Thread by @GraphicMatt

It’s 2 p.m. and you know what that means: it’s time to watch a game with long stretches where nothing much happens punctuated by short bursts of tremendous excitement.

That’s right: Toronto Council is back.

Streaming live here. I’ll be tweeting.

To mark the occasion, the City Clerk has brought out the fancy font and Toronto’s weird coat of arms which features either a very large beaver or a very small bear. It depends on how you look at it.

I previewed the agenda for this week’s meeting in @cityhallwatcher. In short, today’s session will be mostly the pomp and ceremony stuff. The real items on the agenda will be discussed tomorrow at noon. toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/chw202

The audience is asked to silence their cellphones for the grand parade of councillors and the mayor. They enter down the stairs, participating in a smudging ceremony before taking their place in the chamber.

Tory enters last. Looks like a full house in the chamber, with no one attending virtually. I don’t believe all of City Council has been in one room like this since early 2020. (Maybe earlier, if you account for medical leave, vacancies, etc.)

Indigenous elders Garry & Tina Sault kick us off. Garry encourages councillors to hear and speak good words. Tina blesses the waters. (The mayor will sit in the Chair until a speaker — almost certainly Councillor Frances Nunziata — is elected.)

City Clerk John Elvidge brings in the Claude Watson for the Arts school choir to sing the national anthem. The kids crush it.

Mayor John Tory takes the declaration of office for the third time. “I will disclose any pecuniary interest — direct or indirect — in accordance with the municipal conflict of interest act,” Tory says, as part of it.

Before Mayor John Tory can accept the chain of office, however, Councillor Josh Matlow rises on a point of privilege.

“You impugned the privilege of this assembly,” he says to Tory, “by requesting to Premier Ford to provide you undemocratic, minority-rule powers.”

Matlow demands Tory bring the matter of stronger mayor powers to the Council agenda, and rescind his request to the premier for more powers.

Tory says a report will be coming to council in Dec about strong mayor powers. And he’ll be speaking about the powers in his speech today

With that, the chain of office is attached to the mayor.

“I know you don’t like this part,” whispers City Clerk John Elvidge to the mayor, loud enough that the microphone picks it up. “It’s only once every four years.”

Time for photos! The mayor and his goofy chain hand a framed plaque to all councillors. Here’s new councillor Amber Morley, with a sporting scarf.

A first bump between the mayor and Councillor Gord Perks.

After a bunch of elections where she came just a bit short of the votes she needed, Alejandra Bravo takes public office, officially. Tory and her can commiserate about it taking a few tries to finally win one.

The photo of Matlow and Tory is, as you’d expect, a bit awkward.

Oh! Spoke too soon about it being a full house in the chamber. Councillor Jon Burnside isn’t here, and will accept his declaration of office later.

Full text explanation for why the photo op with Matlow and Tory got awkward.

https://twitter.com/BenSpurr/status/1595502302114287619

Ward 25’s Councillor Jennifer McKelvie — Tory’s new deputy mayor — is the last up for the photos.

My amateur applause-o-meter suggests the biggest cheering sections today belong to Councillor Ausma Mailk, Councillor James Pasternak, Councillor Jamaal Myers and Councillor Jennifer McKelvie.

In his inaugural speech, Mayor John Tory notes the city has some challenges in front of it. To solve those challenges, he says he is “committed to working with every single member of city council who is willing to work with me to get things done.”

Tory says voters sent him there to “get things done”, pointing to housing and transit — including waterfront LRT and Eglinton East LRT.

“We’re going to focus on the nuts & bolts services that people rely on every single day,” says the mayor. “On that front, we can do better, we will do better, and we must do better.”

“The lack of support for people experiencing mental illness or substance abuse issues is evident when you just walk down the street or ride public transit,” says Tory. He pledges “all possible action” by city, but says funding must come from province and feds — especially prov.

Tory turns to city hall’s giant budget crisis. He says the city “must not affordability worse” by imposing big tax increases. He says he’s still advocating for COVID budget bailouts from Trudeau and Ford, saying they both promised $$$ during recent prov/fed elections.

Tory calls the city’s budget crisis a “COVID hangover” which seems a bit simplistic. The problem with the city’s fiscal situation was always that it wasn’t sustainable enough to withstand a downturn or economic shock, like, say, a pandemic.

Tory says these budget crises point to the “profound need for stable, predictable funding — whether it comes directly from the other governments, or it comes from financing methods is enabled to implement.” He commits to discussions about changes to how big cities are financed.

Tory says the status quo for funding cities isn’t working, saying it dates back to a time when people mostly lived in small towns.

“This is the biggest city in the country, and this is the city whose success is imperative to the success of the rest of the country.”

“I know that we’ve tried this before, but it is time to try it again,” says Tory, of trying to broker a new deal for funding cities.

I wouldn’t say I’m optimistic, but I am glad to hear this.

“As a city, we must push back against this legislation,” says Tory, of Bill 23 — Doug Ford’s new housing bill. He points out it’ll wipe out $200 million in city revenues and won’t help deliver Toronto’s affordable housing plan.

He’s right! thestar.com/opinion/contri…

After laying out some big, existential challenges, Tory says he remains optimistic about Toronto’s future, pointing to the way the city came together to get through the pandemic.

Tory finally gets to the strong mayor powers. He says his approach over the last eight years won’t change. “I am the same person I was the day before the election.” He says he’ll continue to work with the council — “and those who want to work with me.”

“I will work with those who want to work with me” seems to be the key message from Tory. I guess the unspoken bit is that if only eight councillors want to work with him, he can pass bylaws anyway.

Tory says he’s committed to this being his last term, so this is “a fight against time” for housing and transit

“You will be able to see that my motives are pure because I am not seeking re-election … I am here to do it without any thought that I will be seeking office.”

Tory commits to using the “proactive veto” only on housing and transit issues of “city-wide importance” and that any use would come after a staff report. He also says he will try first to “forge a consensus” on council before any use of passing things with just one-third support.

Tory concludes by saying it’s time to get to work. He gets a standing ovation from most, but not all, councillors in attendance.

Now it is time to elect a Speaker and Deputy Speaker. Councillor Jennifer McKelvie nominates long-time speaker Councillor Frances Nunziata to continue to serve. There are no other nominations.

Councillor Nunziata is declared speaker on a 25-1 vote. Councillor Josh Matlow votes against.

“Members of Council, let’s work hard for the next four years — and, please, let’s try to respect each other,” says the reelected speaker.

Councillor Shelley Carroll, who served as deputy speaker last term, nominates Councillor Stephen Holyday for deputy speaker. It’s a largely ceremonial role since Nunziata doesn’t yield the chair often.

Vote to make Holyday deputy is unanimous, 26-0.

“I don’t think I can get used to sitting up here — and certainly this chain, I tell you, you get a crink in your neck from wearing it,” says Tory, who will yield the chair to Nunziata tomorrow. (The chain will presumably go in a display case in his office.)

And that’ll be that for today. The Striking Committee will meet at 9:30 a.m. to come up with a slate of recommended appointments. Council will reconvene at noon to consider those appointments and other biz.

I’ll be back here then to keep this thread going.

While Council was on break, we learned about the mayor’s plans for appointments.

Here’s a look at Mayor John Tory’s new Executive Committee and other key roles, compared to the previous term. datawrapper.dwcdn.net/1fn6K/1/

Eagle-eyed city hall watchers will note the “General Government & Licensing Committee” from last term has seemingly been renamed the “General Government Committee.”

Not sure where that’ll put licensing issues like, for example, stuff related to Uber and taxis. Executive?

Another change: Budget Chief Gary Crawford is seemingly no longer a member of the Executive Committee.

I’d guess this is because of changes to the budget process brought about by the strong mayor legislation.

Another new process change, coming out of the strong mayor powers: the mayor is now directly appointing both the chair AND vice chair of the standing committees. Compare new report (left) with last term (right). Previously just had power to name chair.

This stuff seems minor, but it could matter a lot. Standing committees were made a lot smaller after the council cut — just six members. Power to directly appoint chair and vice-chair effectively gives a mayor two solid votes by default on every committee.

If you want to read more about the ongoing mysteries of Version 1 and Version 2 of Tory’s strong mayor powers, @QueensParkToday and I had a chat about the subject earlier this week.

https://twitter.com/QueensParkToday/status/1595820995864051712

Another significant change. Council’s previous budget process allowed time for public deputations at meetings held across the city. Seems unlikely they will be able to cram all that into two weeks.

https://twitter.com/BenSpurr/status/1595823653865897984

Council is back for day two. Things start with Mayor John Tory paying tribute to Councillor Cynthia Lai, who died just before election day.

Streaming live here:

“We are thankful for her service. We are thankful for her warmth and for her kindness. And we will never forget her. And may she rest in peace with the love and respect of a very grateful city,” says Tory in tribute to Lai.

Things get rolling with petitions. Councillor Gord Perks has a petition signed by 749 Parkdale-High Park residents opposing change that would let Tory pass stuff without a majority vote. “Taking power away from our local representatives takes power away from residents.”

Councillor Fletcher has 674 petition signers from Toronto-Danforth also opposing the new mayor powers. Councillor Morley has 366 from Etobicoke-Lakeshore. Councillor Malik has another 500ish from Spadina-Fort York. Matlow has 422 from Toronto-St Paul’s.

Councillor Lily Cheng kicks in 107 petitions from Willowdale and 500 more from across North York, also opposing the mayor’s super-duper-veto.

This thing seems kind of unpopular.

Councillor Bravo has 850 petition signers from Davenport opposing the veto powers. Councillor Chris Moise has 404 found from Toronto Centre residents.

In a nice directorial flourish, the council camera cuts to the mayor for a reaction shot as all this is happening.

Councillor Jamaal Myers has 308 anti-super-veto petition signers from across Scarborough. Councillor Brad Bradford has 370 from Beaches-East York, though he doesn’t read the text of the petition like some other councillors. Councillor Dianne Saxe has 631 from University-Rosedale.

Council moves on to the appointment of various people to committees, boards and agencies. Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie moves a tweak — putting Councillor Vince Crisanti as the mayor’s rep on the Seniors’ Housing Corporation, instead of Pasternak. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

And with that, the slate of appointments as recommended by the Striking Committee CARRIES on a show of hands. No opposition.

Council votes 25-0 in favour of designating this church at 415 Broadview as a heritage property.

Speeding right along, there’s only one item left on the agenda: a report from city staff pointing out all the ways Bill 23, the Ford gov’s new housing bill, will undermine Toronto’s affordable housing plan. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

“It is concerning that it appears to be taking us in some directions — not all, but some directions — that are counter to the many efforts of this city council over the last many years,” says Chief Planner Gregg Lintern of Bill 23.

Councillor Robinson asks if the changes in the housing bill mean “growth pays for growth” as a concept is no longer true. Staff say growth has never really paid for 100% of growth, but changes widen the gap, and will mean either increases to taxes or service funding reductions.

Opposition to this bill has forged an awkward alliance between outright NIMBYs and people who really just don’t want to see affordable housing plans gutted. Province should have anticipated this by offering new funding stream for building and operating supportive/affordable homes

Councillor Josh Matlow asks about the bill potentially making changes to Toronto’s rental replacement policy. Chief Planner says specific changes haven’t been proposed as of yet, but the city is definitely concerned about it.

Councillor Josh Matlow asks a question about Bill 39 — the stronger mayor legislation. Nunziata says Bill 39 isn’t up for discussion today so councillors can’t ask questions or talk about it. Councillor Gord Perks challenges that ruling, so councillors will vote on it.

Vote to uphold Speaker Nunziata’s ruling that Bill 39 — the strong mayor super-veto legislation — shouldn’t be a topic of discussion today CARRIES 13-12! Wow.

A really good indication of who’s firmly on Team Tory with that vote result. Councillor Dianne Saxe’s vote stands out. Her predecessor in University-Rosedale would have been a strong no vote.

Housing Secretariat Executive Director Abi Bond says it would be “virtually impossible” for displaced tenants to find rentals at comparable rent if the city’s rental replacement policy were eliminated. In many cases they’d have to leave Toronto or become homeless.

Quick update on this: Deputy Mayor McKelvie tells me Budget Chief Gary Crawford will be on the Executive Committee.

This term, Tory’s executive has been expanded — there will now be nine members.

https://twitter.com/GraphicMatt/status/1595819116245397504

The City page created to list occasions where Tory uses new strong mayor powers has been updated to list his first two feats of strength: appointment of chairs and vice chairs, and setting the composition of committees, including the expanded executive. toronto.ca/city-governmen…

Meanwhile, Councillor Mike Colle asks why Toronto even has a planning department if Queen’s Park and the OLT are making all the decisions. Chief Planner Gregg Lintern says his division still approves a lot of development, through council.

“This is a very market-driven, supply-side strategy,” says Lintern re: Bill 23.
“Which certainly has its benefits in allowing a more permissive regulatory environment … but there’s no direct connection between those measures & savings passed to the consumer of that housing.”

Time for speakers on the Bill 23 item. Mayor John Tory moves a long motion, asking the Ford gov for several amendments, including preserving Green Standard, rental replacement and inclusionary zoning. Also asks for QP to provide funding or funding tools matching lost revenue.

Tory says Bill 23 is “taking money that otherwise would have come to us to pay for growth, and leaving it in the hands of developers — and leaving us with the bill for all the infrastructure and other things that have to be done to facilitate growth.”

“It’s just wrong in principle to offer these kinds of incentives to developers and use our money to do it,” says Tory. He notes he would have open to a provincial plan that lowered development charges and provided offsetting funds for munis, but province hasn’t offered that.

Tory says he thought the province shared Toronto’s commitment to affordability housing, but due to “the cancellation of the availability of funds for housing services, all of our programs — all of them — will be gutted.”

Councillor Alejandra Bravo moves to request the province make sure Toronto can still require the “green development standards checklist” as part of planning applications.

Councillor Bravo says Bill 23 and “the bill that must not be named” (Bill 39) are linked they both “diminish municipal voice just for the sake of provincial priorities.”

Councillor Perks on Bill 23: “What is your housing plan if it makes people homeless?” What are you trying to achieve?”

“Literally, this bill puts money into the hands of very specific individual property owners — some of whom are well-known donors to the Conservative Party.”

Councillor Paula Fletcher moves to request the Ford gov postpone enacting regulations for Bill 23 related to rental replacement.

Councillor Mike Colle has a trolly motion, moving for a report on whether the City of Toronto still needs a planning department.

Colle takes aim at Minister of Muni Affairs Steve Clark. “The former mayor of Brockville where there’s only one building over two storeys — if he wants to talk about density, and talk about intensification, why not build a second building over two storeys in Brockville?!”

Councillor Ausma Malik has a motion. She wants the province to make sure the definition of “Affordable Housing” in Bill 23 matches the city’s definition. (Currently the province’s definition does not really approach affordability.)

Councillor Stephen Holyday has a trio of motions.

- a report on “guiding policies” for TLAB appeals
- enhanced reporting in planning reports on financial impacts caused by Bill 23
- public info campaign about the impacts of Bill 23.

Holyday says there’s a “housing mania — more, more, more!” but “who’s going to pay for it?”

Also: “Not everybody wants to see the increased density — many people like the city the way that it is.”

Councillor Anthony Perruzza moves to request that Bill 23 get rescinded altogether.

Councillor Anthony Perruzza is talking about the price of steel, the war in Ukraine, and China’s COVID policies shutting down the supply chain. “Ask the Apple people about phones!!!” His point is that economic conditions make it unlikely Ontario will achieve its housing goals.

Councillor Saxe moves to request the province not pass Bill 23, because “it will increase sprawl and damage livability, sustainability and affordability in the City of Toronto.” She knows the province “doesn’t really give a damn about what we have to say” but council must try.

Councillor Josh Matlow moves to have legal staff report on a legal strategy to challenge the potential removal of Toronto’s rental replacement policy by the Ford gov.

Matlow also moves for the province to rescind changes to the Greenbelt and retain existing roles for conservation authorities.

“This bill is about corruption and destruction” says Matlow. Also: “This bill is about helping Doug Ford’s friends. Let’s just say it plainly. At the expense of our watersheds, aquifers, wildlife corridors — and the last remaining green space and prime agricultural lands we have”

Councillor Brad Bradford, a former planner, says Bill 23 “could be one of the most damaging pieces of legislation to this city, our sustainability, our equity and our prosperity going forward.”

Bradford: “I’ve talked to a lot of people in the building community. I like the building community. I like people who build housing. But I’ve never once had a conversation with a builder who told me that our rental replacement policy is an impediment to building housing.”

Bradford says he’s also never heard anyone say Toronto’s green standard is a problem to moving development forward. “So where are these recommendations coming from? Who are they talking to?”

Bradford: “What’s been put on the table today kneecaps this city, kneecaps future generations, and it limits our ability to deliver the affordable housing that will be absolutely needed for our future success and prosperity as a city.”

His point made, Councillor Mike Colle withdraws his motion for a report about whether Toronto still needs a planning department.

Council opts to recess for five minutes so the Clerk can get all the motions in order before the vote.

So just to recap: no one on this council — the left, the right, the middle, the YIMBYs, the NIMBYs, the brains, the athletes, the basket cases, the princesses, the criminals — spoke in favour of Bill 23. Unanimous thumbs down.

Before the votes, however, Councillor Jamaal Myers moves to amend Holyday’s motion for a public info campaign, to make sure any communications also talk about impacts to the greenbelt, climate change, affordable housing, parks, etc.

Councillor Saxe withdraws her motion, I think because it’s substantially similar to the Perruzza motion. That carries. Now it is time to vote on what remains.

Mayor John Tory’s motion requesting the province amend Bill 23 to preserve the green standard, inclusionary zoning, etc. CARRIES 26-0. So does Bravo’s motion re: requesting the Ford gov keep the green development standards checklist.

Fletcher’s motion requesting the province postpone enacting regulations re: rental replacement also CARRIES 26-0.

Malik’s motion requesting province make sure their definition of “Affordable Housing” is the same as Toronto’s definition CARRIES 26-0.

Holyday’s motion to include “enhanced reporting” in city planning reports that lay out the fiscal impact for residents FAILS 5-21.

Perruzza’s motion requesting Bill 23 get withdrawn altogether — just shoot the darn thing into space — CARRIES via a show of hands.

Matlow’s motion for a report on a legal strategy to fight the potential elimination of Toronto’s rental replacement policy CARRIES 25-1.

Matlow’s motion to request the province rescind any changes to the greenbelt CARRIES 25-1.

Rest assured that any motion not specifically mentioned above also CARRIED via a show of hands.

The Bill 23 report with all these motions now included CARRIES 26-0. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

Before we go, Speaker Nunziata says the report coming to the December council meeting about the mayor’s super-veto power may include proposed changes to the council procedures bylaw. Those changes require advance notice. So Nunziata is giving that notice now.

On a point of order, Perks says it looks like Bill 39 will pass before council’s next meeting on Dec 14. Perks wants to have a special council meeting prior to that happening. He asks Tory if he’ll commit to that. Tory says he has zero information, but will check with staff.

Agenda complete.

Thanks for following this thread. If you enjoyed it and would like to support my work as a freelance city hall watcher, consider subscribing to @cityhallwatcher — there’s a deal on right now!

toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/200issue