Yet another island airport lobbying effort takes flight
City Hall Watcher #378: Lobbyist Watch for March 2026, featuring airport expansion, a yacht club battle, the latest on Waymo, and smart speed bumps.
Hey there! Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. Not to brag, but the Easter Bunny came to my house and brought a very large King Kong action figure.
Speaking of big things, today I’ve brought you a new edition of LOBBYIST WATCH — my monthly summary of activity on Toronto’s lobbyist registry. I’ve got notes on the island airport, jet skis, smart speed bumps, self-driving taxis and more.
Plus: it’s a busy week on the City Hall calendar, so I’ve highlighted some of the most newsworthy items up for consideration by various committees. You’ll learn about transit signal priority, driver compliance rates with turn restrictions, and a heck of a lot about hot dog carts.
To mark the holiday, this issue is being sent FREE to everyone on the City Hall Watcher mailing list. It’s an election year. There’s a lot happening. If you want to get updates like this in your inbox each and every week, consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get permanent access to the interactive Council Scorecard, plus great features like my Council Defeatability Index, Lobbyist Watch, and more. It’s just $6 a month or $60 a year, plus tax — a bargain and a deal.
✨ This issue runs long. If it gets cut off in your email client, read it on the web.
— Matt Elliott
graphicmatt@gmail.com / Archives / Subscribe
Lobbyist Watch for March 2026: Island airport lobbying, TTC talks security tech, Waymo moves forward
Lobbyist Watch is City Hall Watcher’s monthly summary of activity on Toronto City Hall’s Lobbyist Registry. In March 2026, I reviewed 492 registered lobbyist communications and 70 new subject matter registrations.
Disclaimer: Toronto’s Lobbyist Registry requires lobbyists to register and record all communications they have with politicians and staff, but it does not require them to provide much detail about the extent of those communications. As a result, a meeting noted below could be a long conversation with some deal-making or a passing chat of no real consequence. The data presented below is current as of April 6, 2026.
On the runway
Lobbyist Kim Wright topped the lobbying charts in March, flying high with 23 communications related to Billy Bishop Island Airport in addition to her usual bushel of communications on other files.
Wright is working for Nieuport Aviation, owners of the terminal building on the island. They’ve been the major force behind this latest push for airport expansion. It’s a bit of a departure from earlier expansion efforts that were primarily pushed by Porter Airlines.
Wright’s itinerary included three separate meetings with Adam Chaleff, the mayor’s Director of Legislative Affairs & Issues Management, on March 10, March 25 and March 26. She also logged notable meetings with CreateTO’s Director of Port Lands Asset Management Bryan Bowen on March 13, and Deputy City Manager for Development & Growth Services Jag Sharma on March 25.
Her councillor communication included meetings with Councillor Nick Mantas, Councillor Josh Matlow, Councillor Parthi Kandavel, Councillor Michael Thompson, Councillor Chris Moise and Councillor James Pasternak.
Hello Moto
Senior staff from the TTC logged a meeting on March 18 with several reps from the technology and communications company Motorola.
The company has, of late, been really pushing its security and safety products. That includes a line of body-worn cameras, an AI-powered service that “connects intelligence from the command center to the field and back”, and a whitelabel “personal safety application” that lets people report safety and security issues.
The TTC’s “SafeTTC” app is currently a rebadged version of a product from Elerts.
Helping Motorola with the lobbying effort is Motorola Account Manager Ryan Evans, a former constable with the Peel Region Police. He was part of the Motorola contingent that met with TTC staff. The company also sent General Manager Wayne Fasek, Account Manager Matthew Kernerman and Account Manager Ajwad Aniq.
The TTC side included reps from Constable Services, Cybersecurity Operations and Information Technology.
Prior to the TTC meeting, Evans, Aniq and Motorola’s Director of Government Affairs Matthew Swarney logged a meeting on March 3 with staff from City Hall’s Social Development division, including Associate Director of Violence Prevention Nicole Watson and Manager of Community Development John Smith.
Lobbyist-for-hire Saeed Selvam is also supporting Moto in their effort. He logged several emails in March.
Sailing for their life
Lobbyist Alex Chreston was paddling furiously all month trying to keep the Toronto Humber Yacht Club afloat.
The lobbying effort came following news that staff were recommending Council terminate the boat club’s land lease following several years of compliance issues and ecological concerns.
Chreston, a former Ontario PC Party staffer and advisor to John Tory, focused his effort on conservative-leaning councillors, logging meetings and phone calls with Councillor Michael Thompson, Councillor Jon Burnside, Councillor Stephen Holyday and Councillor James Pasternak.
Wilson DaSilva, Vice Commodore for the yacht club, also opened up a lobbying registration before the March 26 Council vote, but never logged any communications.
Chreston’s lobbying effort was somewhat successful insofar as all the councillors he targeted supported renewing the lease. But it was less successful when you consider that their support wasn’t anywhere near enough to give the club a life preserver. Council voted 19-5 to end the lease. The club says their fight isn’t over.
Waymo watch
Self-driving taxi company Waymo added another in-house lobbyist in March as its push into Toronto continues to pick up speed.
George Ivanov, a veteran Google employee who is now Head of International Policy & Government Affairs for the autonomous cab company, got right to work, logging a very notable meeting on March 30 with senior staff from Transportation Services.
Ivanov met with the Director of Policy & Innovation Elyse Parker, as well as two other unnamed managers in the transportation department, on March 30. He followed up the next day with a meeting with Adam Chaleff, the mayor’s Director of Legislative Affairs & Issues Management.
StrategyCorp’s Aidan Grove-White and Alex Bernst remain on board, too. They both kicked in several emails and phone calls on behalf of Waymo.
Lobbying grab bag
Jet ski rental service Jetti has hired Rubicon Strategy’s Mustapha Khamissa to lobby about “the use and regulation of rental PWC's along Toronto's waterfront.” Concerns about noisy jet skis have been picking up over the last year, with complaints last summer focused on Woodbine Beach. Personal watercraft were also recently cited as one of the reasons for shutting down the Humber Yacht Club’s lease. Khamissa logged a meeting on March 31 with Spencer Julien, the mayor’s Legislative Affairs & Implementation Liaison. Jetti CEO Raj Mehta also attended the meeting.
Working on behalf of the Rail Deck Development Corporation, the partnership between Ferngate and LiUNA that plans to build atop the rail corridor downtown, StrategyCorp’s Aidan Grove-White has been texting and calling staff in Mayor Olivia Chow’s office, requesting a meeting.
G&S Group of Companies, a development and property management conglomerate, has taken a sharp and sudden interest in extending the Sheppard Subway westwards. They’ve hired StrategyCorp’s Aidan Grove-White, Marco Bianchi, Lorraine Huinink and Alex Glista to lobby about “Sheppard West Subway Extension (Line 4 Extension) and station locations.” No communications yet.
Pickleball purveyor Fairgrounds has hired lobbyist Chris Rickett in an attempt to return serve on a big property tax bill they recently received for their courts at 8 Rosehill Drive, near Yonge & St Clair. The courts are a temporary use for the vacant site, which will eventually become home to a 50-storey tower. But the Pickleball company says they were recently hit by a $500,000 increase to their property tax bill — a result of a zoning change necessary to make way for the project. Rickett wants to talk about a fairer property classification system for temporary uses. So far, he’s organized a grassroots communication effort, encouraging disappointed pickleballers to email Councillor Josh Matlow.
On behalf of NAIOP Greater Toronto, the advocacy group for commercial property owners, lobbyist Natalie Dash logged a meeting on March 27 with senior staff from Social Development and Shelter & Support Services to talk about “safety issues in the downtown core.”
Pharma company Sanofi Vaccines Canada, which has proven quite adept at inoculating itself from any development near their factory on Steeles West, sent Public Affairs Lead Doug Daniell to a meeting on March 5 with senior staff with Economic Development & Culture.
Advocacy group Environmental Defence Canada has hired Claire Malcolmson to lobby about the City’s mid-rise avenue studies and design guidelines. Topics for discussion include “pre-zoning for Mid-rise; reducing fees and charges for Mid-rise buildings; [and] reducing the approvals timeline by a year.” Malcolmson logged a meeting on March 18 with Chief Planner Jason Thorne.
How about some McLobbying? Steven Caron, Senior Manager of GR and Public Policy for McDonald’s Canada, logged a meeting on March 16 with Councillor James Pasternak to talk about single-use packaging bylaws.
Tech 4 sale
With the list of the tools the City can use to slow down traffic getting shorter, Swedish company Edeva is betting City Hall might have some interest in their Actibump product. It’s effectively a smart speed bump. Paired with a radar, it drops a few centimetres when speeding cars are detected, giving drivers some real-time feedback that they’re going too darn fast. Edeva Marketing Manager Karin Wiklund is on the file, with no communications yet.
Andrew Hill, Regional Manager for parking reservation app SpotHero, logged a meeting on March 11 with the Toronto Parking Authority’s VP of Business Development Adamo Donatucci. The software company wants to discuss a “possible collaboration.”
California-based tech company Automotus has registered to pitch City Hall on their “automated curb management” technology. No communications yet.
Darwin O’Connor, maker of the very useful TransSee webapp, has registered to talk about “providing or generating real-time transit data.” He sent an email to TTC staff on March 13.
Familiar faces
Developer Sud Group deployed a pair of former councillors in an attempt to win Council support for their “Beach House” development at Queen East and Kingston Road — the site of the popular Murphy’s Law pub. Both Joe Mihevc and Peter Milczyn were working on the file in March, with Milczyn logging a meeting with local rep Councillor Brad Bradford on March 20 and Councillor Gord Perks, the Planning & Housing Chair, on March 26. The two former councillors also logged a flurry of emails in support of the proposal for a ten-storey development. They were successful in convincing Perks and a majority of the Council to support the development, but Bradford was a harder sell. At last month’s Council meeting, he unsuccessfully moved to refuse the application and voted against a Perks motion to approve it.
Former chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat opened a trio of new lobbying files in March, as part of her gig as CEO of Collecdev Markee. She’ll be talking to City Hall about her plans for 3377 Bayview, 275 Merton Street and 86 Lynn Williams. She hasn’t logged any communications yet.
Rachel Hillier, a longtime staffer to the late Jaye Robinson, has returned to City Hall as a lobbyist. She opened five new registration files in March as part of her work for Sussex Strategy Group, working on behalf of clients Cadillac Fairview, The Boulevard Club, Redpath Sugar, Alberici Constructors and Emblem Developments.
Toronto’s top lobbying charts for March 2026
Most Lobbied Officials: Adam Chaleff, Mayor’s Office (29 communications); Jennifer Chan, Mayor’s Office (12); Tom Gleason, Councillor Shelley Carroll’s Office (10); Councillor Stephen Holyday (10); Councillor Jon Burnside (10); Councillor Dianne Saxe (10)
Lobbyist Watch will return in May.
More from Matt: on the shocking failure of the GO electrification project, and the put-up-or-shut-up opportunity with the Waterfront East LRT
📰 For the Toronto Star last week, I wrote about the news that the GO electrification project has likely been delayed and scaled back. It’s the biggest bang-for-the-buck transit project in the GTA, but successive provincial governments have spent decades screwing it up.
📰 For the Star this week, I’ve got a piece reacting to the very good news that the Waterfront East LRT is now a funded project. It’s also good news, I argue, that Metrolinx won’t be delivering this one. After much grumbling about the provincial transit agency’s track record, it’s an opportunity to demonstrate that there’s a better way to build transit. I just hope the City doesn’t whiff on it.
The week at Toronto City Hall
MONDAY: 🐣
TUESDAY: 🚧 The Infrastructure & Environment Committee is meeting today. They got an update on the City’s Congestion Management Plan. According to the Transportation Department, there are three pieces of good news to report:
Downtown travel times in the 2025 “construction season” were down by 12% compared to 2024.
The average construction-related road closure in 2025 was 2.4 days shorter than the average closure in 2024. The City credits new fees that “incentivize construction crews to limit their lane use.”
Round-trip travel times on the Finch West LRT have been reduced by 20 minutes after “improved signal timing” was activated.
The plan includes some details on the continued rollout of enhanced transit signal priority and AI-powered “smart” traffic signals. The report includes this handy map showing 2026 signal priority installation locations:
For more on the AI-powered signals, the Star’s Mahdis Habibinia has a good story.
The report recommends hiking some of the fees the City charges when contractors close traffic lanes. Reps from advocacy groups NAIOP Greater Toronto, RESCON and BILD Toronto aren’t loving that idea, submitting letters arguing that such fees only add to the cost of building new housing.
Also on the agenda:
The decades-long effort to improve car traffic at the intersection of Eglinton West & the Allen Road Expressway continues. A new report says there’s been some recent improvement due to, well, fewer pedestrians getting in the way of cars. Pedestrians who previously crossed at street level are now using a new pedestrian tunnel that was installed as part of the Cedarvale Station construction. Prior to the tunnel, pedestrians were hitting the button to cross 88% of the time in the morning period. That’s now been reduced to 55%. The report also includes a rather dispiriting stat about the rate at which drivers comply with turn restrictions: overall, just 60% of drivers complied with a series of turn prohibitions introduced last December in the area around the intersection. At one intersection, Dufferin Street & Livingston Avenue, the compliance rate was just 28%.
A report on the City’s EV charging strategy includes some notable data on how often the chargers installed by the Toronto Parking Authority are getting used.
WEDNESDAY: 🗂️ The General Government Committee meets. They’ll ponder a report suggesting the City must award sole-source contracts worth up to $17.5 million to support the City’s new pair of electric ferries.
🏡➡️ The Housing Rights Advisory Committee meets. Reps from the Co-operative Housing Federation of Toronto will be in attendance to talk about how co-op housing can help fight the housing crisis. Co-ops certainly seem popular. Their presentation notes that a new co-op near Queen East & Broadview saw 6,000 people put their names in a lottery for 26 available units.
THURSDAY: 📉 The Economic & Community Development Committee meets. Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog. At long last, the committee will consider whether to lift the moratorium on new hot dog carts and other sidewalk vending permits. It’s been in place since 2002, when I was still in high school.
When the moratorium was put in place, there were 134 vendors permitted to sell on sidewalks downtown. These days, that number has dropped to just 47. A survey suggests a majority of residents don’t feel like that’s enough. The report proposes allowing new downtown sidewalk vending applications for the first time in nearly 25 years.
In addition to the expected street meat, they also suggest allowing people to apply for permits to sell non-food items. In addition, if this report is approved by Council, buskers will now be allowed to sell CDs, vinyl records and cassette tapes to people who enjoy their performances. Uh, better late than never, I guess?
New vending opportunities won’t just be confined to sidewalks. A separate report to the committee outlines a plan to launch a test program this summer that will allow food trucks or food carts to sell food and drinks at a few select parks. Despite the City recently loosening up on the general prohibition on drinking booze in parks, this program won’t allow vendors to sell alcohol.
The list of parks is currently being refined and will be presented before the program begins on June 25, 2026, subject to Council approval.
Also on the agenda: the City is continuing its clean-ups of outdated bylaws. With this update, there will no longer be a specific business license for adult video stores operating in Scarborough. The City hasn’t issued a new license in this category since 2003. Time marches on.
FRIDAY: It’s Holy Friday for Eastern Orthodoxers. No meetings scheduled.
NEXT WEEK: The Police Board meets on Monday. The Planning & Housing Committee meets on Tuesday. Mayor Olivia Chow’s Executive Committee meets on Wednesday. The TTC Board meets on Thursday.
Weekly wrap
🪧 SIGNS OF THE TIMES: 1615 Birchmount: Tim Hortons; 145 King West: Scotiabank; 30 Mutual Street: Famo; 677 Queen East: Shoppers Drug Mart; 2329-2361 Brimley: Pho Non LA; 4228 Midland: Tim Hortons; 2005 Avenue Road: Firehouse Subs; 1980 St. Clair West: Honestly Good Chicken Fingers; 480 Front West: Playa Bowls; 40 Eglinton East: Jersey Mike’s Subs. (Sign Permit Applications since March 30, 2026)
📝 CONTRACTIONS: $243,624 to Grascan Construction Limited for “Repair of Lower Don Trail High Level Interceptor Blow Off Chamber” (non-competitive)
City Hall Watcher #378
March 2026 CouncilScorecard.ca Access Code
MARCHBREAK
Thanks for reading! The sign permit round-up is a fun addition, isn’t it? Let me know if you dig it.
If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, you can use the code above for a sneak peek at the Council Scorecard available to all City Hall Watcher subscribers. I’ll be adding new data ahead of next week’s issue — and changing the code — so look fast.
I’ll be back next week with a brand new issue, looking at Mayor Olivia Chow’s Executive Committee agenda and everything else making headlines.
I find the Lobbyist watch fascinating and necessary, but also depressing. So much of our councillors’ time spent listening to what are basically highly paid sales reps for various private firms. Is this what we are hoping for when we vote? 😔 Thanks for keeping us informed.