Chow's motion requesting the province cover the full cost of crossing guards, police officers, and road safety improvements previously paid for by speed camera revenue CARRIES 25-0.
Up now: starting Jan 1, your recycling will be collected by a private company, not the City of Toronto. Council is pretty concerned that the new company, Circular Materials, is not ready for this transition.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.IE25.2Agenda Item History 2025.IE25.2
Agenda Item History 2025.IE25.2
Fletcher's motion on the blue bins isn't ready yet, so council jumps over to an item about the Allen & Eglinton intersection. Councillor Bradford wants to give a speech about the importance of fixing the design of the intersection to relieve traffic congestion.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.IE25.6Agenda Item History 2025.IE25.6
Agenda Item History 2025.IE25.6
Councillor Mike Colle laments the traffic at the Eglinton & Allen intersection, but says there's no quick fix.
"And you know what's going to exasperate it even more? The lunatic provincial government is going to allow 30 towers of condominiums along the Allen Road!"
Jumping back to the blue bins, Councillor Fletcher passes a motion asking the new company collecting recycling provide some extra trucks to handle the extra cardboard & such produced over the holidays.
"Fasten your seatbelts, colleagues, because I think it's going to be a rough ride," she adds.
Council nearly loses quorum during a debate about whether they should ask people to refrain from using two-stroke gas-powered lawn equipment like leaf blowers during days with poor air quality. I can't imagine why. It's thrilling stuff.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.IE25.13Agenda Item History 2025.IE25.13
Agenda Item History 2025.IE25.13
On the lawn equipment item, Councillor Stephen Holyday moves to replace the word "possible" in this motion with "practical and feasible." Sometimes you just gotta use a leaf blower, even on high AQHI days, he explains.
Up now: Councillor Brad Bradford's motion to amend the encampment policy to prioritize the removal of camps close to schools, daycares and playgrounds within 48 hours.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.MM34.4Agenda Item History 2025.MM34.4
Agenda Item History 2025.MM34.4
Bradford asks how many encampments there are currently. Staff say there are 355. 255 are located in 92 parks. 199 of them are located within 200 metres of a school, playground or daycare — about 56% of the total.
Bradford asks if the new encampment policy adopted in 2024 led to more encampments or fewer. Staff say a year ago there were 540 encampments. Today, there are 355.
"The motion as-is would not be operationally feasible for us to remove 199 encampments within 48 hours," says GM of Shelters Gord Tanner of the Bradford motion.
Perks asks the City Solicitor if she sees any issues with Bradford's motion. She does! She says the motion may run afoul of rules preventing council from directing enforcement, and could be inconsistent with a court's ruling in Waterloo Region re: encampments.
"Do we currently have enough space in our [shelter] system for everyone who is in an encampment to go?" Perks asks Shelters GM Gord Tanner.
"No," says Tanner.
"I think that's all I needed to hear," says Perks.
Councillor Lily Cheng asks if the city has ever considered establishing an area where people can legally set up encampments.
Tanner says the city has thought about it, but given how hard it's been to find shelter sites, finding land for a legal encampment area would be very tough.
Councillor Paula Fletcher moves to amend the wording of Bradford's motion.
Fletcher's motion would also apply a three-strikes rule: people living in encampments would be offered shelter a maximum of three times before the removal process begins.
With 15 items left on the agenda, Councillor Gord Perks moves to finish the agenda tonight. Motion to extend CARRIES 15-7.
Councillor Gord Perks wants to jump over to the TPA Board item, because he says it needs to be dealt with ASAP. But councillors Bradford and Pasternak don't want to do that. Procedural confusion! Anyway, the vote to reorder the agenda FAILS 10-10. And so chaos reigns.
Back to encampments. Councillor Chris Moise says the city's current encampment strategy is working. "In August 2025, for the first time in Toronto Centre, we had no encampments in all of our parks," he says.
"I am voting against this motion because I think it's BS," says Moise of Bradford's encampment motion. "And I just hope that somebody here will come to their senses."
"I am the father of a two- and a four-year-old. And I don't think parents should have to worry about whether it's safe or not to take their kids to the park or walk to school," says Councillor Brad Bradford.
Bradford says Fletcher's motion is a "poison pill." He says the mayor has allowed parks to be "overrun for months on end."
"Dufferin Grove used to be the example of how we had a compassionate response... that was the model. Now Dufferin Grove is the nightmare."
Pasternak moves to call the question, ending this encampment debate. That FAILS 6-14. The debate will continue until morale improves.
Councillor Gord Perks calls Bradford's speech "performative."
"Isn't it interesting that the same person who gets up and thumps the table and talks about all the harms caused by people who have lost their homes, being in encampments, has voted against building shelters," Perks says.
"You cannot in good faith stand up on Monday and say, 'Stop building shelters!' And then stand up on Thursday and say, 'Get everybody out of the encampments.' It is REPREHENSIBLE to do that," says Councillor Gord Perks of Brad Bradford's motion.
Council takes a break from the encampments item. Council is now considering a motion from Councillor James Pasternak to support an MZO that'd greatly limit the amount of housing that can be built next to a vaccine manufacturing facility on Steeles Ave.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.MM34.11Agenda Item History 2025.MM34.11
Agenda Item History 2025.MM34.11
Staff confirm Sanofi Pasteur, the owner of the vaccine facility, are particularly concerned about "overlook" and "corporate security." They fear if housing is built nearby, people will be able to peer over their balconies and learn trade secrets.
"Bringing an MZO forward so they can actually NOT create housing. In a housing crisis! I don't get it," says Councillor Chris Moise. He says the Sanofi plant has blacked-out windows so he doesn't buy their arguments re: trade secrets and privacy.
"Let the provincial government decide if they want to have an MZO and quash this housing. But we, as a council, should not aid them and abet them in doing so. And this is why I am voting against this. This is a FARCE," says Moise of the Sanofi MZO.
"There's widespread documentation that if this development is approved, it will dramatically compromise and impair the ability of Sanofi to do [life-saving] work," says Pasternak, the local rep. He says the proposal adjacent to the site only offers 12 new affordable units. "Not a housing bonanza."
Pasternak says if residents are allowed to move into a development next to this vaccine plant, "they will complain about noise, they will complain about odour." He says these complaints will trigger a slowdown in work at the plants.
Councillor Pasternak's motion to support an MZO restricting housing development on Steeles next to the Sanofi facility CARRIES 19-2. (That's Matlow and Moise opposed.)
Councillor Brad Bradford's motion to prioritize encampment removals based on those with the most significant impact within 150 metres of schools, daycares and playgrounds FAILS 9-10.
Councillor Fletcher's motion to prioritize encampment removals for those having a significant impact within 50 metres of a school, daycare, or playground, and to make a max of three offers of shelter, CARRIES 14-5.
The encampment item as amended is APPROVED 16-3.
Up now: Councillor Bravo's motion to oppose the parts of Bill 60 that further limit city hall's ability to redesign roads.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.MM34.14Agenda Item History 2025.MM34.14
Agenda Item History 2025.MM34.14
Holyday says he can't support the Bravo motion. He says city hall brought this on themselves.
"Clearly we've been offside so many times with what the broad majority of many of these neighbourhoods expect of us. And I think that's what prompted this."
Bravo's motion to oppose the part of Bill 60 further restricting Toronto's ability to redesign roads CARRIES 14-1.
Just two items left. Up now: Mayor Olivia Chow's motion to dissolve the Toronto Parking Authority Board and "conduct a thorough operational review." Bradford wants to ask questions of the mayor, but she's not here. He doesn't love that.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.MM34.17Agenda Item History 2025.MM34.17
Agenda Item History 2025.MM34.17
"What is the problem that has been discovered that requires the immediate dissolving of the board?" Councillor Myers asks.
City Manager Paul Johnson says the mayor is in charge of the budget, and she's looking for efficiencies.
Councillor Holyday wants to know if council can summon TPA management and the current TPA board to this meeting at this hour. Councillor Paula Fletcher, serving as speaker, doesn't think that's doable. "I don't think they're gonna be here," she says.
Matt Elliott
