The 411 on the 311, and what was broken in Toronto in 2023
The Week at Toronto City Hall for March 18 through 22 featuring a look at 311 data from 2023 showing lots of animal and pothole complaints, plus a preview of the March Council meeting
Hey there! After a quiet March Break, City Hall roars back to life next week with a Council meeting. To get you prepared, I’ve got a look at the agenda for that meeting, plus a look at what else is going on. It includes a fun diversion into some 311 data. Find out what people were complaining about in your ward in 2023. — Matt Elliott
Monday, March 18
🚪 The Housing Rights Advisory Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m. (👀 Watch live: Committee Room 2, YouTube)A brand-new advisory committee, officially established by Council in the strange limbo period between former mayor John Tory’s resignation and the election of Mayor Olivia Chow, meets for the very first time. Maytree President Elizabeth McIsaac is the chair. Past City Hall Watcher contributor Joy Connelly is also on board. Councillor Gord Perks, chair of the Planning & Housing Committee, is the lone representative from Council.
The group is tasked with looking at programs “furthering the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing in Toronto.” They’ve also been mandated to track the data as City Hall implements its HousingTO plan.
The first meeting agenda includes basics like a presentation from staff outlining the committee’s purpose. Bahar Shadpour, Senior Manager of Regional Housing Policy at the United Way Greater Toronto—who is also on the committee—will also present on “the principles of the right to housing in the Canadian context.”
The biggest item is an overview from City Hall’s Housing Secretariat on the HousingTO plan and progress to date.
🏚️ The Toronto Preservation Board meets via videoconference at 9:30 a.m. (👀 Watch Live: YouTube)MEDIUM RARE HISTORY: The Preservation Board will consider a recommendation to add a list of addresses near Yonge & Elm and along River Street to the list of heritage properties. Notable is 7 Elm Street, the location of Barberians Steak House. It’s described as “a long-time landmark restaurant in the city.”
HISTORIC MARRIAGE: The Board will also look at a recommendation to designate 6 and 8 Cawthra Square in the Gay Village. It was the long-time home of Reverend Brent Hawkes, who conducted some of the first legal same-sex marriages in the world.
RECREATING HISTORY: In a departure from the typical report that goes before the Preservation Board, members will hear that 350 Bloor East — an office building owned by Rogers and designed by modernist architect John Parkin in the 1960s — can’t be maintained, despite its heritage designation. Instead, developer Osmington Gerofsky has put together a “commemoration strategy that would include constructing the podium of the new building to replicate the appearance of the original building including the reuse of the original pre-cast concrete panels on its south, west and north facades.”
NO CHANGE TO HISTORY: The owner of a $3.4-million Rosedale property made some changes to their house contrary to the rules of the Rosedale Heritage Conservation District Plan. They’re now seeking retroactive permission. Staff say they shouldn’t get it.
IRISH HISTORY: Happy belated St. Patrick’s Day. Heritage staff still have a few concerns about a plan to build a 66-storey tower atop the Irish Embassy pub on Yonge Street, but are recommending Council allow it.
Tuesday, March 19
🎖️ The Service Excellence Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m. (👀 Watch live: Committee Room 2, YouTube)The second meeting of the nascent Service Excellence Committee points us to a treasure trove of updated 311 data for 2023.
The top 311 service request last year was for Injured - Wildlife. Animals in trouble prompted 17,287 311 contacts, an increase of 4,130 over 2022.
Requests related to potholes saw the biggest year-over-year jump, while generally, requests related to storm damage and snow clearing saw the biggest declines.
Here’s a look at what each ward was finding most troublesome.
Staff Service Complaint taking the top spot in Spadina-Fort York is seemingly a quirk of how data is tracked. All complaints and compliments registered via 311 are geographically coded to King Street and John Street — the location of the 311 call centre at Metro Hall.
I’m fascinated by Moving Vehicle Noise dominating the data for Ward 6 - York Centre. The City did not even start accepting service requests related to moving vehicles making a lot of noise until midway through the year. Still, there were a lot of complaints — 1,270 in total — and a closer look at those complaints reveals that a huge percentage relate to one area.
Of 1,269 complaints about noise from moving vehicles, 565 — or 45% — came from the M3H postal code area, which roughly tracks to the Bathurst Manor-Clanton Park-Armour Heights - Downsview Airport area near the 401 and the Allen.
Another 285 — or 22% — came from the intersection of Bathurst & Canyon Avenue, which is located within the M3H boundary, just north of Sheppard. Combined, that means more than two-thirds of complaints came from the same geographic area, in Councillor James Pasternak’s ward.
Of special interest to councillors will be another item that shows off proof-of-concept designs for ward dashboards, which could allow elected officials to keep tabs on what’s bugging their residents and how the City is doing at fixing problems.
Don’t get too excited, though. The report notes it still needs to be determined “how and when these Dashboards will be available to stakeholders.” A platform needs to be selected first, with Tableau and Power BI offered as potential options.
Previously, in City Hall Watcher
For paid subscribers of City Hall Watcher, this week’s issue has:
The milestone 270th issue of the Monday newsletter saw a deep dive into traffic data, with so many charts. There’s a searchable, sortable table of more than 1,000 traffic counts conducted by the City in 2023. How cool is that?
Next week:
City Hall is in the midst of a search for a new Chief Planner. That makes for a good time to look at the Planning Division budget, and how it’s changed over the last decade in response to ever-shifting provincial requirements and a crushing housing affordability crisis.
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Wednesday, March 20
🏟️ Council meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m. (👀 Watch Live: Council Chamber, YouTube)FIFA HEADER: Council will get its chance to reckon with the massive cost of hosting six matches for the FIFA World Cup 2026. Current estimates peg it at $380 million, up from previous estimates of around $300 million, though the earlier estimates were based on five matches, not six.
I’d expect some questions on how City Hall can be assured the cost won’t grow even higher, the status of federal financial support, and the latest on the “revenue strategy” that’s supposed to be coming to help defer costs.
It should be noted that the previous vote that kickstarted this process last term was only opposed by one councillor: Councillor Gord Perks. Twelve members still serving as councillors supported the bid.
RT THIS: The agenda has several items about what to do with the husk of the Scarborough RT — may it rest in peace. Councillor Paul Ainslie has submitted an administrative inquiry to City Manager Paul Johnson asking about the status of a plan to build a linear park along the old RT route. Johnson says a report is coming in Q4.
Meanwhile, Councillor Jamaal Myers has a member motion asking for “adaptive reuse” of some of the old RT infrastructure. Councillor Michael Thompson has a very similar motion too.
LOTS ON PARKING: Two items related to parking have pulled into the agenda. First, Council will be asked to authorize some pretty significant hikes to on-street parking rates:
The ticket for going over time or not paying at an on-street parking machine will go from $30 to $75.
The penalty for parking in a bike lane will increase from $150 to $200.
There’s also an item asking for authorization “to undertake a review of all off-street, transit oriented, City-owned parking facilities that may support Council’s housing, community or fiscal goals.” (The item also lays out a strategy to do the same for TTC Stations and other City-owned real estate assets.)
Also relevant to drivers is an item about City Hall’s congestion management plan, which, after consideration by the Infrastructure & Environment Committee, now includes a request to Queen’s Park to raise the penalty for “blocking the box” from $90 to $450.
CITY HALL RETURN: Council will be asked to okay the appointment of Mark Guslits to the powerful CreateTO Board, overseeing the City’s real estate assets and redevelopment plans.
Guslits is a community planner who previously served as Chief Development Officer for TCH. In 2006, an article in Canadian Architect described him as the “point man” for the Regent Park revitalization.
AND ALSO:
Councillor Brad Bradford wants answers on the cost of renaming Dundas Station and Dundas West Station, as well as more details on the deal worked out between the City, the TTC, and TMU regarding the plan to rename Dundas after the university. A response is due for Johnson ahead of the meeting.
Councillor James Pasternak, noting Al Quds day is coming, wants to know if the City could get an injunction to stop this year’s gathering, citing the potential for protests that are “violent and hateful.”
A report determining the priority of future transit projects has inspired the Pleasant View Association to write to request that Council emphasize an eastward Sheppard Subway extension. The City’s analysis—which heavily weighs construction and operating costs—put Sheppard in its second lowest quintile. (It’s not clear how much this matters, given Queen’s Park is in charge of major transit expansion anyway.)
The meeting will briefly go to the dogs, with a debate on how to respond to dangerous dog attacks in the City. Staff recommend a name-and-shame approach, where some details about dangerous dogs involved in attacks will be posted online.
Vrrrroooom. Council will debate the rules around noisy vehicles. Given the 311 data I noted above, Councillor James Pasternak may want to make some noise about it.
Council will look at a proposal for a “preliminary model” for a program that will offer grants to building owners working to bring their rooming houses into compliance with the City’s new regulations. There is still some pretty significant opposition to rooming house regulations on this Council, so I am curious to see how this is received.
MEMBERS MOVING MOTIONS:
“We celebrate those who have not given up on the night, in the most challenging of times.” With text that reads a bit like something out of a Batman comic book, Councillor Paul Ainslie wants Council to endorse a “night economy manifesto.” It’s previously been endorsed by several other big cities, including Montreal and New York.
Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik has a pair of motions designed to spruce up Hanlan’s Beach ahead of the summer season. One devotes $700,000 in Section 42 funds to add more bike parking, new fencing and a new trail connection to the beach. The other authorizes a $200,000 in-kind donation from Pride Toronto for creating a “Rainbow Road” art connection to the beach. Watch out for blue shells when you powerslide around those corners.
I’ll have live coverage of the meeting on Mastodon and BlueSky.
🏆 The Bid Award Panel meets via videoconference at 2 p.m.CONTRACT AWARD OF THE WEEK: $5 million for Microsoft products, piggybacking on an October 1, 2023 contract signed between CDW Canada Corp and the Province of Ontario.
Thursday, March 21
🏟️ Council meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m. (👀 Watch Live: Council Chamber, YouTube)Council’s meeting will inevitably spill over to a second day.
Friday, March 22
🏟️ Council meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m. (👀 Watch Live: Council Chamber, YouTube)Friday is being kept clear for a third day of Council deliberations, if necessary.
The Week After Next
The Library Board meets on Monday, March 25.
The General Government Committee and the Toronto Parking Authority Board meet on Tuesday, March 26.
The Infrastructure & Environment Committee meets on Wednesday, March 27.
The Economic & Community Development Committee meets on Thursday, March 28.
Good Friday is Friday, March 29. City Hall is closed.
The Far-Flung Future
Council’s next meeting starts on April 17.
In the meantime, the provincial budget is set to drop on March 26, while the federal budget is coming on April 16. There’s hope that both will offer some funds for City Hall.
Feedback? Tip? Email Matt Elliott. For advertising inquiries, email Sean Hansel.