A wooden building, a Quayside proposal, our solo city, and a troubling office market report
The Week at Toronto City Hall for July 8-12, also featuring notes on single-stair egress, a rat-fighting effort, and Scarborough speed bumps. Also: One Bloor lane closures, charted
Hey there! Hope you’re enjoying summer. Please enjoy this special bonus edition of City Hall Watcher to get you set for next week. — Matt Elliott
What Happened This Week
🚢 The General Government Committee learned via a supplemental report that the all-in cost of the two new electric Toronto Islands ferries is now $90.6 million. They’ll be built by Damen Shipbuilding in Romania, and then the ships will be shipped to Toronto.
The first is slated to arrive in Q4 2026, with the second in Q2 2027, but they’ve been delayed many times before, so don’t mark your calendars just yet. The names of the ferries are TBD—they’re currently referred to as Pax and RoPax.
Committee member Councillor Stephen Holyday is wondering if other costs are lurking behind the scenes related to this purchase. He passed a motion for a report to the next Council meeting “outlining the total life expectancy and lifecycle cost of the proposed ferry vessels including staffing, operations, fuel electricity, parts, maintenance, and other capital costs to both the vessels or shore-side.”
Later in the week, Councillor Paula Fletcher passed a motion at the Economic & Community Development Committee tagging on to the Council decision last week to request a report on a possible “fixed link” between the Islands and the port lands. She wants to include more stakeholders in the consultation about a potential bridge, including tour and cruise operators, the Toronto Industry Network and… Netflix Canada? With a big studio in the area, I guess they might have thoughts.
🐟 The General Government Committee also passed a Holyday motion referring to the Auditor General a report on the award of an emergency contract worth $9 million to the company building the St. Lawrence Market North. We’ll see if the AG finds anything fishy at the market.
🕵️ The Compliance Audit Committee opted against ordering an audit of the campaign of Councillor Parthi Kandavel. Applicant Ryo Nishibayashi laid out a detailed case, outlining some potential discrepancies related to fundraising events that looked like campaign events, Canada Post discounts, and missing receipts, but the committee was unconvinced.
The most intriguing bit from Nishibayashi’s presentation was a section detailing the provenance of attack ad flyers targeting two other candidates in the race, Kevin Rupasinghe and Suman Roy. No one has ever taken credit for the flyers distributed to thousands of households in the ward. But Nishibayashi uncovered a Kandavel campaign invoice making reference to rush printing orders for “K flyers” and “S flyers” and suggested a full campaign audit might be helpful to “resolve any doubts.” The Kandavel campaign denies any connection to the flyers.
The audit committee concluded there’s “insufficient evidence that the candidate was responsible for the ‘additional unattributed literature and distribution.’”
🐀 Beware, Ratatouille. The Infrastructure & Environment Committee passed a motion from Councillor Alejandra Bravo and Councillor Amber Morley calling for a rat reduction plan for Toronto. A report due in Q3 2025 will provide an “interdivisional action plan for the reduction of rats in Toronto.”
Monday, July 8
🩺 The Board of Health meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES: The Board will consider a report on how best to respond to wildfire smoke following last summer’s especially smoky season. Three Special Air Quality Statements were issued last year, lasting for a total of 12 days.
To prepare for a potential repeat, Toronto Public Health and the City have launched a Cleaner Air Spaces Network program — a list of spaces with high-quality (MERV13) air filtration where people can go to get away from the smoke. For this year, the list of sites includes City Hall, Metro Hall and all the civic centres.
AND ALSO:
The Board will consider their strategic plan for 2024-2028.
Tuesday, July 9
🌳 North York Community Council meets at North York Civic Centre at 9:30 a.m.NO TO NIPIGON: A proposal from developer Arkfield to build a 50-storey condo tower near Yonge & Steeles is recommended for refusal. Planning staff say it’s way too big for the area, but the site is located within a “protected major transit station area” as it’ll be located a block away from the coming Steeles subway station.
JUMPING THE QUEUE: The TTC is proposing the addition of dedicated red-painted “queue jump” bus lanes at two locations, at Wilson Avenue & Wilson Heights Boulevard and Steeles Avenue East & the 404. The lanes are intended to allow TTC buses to bypass points of congestion.
🩺 The Board of Health meets for a special meeting at City Hall at 1:30 p.m.The Board will receive part two of their training session on Anti-Black racism.
Previously, in City Hall Watcher
For paid subscribers of City Hall Watcher, this week’s issue has:
A full recap of the June meeting of Toronto Council, including a section of quotable quotes and the naming of a meeting MVP.
A special mini Council Scorecard looking at how councillors voted on the 2025-2027 Cycling Network Plan.
Next week:
It’s time for LOBBYIST WATCH — City Hall Watcher’s monthly rundown of lobbying activity at 100 Queen West.
Subscribe today for ad-free access to weekly subscriber-exclusive issues.
Wednesday, July 10
🌳 Toronto & East York Community Council meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.
SHIVER ME TIMBERS: The community council will consider official plan and zoning amendments to permit a 10-storey wood-be development on Dundas West. It’ll be the first “mass timber” building on a City-owned site. Yes, it’ll be made of wood. It’s currently a Green P parking lot. It’s slated to include 94 units, with 28 designated affordable units.
ARE YOU THE QUAY MASTER: In a proposal drawing considerably less controversy than the doomed plan by Sidewalk Labs, the community council will consider a proposal from developers Dream Unlimited and Great Gulf Group for the first two blocks of the Quayside development.
The proposal calls for three towers of 70, 64 and 55 storeys. That’ll add up to about 2,811 units, with 458 designated affordable rental. Building 1A, pictured at the left in orange in the render above, is notable for having a “distinctive curved podium.” Snazzy. Planning staff are recommending approval of the first two blocks. There will be further reporting on blocks three, four and five before those get the green light.
TEN YEARS OF ONE BLOOR: The developers of the troubled 86-storey project at Yonge & Bloor Street are asking for yet another lane closure. It’s the eighth request they’ve made to City Hall since 2017.
The City report still refers to Mizrahi Developments as the proponent but does note the project is in receivership. In anticipation of a new owner, staff are recommending the committee proactively grant transfer of the road occupancy permit.
🏆 The Bid Award Panel meets via videoconference at 2 p.m.CONTRACT AWARD OF THE WEEK: $514,680 for a plan to increase density around Glencairn Subway Station.
Thursday, July 11
🏘️ The Planning & Housing Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.HOT REPORT: A new edition of the Housing Occupancy Trends report is on the agenda and is always a great read, packed with interesting charts. I’ll have more on this in a future issue.
As an appetizer, here’s a chart showing how the city has changed since 2001. The fastest-growing cohorts are:
People living alone in condos and apartment buildings
Child-free couples living in condos and apartment buildings
Roommates living in condos and apartment buildings
The biggest decline is in the number of couples with children living in detached houses.
OFFICE RERUNS: A report on the city’s troubled office building market recommends the committee endorse a set of “proposed policy directions” as an interim step. If adopted, staff will do more analysis and propose a final set of recommendations this fall.
The most significant proposal is to relax the requirement for the downtown core, Yonge & Eglinton and other commercial areas that all redeveloped office space must be replaced. Instead of requiring a 100% replacement, the new policy would reduce the requirement to 25%. The rest of the space could then be used for “alternative uses” like affordable or supportive housing.
The change would be subject to an “on/off switch,” requiring planners to revisit the policy every four years. The 100% replacement policy could be restored if Toronto’s office market recovers.
That could take a while. The City’s analysis suggests that the supply of office space will outpace demand until 2034. Until then, it’s unlikely there will be a need for any new office space.
That’s not good news for the developers who have proposed projects containing 29 million square feet of office space in the downtown area alone. A consultant’s report notes that several redevelopment projects have already shifted their proposals to include more residential, citing examples at 111 St. Clair West (the Imperial Oil Building), 488 University Ave, 145 Wellington, and 69 Yonge Street.
AND ALSO:
The Chief Building Official has commissioned an analysis of whether the building code could be relaxed to allow four-storey buildings to have just one staircase for egress. They currently need at least two. This would allow for buildings to be constructed on smaller lots and could encourage more “missing middle” housing. The analysis by LMDG finds that a single-egress code change is feasible, provided that buildings can “demonstrate that the performance of the proposed building would be at least the same as a building with two exits, where both buildings have generally been designed to include the same fire protection and life safety features.” That could mean new requirements about building sprinklers, restrictions on the number of suites per floor, and stair width requirements. It’s ultimately a federal and provincial decision.
Planning staff recommend denying a request to convert 20 Rockcliffe Court from lands zoned for employment to zoning that permits residential units.
The planning division’s latest development review timeline metrics are looking pretty strong, with applications that fall under Bill 109 showing particular processing-time improvements.
Having conducted a series of consultations about the consultation process, a staff report recommends more consultations. I’m serious. This isn’t a bit.
Separate reports recommend moving forward with housing projects at 777 Victoria Park Avenue, 770 Don Mills Roads, and 931 Yonge Street.
Friday, July 12
🌳 Scarborough Community Council meets at Scarborough Civic Centre at 9:30 a.m.MY HUMPS: The Scarborough Community Council will contend with seven requests to install speed humps on local streets, including Watson Street, Atlee Avenue, Charlottetown Boulevard, Hill Crescent, Van Allan Road, Stevenvale Drive and Pegasus Trail.
The Week After Next
Etobicoke York Community Council meets on Monday, July 15.
Mayor Olivia Chow’s Executive Committee meets on Tuesday, July 16.
The Far-Flung Future
Council’s next meeting starts on Wednesday, July 24.
A by-election to fill the vacancy in Ward 15 - Don Valley West is scheduled for November 4. Nominations open on July 22.
Feedback? Tip? Email Matt Elliott. For advertising inquiries, email Sean Hansel.