Carney crowned, McKelvie moves on, robot cars rise, leaf blowers may get banned
The Week at Toronto City Hall for May 5 to 9, 2025, featuring a potential leaf blower ban, development fee increases, self-driving delivery vehicles, pedestrian streets and more
Hey there! A busy week at Toronto City Hall looms, so here’s a special bonus edition of City Hall Watcher, with a look at what’s on the calendar. I’ve got notes on changes to development application fees, self-driving cars, a new “Toronto Builds” program, a potential ban on some leaf blowers, and pedestrian streets. — Matt Elliott
What happened this week
🗳️ After a bunch of votes were counted, Prime Minister Mark Carney remained Prime Minister, with a minority government. Election night dragged on for a while, as the order in which ballots were counted made the result look closer and more dramatic than it was. I had popcorn.
Councillor Jennifer McKelvie will be heading to Ottawa after handily defeating talk radio host Greg Brady in the Ajax riding. That opens up a vacancy in Ward 25 (Scarborough - Rouge Park). Once McKelvie officially resigns, Council will have the option of either appointing a replacement or holding a by-election. They should absolutely opt for a by-election.
The Star’s Ben Spurr has already taken an early look at who the candidates might be to replace McKelvie, naming former councillor — and prolific candidate — Neethan Shan, school board trustee Anu Sriskandarajah, and business guy Shawn Allen. Sriskandarajah is married to Councillor Parthi Kandavel, so a successful campaign from her would, I believe, mark the first simultaneous spouse duo at City Hall since the days of Mayor Olivia Chow and the late Jack Layton.
In other federal election news relevant to City Hall: former councillor Karen Stintz was unsuccessful in her bid as a Conservative candidate in Eglinton-Lawrence. She lost to Liberal candidate Vince Gasparro, a former senior staffer to John Tory. Former Rob Ford staffer Isaac Ransom was unsuccessful in his bid in Oshawa.
🫥 This past Wednesday marked the due date for declarations for City Hall’s vacant home tax. Every indication is that this year has gone much better than last year, which was a total debacle. On April 28, a City news release said the declaration rate was 97.3%.
Monday, May 5
🩺 The Board of Health meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.BRINGING THE NOISE: After the matter was deferred last month, the Board of Health is expected to consider City Hall’s Noise Action Plan.
Advocacy group No More Noise Toronto has been organizing on the noise issue, resulting in dozens of residents submitting letters calling for Toronto Public Health to conduct an education campaign on the health impacts of noise and for City Hall to improve the process for reporting noisy stuff to 311, amongst other things.
LUNCH LAUNCH: The Board will also vote on awarding $31 million in grants for student food programs. That’s up from $19.1 million last year, part of Mayor Olivia Chow’s push to achieve a universal program. It’s expected this year’s funding will cover food programs for about 81% of public schools.
Tuesday, May 6
📉 The Economic & Community Development Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.COYOTE UGLY: Committee members will hear an update on City Hall’s efforts to peacefully co-exist with coyotes. The City has started deploying signs to areas where people might see the animals, but some people have criticized the “I am your Coyote Neighbour” language.
EASY BAKE OVEN: After it was held over at their last meeting, the committee will again debate a proposal to try to increase the use of the City’s ten outdoor ovens in parks. Staff are recommending dropping the booking fee to zero dollars, though bookers will still need to pay for insurance, and removing some of what they call “administrative burdens.”
Jutta Mason of the Centre for Local Research Into Public Space has written to the committee with some insightful comments. “The secret remedy,” Mason writes, is “breaking down the communication barrier that almost amounts to a firewall, between city staff and the friends of the individual ovens.” (Mason also says they tried to file an FOI to get data on how often the ovens had been used over the last 20 years and was quoted a $1,050 search fee. Ridiculous!)
AND ALSO:
Committee chair Councillor Alejandra Bravo is recommending a planned discussion of micro shelters get punted to July, so it can be part of a larger debate about shelter infrastructure. An interesting potential design for a micro shelter community is included as an attachment.
If you’re curious about how the City distributed millions of dollars worth of cultural grant funding last year, this is the report for you.
Previously, in City Hall Watcher
For paid subscribers of City Hall Watcher, this week’s issue has:
Your complete recap of the April 2025 meeting of Toronto Council, with the Quotable Council, a breakdown of How Council Spent Its Time and the key votes on the big issues.
An investigation! How Many Cars Does Toronto Have? City Hall Watcher checks on a stat from the transportation department.
Next week:
LOBBYIST WATCH returns, with a look at what City Hall lobbyists were doing in April. As always, it’ll include a ranking of the top ten busiest lobbyists and the most-lobbied areas.
Subscribe today for ad-free access to weekly subscriber-exclusive issues.
Wednesday, May 7
🚧 The Infrastructure & Environment Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.
ROBOT PIZZA: Staff have written a report letting the committee know that the Ontario Ministry of Transportation has given the green light to a self-driving car project that’ll soon take the streets on the west side of downtown.
Magna International has won approval to test out a fleet of up to 20 small three-wheeled delivery vehicles that will distribute small packages in area comprising parts of Ward 4 (Parkdale - High Park), Ward 5 (York South - Weston), Ward 9 (Davenport), Ward 11 (University) and Ward 12 (St. Paul’s). The cars will be speed-limited to 32 km/h and won’t be permitted on roads with speed limits of greater than 40 km/h. They also won’t ever make left turns.
During the test phase, they’ll be followed by a “chase vehicle” with non-cyborg human operators, who will have remote controls capable of shutting down the vehicles.
The report is really more of an FYI to councillors — the City, the report says, “has no regulatory authority over this pilot.” Nevertheless, staff say they’ll put together a report on Q4 2026 with some findings on how the robots fared on Toronto’s streets. Assuming there’s no robot uprising before then, I’ll be interested to read it.
LEAF BLOWER BLOW OUT: The committee is being asked to decide the fate of the lowly leaf blower in Toronto.
The options:
Launch a public education campaign at a cost of $200,000 over five years aimed at convincing people that two-stroke gardening equipment, like leaf blowers, is noisy and bad.
Ban the use of two-stroke gardening equipment like leaf blowers effective January 1, 2030, at a cost of $2.9 million over the next five years as City Hall readies an enforcement program.
Regardless of whether they opt for Door #1 or Door #2, City Hall will pursue a total phase-out of its own use of two-stroke leaf blowers and other noisy gas-powered equipment, as part of an environmentally-driven shift to electric tools.
AND ALSO:
A confidential report lays out a plan to deal with the sad fact that 248,000 of the City’s 470,000 digital water meters have failed and aren’t transmitting accurate water use data back to the Water Department. The City is negotiating with U.S. Company Aclara for replacement units. In the interim, the City says a new webpage will launch by the end of June, allowing residents to submit manual water meter readings to ensure accurate billing.
Staff are proposing a new $5.23-million two-lane bridge on Unwin Avenue in the port lands, replacing the single-lane bridge that currently spans the gap. It’ll allow for better traffic movements during times when the Ship Channel bridge on Cherry Street is out of service.
🏆 The Bid Award Panel meets via videoconference at 2 p.m.CONTRACT AWARD OF THE WEEK: $1.7 million for renovations at 95 The Esplanade, a Building Inspections office. Contractors on this project will probably want to double-check their work.
Thursday, May 8
🏘️ The Planning & Housing Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.
HIKED FEES FOR HIGH RISES: A report recommends a series of hikes to application fees charged to housing developments. The change is based on an analysis suggesting the planning department has only been recovering about 78% of the $80 million cost of processing applications.
It’s not all bad news for builders, though, the report says. They’re also introducing maximum caps on the fees charged for zoning and official plan amendment applications. The caps are intended to lower costs for larger and denser developments.
BUILDING SIMPLICITY: Noting that City Hall has accumulated a bunch of separate-but-similar housing initiatives over the last few years — Housing Now, ModernTO, Mayor Olivia Chow’s “public developer” project, waterfront plans, and more — a new report recommends consolidating this kind of work under a new “Toronto Builds” program. We could call it TB, I suppose.
The program will set a target of at least 20% affordable units in each project, with a 30% overall target across all of the units delivered through Toronto Builds. All units will be rent-controlled, and all buildings will require at least 45% of the units to be two- or three-bedroom, which should create more family-appropriate housing. That’s the hope, anyway.
The first three sites to be delivered under this model will be 970 Kipling, 158 Borough, and 931 Yonge. The City will waive various fees and charges to encourage these projects to move along.
Also of note: staff are recommending Council approve a deal with the Toronto District School Board to use TDSB land for affordable housing. The report says this partnership could deliver up to 2,100 affordable rentals, plus other community facilities and new schools.
The City is hoping Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Doug Ford will want to get more involved too, suggesting a Canada-Ontario-Toronto Builds program. COT Builds. That’s probably a better acronym.
AND ALSO:
After the provincial government put a hold on some of City Hall’s plans to keep housing out of land zoned for industrial and commercial uses, staff are recommending changes that would allow additional uses in the Don Mills Employment Area, the Consumer Road Business Park, the Duncan Mills Employment Area and Downsview Secondary Plan Employment Area.
Staff are recommending kicking off a consultation that could lead to changing rules that prevent people from parking commercial vehicles in their driveways. Currently, residents are only permitted to park a commercial vehicle if it’s kept in a garage.
Won’t someone think of the trees? Well, hey, someone did. A report recommends changes to the Official Plan to add “protection of the tree canopy” as a consideration for infill development in parts of the city zoned as neighbourhoods.
Friday, May 9
♿️ The Toronto Accessibility Advisory Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.
PEDESTRIAN PARADISE: The committee will hear about the ongoing work to develop a Pedestrian Streets Policy. The presentation includes an interesting list of areas prime for pedestrianization. A report with a final strategy is due by the end of the year.
The committee will also hear about the accessibility of pedestrian crosswalks, the plan to install dedicated transit lanes on Bathurst and Dufferin in time for the World Cup next summer, and accessibility changes coming to the Toronto Island ferries this summer.
The Week After Next
The General Government Committee meets on Monday.
Mayor Olivia Chow’s Executive Committee meets on Tuesday.
The TTC Board meets on Wednesday. So does the Police Board.
The Far-Flung Future
Council’s next meeting starts on Wednesday, May 21.
Feedback? Tip? Email Matt Elliott. For advertising inquiries, email Sean Hansel.