It’s a B-Day on V-Day. Toronto Council meets today for a special Valentine’s budget meeting.

We’re expecting changes to Mayor Chow’s budget, including more suburban snow plowing and more police spending.

I will post things. It’s streaming live here: The big news is that Mayor Olivia Chow has indicated she’ll support a motion to put $12.6 million into the police budget, matching the board request. This is a pretty significant climbdown for the mayor, who had seemed pretty resolute. thestar.com/news/gta/mayor…

Council meets today! It’s a pre-budget appetizer of a meeting, with debates on noise, bus lanes and sledding. Yes, like tobogganing. It’s a magical world, ol’ buddy, let’s go exploring.

I’ll be posting things that happen.

The meeting live stream is here: I’ve got a full preview of the agenda in last Friday’s issue of the newsletter, complete with this cool archive photo.

Mayor Olivia Chow has set the RapidTO bus lane plan as her first key matter, so that should be up first, barring any changes.

toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/council-tobo…

Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster announces he CAN’T announce a new opening date for the Eglinton Crosstown. He says he has a good sense of the schedule, but builder Crosslinx still finding “issues and defects that require additional time” so he’s made choice not to offer a date. Wow. Metrolinx CEO says there will now be updates every two months on the progress of the Crosstown line. So maybe in two months we’ll get an opening date? Maybe! But maybe not! Schrödinger's LRT.

Toronto Council meets today! Their agenda includes yet another report telling them their financial situation is — surprise! — bad. Also Bike Share price hikes, SmartTrack, docking Matlow’s pay & more.

Streaming live here. I will post things. For a preview of some of the highlights on the agenda, this week’s @CityHallWatcher has you covered, and it is FREE. toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/chw220

Toronto Council meets today! We’ve got a really Schrödinger's Mayor situation here — will John Tory stay or will he go? Will he be the mayor or an uncanny ex-mayor?

Also: a budget debate! The meeting is streaming here. I’ll tweet. We’ve now got a strong indication that Tory will actively participate in this debate. He’s marked the vote to lock in the tax rate as his first “key matter”, meaning it will be debated BEFORE council votes on any amendments to programs and services.

Toronto Council meets today! Consider this an appetizer of a meeting before next week’s budgetary main course.

The mayor has set his request for a report on revenue tools as the first item, followed by CafeTO.

Streaming live here. I’ll be tweeting. For a preview of the meeting, including a look at items related to 24/7 warming centres and updated Gardiner costs, I’ve got you covered with this week’s @cityhallwatcher. toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/chw213

The City of Toronto’s budget has launched! Some observations from the meeting and presentation — linked here — will be in this thread. toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2… (PDF) Right near the top, here’s my big question answered. The 2023 budget includes a whopping $933 million in assumed support from the provincial and federal governments. The city is also still looking for $484 million to go toward the 2022 shortfall.

City Council meets today! We’ve got two main events: Mayor John Tory’s new housing plan, and Mayor John Tory’s strong mayor powers. Feistiness is assured.

It’s streaming live here. I will compose tweets about it, in a very long thread, starting…. now.

Tory’s housing strategy — including the legalization of rooming houses — has been designated to go first. Matlow has held the strong mayor power item for debate, so that’ll come sometime after.

I previewed the agenda for @CityHallWatcher: toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/chw205

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.

Mayor John Tory debates today! The Toronto Region Board of Trade is hosting the second of just two mayoral debates featuring our incumbent mayor.

The fine folks at @TVO are streaming it here. I’ll probably tweet some stuff about it in this thread. Excited to learn which of the five mayoral candidates participating will be bold enough to propose moving City Hall to the waterfront as foretold in this pre-debate graphic.

Toronto Council meets today! What better way to spend a hot July day. It’s municipal government in action. Or perhaps municipal government inaction. Either way, I’m live tweeting it and you can’t stop me.

The meeting will stream live here shortly: I previewed this meeting — and its giant agenda — in this week’s issue of @CityHallWatcher. I focused on the budgetary parts. But don’t worry — there will also be a debate about leaf blowers. And cats. The animal, not the musical. toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/chw184

Toronto council meets today! It’s the penultimate regularly-scheduled meeting of this term. (I never miss a chance to use the word “penultimate.”)

It’s streaming live here. I will tweet observations, jokes and whatnot. Things get started around 9:30 a.m. The mayor gets to decide what items come up for debate first by designating two key matters. And so council will tackle the Open Door affordable housing program off the top, followed by a transit item related to the Eg East LRT and the Waterfront East LRT. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/decision…

Toronto Council meets today! Mayor John Tory has made the intergovernmental housing update his first key item, so that’ll be up for debate first, followed by a report on the work of the city’s plan to confront anti-Black racism.

Streaming live here: For a preview of some of the items up for debate at this meeting — internet, trees, booze, and more — you can check out this week’s issue of @CityHallWatcher. toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/chw174?s=w

Toronto Council meets today! Mayor John Tory has made Toronto’s Reconciliation Action Plan his first key matter, so it’ll be up first. A ModernTO report on repurposing eight city-owned properties will go second.

Streaming here. I’ll bring the tweets. If you’re looking for a rundown of Council agenda highlights, as luck would have it I provided just such a thing in this week’s issue of @CityHallWatcher. graphicmatt.substack.com/p/chw169?s=w

Toronto Council meets today! It’s the March Mini Meeting — a short agenda just to clear the decks on Planning & Housing Committee and Community Council items. They should be able to speed run this. I’ll be tweeting as they do.

You can watch live here: A new addition to the Council agenda: a report from Toronto Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa, recommending Council drop the city’s mask requirements as soon as the provincial government drops their mask requirements.

toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2… (PDF)

Upcoming motions on the city budget from Mayor Tory have been advance circulated. Motions make tweaks to the budget, including 300 more housing opportunities, funding for free menstrual/incontinence products in shelters, and immediate implementation of plan to nix library fines. Council, like Batman, has returned.

Toronto Council meets today! It’s a very special meeting to approve the 2022 budget. I’ll have tweets and jokes and commentary in this thread.

You can watch the livestream here: I previewed the budget in @CityHallWatcher this week, looking at how the budget has changed since 2019, the first year of this term. The pandemic made for some interesting shifts in spending — but a lot of it is temporary. graphicmatt.substack.com/p/chw162?r=moiu

Toronto Council meets today! The mayor has named inclusionary zoning his first key item, so it’s up for debate first, after the usual housekeeping. After that: the small biz tax break.

Streaming live on YouTube. I’ll tweet the highlights and lowlights. For a preview of the agenda, @neville_park has you covered with the latest TWATCH for @CityHallWatcher.

We’re expecting debates about road safety, pot shops, anti-vaxx protests, employment area zoning, the winter shelter plan and more. Also: trees.

graphicmatt.substack.com/p/twatch4

It’s officially budget season at city hall. Today the Budget Committee will get draft versions of the “rate-supported budgets” — for things paid for with user fees, and not (generally) taxes. That includes water, garbage and parking. Watch live here: First up: the water budget. Rates for residents — and all other users — are proposed to go up by 3% for 2022. Impact of about $29 per year for residents.

On average, you pay $2.68 a day for Toronto water. Pretty great deal, really. toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2… (PDF)

Let’s see if I remember how to do this.

Toronto Council meets today! It’s their first meeting since July, when it was so much warmer. You can stream it on YouTube, or just follow this thread in which I will summarize debates, recap votes and make jokes. Tory has designated two housing items as his key matters, so we can expect those to come up for debate first. One is about phase two of the Federal Rapid Housing Initiative, while the other is a new partnership with Miziwe Biik Development Corporation to build affordable rentals.

Toronto Council meets today. The first item up for debate will be a report from the City Manager about the shelter system during COVID-19. After that: it’s winter in June, with a debate about expanding sidewalk snow clearing.

Watch live here: I’ve got a full preview of this week’s Council agenda in the new issue of @CityHallWatcher, which also includes a new Lobbyist Watch starring garbage incineration lobbyists, Uber & Lyft lobbyists, Amazon lobbyists, and also many, many other lobbyists. graphicmatt.substack.com/p/chw126