Thread by @GraphicMatt

Toronto Council meets today! First item up on the agenda will be the approval of two new modular housing sites.

Also on the agenda: the PayIt digital payment deal, Scarborough transit and more.

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

This meeting is Council’s annual weirdo post-budget meeting, with an shortened agenda of just deferred items, Planning & Housing items, and community council stuff. It *should* go faster than a typical meeting, but will it? The future is unknowable.

If you want a preview of some agenda highlights, I had an overview in this week’s issue of @CityHallWatcher. It’s also got a whole lot of stuff about City Hall lobbyists. graphicmatt.substack.com/p/cold-blooded…

We start with Poet Laureate Al Moritz, reciting a poem he’s written about Toronto’s “plague year.” As you’d probably expect, it’s sad.

Mayor John Tory declares a conflict of interest on a zoning item for 2100-2110 Yonge Street, saying he has a financial interest in a nearby development at 2131 Yonge.

Without debate, Council votes unanimously to adopt an item about the revitalization plan for Dundas & Sherbourne. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

Council votes 23-1 to approve an all-way stop at the intersection of Hullmar Drive and Hisey Crescent in Ward 7. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

Full text of the poet laureate’s pandemic poem that opened today’s meeting:

https://twitter.com/TorontoCouncil/status/1369668940088160258

“You are more than the helpless universe.” Appreciating this @afmoritz poem even more on a re-read. toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2… (PDF)

Council votes unanimously to condemn the 2015 eviction of tenants at 1521 Queen West and oppose the zoning amendment application for the property at the LPAT. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

This is the former Queen’s Hotel site in Parkdale. Background here: toronto.com/news-story/981…

Mayor John Tory speaks on need for modular housing projects. “There’s an intimation made, by those who choose to make it, that these people have tendencies to violence or criminal behaviour…. they’re homeless people. They’re homeless PEOPLE. They are us.”

For a look at the kind of opposition the mayor refers to, here’s a letter from VP of Bayview Cummer Neighbourhood Association. “This project will deprive these seniors of their greenspace in the twilight years of their lives.” toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2… (PDF)

Responding to concerns that the East York modular project will take away an important community parking lot, Councillor Brad Bradford moves for a detailed analysis of on-street parking options.

Councillor Brad Bradford’s motion to review on-street parking options near the East York modular housing site CARRIES 22-0.

Council votes 21-1 to APPROVE in principle modular housing projects at 175 Cummer Avenue in Willowdale and Trenton/Cedarvale in East York.

Up now: another housing item. The United Church and CMHC have teamed up to propose a program that’d develop up to 500 affordable rental units across seven sites in Toronto over the next 5-7 years. Site locations TBD. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

City release points out that Council also just approved up to 971 affordable rentals through their Open Door program that provides incentives and streamlines development process. No one held the item for debate so it passed on consent. toronto.ca/news/council-u…

The location of Councillor Anthony Perruzza is a mystery. He has not logged in today. Speaker Frances Nunziata would like to move a couple of his items off the agenda, but Councillor Paula Fletcher objects, and thinks Council should keep holding ‘em until Perruzza shows up.

And now Council is on lunch until 2 p.m. There are 42 items left on the agenda. The mayor says he’d like to see the meeting finish today. A race against time!

Council’s back. Councillor Shelley Carroll moves to withdraw her motion re: 24/7 vaccinations, because she’s satisfied that Public Health and the City have solid plans for round-the-clock vaccinations once supply is available. Good!

Three items related to 7-11 locations that have applied for liquor licenses are adopted unanimously by Council. They all ask for the AGCO to refrain from issuing booze permission to 7-11 until the City gets a chance to weigh in and potentially add conditions to the licenses.

The mayor’s item expressing Council support for the local news media CARRIES via a show of hands. Aww, thanks.

Council votes 20-3 to add Councillor Mike Layton’s motion opposing Highway 413 to the agenda. Holyday holds the item for debate. They’ll come back to it.

Having dispensed with a bunch of member motions and some quick release items, there are now just 14 items left on this Council agenda. They’ve returned to the United Church / CMHC housing item, which should get approved shortly.

…but the mayor isn’t back from his 2 p.m. COVID presser yet, so Council opts to hold off on voting for the United Church housing item until Tory can vote. While we wait, Council will discuss Councillor Wong-Tam’s motion to stop City advertising in the Corriere Canadese newspaper

Some background on the Corriere Canadese newspaper controversy: globalnews.ca/news/7687420/t…

Speaking about this Corriere Canadese issue, Councillor James Pasternak goes way back and brings up Queers Against Israeli Apartheid marching in the Pride parade. He says back then city staff “hid behind the charter” when explaining why city could’t force QuAIA out of the parade.

Some background on *that* issue, if you yearn to travel back in time to 2012: thestar.com/news/gta/2012/…

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam moves to let all media vendors know that they’ll be asked to sign a declaration affirming they’ll comply with the city’s human rights and anti-discrimination policy if they want city advertising dollars.

A supplementary report on this issue also lays out a new ten-step process for how the city will deal with complaints about content in publications receiving city advertising dollars. toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2… (PDF)

Wong-Tam’s motion to let all media vendors know they’ll need to sign the city’s anti-discrimination policy to get city advertising dollars CARRIES 24-0.

The United Church / CMHC housing program gets Council’s endorsement, 23-0.

Up now: the @payitgov saga continues. After unsolicited bid almost resulted in a controversial sole source contract last summer, staff have now conducted a “Swiss Challenge” receiving bids from other digital payment companies. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

A Swiss Challenge, as I understand it, is when a contract is awarded based on who’s the best at a combination of cross-country skiing and target shooting.

But that could be wrong! Do your own research. Anyway, having conducted a Swiss Challenge, staff say the PayIt bid remains the best. Council isn’t being asked to approve a deal today — report just informs councillors that staff are negotiating a deal. Final approval in April.

Councillor Paula Fletcher asks if Council will be able to potentially reject PayIt when the report with a negotiated deal comes back in April. Staff say yes. Fletcher asks if they’ll be able to reject the deal without getting sued. Staff say yes, but with a bit of hedging.

Councillor Paul Ainslie moves for the CTO to do consultation on building/procuring digital infrastructure, and report back in Q2.

Councillor Shelley Carroll moves to ask the Auditor General to review the Toronto Office of Partnerships, and for the City Manager to report on how staff are responding to unsolicited proposals.

Ainslie’s motion carries via a show of hands. So does Carroll’s motion. Next and final step: a report on a negotiated deal with PayIt that’ll be subject to Council approval, likely in April.

Up now: Scarborough transit. Maybe you’ve heard of it? Councillor Matlow has a motion calling for a report on options for managing the coming SRT shutdown, including potential for BRT and reverting to LRT plan. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

Feel like this’ll be one of those items where councillors will need to be reminded that this is a report request. If they’ve got questions, the answer will probably come in the report!

This is interesting: Derrick Toigo, executive director of Toronto’s Transit Expansion Office, says the city is actually prohibited from looking at the Scarborough LRT option because of the provincial legislation that uploaded transit responsibility.

City Solicitor Wendy Walberg explains Toronto is legally prohibited from working on any projects that are “substantially similar” to the Scarborough subway. (Same with other projects uploaded to the provincial government.)

“It’s asking for a frigging report,” says Matlow, explaining his Scarborough transit motion. “It’s asking for information!” He just wants to know if the Scarborough LRT might be a better/quicker/cheaper option. Thinks that’d be good to know.

“Whether we like it or not, the City does not have control over the construction of new rapid transit lines — the province does,” says TTC chair Jaye Robinson. She says the upload resulted in a lot of delays to transit projects, including the Scarborough subway.

I suppose it was inevitable that members of council who have backed the Scarborough subway for years would end up blaming the provincial government for the SRT shutting down before the subway opens. “It would have worked, if not for that meddling Ford” etc.

Councillor Michael Thompson moves to amend Matlow’s motion to direct the report through the TTC, and not include any analysis of the LRT — BRT only.

It’s coming up on 6 p.m., so Council needs to decide whether they’re going to try to finish this agenda tonight, or call it a night and come back tomorrow.

Councillor Carroll moves to come back tomorrow. That FAILS 5-19.

So: this meeting will continue until the agenda ends.

Councillor Paul Ainslie says Council has never really had access to accurate information on the Scarborough subway, so Matlow’s motion makes sense. He doubts Scarborough Subway will open by 2030, and points out there’s still no committed federal money. Clarity needed.

After a 30 minute break to give staff time to get dinner, Council is back to ride this agenda out. Nine items left. First order of business is to continue debating Scarborough transit.

“An honest and transparent administration would take this moment to admit they’ve made a mistake,” says Councillor Gord Perks, calling for Scarborough Subway boosters to acknowledge they goofed on this one.

Perks: “If you’re sitting in your car, and the streets are too congested, that’s because we don’t offer enough transit service but instead get paper promises that someday magically some beans will sprout a subway somewhere in Scarborough. It’s time to STOP.”

“This is your moment,” says Perks, urging councillors to support the Matlow motion on Scarborough transit and to take accountability for their past subway support. “Do something good for the city for a change.”

Scarborough rep Councillor Cynthia Lai says Toronto Council, on Scarborough transit, looks a lot like… NATO? “All talk, no action,” she explains. Okay, sure.

Lai says she used to be a subway champion, but at this point she’d accept any transit for Scarborough. Wants to use the SRT corridor for improved transit while riders wait for the subway.

Nunziata says it’s frustrating Council keeps debating this. “As long as we keep debating it, nothing is going to get built.”

Matlow responds on a point of privilege, arguing none of the LRT supporters have ever delayed Scarborough transit. It’s true, but Nunziata isn’t having it. “It’s time you started telling the truth as well,” she says to Matlow. That prompts about a dozen objections from colleagues

Carroll wants Nunziata to withdraw her comment that LRT boosters resulted in Scarborough transit delays, because it’s not true. (It’s definitely not true.) Nunziata at first refuses, but eventually relents.

Mayor John Tory closes off the debate. “I would say with respect to the subway versus LRT notion, that decision has been made.” He says any further analysis of the LRT option is not a good use of time. Time to move on.

Council presses pause on the Scarb transit debate, because TTC chair Robinson is speaking at a TTC employee event and asked Council to wait for her. In the meantime, Deputy Mayor Minnan-Wong has concerns about a McKelvie motion supporting a phase out of gas-fired generators.

Many people have written to Council about this motion to support the phase-out of gas-fired electricity generators, even though it’s really just a request to the province. Here’s a letter from one-time mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi, supporting gas: toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2… (PDF)

Old school city hall watchers will remember Rocco Rossi’s very real and actual 2010 campaign posters. What a time to be alive. thestar.com/news/city_hall…

Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong says this motion supporting a phase-out of gas-fired generators is a “virtue signal.” He moves to amend the motion so the phase-out balances “the cost to taxpayers” etc.

Councillor Stephen Holyday also not a big fan of the gas-fired phase-out motion. He shows off a screenshot of the Ontario energy mix, saying gas is important for times when wind and other renewables aren’t contributing.

Holyday’s explanation of energy supply included a serious digression where he explained that nuclear power generation is nothing like as depicted on The Simpsons.

McKelvie, who brought the gas-fired phase-out motion (seconded by Layton) points out her motion is literally just a request, and that a bunch of municipalities have passed similar motions. I don’t think she expected this kind of push-back from Minnan-Wong and Holyday.

7:54 p.m. Chaos reigns. The audio has developed a super annoying echo. Councillor Mike Layton just accused people supporting gas-fired power of “living in the past” which has resulted in objections. But the echo is the real problem.

“Madame Speaker, we’re finally an echo chamber,” cracks Deputy Mayor Minnan-Wong. I must begrudgingly award him points.

Holyday asks Layton to apologize. Layton says he won’t retract his comments about Holyday and Minnan-Wong being “two old guys watching the world changing.”

Nunziata asks Layton to withdraw the comments, noting she withdrew her comments earlier after Carroll objected. “You called somebody a liar!” points out Layton. Tory jumps in to back Nunziata and call for Layton to withdraw.

Tory calls for Council to finish this agenda by 9 p.m., calling Council’s inability to do so a “stain on all of us.”

Layton withdraws his “old men” comment. But he’d really just like Council to adopt this motion which, again, is just a request to the provincial government to phase-out gas-fired plants as soon as possible.

Minnan-Wong’s amendment to make sure any phase out of gas plants takes into consideration the cost to taxpayers etc CARRIES 13-10.

The second part of Minnan-Wong’s amendment, requesting reports on how much gas-fire electricity is used and produced in Toronto and other reports, FAILS 4-19.

And the request to phase out gas-fired plants, as amended by Minnan-Wong, CARRIES 21-2.

Back to Scarborough transit. Councillor Michael Thompson’s amendment to Matlow’s motion, making it so the report on SRT replacement options will NOT consider the LRT, CARRIES 15-7.

Request for a report on BRT options for temporarily replacing the SRT CARRIES 18-4. But Bradford voted incorrectly, so we’re redoing this. Colle says his screen is stuck on the gas motion. “We’ve all got gas,” someone says. The fart joke hour has begun.

On a re-vote, motion for a report on BRT options to temporarily replace the SRT while the subway gets built (or not!) CARRIES 21-1.

Nunziata threatens to defer the rest of the agenda to April if they can’t get done by 9 p.m. Fletcher asks why. “Because you fucking can’t get your shit done,” says a mysterious voice. The person quickly apologizes. We move on. It’s late.

Seven items left. On an item about Airbnb and short-term rental enforcement, Councillor Wong-Tam moves to ask the province to amend legislation re: combatting human trafficking to include some stuff about short-term rental operators.

Airbnb item carries via a show of hands. Six left. Up now: Councillor Jaye Robinson opposes a 29-storey proposal connected to York Mills subway station. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

The attached letter from the Upper Avenue Community Association does not waste words. toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2… (PDF)

Correction: I said 29 storeys. It’s actually two towers: one 21 storeys and one 35 storeys. Here’s a render of the massing for the 4050 Yonge proposal. Robinson calls it “egregious.”

Council votes via show of hands to oppose the application for 4050 Yonge at the LPAT.

In the background, the sound of what I think is ice in a glass, being stirred. It’s 8:54 p.m. and Toronto Council continues.

Up now: Councillor Layton’s motion for Council to oppose Highway 413. Councillor Stephen Holyday has a map showing the route. He supports the highway, he says, because it’ll divert traffic around Toronto.

Holyday dismisses the notion of induced demand, saying that’s like a belief that building a new hospital will make more sick people.

Councillor Mike Colle opposes Highway 413. “It’s like viagra for sprawl,” he says.

Motion to oppose Highway 413 is ADOPTED by Toronto Council, 19-1.

Up now: the most important issue of the day. This Toronto website wrongly lists a Corktown dog park as being in East York. Councillor Paula Fletcher wants to know how this happened. She is concerned it’s because of Google. toronto.ca/data/parks/prd…

“I’m asking if your staff use Google to determine where those locations are?” Fletcher asks staff. Staffer says they do not use Google, but have an internal database of park locations. “But somehow… that says East York,” Fletcher counters.

Some of my favourite East York parks.

Fletcher moves for a report to come back in December verifying that all park locations on the city website are correctly labelled.

Councillor Jaye Robinson moves to clearly delineate all the old Metro boundaries for East York and North York.

All the motions on the map item carry unanimously. We can all rest a little bit easier tonight.

One item left. It’s Councillor Cynthia Lai’s motion asking the provincial government to stop allowing cannabis stores to open in malls.

Reasons Lai is requesting the restriction: “Shopping centres and malls are where many youth congregate. Families also visit with children. One proposed cannabis retail location was near a food court where students meet after school.” app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

A cautionary tale, I guess.

Councillor Gord Perks says he’s going to oppose this Lai motion. “I just refuse to participate in the moral panic around marijuana.” He does say he would have preferred a government-operated system for pot shops, though.

Council votes 16-5 to ADOPT request to provincial government to stop approving cannabis stores in malls.

Looks like we made it. That concludes the March meeting of Toronto Council. What a journey. What an arc.

If you enjoyed this coverage and would like to support the stuff I do, I’d love it if you subscribed to @CityHallWatcher - my weekly newsletter. graphicmatt.substack.com