On to a progress report on Toronto's Housing Plan. Perks moves to hold off on any changes to housing programs while negotiations with Ottawa and Queen's Park continue. Morley wants to extend tower renewal program eligibility to co-ops. Thompson wants consultation with Black residents.
Part of the housing progress report, a recommendation to request the federal gov provide $163 million to create 230 supportive homes CARRIES 18-1.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.PH25.4The other motions on the housing progress report CARRY via show of hands. So does the item as amended.
After a brief digression about a development in Holyday's ward that ends up going nowhere, Council breaks for the night. They'll be back at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow to deal with the 27 items left on the agenda.
First up: neighbourhood retail.
Council is about to start up again. Before they get to the first item on the agenda — corner stores — there will be a presentation honouring Sick Kids Hospital. They've been named "the best children’s health-care centre in the world" apparently.
Watch live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTlscTt3Jjc
City Council - November 13, 2025
"Even if you've never had to walk through its doors, you can take comfort that it's there, ready to care," says a rhyming Mayor Olivia Chow of Sick Kids Hospital. Karen Kinnear, a VP at Sick Kids, is here to get a plaque.
Councillor Paula Fletcher has a petition signed by 1,200 people asking Metrolinx to add GPS tracking to trucks working on the Ontario Line project and improve communication response times when people complain about those trucks.
Up now: corner stores. The original recommendation to allow small retail uses within neighbourhoods was watered down at committee, but the recommendation to allow retail uses along designated major streets remains.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.PH25.3Agenda Item History 2025.PH25.3
Agenda Item History 2025.PH25.3
Councillor Lily Cheng starts us off by asking about one of the recurring themes throughout this debate: a fear of pot shops everywhere. Reefer store madness. She asks if the city can limit cannabis stores. Staff say they're having conversations with province about possible additional restrictions.
Councillor Thompson asks if there's been enough consultation on this corner store item. Staff say they had pop-up events in every ward with a total of 1,300 people, a survey that received 2,600 responses, public meetings with 'several hundred" attendees, seven meetings with resident associations.
Most significant remaining change in the corner store report is adding permissions for retail along "major streets." Staff have provided maps for each ward showing what would change — retail would be permitted in the orange areas. A few examples attached.
https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2025/cc/bgrd/backgroundfile-259945.pdf (PDF)
Providing these maps may have further complicated this debate, as now councillors are interrogating planning staff about whether certain sections should actually qualify as major streets.
Councillor Neethan Shan asks if it's true that, if council allows more retail, there won’t be any way to stop these businesses from selling alcohol and pot.
Staff say licensing processes already exist. And discussions continue re: new city powers to restrict those uses.
Seems to be some scene-setting going on for a motion to defer this until after the close of negotiations with the province re: restricting alcohol and pot uses. We'll see if that gains traction.
Deputy Mayor Malik asks if the city has received a lot of complaints about existing retail within neighbourhoods. Staff say of 1,000 neighbourhood businesses operating over last five years, 60% had no complaints, another 35% received five or less.
Councillor Dianne Saxe asks if it's true that increased retail permissions could lead to residents getting evicted and replaced by stores or restaurants.
Staff confirm a change of zoning doesn't change anything to do with current rights re: tenancy and eviction.
Councillor Dianne Saxe asks about the potential for geographically-limited permissions for corner stores. Staff say ward-based permissions are possible. "Ward-based is better than city-wide, but it's not good enough," says Saxe. She seems to favour neighbourhood-based rules.
"If I want to run a 24-hour store selling stamps, can I do that?" wonders Councillor Stephen Holyday, as a means to point out that city hall has no control over business operating hours.
Yes, staff say. (I don't think there's much demand for a 24-hour stamp store though.)
Councillor Holyday worries about retail stores that "sell some zany thing that has very little value." He wants to know if council could define a list of what stores can sell.
Staff say they can regulate things like size, noise and property standards, but generally not what stores sell.
Holyday asks why this retail report is part of the broader program about expanding housing options. Staff say it's because when you add more people to a neighbourhood, they generally need places to shop and get food.
I'm hardly a hardcore free-market libertarian, but it does seem like the reality of market forces should be a bigger part of this debate. The basic reason you don't need to worry about a 24/7 bar/potshop/noise-making emporium setting up on a small street is basically "there's no demand for it."
Councillor Bravo remembers going to corner stores as a kid. She asked what happened to corner stores like that. Staff say new zoning bylaws in the 50s created a "separation of uses." Existing neighbourhood stores continued to operate, but new ones weren't allowed. The number dwindled.
"Theoretically, could someone convert a single-family detached home into a small retail plaza under this plan?" Councillor Pasternak wonders.
Planning staff say no to the plaza idea, but on a major street they would be able to convert to a retail unit up to max of 1600 square feet.
Planning staff seem a bit bemused by all these questions worried about property owners converting residential to retail. The typical pattern they see in applications is owners wanting to convert commercial spaces to residential. Rare to see a request to go the other way.
"How are we so confident there won't be a requirement for more MLS bylaw officers, given the potential for alcohol and cannabis uses?" Councillor Kandavel asks.
Staff say they'd request more resources if they saw a need. It's "premature to highlight a need where there isn't one."
Councillor Perks gets staff to confirm that local retail supports the city's policies to achieve net zero and reduce traffic congestion. He also confirms that removing permissions for restaurants/bars would also stop stores from selling coffee.
Perks says he'll now be advance circulating a motion with a "number of clauses." So stay tuned for that if you love clauses.
Mayor Olivia Chow has a motion too. A big one. She moves to have the entire Toronto & East York area "opt in" to neighbourhood retail corner stores.
Full text of Chow's motion to allow neighbourhood corner stores in all Old Toronto & East York wards.
Chow says these permissions are really about "cutting red tape" and creating jobs.
"We need to find a way to allow these ambitious entrepreneurs — especially newcomers, small business owners — to operate in the City of Toronto."
She encourages councillors to add their wards to the list.
Chow said her corner store motion includes the entire Toronto & East York community council area, but Councillor Josh Matlow's Ward 12 is missing. Maybe that'll come later.
Councillors with wards included:
- Bravo
- Perks
- Malik
- Fletcher
- Moise
- Saxe
- Bradford
The Perks motion is posted. It includes a loooong list of major streets where retail would NOT be allowed.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.PH25.3Also from the Perks' motion:
1) A restriction on commercial uses on major streets in "new non-residential buildings." (?)
2) A request for a cap on the number of cannabis stores per ward.
Say his name and he appears. Councillor Josh Matlow pops up virtually, on his way to Scarborough. Don't worry, he's in the passenger seat. ("I'm not pulling a Perruzza," he notes.)
He moves to add his Ward 12 to the mayor's list of wards that will allow permissions for neighbourhood corner stores
Councillor Paul Ainslie rises to argue that the city's "major streets" map is outdated. "It's using data from 2003!" he says.
"What it really needs is a thorough review by planning with public consultation," he says, ahead of any zoning changes.
Councillor Shan moves to exclude three streets in his ward. He worries the retail spaces created won't just be small shops selling ice cream to locals, but things like "beef patties that are so popular that people from the 905 will come to get it." That'll just add to traffic problems, he says.
Councillor Shelley Carroll says she gets a lot of calls wanting her to fight applications for cannabis store licenses, but, "I can't, in my database, find a single complaint about one once they are open." Perhaps there's a lesson there.
Councillor Stephen Holyday moves to exclude every major street in his ward from the expanded retail permissions.
Holyday explains his opposition to expanded retail is linked to a 1933 theory called "Neighbourhood Place Theory." He holds up some kind of diagram? Sure, okay.
@GraphicMatt I was curious, but found no mentions of "neighbo[u]rhood place theory" anywhere in York U's holdings or the Internet Archive's. Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to be known by that phrase. {{citation needed}}
Central Place Theory and its merit and demerit
Central Place Theory, proposed by geographer Walter Christaller in 1933, describes the size, distribution, and function of urban settlements, primarily in Bavaria, Germany. It outlines several assumptions about population distribution, resource availability, and competition to explain how central places provide goods and services to surrounding areas, using principles that establish hierarchical layouts of settlements. While the theory has its applications, particularly in India, it has faced criticism for its unrealistic assumptions and inability to account for modern economic complexities. - Download as a PPTX, PDF or view online for free
Matt Elliott
William Denton
Mark Christensen