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Councillor Paul Ainslie rises to argue that the city's "major streets" map is outdated.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.
Holyday now has a picture of a local strip mall. He says these businesses can barely survive on a busy street, so he doesn't believe this notion that any "lovely stores" will survive on local streets.
"The rage-baiting is really nauseating," says Councillor Parthi Kandavel. "The idea or the implication that we're against kids getting ice cream or seniors getting a cappuccino, it's troubling. That insinuation that some of us are knuckle-dragging suburbanites ... it doesn't reflect the complexity."
With that, Council breaks for lunch. Maybe a good time to check out the offerings at your local retail stores.
Back at 2 p.m. to finish off this debate and the remaining 28 items on the agenda. See you then.
Council is back. In a moment of intrigue, Mayor Olivia Chow moves to re-open an item related to speed cameras. "I have an update," she says. They'll come back to it later.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.IE25.8Agenda Item History 2025.IE25.8
Agenda Item History 2025.IE25.8
Councillor Lily Cheng announces the 2025 Council Secret Santa. She says they'll all exchange gifts on the first day of Council in December. 'Tis the season.
Wow: big news here. Mayor Olivia Chow has a motion to dissolve the Toronto Parking Authority board. If this passes, there will be a "thorough operational review" of TPA.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.MM34.17Agenda Item History 2025.MM34.17
Agenda Item History 2025.MM34.17
Councillor Brad Bradford's motion to prioritize clearing encampments near daycares and schools within 48 hours gets added to the agenda after a 20-6 vote. They'll debate it later.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.MM34.4Councillor James Pasternak's motion to support an MZO that'd greatly limit the potential for new housing near a pharma plant on Steeles West gets added to the agenda with a 23-2 vote. Moise holds it for debate. They'll come back to it.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.MM34.11Back to the neighbourhood retail item. Councillor Paula Fletcher wants to use the overhead machine. She displays a photo of a local store in her ward, Woodfield Grocery. She points to the "Store Since 1920's" sign. Well-loved for over 100 years, she says.
Councillor Holyday has revised his motion on neighbourhood stores. Instead of a total restriction on retail on major street areas zoned as residential in his ward, he is proposing restrictions on a long list of specific streets.
Councillor Jamaal Myers moves a couple of motions:
- Remove new retail permissions on Brimley Road in his ward.
- Conduct more "meaningful consultation" and look at ways business licensing can address concerns re: neighbourhood retail.
Councillor Jamaal Myers says some people want nieghbourhood retail, but others might "already have enough retail. And they don't want to live next to a convenience store, and that's perfectly OK as well."
After formally introducing his motions, Councillor Gord Perks calls the process that led to these compromises on neighbourhood retail "collegial but complicated." He's added a few more clauses.
"Some members of council have said there are two Torontos: downtown and the suburbs. And that's not true," says Perks. "There aren't two Torontos — there's one Toronto, with 200 neighbourhoods." He says this process required "fine-grained work" to meet the needs of those neighbourhoods.
Time to vote. Councillor Shan's motion to exclude three streets in his ward from the expanded retail permissions on major streets FAILS 9-17.
Holyday's motion to exclude a whole bunch of major streets in his ward from the new retail permissions FAILS 10-16.
Perks' motion to exclude a long list of major streets across the city from the expanded retail permissions CARRIES 25-1.
Mayor Olivia Chow's motion to allow neighbourhood corner stores in all wards in the Old Toronto & East York Community Council area CARRIES 25-1.
The mayor's motion to keep confidential legal advice confidential CARRIES 25-1. He's just mashing that "No" button now.
Myers' motion to conduct more consultation and look at ways business licensing can ease concerns about local retail CARRIES 25-1.
The neighbourhood retail report as amended CARRIES 23-2.
Toronto Council votes to permit corner stores in all Old Toronto & East York wards, and expands permission for retail on some (but not all) major streets city-wide.
Changing gears, Mayor Olivia Chow brings Lisa Duncan, Director of Collections and Litter Operations, to the lectern. Duncan is retiring after 35 years at city hall. "Her work has made Toronto a cleaner and more liveable city," says Chow. Duncan gets a standing O.
After a quick debate, Councillor Paula Fletcher's motion asking Metrolinx to provide GPS tracking for all trucks working on the Ontario Line and better communication with residents CARRIES 25-0.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.EX27.3Agenda Item History 2025.EX27.3
Agenda Item History 2025.EX27.3
Up now: the City would like to close a gap on the Humber Trail, but the path winds through the Weston Golf Club. The golf club is not happy about this. They submitted this graphic showing the path of the trail and 1954 flood damage caused by Hurricane Hazel.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.GG25.15Councillor Burnside doesn't really want to hear any more about this golf club stuff. He calls the question, moving to skip the rest of the speakers and proceed straight to the vote. That FAILS 14-9. It needed two-thirds. The golf talk continues.
On the Humber Trail / Golf Course item, Councillor Holyday moves for a report on an "alternate design" for the trail that would go around the golf course property.
After several councillors argue that this trail design was already approved years ago, Holyday's motion to look at an alternative alignment for the Humber Trail past the Weston Golf Club FAILS 4-21.
Matt Elliott
Deborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦