Council votes 23-0 to ADOPT Fletcher's amendment, which means they do NOT endorse the Integrity Commissioner's finding that Councillor Chris Moise breached the code of conduct.
Up now: Bad Landlords! "I will not tolerate slumlords in the City of Toronto," writes Mayor Olivia Chow in her motion. She wants a better database to track violations by landlords and identify the worst of the worst.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2026.EX29.14Speaking of databases, I heard from a local civic tech dev, Amrit Sharma, who put together this useful database that collects a variety of datapoints to flag potentially unsafe buildings.
https://toronteau.com/housing
Is My Building Safe? | Toronteau
Look up any Toronto address to check for building code violations and property standards problems. Updated daily from official City data.
Asked how many apartment buildings with bad landlords there are in the city, staff say about 115 buildings are in the "red category" of about 3,600 total buildings.
After staff questions, Councillor Brad Bradford is the first speaker on the bad landlord item. His ward contains 500 Dawes Road, which has become the poster child for this issue. "We're dealing with a scumbag of a landlord. This is not a good-faith actor," Bradford says.
"This file has a history that goes all the way back to former councillor Janet Davis," says Bradford of 500 Dawes. "And her and I have had lots of conversations about this."
He says tenants "have been let down by a city that moves far too slow on this."
Councillor Josh Matlow says the city's message to bad landlords should be, "If you're not willing to be a real human being, and care about the other human beings who you have the responsibility to care for, we're gonna damn well go in there and fix things — and bill you afterwards."
Councillor Dianne Saxe says she's been hearing that the city has an enforcement problem. "We don't have an enforcement approach that is of a measure for the threat — and we need to. We need to take seriously what our bylaws say," she says.
Councillor Holyday moves to strike "CUPE 416" from one of the mayor's motions. He says he doesn't understand why it's there.
He then urges council to "be careful in taking an aggressive stance" re: bad landlords, saying there could be "unintended consequences."
Councillor Alejandra Bravo thanks Mayor Chow for "after so many years, sending a message to every landlord in the city who exploits people, who doesn't obey the law, who puts people in precarious conditions, who makes their life a living hell — you're now on notice."
And that takes Council to lunch. There are still 113 items left on the agenda. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
Back at 2 p.m.
Council is about to return. Before they get back to the bad landlord debate, they'll pay tribute to Will Johnston, the Deputy City Manager responsible for Infrastructure and Development Services. He's retiring from city hall next week.
Chow takes the lectern to praise Johnston's work. She heralds his "dedication to public services" on issues like transit, development and snow clearing.
"We know you're looking forward to returning to Vancouver, where you don't have to look at that 60 cm of snowstorm in one day," the mayor adds.
Johnston gets the standard-issue retirement photo with the mayor and thanks a long list of people. "I am very grateful and honoured for having the opportunity to play a role in helping to shape this incredible city." He gets a standing ovation. Nunziata asks why the heck he's going to Vancouver.
Back to bad landlords. Councillor Lily Cheng moves to conduct user experience consultations with the new database once it launches, and to look at requiring landlords to inform tenants when their building has a property standards issue.
Chow is up to speak on bad landlords. She's got a looong motion that is now posted on the item. Some key recs to the provincial gov:
- Higher fines
- Eliminating appeals for property standards orders
- Bring back rent control and introduce vacancy control
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2026.EX29.14
"There's no escape. We will shut down slum landlords, because we are the City of Toronto — we are the government," declares Mayor Olivia Chow.
Time to vote. The part of Mayor Chow's motion calling for the province to bring back universal rent control and add vacancy control (in addition to some other changes) CARRIES 24-2.
All other amendments CARRY via show of hands. The bad landlord item CARRIES 25-1. But WAIT, Holyday says he actually meant to vote YES. This is the first time this has ever happened, he says, apologizing.
They redo the bad landlord vote for Holyday. He remembers, this time, where the YES button is. It CARRIES 26-0.
Before the next item, Councillor Gord Perks rises to pay tribute to the departing David Stonehouse, the longtime director of the waterfront secretariat. "He asked that we not do this, but in typical fashion, we're going to ignore advice from staff," jokes Perks.
Up now: the island airport. Premier Doug Ford says he intends to pass legislation that would take Toronto's spot in the tripartite agreement governing Billy Bishop Island Airport, which would clear the runway for airport expansion.
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2026.MM39.59"I would suggest that the provincial government could assume responsibility for the agreement through legislation, but the federal government would not have to accept the amendment to the contract," says the city solicitor re: the tripartite agreement. The feds could stop Ford, in other words.
Fletcher asks how the city is supposed to deal with all the ongoing planning applications in the port lands if flight paths are going to change at the island airport.
"That is certainly something that we will want to look at," say staff. Okay then.
"Can you help me understand how the airport operations could make life less livable in this city?" wonders Holyday. Staff cite significantly increased traffic, interference with recreational uses in the harbour, the potential for "jet blast screens" on the runway, noise, etc.
Councillor Matlow has a motion on the island airport. It asks staff for advice on "potential legal options to defend the City of Toronto's interests" in waterfront lands like the airport.
"Doug Ford needs to understand that leadership is NOT cutting partners out and making announcements AT people rather than WITH people," says Matlow. He says it doesn't matter what you think about jets on the island, people should want a better process.
"We firmly say, and we demand, a seat at the table. We deserve it, and there is no table without us," says Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik.
"Everything has been put at risk, and we simply cannot take the premier's word that he somehow has the city of Toronto's interest at heart."
"If they take this land of the city, what is next — and in whose interest? What important housing projects are going to be interrupted, cancelled, or backtracked -- what is up for grabs next, without say from our residents?" asks Malik.
"The next thing you know, [Ford] will send in somebody to take the mayor out, if you know what I mean. This is not Venezuela! You just don't do whatever you want. This is Toronto. We live in a DEMOCRACY," says Councillor Paula Fletcher.
Councillor Stephen Holyday says he is "REALLY ANGRY."
"What I see is a city disintegrating and a lack of leadership on all of this!" He's mad, he says, because Metrolinx took some land on Eglington West for the LRT and no one cared, but now people are mad about the airport land.
Holday also argues that wards in Etobicoke and North York are already subject to airplane noise from Pearson, so he doesn't see why the waterfront wards should be spared from additional island airport impacts.
"If you don't understand the economic interest in having a successful international airport ... the problem is not with the policy, the problem is with YOU," concludes Holyday, suggesting councillors who oppose this should run for provincial office.
"If you're not at the table, then you're on the menu," says Councillor Brad Bradford. He argues that Chow and council failed to commit to a "long-term vision" for the airport in 2024, which led to this move for the provincial and federal govs to go forward without the city.
Mayor Chow is up. "Let us not twist truth," she says in response to Bradford. "We have a vision of the waterfront! We've said we have one. We said we will negotiate this master plan, this tripartite agreement!"
"In my mind, democracy matters," says Chow.
"We are a level of government that is one of the biggest in the country. We have a huge budget. And we have to be part of the conversation."
"On Monday, we heard that land will be expropriated. Which land? What land? Has anyone seen the plan? Has anyone seen precisely what kind of tripartite agreement is going to be acceptable? Is there a plan? If there is, it's a mystery to me," says Chow of the island airport.
"We are not shutting down that airport," says Chow, noting that the priority should actually be for Billy Bishop to get the approved runway extensions done so they can meet federal safety regulations.
Saying this is basically a done deal, Holyday asks Chow what the city's plan will be to handle increased traffic around the island airport after it's expanded. Chow says there can't be a plan yet because nobody even knows what Ford's plan is for the airport exactly.
I'm not sure where the number comes from, but Fletcher and Chow are now talking about Ford wanting to increase the number of island airport passengers from ~2 million annually today to 10 million.
At ten million annual passengers, Billy Bishop would be the fifth busiest airport in the country, surpassing Halifax (4.1 million), Winnipeg (4.4 million), Ottawa (4.9 million), and Edmonton (8.1 million)
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