Police celebrate hiring plan, City trucks recommended for retrofit, a plan for safe shelters
The week at Toronto City Hall for November 25 to 29, featuring a growing police budget, a Vision Zero update, councillor parking passes, pot hole problems and more
Hey there! The busy fall season at City Hall continues. Here’s a look at what’s on next week’s meeting agendas, including a Vision Zero update, a police budget meeting featuring a whole lot of hiring, a safer shelter plan and more. — Matt Elliott
What happened this week
🚴♂️ CYCLING FURTHER: The Atmospheric Fund’s annual Carbon Emissions Inventory for 2023 was released this week. It’s notable for a couple of reasons.
First, the bad news. Carbon emissions in 2023 were up 2% from 2022 in the GTHA. To reach the 2030 target and put us on track to Net Zero by 2050, emissions should be decreasing by 11% a year.
If you’re looking for silver linings, Toronto’s increase was a bit below the GTHA-wide number, coming in at 1.5% in 2023. And our per-capita emissions actually dropped 2.6%. Buildings remain the biggest source of greenhouse gases, at 60% of all emissions.
Here’s the good news, though. The report also includes some data on cycling, which is relevant to the ongoing debate about Premier Doug Ford’s bike lane ban.
The data, sourced by TAF from the Google Environmental Insight Explorer, shows that the pandemic years resulted in a large and durable increase in kilometres pedalled by Toronto cyclists annually. The distance travelled on two wheels is up from about 160 million kilometres pre-pandemic to more than 220 million today.
Still, Premier Doug Ford’s government has yet to be swayed by any data. At Queen’s Park this week, the province put forward amendments to Bill 212, specifically banning cyclists from suing the government if they suffer injuries on routes where bike lanes are removed.
🗂️ BANNER MEETING: At the Government Management Committee meeting this week, members opted to green light an additional four-month ban for contractor Duron Ontario after an audit found overbilling. The ban is on top of a previously issued six-month ban and is intended to give everyone time to consider the case further. A five-year ban is a possible outcome. The Star’s Morgan Sevareid-Bocknek has the details.
Monday, November 25
🎖️ The Service Excellence Committee meets at City Hall at 11 a.m.PRUNING POWER: Data from the Parks department shows City Hall has turned over a new leaf. The percentage of tree-related work completed within their service standard is up across several categories.
Tree pruning, for example, requires trees to be pruned within six months of the request. The department was meeting that just 38% of the time in 2022. In 2023, that increased to 44%. In 2024, through Q3, they’re hitting it 92% of the time.
The presentation prepared for the committee credits the improvement to improvements to their contracts and a dedicated oversight team.
HOLY PROBLEM: A presentation from the Transportation department reveals the City’s ability to fix potholes has really gone to pot over the last couple of years.
In 2021, the City met their service standard of filling potholes within four days 94% of the time on expressways and 66% on other roads.
In 2023, those numbers dropped to 15% on expressways and 16% on roads.
Things are a little better so far in 2024, at 27% on expressways and 47% on roads, but that still leaves the majority of potholes unfilled for longer than the department’s service standard. The department blames its technology and procedures, increased traffic, and staffing shortages.
AND ALSO:
A report tells us that interested councillors will soon receive access and training for the “311 Business Intelligence” dashboard, offering real-time data on what people are complaining about to 311.
City Manager Paul Johnson will present the results of a “Listening to Toronto” survey conducted between August 28 and September 18. The polling was conducted by Ipsos and measured feedback on various issues, including the TTC, parks, libraries, public safety, cleanliness and overall quality of life. The data was not yet available as of press time, but I’m interested.
🎭 The Board of Directors of TO Live meets at City Hall at 2:30 p.m.DRAWING BOARD: It’s the Board’s first meeting since Council voted against a plan to redevelop the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts. Instead, Council is asking for an “enhanced state of good repair plan” for the centre.
Tuesday, November 26
📉 The Economic & Community Development Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.SAFE SHELTERS: The committee will debate a new Shelter Safety Action Plan designed to respond to a CAMH report earlier this year that found the number of critical incidents — including violence — in shelters increased from about 2,000 in 2011 to 10,000 in 2021. The report also found that 36% of shelter staff feel unsafe at work, and 43% of Black and Indigenous staff experience “daily verbal abuse involving racism.”
The plan includes training on crisis intervention and how to respond to shelter users on methamphetamines. The budget for the plan specifically includes $20,000 annually for “Crystal Meth Training for City of Toronto Shelter Staff.”
The plan also includes more in-shelter access to supports for things like mental health and harm reduction services. The plan will also look at ways to address the small number of shelter users who cause a lot of incidents.
CBC’s Shawn Jeffords has more.
The report also asks the committee to approve giving $3.5 million to churches that provided temporary shelters to refugees, another $14 million to the Red Cross for refugee accommodations, and an extra $8.1 million to One Community Solutions for encampment monitoring and supports.
The extra encampment funding will put “Community Safety Teams” in four large encampment sites on a 24/7 basis. Currently, they only provide coverage for 16 hours per day.
AND ALSO:
The committee will continue working on their night moves with a report on the Night Economy Working Group. It includes a “Good Neighbour Guide” for businesses open late. The report also includes a submission from the TTC on their plans for late-night service, which notes the transit agency plans to move to 20-minute service frequencies on the Queen, Kingston Road, Dundas, Carlton and Spadina streetcar routes in the overnight hours. This isn’t because the TTC necessarily wants to operate this level of service, however: “Please note that these changes are being made in response to streetcar yard storage constraints, and the feasibility of operating this overnight service long-term will be reevaluated at a later date.”
🐢 The Aboriginal Affairs Advisory Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.The committee will convene for the first time in a year. Their first order of business: picking a committee chair.
Previously, in City Hall Watcher
For paid subscribers of City Hall Watcher, this week’s issue has:
An epic-length recap of Council’s November 2024 meeting, featuring updated bike lane usage numbers, vote results on key issues, and the Quotable Council — the best, funniest and strangest quotes from the two-day session.
Next week:
An in-depth look at the police hiring plan.
Subscribe today for ad-free access to weekly subscriber-exclusive issues.
Wednesday, November 27
🚧 The Infrastructure & Environment Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.ROAD SAFETY REDUX: An update to City Hall’s Vision Zero Road Safety Plan is mostly notable for including some cool visualizations. Like this one on how intersection upgrades can make pedestrians safer:
There’s also a useful series of graphics showing where road users are most likely to get hit by cars included in an attachment to the report.
The report notes Toronto’s five-year annual average of pedestrian fatalities has dropped from 40 in 2019 to 28 in 2023 but calls out the alarming number of cycling deaths so far in 2024. Six cyclists have died. “This is a significant increase from the previous two to three fatalities per year for the past decade and clearly a cause for concern,” the report says.
The report recommends designating 20 more “community safety zones” where photo radar cameras can be used. It also reveals that staff are proposing a $99.1 million budget for Road Safety in 2025.
SIDE HUSTLE: Staff are recommending the Mayor and Council approve $5.7 million in the 2025 budget to retrofit City-owned trucks with side guards. These guards have been shown to reduce pedestrian fatalities by about 20% and cyclist fatalities by about 62%. The plans call for 219 trucks to be retrofitted by the end of next year, with the remaining 279 trucks done in 2026.
Alas, the City doesn’t have the power to require all trucks driving in the City to have side guards. It also does not currently require its contractors to have trucks with side guards, but a report due Q3 2025 will examine whether City Hall should write that clause into future contracts.
AND ALSO:
The lift bridge in the port lands that got stuck in an upright and locked position over the summer is proving tricky — and expensive — to repair. The 93-year-old bridge, designed by Joseph Baermann Strauss of Golden Gate Bridge renown, needs another $15 million for work scheduled to be completed in 2027. That’s on top of $22 million in repair funding provided by City Hall in July 2021 and $11.9 million spent by Ports Toronto for electrical and mechanical system overhauls.
After reports that some people were parking RVs and other large vehicles for extended periods using accessible permits that entitle them to free parking in paid parking areas, the committee will consider a recommendation to amend the rules to ban big vehicles from the free accessible parking permit program.
Transportation staff have ruled out changing the rules to allow cargo bikes to use on-street permit parking. Two options were considered. One would have allowed cargo bike owners to display a license plate and purchase permits. The other would have simply exempted cargo bikes from the permit requirement. A license plate system was ruled too resource-intensive. Exempting cargo bikes from permit parking was partially ruled out because of the potential for spite. “Allowing cargo bike riders to park their vehicle without a permit and without a fee might be viewed resentfully by residents who go through the process of applying, and paying, for permits,” the report says. As an alternative, staff propose installing bike corrals modified to fit cargo bikes.
💰 The Debenture Committee meets at City Hall at 10 a.m.The committee will approve $200 million worth of new debt, repayable over a ten-year term at a 4.1% interest rate cost. Sixty percent of the money will go toward the TTC, mainly to replace old diesel buses. Another $24 million will go toward cycling infrastructure — spend it while you can! — while $32 million will go to the waterfront.
🚨 The Toronto Police Board Budget Committee meets at North York Civic Centre at 1:30 p.m.COP TO POP ON TOP: The police budget committee will consider the hiring strategy approved at the last police board meeting.
It will add 502 new officers to Toronto’s streets by 2029, starting with 150 in the 2025 budget year. This is expected to require about $28.5 million in increased police funding in next year’s budget and about $87 million total over the next five years.
Using an icon resembling the confetti emoji (🎉), the budget presentation notes this will lead to Toronto having police staffing levels not seen since 2011. By the end of 2029, under this hiring plan, Toronto will have more cops than at any point in the history of the amalgamated city, though the ratio of cops to the city population will remain static at 2017 levels.
I’ll have more on this plan — and the budget implications attached to it — in Monday’s issue. (I’ll also probably grouse about the format of the above chart.)
🏆 The Bid Award Panel meets via videoconference at 2 p.m.CONTRACT AWARD OF THE WEEK: Up to $17 million to King Ursa to be City Hall’s new advertising agency of record.
Other bidders included Gonez Media (owners of NOW magazine) and lobbying firm Sussex Strategy Group.
Thursday, November 28
🏚️ The Toronto Preservation Board meets via videoconference at 9:30 a.m.The Board will consider heritage designation for the former Dominion Radiator factory at 350 Dufferin. Hullmark has proposed a development for the site.
The Board will also consider recommendations to create Heritage Conservation Districts for West Queen West and Teiaiagon-Baby Point. But sorry Weston, heritage staff say your phase two HCD proposal didn’t make the cut.
🏗️ The CreateTO Board meets via videoconference at 1:30 p.m.The regular progress report on City real estate development projects reveals a lot of TBDs, as uncertainty in the market continues.
Friday, November 29
🚘 The Toronto Parking Authority Board meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.PASS PARK PASS: A report reveals that 19 of 25 councillor members of Toronto Council have taken advantage of the free on-street and Green P parking.
Councillors who haven’t taken advantage of the parking perk:
Councillor Gord Perks
Councillor Stephen Holyday
Councillor Vince Crisanti
Councillor Alejandra Bravo
Councillor Nick Mantas
Councillor Jennifer McKelvie
The cost of parking foregone revenue from councillor passes is estimated at $4,000 per year. If you include parking passes given to 27 TPA management staffers and 88 TPA employees with over 20 years of service, the foregone revenue is about $142,000.
BIKE SHARE PLANS: The Board will consider a recommendation to approve $9 million in spending on Bike Share infrastructure for the 2025 expansion plan. They intend to add 350 electric charging docks, 180 solar-powered stations, 450 standard bikes and 300 e-bikes.
PARKING BUDGET: The Board will also be asked to approve their 2025 budget submission, with parking revenue expected to grow by $17.1 million.
The Week After Next
Community Councils meet, with Etobicoke York meeting on Monday, December 2, North York on Tuesday, December 3, Toronto & East York on Wednesday, December 4, and Scarborough on Friday, December 6.
The TTC Board meets on Tuesday, December 3.
The Planning & Housing Committee meets on Thursday, December 5.
The Far-Flung Future
Council’s next meeting starts on Tuesday, December 17.
Feedback? Tip? Email Matt Elliott. For advertising inquiries, email Sean Hansel.