TTC spares us a strike
The Week at Toronto City Hall for June 10-14, featuring a new report on building lots of rental housing, safety changes for Avenue Road and a literal Backbone Slide
Hey there! Well, crisis averted. It looked for a minute there like TTC workers might be off the job for the first time since Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” was the song of the summer. Dark times. But with labour peace looking assured, here’s what’s next for Toronto City Hall, including a look at a new report on rental housing, long-awaited safety improvements to Avenue Road, and a literal backbone slide. — Matt Elliott
What Happened This Week
🚇🎳 The TTC is not on strike. A framework for a deal was reached just before midnight last night. It’ll still need to be ratified by members via a coming vote, but the trains, buses and streetcars are running.
Up next: The City’s contracts with its five of its biggest unions are all timed to expire simultaneously on December 31, 2024. There’s a lot more labour negotiation to come.
⚽️ The Star’s Ben Spurr has an early look at some of the things the Toronto Police have started expensing as they prepare to support Toronto hosting FIFA World Cup games in 2026. The accounting so far includes three new cars:
One of the largest non-salary costs was the purchase in 2023 of three cars — two unmarked Chevrolet Equinoxes and a hybrid cruiser — at a cost of almost $131,000.
Clancy, the police spokesperson, said the vehicles are used “for transport to meetings, site visits, and other FIFA-related activities.” She said the force needed to buy new cars because all of its fleet was already committed to day-to-day duties. Like other equipment listed in the spending documents, she said the cars will be repurposed for daily TPS operations after the World Cup.
Also: Airpods and $3,700 worth of challenge coins. I’m not one for betting on sports, but I will bet that this sporting event will spark a whole lot more stories like these before we reach full-time.
Monday, June 10
👉 The Nominating Panel for Corporations meets at City Hall at noon.The panel will consider appointees for seven open positions on the Toronto Hydro Board, one of the most prized municipal appointments available. The Chair—one of the seven spots up for appointment—earns an annual retainer of $75,000, while members receive a base of $12,500 plus $1,000 per meeting, to a maximum of $30,000. Selected candidates will need to be approved by Council at the next meeting.
The panel will also select candidates who will be interviewed for an open spot on the TCHC Board. The vacancy was created after former councillor Joe Cressy resigned on April 22. Cressy recently started a new gig at Waterfront Toronto after a stint with George Brown College.
Tuesday, June 11
🌳 Toronto & East York Community Council meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.AVENUE TO SAFETY: Avenue Road between Bloor and St. Clair sees about 30,000 vehicles daily. Over the last ten years — as of May 1, 2024 — there have been 2,250 reported collisions on this approximately 2-kilometre stretch of road. That seems like a lot. Three cyclists were killed by drivers on this street during that period.
As a result, there’s been a growing chorus calling for safety improvements along this stretch. Part of those safety improvements involve new bike lanes extending from Bloor to Davenport. The Infrastructure & Environment Committee approved them on May 28. The other part of the proposed near-term safety improvements is this report.
It involves reducing the number of car lanes from six to four or five at various points. It also consists of a median along part of the route and some new “pedestrian zones.”
ICE CAPADES: As covered in Monday’s edition of LOBBYIST WATCH, the matter of whether figure skating champ Tessa Virtue and NHLer Morgan Rielly should be permitted to paint the exterior of their heritage home will be on the agenda Tuesday.
The famous couple started work to whitewash the brick walls of their home, but work was halted after it was determined that they had violated the Heritage Conservation District rules for the neighbourhood.
The Preservation Board was not sympathetic to their plea to allow the work to continue, despite a deputation by Virtue on May 7. It’ll be interesting to see if the couple appears at this meeting on Tuesday to try to convince community council members to vote differently.
Virtue and Rielly have hired lobbyist Amir Remtulla to help make their case. Remtulla had a video call with local rep Councillor Dianne Saxe on June 3 to make the case.
After community council considers the item next week, the matter will need to be confirmed by Council later this month.
GLAD OR SAD: The committee will decide the fate of a patio proposed by the iconic Gladstone Hotel on Queen Street.
The patio, designed to accommodate about 95 people, would be installed along Gladstone Avenue. But City rules state that patio permits are automatically denied if “multiple objections” (i.e., more than one) are received in response to an application. The rejection can then be appealed to community council, which brings us to next week’s meeting.
The identities of those who objected to this patio are not public, but some evidence suggests they don’t represent the majority in the neighbourhood. The board of the Bohemian Embassy condo—terribly named, sure, but also located right across the street from the Gladstone—has written to the community council with a strong endorsement of the patio, writing, “The cafe patio would go a long way to humanize a rather transitory space.”
AND ALSO:
Previously, in City Hall Watcher
For paid subscribers of City Hall Watcher, this week’s issue has:
LOBBYIST WATCH for May 2024, featuring the scoop on Morgan Rielly and Tessa Virtue’s attempt to paint their heritage home in Rosedale, plus a mayoral networking event, and the City Hall return of Ana Bailão.
Next week:
The EHON program is coming to an end, but there’s still work to do. Guest Damien Moule looks at what remains to be done on housing reform.
Subscribe today for ad-free access to weekly subscriber-exclusive issues.
Wednesday, June 12
🌳 Scarborough Community Council meets at Scarborough Civic Centre at 9:30 a.m.
LET YOUR BACKBONE SLIDE: Okay, party people in the house. May I have your attention, please? Scarborough Community Council will contend with a new public art plan for 25 Borough Drive. The plan includes a new public park inspired by Maestro Fresh Wes’ “Let Your Backbone Slide.” Designed by developer Oxford in collaboration with artist Kwame Delfish, plans for the park include a literal “backbone slide.” Neat.
GETTING ALONG: The Scarborough Community will vote on a proposal for a 68-unit, four-storey affordable rental housing project at 120 Galloway Road.
In a stunning example of public-sector collaboration, the project includes a chunk of TDSB land. The City is providing Open Door incentives for the project, waiving development fees, planning and permit fees, parkland dedication fees and all property taxes for the duration of the 40-year term in which the building owner is required to maintain the building as affordable units.
Among the comments from the ten people who attended an Open House about the project: “The building should be taller to accommodate more residents.”
AND ALSO:
After three cyclists were hit by cars — one fatally — over the last five years at Brimley & McNicoll, staff are recommending banning right turns on red and installing a warning sign: “Turning Traffic Must Yield to Pedestrians and Cyclists.”
🏆 The Bid Award Panel meets via videoconference at 2 p.m.CONTRACT AWARD OF THE WEEK: Up to $7.7 million for basement flooding protection.
Thursday, June 13
🏘️ The Planning & Housing Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m.HIGH ON SUPPLY: “Toronto is facing two housing crises,” begins a report by Abigail Bond and other senior staff at City Hall’s Housing Secretariat. “One where there is a lack of deeply affordable and supportive housing for low-income marginalized and vulnerable residents; and a more recent one in which rising rents have made it increasingly unaffordable for middle-income earners, key workers and professionals to live in the city.”
This report seeks to address the latter crisis — the one affecting middle-income renters — with a Rental Supply program. It includes three major components:
Spending about $351 million to get 18 previously approved affordable rental housing projects under the Housing Now and Open Door programs unstuck. Most of these projects were conceived in a low-interest-rate environment where construction costs were cheaper. The list of projects that will receive this extra money is confidential.
A $10 million annual fund, available from 2024 through 2026, that will provide up to $50,000 per affordable housing unit in pre-development funds to help kickstart projects planned by non-profits, Indigenous and community groups — a group the City has termed “community housing providers.”
Waiving permit and application fees, and property taxes, for units built by community housing providers (and TCHC and the new seniors housing corporation) that rent for a maximum of 150% of average market rents and where annual rent increases do not exceed the provincial guideline plus 2%.
The third point would create a new tier of incentivized rent-controlled rental housing projects that allow for higher market rents. These units would be geared toward middle-income workers currently at risk of being priced out of the city.
It’s notable that this opens the door to TCHC building more units for a wider range of income levels.
Staff also propose the creation of an “Affordable Housing Fund” that they think could be attractive for philanthropic organizations.
VILLIERS VOLUME: The committee will consider changes to the plan for the island area in the port lands known — for now, at least — as Villiers Island. (A new Indigenous name will be chosen this fall.)
The amount of housing (and affordable housing) planned for the new neighbourhood has increased substantially over what was contemplated in the old plan.
The affordable housing target has also increased from 20% to 30%. About 80% of the land is publicly owned.
RENOVICTION CONVICTION: In February, the housing committee told staff to take a serious look at the City of Hamilton’s new plan to prevent renovictions, which requires landlords to get a license before they embark on renovations. To get the license, they need to show building permits and other documentation supporting the need for the tenant to vacate to complete the work.
Staff have taken their first look and generally like what they’ve seen. They’re recommending to embark on a consultation process on a Toronto version of the Hamilton bylaw, which will be followed up with a report in the fall. If Council adopts it, implementation will hinge on funding being provided in the 2025 budget.
The case for this kind of additional tenant protection is laid out in some stats included in the report, like:
Average market rents were up 10% in 2023. That’s the biggest annual increase since 2000.
Two-bedroom units that turned over and brought in new tenants in 2023 saw rent go up 40% versus just a 4% increase for steadily occupied rent-controlled units. Landlords have a significant financial incentive to remove longtime tenants and bring in new ones.
AND ALSO:
Jennifer Keesmaat is back. The former chief planner is now the CEO of developer Collecdev-Markee and has hammered out a deal with CreateTO wherein Keesmaat’s company will transfer a small 6,000-square-foot property they own at 267 Merton Street to the City for a nominal amount. The City will then combine 267 Merton with a larger City-owned site at 275 Merton — it’s currently offices for Toronto Water — and then lease it back to Collecdev-Markee for 99 years. They’ll then build a purpose-built rental developer with “a significant amount of rent-controlled market and affordable rental homes.”
A co-op play! The committee will consider a proposal for a development at 2444 Eglinton East that would include two new co-op buildings. Three hundred six units will be market, and 306 will be affordable housing. The City will support the affordable units by waiving development charges, property taxes and other fees. They’ll be required to stay affordable for 99 years.
An update on the Housing Action Plan includes draft proposals to allow mid-rise buildings (up to a maximum height of 11 storeys, depending on the width of the street) on the City’s “avenues” city-wide. There’s also a proposal to dispense with the “angular plane” requirement — the thing that makes some buildings look like Aztec pyramids — or midrise buildings. Under the proposal, a 6-storey building would require only a single 7.5-metre setback, with an additional 2.5-metre setback required for buildings between seven and 11 storeys. Alas, the proposals will still require another round of consultation before they go to Council this fall.
After a three-year delay caused first by provincial refusal to grant an MZO and then by an unsuccessful appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal, the committee will be asked to authorize several contract awards to finally build a modular supportive housing building at 175 Cummer Avenue. With the delay, costs have gone up a lot, but the public isn’t yet being told exactly how much. The financial details are being provided via a confidential attachment.
Friday, June 14
No meetings scheduled.
The Week After Next
Mayor Olivia Chow’s Executive Committee meets on Tuesday, June 18.
Friday, June 21 is National Indigenous Peoples Day.
The Far-Flung Future
Council’s next meeting starts on Wednesday, June 26.
Feedback? Tip? Email Matt Elliott. For advertising inquiries, email Sean Hansel.