is here.

https://twitter.com/TorontoCouncil/status/1339318199511298050

Layton’s motion carries via show of hands. So does the rest of the COVID-19 recovery item. Okay then.

Now: it’s time to consider the garbage budget. The only contentious bit here: the budget proposes eliminating delivery of the calendar with the garbage & recycling collection schedule. Staff say it’ll save about $850K.

The Toronto Environmental Alliance has written in support of keeping the calendar, arguing it’s an effective educational tool and not everyone has access to the internet. toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2… (PDF)

My personal strategy for knowing whether it is a garbage week or a recycling week is to wait until my neighbours put their bins out and then put all my trust in them.

Councillor Shelley Carroll moves to save the garbage calendar.

I’m not normally a corporate sponsorship kind of guy, but this waste collection calendar thing feels like it could actually be a good place for it? Let businesses put some logos and ads on it to offset the printing and delivery costs.

Ultimately, though, this is a debate that highlights the way Council tends to obsess over small costs. They’re likely to spend about the same amount of time debating this that they spent on the Eg East LRT. For the cost of that LRT, you could provide 5,176 years of calendars.

Budget Chief Gary Crawford has a motion to instead send the garbage collection schedule as an insert with utility bills.

Councillor Gord Perks asks Crawford how his motion accounts for renters who don’t receive utility bills. Crawford doesn’t have an answer. Perks suggests he withdraw his motion until he figures that issue out. Crawford says he’s not going to do that.

Councillor Mike Colle says people have been asking him to change the colours of the blue & black bins so they are more easy to differentiate at night.

Councillor Paula Fletcher says she doesn’t need calendars with LCBO recipes or calendars from TVO with scenic pictures of Ontario. (Haha, burn, @tvo ) But she needs and likes calendars with useful info like the garbage collection schedule.

We have now passed the one hour mark of this debate about the garbage calendar.

But now it’s time to vote! Councillor Shelley Carroll’s motion to keep printing and distributing the waste collection calendar in 2021 FAILS 11-13.

Crawford’s motion to send out the garbage collection schedule as an insert with utility bills CARRIES 19-6.

Toronto’s garbage budget for 2021 CARRIES 22-3. Save those waste collection calendars. They’re going to be collectors’ items one day.

Councillor Layton’s motion to have the Toronto Parking Authority complete an expansion study for Bike Share Toronto in 2021 (and request prov/fed funding for expansion) CARRIES 21-3.

Council approves the slate of mid-term appointments recommended by the Striking Committee. Councillor McKelvie is now officially chair of Infrastructure & Environment. Ford & Nunziata remain Council’s appointees to the Police Services Board.

And that wraps up day one. There are 35 items left on the agenda, with a handful of member motions to come

Main events tomorrow: COVID update, Transform Yonge, expropriation of units for emergency housing

Can they finish the agenda, or are they back Friday? Tune in to find out!

Council is about to start things up again. After a bunch of members’ motions were added, there are now 49 items left on the agenda. Up first will be a pair of COVID items, one on business recovery and one from public health.

It’ll stream live here:

One of the new items added overnight: this Pizza Pizza location wants a liquor license. Is this a first? app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

The Council meeting kicks off with a tribute to GM of Economic Development & Culture Mike Williams as he departs from the city after 12 years. Deputy City Manager Giuliana Carbone touts his long list of accomplishments, as does the mayor.

After yesterday’s downtown-versus-suburbs brouhaha, Councillor Thompson brings a new motion for economic recovery efforts that “support a focus on the vibrancy of the Main Street businesses across the City and a focus on the Downtown…” etc. We’ll see if this sparks any rancour.

“A vibrant strong downtown core is best for the city,” says Councillor Michael Ford. Temperature has been lowered from yesterday. Peace in our time.

Councillor Thompson’s downtown-supporting motion carries via a show of hands. The COVID economic recovery report also CARRIES 25-0.

Following a strong speech from Board of Health chair Joe Cressy warning about the next couple of months and the need for income supports and other measures to support people, Council approves latest COVID-19 status update via a show of hands.

Prompted by this @jpags scoop, Councillor Josh Matlow moves to ask the Auditor General to investigate whether there might be other instances of rental units being offered to employees, etc. thestar.com/news/gta/2020/…

Matlow’s amendment carries via a show of hands. Results of any investigation will come later. Council is flying through this agenda.

Still no report posted on the emergency housing item, though. Running out of time. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

After getting started with an item about supporting the taxi industry during the pandemic, Council breaks for lunch. Back at 2 p.m. for members’ motions.

Still to come: Transform Yonge, emergency housing.

Council is back. Speaker Frances Nunziata rules Councillor Josh Matlow’s motion to ask the province to go back to the Scarborough LRT is in order. Council will vote on whether to add it to the agenda in a bit.

But first: a motion to ask the provincial government to declare Santa Claus an essential service and exempt him and his team from public health rules CARRIES 23-0.

(I like that even in a motion about Santa Claus, councillors are aware that they lack powers and need to ask the province to enact things.)

Councillor Ana Bailao’s motion directing staff to implement safety improvements on Dufferin Street following the recent death of a cyclist is added to the agenda and carried on a show of hands.

Councillor Josh Matlow’s motion requesting the province go back to the Scarborough LRT plan makes the agenda, 24-1, with only Ford opposed. Councillor Bradford holds the item for debate, in a move that seems to frustrate Nunziata and Pasternak. We’ll come back to this in a bit.

Council votes via a show of hands to have staff promote the Worldwide Christmas Eve Jingle.

Member motions dealt with, we’re left with 23 items left on the agenda.

Back to this item about supporting taxis. Some councillors would like to waive licensing fees for taxicabs, but staff say that’d trigger requests to waive fees for all businesses. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

Considered transcribing this but decided against it. But I want to confirm to any future historians reading this that it’s a real quote.

https://twitter.com/jpags/status/1339658057450700807

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam moves for a report on reducing or eliminating taxi licensing fees as part of the 2021 budge. She also moves to issue a two-year moratorium on enforcing rules re: age of vehicles for cabs and limos.

Full text of the Wong-Tam taxi motion. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

Less than 24 hours after Council defeated @shelleycarroll’s motion to save the waste collection calendar, the city’s official Instagram account is promoting the waste collection calendar. (The 2021 edition pictured will be the last one people get.) instagram.com/p/CI5z8wjMtbX/

Lots of support for Wong-Tam’s taxi motion: Ford, Minnan-Wong, Pasternak, Perruzza, Holyday all speak in favour.

And, as you’d expect, it PASSES easily, 25-0.

Councillor Gord Perks asks about the report on emergency housing that is supposed to come to this meeting but is still MIA. Is it still coming? No one seems to know. We’re told we’ll get an answer soon.

Up now: an item that asks Council to approve giving up to $9 million more to consulting firm Ernst & Young as part of ongoing procurement reform efforts. E&Y will be paid a 5% “success fee” — a portion of any savings they help the city achieve. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

Nunziata has an update on the missing housing report! It’ll be posted within 30 minutes, she says. Get hyped.

Councillor John Filion has some “belt and suspenders” motions, looking for some extra accountability with this Ernst & Young cash. Filion has expressed reservations about how much the city spends on consultants.

Filion’s motions carry unanimously. The Ernst & Young item as amended CARRIES 20-3.

Up for debate now, at long last: the Transform Yonge plan — reducing Yonge Street between Sheppard & Finch from six to four car lanes, adding bike lanes and wider sidewalks. Some councillors think it’ll cause a bunch of traffic. Others think Yonge Street shouldn’t be a highway.

Traffic analysis of Transform Yonge: “Overall, the reduction in the number of lanes on Yonge Street, from six to four lanes, results in minimal change to traffic performance in the overall peak-period (AM and PM) across the entire study area.” toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2… (PDF)

Jacquelyn Hayward, Toronto’s Director of Transportation Project Design & Management, has a framed photo of a bike lane.

Housing report here. It “outlines a plan for the City to accelerate 150 new supportive housing opportunities within 8 to 10 weeks, and a further 510 housing opportunities within 10 to 12 weeks…based on the availability of funding for supportive services” toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2…

On the Transform Yonge plan, local councillor John Filion says, “I do believe this is the third time this is here, and I do believe that three’s a charm.”

Councillor Stephen Holyday says he’s going to vote against the Transform Yonge plan. He calls this part of Yonge Street an “enormously important piece of infrastructure for motor vehicles because of its proximity to the highway.” Wants the bike lanes on side streets.

Holyday was implying there isn’t much improvement to sidewalk width in the Transform Yonge plan, but the numbers are significant in places.

Councillor James Pasternak introduces this motion. He says he wants Council to hold off on Transform Yonge until parallel streets Doris Avenue and Beecroft Road are extended.

As Council debates Yonge Street…

https://twitter.com/TPSOperations/status/1339683298394714113

Councillor John Filion on Pasternak’s motion: “So this appears to be the same poison pill you moved at committee that didn’t pass. Is there a reason why you would do that?”

This is getting in the weeds, but the problem with Pasternak’s motion for Transform Yonge fans is the “seek further direction” bit. That means staff would need to again come back to Council for approval on Transform Yonge following the road extensions.

Councillor Colle: “Cars are essential to the health and vitality of our city in North York, but so are pedestrians! So are cyclists! And we don’t want to move them off to the side streets. Keep them on the main streets. Our main streets…cannot just be a bypass to the highway.”

Mayor John Tory moves to make sure the Transform Yonge plan maximizes space for patios and trees, includes smart signal tech, and will have the parallel road extensions in place before it’s built. It’s official: after opposing this plan two years ago, the mayor is now in favour.

Tory hopes he’s not criticized for changing his mind on this. (And he shouldn’t be! Change is good!) He says Yonge street is Toronto’s main street but this stretch has become a bit “soulless” and “dangerous.” It needs transformation, he says.

Mayor says the Danforth transformation (w/ bike lanes and patios) this summer helped convinced him this Yonge Street plan is good. Says he got emails about how “the city looked better and felt better” because of that Danforth project.

Councillor Pasternak’s motion to just extend the parallel streets and come back to Council for direction on Transform Yonge later FAILS 4-18.

Tory’s motion carries on a show of hands.

And the Transform Yonge plan CARRIES 18-5.

That’s a hell of a reversal in just a couple of years. In 2018, @thekeenanwire wrote about how Councillor Joe Cressy had to move a surprise deferral motion to keep hope for Transform Yonge alive.

Turned out to be a real smart move, given today’s vote. thestar.com/opinion/star-c…

Council just did a re-do on the Ernst & Young vote. For posterity: the vote result is now 18-4.

We’ve got 16 items left on the agenda, including an emergency housing report and a Scarborough Subway debate. Will this meeting finish today? Reply hazy. Ask again later.

On Transform Yonge, it’s probably important to risk being a mood-killer and point out we’re a long way from construction. Phasing means it won’t start until 2026. The waiting is the hardest part.

Looks like Council will indeed come back tomorrow to finish this agenda. Their rules for Friday meetings say they need to finish well before sundown for religious observance reasons, so I think they’ll need to be wrapped up by 3:30 or so. Dark days.

Councillor Pasternak moves to finish the agenda tonight. Nunziata doesn’t like the idea. Council votes to REJECT the motion, 8-16. Tomorrow it’ll be.

And that’ll do it. Back at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow to knock off the nine items left on this agenda. This thread will continue.

Day three of this Council meeting is about to start. Streaming here:

Whoa. They just did a quick vote on Matlow’s Scarborough subway item, with zero debate.

Motion to ask the province to go back to the Scarborough LRT plan FAILS 8-15.

Doing an immediate vote with zero debate seemed to be the game plan for dealing with Matlow’s Scarborough LRT motion yesterday. Nunziata and Pasternak seemed put off when Bradford held it. Bradford was the one to call for a quick vote today.

With that out of the way, Council is now debating an item about the RentSafeTO program regulating landlords. Staff have developed a plan for requiring buildings to post green/yellow/red signs with results from inspections, like restaurants do.

88% of tenants in RentSafeTO buildings think this rating system idea is good. Only 37% of landlords think it is good.

Constructive and important feedback: the shade of red they’ve picked for the draft version of the low-score RentSafeTO sign isn’t good. Should be darker.

The angle landlords are using to push back on this is that there could be a stigma for tenants who live in buildings that get a red (bad) sign posted out front.

More feedback from landlords: why is the best score “good”? Why are there no “very good” or “excellent” signs?

More from the Federation of Rental Housing Providers of Ontario, a landlord lobby group: “Our limited research has concluded that the City’s recommended colour-coding system is considered by some to be racist in nature.” They also express concerns about children getting bullied.

Councillor Stephen Holyday says he can’t support the colour-coded sign system. He says a red sign outside would be “humiliating” for tenants.

Long list of tweaks from Councillor Josh Matlow, a long-time advocate for the RentSafeTO system. It includes changing the colour scheme from green/light green/yellow/red to green/yellow/orange/red. He doesn’t like the idea of two shades of green.

https://twitter.com/TorontoCouncil/status/1339956164252086274

Councillor Gord Perks moves to scrap the colour-coded system and instead require landlords to inform all current & future tenants of their inspection score.

“I don’t think posting a sign on a building changes the power dynamic between people who own property and people who rent a place to live,” says Perks. He wants to see council increase $$$ for the tenant defence fund that gives tenants more ability to push back against landlords.

The Perks motion to scrap the colour-code signage system and instead require landlords to disclose their ratings to tenants CARRIES 16-4.

Six items left. Now up: emergency housing.

Staff have come up with a way to secure an additional 510 affordable housing units in next 10-12 weeks, but don’t have operating funds. Provincial/federal $$$ needed. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

Councillor Ana Bailao moves the staff recommendations for emergency housing, which asks fed/prov for operating funds for the 510 units over next 10-12 weeks.

We’re also expecting a motion from some councillors to ask the federal gov to expropriate vacant units for housing.

And here’s the expropriation motion from Councillor Gord Perks. Requests use of the Federal Emergencies Act to expropriate vacant hotel rooms and apartment units.

Perks says there are more than 1,000 vacant hotel rooms in Toronto these days. City Hall could create a list, get concurrence from Ford gov, then Trudeau’s cabinet could act next week to issue approvals. Start housing people early 2021.

Asked by Councillor Paul Ainslie if he thinks it’s likely the provincial and federal govs will agree with expropriation, Perks says, “You can’t get their federal government or the provincial government to change their opinion on this if you don’t ask for it.”

Councillor Shelley Carroll says she was all prepared for Perks to move some kind of extreme motion, but it’s actually super reasonable. It asks staff to continue efforts to house everybody, and for the feds/prov to use all available tools to help Toronto reach that goal.

Tory is final speaker on emergency housing item. He says he won’t support the expropriation part of Perks’ motion. “We will simply get ourselves mired in a lengthy, unsatisfactory, non-production debate about this” with prov and feds, he says. Would rather focus on getting $$$.

Holyday wants the parts of this emergency housing report that relate to delegation of powers to staff and non-competitive emergency contracts, separated out for a standalone vote. Those parts CARRY 20-4.

The remainder of the staff recommendations on emergency housing also CARRY 24-0.

First part of Perks’ motion, which asks staff to continue working to find hotel and apartment units for people who need housing, CARRIES 22-1.

The second part of the Perks motion, which calls for the use of expropriation powers to secure emergency housing using vacant hotel and apartment units, FAILS 6-17.

Short lunch break today. Back at 1:10 p.m. to finish the remaining seven items. (Two were just added.)

Council is back. Major item left is Councillor Wong-Tam’s request for a residential eviction moratorium. They’ll get to it shortly. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

The request for a provincial eviction moratorium CARRIES on a voice vote. Item also requests TCHC pause evictions. (Has TCHC evicted anybody during the pandemic? That seems like it’d be a good thing to know.)

The last vote is whether to accept the new TTC funds coming for COVID relief. As you’d expect, everyone is all for it. It carries on a voice vote.

And that’ll do it. Council’s final meeting of 2020 is done. What a year it was. Councillor Paula Fletcher caps things off by telling the mayor she likes his Tik Tok.

Oh wait, one more thing. Mayor John Tory — you might know him from Tik Tok — offers a quick speech thanking Council. “I’m amazed at how well this system can work,” he says. “We’ve worked well in extraordinary circumstances.”

He wishes everyone a happy (and safe) holiday.

Next Council meeting is February 2. It’ll start at 6 a.m. with some Sonny & Cher and then feature a chance encounter with a man named Ned: Ned Ryerson.

Anyway, that concludes this thread. I’m able to do this kind of thing because people support my work with subscriptions to my @CityHallWatcher newsletter.

It’s 20% off for just a few more days! You can subscribe here: graphicmatt.substack.com/subscribe