Toronto City Hall embraces its density
The Week at Toronto City Hall for May 27-31, featuring a bike plan facing backlash, a new income-sharing agreement for TPA, and a tree-killing chart
Hey there! It was a big week at City Hall, with Council making big decisions on housing density, Eglinton bike lanes, and e-scooters. Let’s run through what happened and get you set for the next one, which will feature committee debates on matters like the bike plan, a new parking agreement and more. — Matt Elliott
What Happened This Week
🏟️ Toronto Council met this week! I’ll have a complete summary of the significant votes in Monday’s issue, but here are the quick highlights:
JAMMING DOWN ON THE BRAKES: Council voted 19-3 to continue their ban on the use of e-scooters on public streets.
MAJOR DECISION ON MAJOR STREETS: Council voted 21-3 in favour of new planning rules allowing six-storey buildings and townhouses along major streets city-wide. Council also supported Mayor Olivia Chow’s motion to increase the number of units permitted in the six-storey buildings from 30 to 60. The vote was 23-1.
TODAY’s SPECIAL: The EglintonTOday Complete Streets Plan for Eglinton was adopted 23-1, confirming Council support for bike lanes across the central section of Eglinton.
Council also paid tribute to the late Jaye Robinson, remembering her passion for women’s sports, her work at the TTC and on the Infrastructure Committee, and the courage it took to stand up to Rob Ford.
For my full coverage of the meeting, view my thread on Mastodon.
🪧🚇 The TTC’s biggest union could strike as soon as June 7 after the Ontario Ministry of Labour granted a “no-board” report. At the same time, an appeals court upheld an earlier court ruling that the TTC is not an “essential service,” and thus, its unions are permitted to strike.
💊 The federal government has officially denied Toronto’s request to decriminalize possession of drugs. Per CP’s Stephanie Taylor, Federal Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks had concerns because Toronto’s decriminalization proposal didn’t include age restrictions or limits on the amount an individual was allowed to possess.
Monday, May 27
🩺 The Board of Health meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.The Board will again dig into the tricky topic of Student Nutrition Programs — programs that provide food for hungry kids attending school. The number of students fed from the program is set to increase again in the 2024-2025 school year by 3.7%. At the same time, the cost of food is up 8.5%.
The need is even higher than the program’s $19.1 million budget can accommodate: the report notes that 68 public schools in Toronto meet the needs-based eligibility threshold for a nutrition program, but there’s not enough money for expansion. The impact of the recently announced federal school food program is TBD.
📚 The Toronto Public Library Board meets at the Toronto Reference Library at 6 p.m.The Library Board will review its service statistics for 2023. By year end, circulation was down 6% compared to 2022, with a 20% drop in physical circulation and a 14% increase in digital. But all these numbers need to come with a giant asterisk, given the cyber attack at the end of last year that knocked out many services.
Tuesday, May 28
🚧 The Infrastructure & Environment Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.An update to the Cycling Network Plan for 2025-2027 is getting a bumpy ride from bike advocates, who argue that the target of about 33 kilometres of new bike lane infrastructure each year — 100 kilometres over three years — is well below the 50 km per year target set by a Cycle Toronto advocacy campaign.
Robert Zaichkowski of Two-Wheeled Politics calls it a “recycled” plan from the John Tory era:
The 2025-27 Bike Plan again calls for 100 km of bike lanes over three years. With Mayor Olivia Chow – a cyclist – having been in office for a year now, this is a slap in the face when other cities such as Montréal and Paris have made bold moves with cycling. What’s worse is that 46 km of these installations – including 43 km on-street – were recycled from the 2022-24 plan per my bike lane tracker. The off-road portion consists of the West Toronto Railpath extension (2 km) which is under construction, as well as the Gatineau Hydro Corridor from Bermondsey to Eglinton which is expected to start construction later this year. Among the on-street routes, some of them such as Sheppard and Scarborough Golf Club were already approved while Eglinton from Keele to Mount Pleasant will be debated at City Council this week.
Meanwhile, there are at least some notable improvements set to come via the recommended Q3 bike lane installation plan:
The cycle track on Avenue Road from Bloor to Davenport is a long time coming.
AND ALSO:
The Purolator “mini-hub” pilot project, set up in a repurposed shipping container on St. George Street near UofT, has been a big success. It provides a place for Purolator to offload packages to drivers, who then deliver them using a fleet of cargo e-bikes stored on site. Staff are recommending creating a permit process that will allow similar mini-hubs in more places.
A report on Toronto’s tree-pruning services suggests that City Hall could prune its budget if it brought more of the service in-house instead of relying on contractors. The Star’s Ben Spurr has more.
Speaking of trees, another report to committee lays out some statistics on tree removal permits following Council’s decision in 2022 to delegate appeals to Community Council. It turns out Etobicoke York is generally far more open to the idea of letting trees die.
🚘 The Toronto Parking Authority Board meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.
War is over, if you want it. A new report lays out the terms of a proposed new income-sharing agreement between the TPA and City Hall. The City’s share of net income from the parking provider will drop from 85% to 75%. That will give the TPA about $12.1 million in extra cash from 2024 through 2026.
In addition, the City would give TPA $48 million over that same period to fund capital projects related to Bike Share and EV charging stations.
The new framework comes after a testy behind-the-scenes battle in which TPA deferred some of its planned capital projects—including 60 new Bike Share Stations—to future years, arguing that it could no longer afford them.
AND ALSO:
TPA has an opportunity to partner with an unnamed company on EV charging. The Board will learn about the details in a confidential session.
Wednesday, May 29
📉 The Economic & Community Development Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.
The committee will consider a report on encampments. This has been touted in some places as a major shift in City strategy on encampments, but it’s really just a confirmation that the support-and-housing approach the City took with encampments in Dufferin Grove Park and Allan Gardens is preferable to the police-and-bulldozer approach they took previously with encampments in Trinity Bellwoods and other parks.
The “Dufferin Grove Model,” where city staff worked with people in tents to offer support and find permanent housing, has offered some persistent benefits, according to the report:
As a result of the approach, 90 individuals had successful outcomes such as referrals to shelter programs, transition to permanent housing or family reunification. Data as of March 2024 indicates that of the 26 people moved to permanent housing only one person has returned to shelter. A total of 101 tents or structures were removed, as all encampment residents left the park with successful outcomes or moved voluntarily.
The report says a similar strategy has also worked in Allan Gardens, though I am curious to see if the number of encampments in that park goes up again now that warm weather is here.
🏆 The Bid Award Panel meets via videoconference at 2 p.m.CONTRACT AWARD OF THE WEEK: $704,968 for a new off-leash dog park at Parkway Forest Park.
Thursday, May 30
🐕 The Dangerous Dog Review Tribunal meets via videoconference at 9:30 a.m.The Tribunal will consider appeals to muzzle orders for Rottweiler Mix Stanley, Labrador Retriever Arctic and Bulldog Racco.
🗂️ The General Government Committee meets at City Hall at 2:30 p.m.A report on the largest property tax deadbeats for properties owned by corporations reveals that the Woodbine Mall remains in the top spot. The property, now in receivership, owes $10.2 million. But the report is not all bad news: the Chinese Consulate has now paid the $1.1 million they owed City Hall in back taxes.
Staff recommend that the committee approve a $2.6 million amendment to the construction contract for improvements to the Lower Don Trail. (Councillor Chris Moise brought a similar motion to Council this week but then withdrew it.) The budget change brings the total cost of the Phase 2 project from $10.8 million to $13.4 million. And it comes with a delay: “substantial completion” is now projected for late Q2 2025.
Staff have informed the committee that they will exercise two option years to extend their contract with the PayIt online payments platform. Each option year is expected to cost around $2 million in fees.
Friday, May 31
🚔 The Police Service Board meets at Police HQ at 9 a.m.The police board will receive a presentation on hate crime calls, showing a 373% increase in October 2023, with a significant spike in calls where the victim was Jewish.
The Board will also grapple with a new procedure policy on the use of AI. Police Chief Information Officer Colin Stairs is set to be in attendance to answer any questions board members have about AI.
🥇 The Service Excellence Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.The committee will hear about plans to develop a refreshed “Service Promise” for City Hall—a set of standards people can expect staff to adhere to when responding to requests. They’ll also get an update on ongoing work to create 311-powered dashboards for councillors.
🙊 The Board of Management of the Toronto Zoo meets via videoconference at 2 p.m.The monthly attendance report continues to be good news for the Board, with zoo attendance in April up 24% over 2023.
The Week After Next
Etobicoke York Community Council meets on Monday, June 3
North York Community Council meets on Tuesday, June 4.
The Far-Flung Future
Mayor Olivia Chow’s Executive Committee meets next on Tuesday, June 18.
Council’s next meeting starts on Wednesday, June 26.
Feedback? Tip? Email Matt Elliott. For advertising inquiries, email Sean Hansel.
The update on the Lower Don Trail completion date is disappointing if unsurprising. So few safe and park like spaces to run or bike in the neighborhood and there doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency about it.