Oh boy, if I were a councillor I would have SO MANY FUCKING QUESTIONS about this chatbot. Like: exactly what model are you going to use? Is it using RAG or what? What giant American company are you paying for this? How does it use/augment traditional search results? Would it be cheaper to just fucking reorganize your fucking website so people can find stuff, which they complain they can't?
Meanwhile Cheng is like, starry-eyed, could AI eventually triage 311 requests directly??? GIRL—
Apparently they're not that far along yet, they're in the R&D stage, so there should be at least one more report on it. Will there be more answers? Probably not, but at least there is time for us to educate City Council about the matter so they ask the right questions.
Carroll mentions humans "teach[ing] the language model"/"training the bot", staff: "1700 hours in customer engagement"…
Aside from the technical stuff, I think the most crucial question to ask is, when the bot gets something wrong, which it absolutely fucking will, who is responsible?
Some city councillors are more tech-savvy than others, some quite tech-savvy, but I seriously doubt any of them know enough about LLMs and "AI" to be properly critical about this. Like at best they've seen a headline about the environmental costs of datacentres or whatever. (Prove me wrong, Council!) No shade to them, they don't really have time to learn this shit. That is why all of us have to reach out to them.
Holyday's question starts off very well, "do I understand it's a computer with natural language capabilities…" (me: okay, so far, so good…) "…that is very smart, and" (paraphrased) can search through all the data really fast and find stuff, and the quality of its responses depends on the accuracy of the stuff on the website.
Like I see where he's coming from but that is not at all how that works
I suddenly have the utterly perverse and disgusting idea that maybe Holyday could actually be receptive on this.
He's not unintelligent, he's just evil. He dislikes the City spending more money than it absolutely has to, and if he thinks, like, school lunches are too much, an unreliable and resource-hungry LLM that cannot replace humans, that must continually be checked by humans, could well be too much as well.
God it's such a filthy thought. Ughgh.
Cllr Carroll has a story about a potentially rabid raccoon "moosing around on [her] property" for a few days and then being informed the 311 ticket was closed.
"This is going to build trust in our democracy," rhapsodizes Cllr Cheng. kill me
Well thank fuck that one's done. I would feel like a coward if I had to flee screaming from the Council chamber less than an hour before the end.
Cllr Myers says everyone is "very excited" about the upcoming long-term care home on Finch East with culturally appropriate care for Black, Caribbean, African & diaspora seniors.
Cllr Myers says the community wants to name the new LTC home after Bernice Redmon, Canada's first Black nurse.
After an old campaign war story from Thompson involving an angry mob of Greek-Canadians, the item passes via show of hands. We have time for only a few more items!!
We are just whipping through quick releases. Okay, back tomorrow at 9:30 AM. Will I be back? Quite possibly as I may need to do some shopping in the area.
Thanks everyone for following along with my increasingly unhinged updates!
…Well I just walked out feeling my default "absolute rock bottom" to find Nathan Phillips Square full of victorious Brazilians, which instantly improved the day (sorry, uh hastily searches Scots)
The victorious Brazilians are giving way to optimistic Mexicans (vs. Czechia at 9).
Okay, I do have to admit World Cup time in Toronto is kind of fun. Because despite everything wrong with this place, we're still one of the most multicultural cities on the planet, dammit, and that means no matter who's playing, somewhere, there. Is. A. PARTY.
One year when Italy won, I was living near Little Italy, it was off the hook.
Welp, made it back to City Hall finally.
ONWARD
Cllr Cheng proudly announces the Willowdale Pigeon Impact Photo Contest, for residents of Willowdale and beyond to join the "pooparazzi" and document the impact of pigeon feeding.
Note: even pigeon advocates (they exist!) advise that people should not feed pigeons; there are plenty of other ways to improve urban pigeons' welfare. Here's where I would put a link but the wifi is ass.
Now lots of member motions, which mostly have to do with local affairs, or are non-binding symbolic kinds of things, so they typically pass with a show of hands.
See e.g. MM42.16 which is just a request for the Province to fund Toronto Public Health more and which will go nowhere.
Despite being entirely occupied by grown adults the Council floor frequently has the air of a high school classroom presided over by a bored and grumpy substitute teacher, complete with OAC/Grade 13s making wisecracks at the back.
(Children, back in the day there was a Grade 13.)
Members' motions first require a ⅔ majority vote to be put on the agenda, so when an MM is really unpopular or controversial (like this one on pedestrian streets), someone may want a recorded vote.
(If the vote fails the item gets put on the next agenda of the relevant committee.)
Perks: "I say close all the streets."
Holyday: "I think that's what they're trying to do."
Perks (I think): "I say we close all the streets around Stephen Holyday's house, so he can't drive home."
Carroll: "I say we all chip in to send Holyday to Germany for a couple of weeks."
Perks: "I'll chip in for a one-way ticket."
Nunziata scolds the area for chattering. They blame Burnside. She blames Burnside and Holyday.
(You don't pick up any of this off-mic banter on the livestream, which is why it's worth coming in in person, if you can.)
Now back to Vision Zero updates. Councillors are very mad about the Province's speed camera ban. (See the report (PDF) on the effects.)
Matlow "hopes the Premier comes back to his senses", though I'm sure he knows perfectly well this is the Premier's normal senses.
My informed opinion is that the most quintessentially Torontonian movie is not anything actually about Toronto, but David Cronenberg's Crash (1996), for capturing our self-destructive obsession with, apparently, creating conditions for as many, and as lethal, car crashes as possible.
We are "sacrificing our kids to the ideology of a premier who doesn't care about our city," says Cllr Saxe.
Cllr Colle proposes looking into installing rumble strips, which I actually think is a good idea. Why the fuck not, right?
(No one is really paying attention at this point.)
Former police officer Burnside notes that over a 10-year period, the number of traffic tickets went down 90%.
Some background: Since 2013, the number of traffic tickets has plunged. At the time, Cllr Thompson argued it was a low-key "work-to-rule" thing in retaliation for Council cutting the police budget. See also this 2017 report for the numbers.
While Burnside naturally thinks "funding the police" (which he thanks the mayor for) is the answer, hiring more police will obviously not help if the police refuse to enforce the traffic laws. (Note: Council also cannot tell the police how to operate.)
Chow has a motion to send the damning report to the provincial government. I can think of far more effective ways to get Doug Ford's attention, but I don't think they are the kind of thing you can do via Council motion, or are wise to discuss in advance, or are perhaps strictly legal.
Pasternak (I think) asked Colle to amend his motion to not have rumble strips in residential areas, which I think is counterproductive. Like yeah it'll make noise, yeah people will complain. Do it anyway! Explain this is what we have to do because of Doug Ford banning speed cameras! Maybe they'll complain to Doug Ford.
Holyday smarmily asks whether the Province, and people in general, will not just be like, "Just hire more officers?"
Chow repeats staff's estimates that it would take 3 police to replace 1 speed camera. They would have to hire hundreds of police, at least. She shoots Holyday's objection down as ridiculous.
Okay, now voting. "Let's rumble!" cheers Colle when his motion passes. Cllrs Fletcher and Perks begin loudly reminiscing about pro wrestling with him.
The item as amended passes 23 in favour. Yes, even Holyday.
Cllr Morley is speaking passionately about the long effort to transform Humber Bay Shores, which used to be "a motel strip", into a complete community. (No one is listening; they are chattering with people in the gallery, putting together stuff for other items, etc.) Nunziata admonishes her for making such a long speech, but Morley is adamant.
The item as a whole carries unanimously without a fuss. Nunziata says no more quick releases.
Now up: asking the Province to make a deposit-return program for all drink containers (like there is just for alcohol).
This is a pet cause of Cllr Perks, who did a lot of activism about recycling back in the day.
Holyday, of course, is agin' it, because he is a death cultist. (His professed reason is that it will exacerbate poverty because people will have to pay more at point of sale.)
Perks is like, "It's a return system, you return them to get money."
"The only reason you can return wine bottles in Ontario for a deposit is that the former Metro Council got sick and tired of paying for Blue Box costs, and an an intrepid member of Council named Howard Moscoe passed a by-law making it illegal to sell alcohol in the City of Toronto unless you took the bottle back."
("And Judy Sgro," Thompson reminds him.)
"Three days before the bylaw came into effect, the Province caved and implemented a deposit return program on wine bottles."
Cllr Bradford argues this is outside the City's jurisdiction (the Province recently had a consortium of manufacturers take over responsibility for recycling from municipalities). He also uses the "it makes groceries more expensive" argument. (Perks is pacing around in high dudgeon.)
Colle complains about the price of groceries.
Cheng mentions "climate anxiety".
They vote. It passes.
"I worry that if I mention Jollibee one more time in this council, people will throw fried chicken at me," says Cllr Pasternak.
(Re this item.)
Now up: the item about a framework for a maximum indoor temperature bylaw.
Holyday, who was just arguing that a deposit fee of a few cents was too much for poor residents, is now like, "Well, the Landlord Tenant Act is changing so landlords can't ban tenants from installing an air conditioner, so from now on people can just buy their own air conditioners, what's the problem?" He also says, what about people who WANT the temperature higher than 26°C but can't because of the law?
I might need to go take a break before I throw my fucking laptop at this guy
In response to Cllr Bravo's question, staff allow that sometimes people cannot afford to buy an air conditioner, aren't physically capable of installing one, or can't afford to run it.
Bravo adds that a bylaw could prevent people having to take a recalcitrant landlord to the Landlord Tenant Board (LTB), which can take months.
Holyday is speaking again.
Holyday is like, Are you saying we should revolve our WHOLE SYSTEM around the miniscule fraction of people who can't afford air conditioners or aren't physically capable of installing them??? Why not do something just for those people?
Note: the City of Toronto has such a program and let me just see how Holyday voted on that…
December 2025, "City Council … continue to deliver an air conditioner assistance program aimed at providing access to air conditioning for low-income and vulnerable households in multi-unit residential buildings in Toronto"—Holyday against
February 2026, the budget, "expand the existing Air Conditioner Pilot Program for Low-Income Seniors by renaming the program as the Air Conditioner Pilot Program for Low-Income and Vulnerable Residents"—Holyday against
May 2026, standardizing the benefit—Holyday against
WHAT A FUCKING SURPRISE
Applications for the Air Conditioner Assistance Program are closed. If you are in need of a cooling device, you may be eligible for funding through the Ontario Works/Ontario Disability Support Program or the City’s Hardship Fund. Toronto continues to experience the effects of climate change, including more frequent, prolonged and extreme heat events. Excessive indoor […]
Neville Park
Tom Rini