Matt ElliottChow says most of her staffers rent their homes. She tells the story of one staff member who got an eviction notice after living in a place for seven years. She says Bill 60 will make things even worse for people like him, cutting required notice period and making it harder to fight renovictions.
"These kinds of changes will make hard-working families less able to defend themselves against large real estate investors. And we have seen one investor taking over and now owns 54,000 units of housing across Toronto," says Chow.
"Like this Skills Development fiasco, and all these slush funds where they're giving our money — our tax dollars — away to their friends, where there's direct family and friends links to their ministers. That money should be going toward actually building housing," says Councillor Josh Matlow.
Councillor Alejandra Bravo has a motion on another part of Bill 60, opposing the provincial move to further restrict the city's ability to modify streets and find other uses for car lanes.
Councillor Holyday wants Bravo's motion ruled out of order, since this agenda item is focused on the rental protection parts of Bill 60, not the road design parts. Bravo says it's an omnibus bill with a lot of stuff in it. Nunziata says she'll get back to council with a ruling later.
Councillor Mike Colle regales us with a tale of his attempt to find a room for rent for an 83-year-old friend named Clarence. Colle says he posted on Facebook asking if anyone had a room available. "And I had 132,000 views of that post! But I still haven't gotten one room for him," he laments.
Councillor Moise, representing a ward where 70% are renters, says about eight of the ten people who come to his office are people looking for support in avoiding eviction and keeping their homes.
Councillor Saxe moves for a report in Q1 2026, determining what proportion of Toronto homelessness is because of decisions made by the provincial and federal governments.
Nunziata's ruling is ready. She says Bravo's motion is indeed out of order, as this council item is only about how Bill 60 affects tenants. Nunziata says Bravo could instead submit her motion re: road resign as an urgent member motion.
Chow's motion asking for provincial consultations re: Bill 60 and more provincial money to prevent evictions CARRIES 22-1.
Saxe's motion for a report quantifying provincial and federal responsibility for Toronto homelessness CARRIES 20-3.
The three items about opposing Bill 60 are all APPROVED by Council 23-1, with only Holyday opposed. ("I wonder what the cost of all these recorded votes is," wonders Nunziata aloud.)
Up now: Snow. As in plowing and clearing and such. Not the recording artist. He's not here. Anyway, in timely news, the city says they have a plan to do a better job of cleaning up after big snowstorms this winter. Last winter didn't go great, you'll remember. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.EX27.2
Staff say this winter the city will have better monitoring of whether the plows have actually done a decent job clearing roads and sidewalks. (Last year they mostly just relied on GPS tracking.) They'll also remove snow proactively along streetcar corridors.
Councillor Dianne Saxe wants to know if the city can require corporate landlords to shovel sidewalks. Staff say they're working through the legal implications of that change. City exempted property owners from that responsibility when they introduced city-wide sidewalk plowing, so it's complex.
The rest of the snow debate will have to wait. It's lunchtime. Council will return at 2 p.m. So will I.
Council is back. Councillor Bravo gets us started by moving to introduce a motion to formally oppose the parts of Doug Ford's Bill 60 that will further restrict the city's ability to redesign roads. The motion gets added to the agenda with a 19-1 vote. They'll come back to it later.
On behalf of some people in the gallery, Councillor Dianne Saxe introduces a petition "expressing their deep concern and disappointment about recent comments by the mayor about Israel, and their effect on anti-semitism in Toronto."
Time for more snow. Staff say they spent about $119 million on plowing, salting, etc last winter. Adding comprehensive snow removal and storage on top of the existing service could cost about $120 million. Staff are not recommending that — targeted improvements instead.
Burnside, noting there's been much "blame" directed at the Tory administration, mounts a defence, getting staff to acknowledge they could have made improvements ahead of last winter. "So if we had the political will and the foresight, we wouldn't have had to blame the last mayor," Burnside says.
Councillor Jamaal Myers asks if the city plans to use AI to handle 311 calls related to snow. "Artificial Intelligence is not used in the contact centre — yet," says staff. "We are planning for it for next year."
Staff also say they're looking at using AI to predict "patterns" for winter season and to help design snow routes. They're looking at what Montreal is doing with AI and also putting together an industry group to talk about using AI.
Councillor Fletcher is frustrated that councillors have been getting info about snow-clearing plans from lobbyists representing SnowTO — the consortium holding most of the snow contracts. City Manager says he can't control what the contractors do re: lobbying. "That's unsettling," says Fletcher.
Saying "being informed is half the battle", Councillor Lily Cheng moves to examine app-based push notifications as a way to let people know about snowplow plans. "Many people don't even read emails anymore!" she explains.
Councillor Saxe moves to raise the fine for blocking a streetcar with your parked car to $500. She also wants a report on requiring corporate landlords to clear their own sidewalks. "It was a mistake in the first place to relieve that liability and we should put it back."
"There is an issue that I've seen — there's the car, parked to run into the store, with five streetcars backed up behind," says Councillor Fletcher. She says she doesn't think there's enough in this new winter plan addressing that. She says she'll be looking to hear more from staff.
Mayor Olivia Chow thanks staff for making improvements to the snow plan for this winter. "You worked together as a team, and you came up with a proposal that really illustrates what I was talking about this morning: stronger together."
The big pivot the city is making this winter versus last winter appears to be simply making storm response a city-wide concern, instead of just something for the transportation department to deal with. Chow notes workers from all departments could be mobilized to help out with clean-up.
Chow says the fact that her office didn't get a lot of calls about last weekend's snow is a good sign. "Is it 100% perfect? Maybe, maybe not. Probably not. But we will continue to improve, continue to learn, continue to deliver the best service we can to the people of Toronto."
Councillor Mike Colle tells us a tale. 25 years ago, the city bought giant yellow plows dubbed "SnowZilla machines" from Nova Scotia.
"They were supposed to go along our main streets, dig up the snow and melt it on the spot. Well, the god damn machines NEVER WORKED! They got stuck in the traffic!"
Wow, how about that. Snowzilla was real. (From a December 11, 2004 story in the Globe.)
Saxe's motions to increase the fine for blocking streetcar tracks with your car to $500 (currently $200) and to report on requiring corporate landlords to shovel their sidewalks both CARRY 21-4.
All other motions on the snow item CARRY via show of hands. And the snow plan for 2025/2026 is APPROVED via show of hands too.
Because there's a police gala tomorrow night to raise money for charity, Chow moves to extend the meeting to 9 p.m. tonight so they can get more agenda items finished and hopefully avoid going long tomorrow night. Motion to extend CARRIES 19-6.
Up now: a plan to work with MLSE to transform the Weston Lions arena into a launchpad site, replacing the seasonal ice pad with a new multi-sport facility. Some hockey leagues are unhappy about losing ice access, but other community members seem happy about the plan https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.EX27.6
Councillor Holyday moves three motions:
1. Help the Lions Club with the transition
2. Expedite reports on finding replacement ice
3. Affirm general support for hockey
"I just don't think the hockey community were treated very well," says Holyday. He also thinks the Lions Club was left in an "awkward spot" as the City winds down their lease on the Weston Arena and transitions to MLSE.
Holyday says it's very important Toronto as a municipal government support hockey. "If there's no one there to help the hockey community, I don't know how they will survive."
Councillor Brad Bradford is also concerned about the "hockey community." He says hockey is a "pillar for family life in Toronto." He says Toronto should be building more rinks, not closing them.
Councillor Nunziata defends the deal and the process. "Councillor Bradford, you say you want a city of families, but what about the parents out there that can't afford to go into a program, or pay for sports? Are those youth not important to you? Or is it just the hockey that's important to you?"
"Councillor Bradford and Councillor Holyday, I represent my constituents and my youth. Obviously, you don't!" thunders Nunziata. The Weston Lions Arena is in her ward. She points out it was never a city-run facility and they charged significant money for ice access.
Councillor Burnside tires of this. He moves to skip the rest of the debate on the Weston Lions Arena and go straight to the vote. That CARRIES 19-6.
All three of Holyday's motions, including his motion to affirm Council's support for hockey, CARRY via show of hands.
Oh wait, Councillor Bradford wants a recorded vote on whether Council will affirm its support for hockey. But Perks is unhappy with the wording, since Canada actually has TWO national sports — hockey AND lacrosse. He wants a correction.
Sorry lacrosse, the wording stands. Motion to have Toronto City Council affirm its general support for the sport of hockey CARRIES 23-2.
Up now: Wait, SmartTrack? Is that still a thing? It is. Kind of. There are just three stations remaining. And a new report reveals one of them — at St. Clair & Old Weston — will be served by smaller UP Express trains, and not GO Trains as originally contemplated. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.EX27.4
Answering a question from Councillor Paul Ainslie, staff say a GO Train carries about 1,200 people, while a UP Express train carries about 280. Staff also note UP is a premium service, but province has committed to an "integrated fare program" before this new station opens.
Councillor Myers: "Just so I have it clear, the city is paying $1.5 billion for these GO Train stations. Who's going to own these assets when they're complete?"
The province, says staff.
Myers: "So the City of Toronto has paid $1.5 billion to build assets for the province."
Staff confirm, yes.
The City CFO jumps in to clarify the numbers. He says the total SmartTrack budget is $1.689 billion. Of that, the city's share is $878 million. Rest comes from the federal government.
Myers: "Who brought this — was this a direction from the province to build GO Train stations? Or was this something initiated by the city?"
Staff: "This was initiated by the former mayor."
Councillor Bravo moves to have Metrolinx fully fund the widening of St. Clair Ave to improve streetcar service. She also moves to get the province to include the UP Express in the One Fare Program to make it more affordable.
Bravo calls SmartTrack a "back of the napkin" plan where "somehow, the people of Toronto were convinced that we should put municipal tax dollars, from the property tax base, to subsidize and fund a provincial transit expansion program ... just to fulfill a campaign promise by our former mayor."
Councillor Amber Morley takes an opportunity to reiterate the need for a Park Lawn GO Station. She says developers are acting like the station is a done deal and bringing dense project applications, but there is no clear understanding of when and how the station will get built.
"The province of Ontario cannot and should not be trusted to build transit and operate it in urban areas," says Councillor Perks. He says John Tory didn't learn that lesson. "These are the same guys colliding trains up on the Eglinton Crosstown right now."
"This nonsense about running the City of Toronto like a business. This is what Mayor Tory would tell us. I will tell you, you would not last very long making business deals like this," says Perks of the SmartTrack situation.
Councillor Bravo's motion to request the province integrate the UP Express with the One Fare program, making it more affordable, before this new St. Clair - Weston Station opens, CARRIES 21-1.
Bravo's motion to request the province fund the widening of St. Clair West and bundle the work in with the construction of the new station CARRIES 22-0.
Council APPROVES the change to the St. Clair & Old Weston Station, making it an UP Express Station, 20-2.
After Councillor Amber Morley notes she was able to get a "unit cap" reducing the number of units in the project, Council votes 20-1 to APPROVE a six-storey development on Islington Road. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.EY26.2
Council votes 20-1 to APPROVE a 12-storey proposal for Lake Shore West. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.EY26.4
