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Toronto Council Tackles Urban Issues - City Council - March 26, 2026 - Evening Session
Toronto · March 28, 2026
resume. Can Can you shut the bells off? Councelor Pastronac. Okay, this meeting is now resumed. It's not mine. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Deb Josh, it is mine. Kelly, there you go. Yeah. Is it broken? Looks good. Can you put it on? Of course, please. Okay, our next item is councelor Marley. Um, I voted incorrectly on the last item. I'd like to change my vote. No, we can't reopen the item because we have some members of council that are not here. Sorry. Okay, councelor Pastronac, the item that you held down. No questions. We have a lot of counselors that are not here. They're not here back yet. So, we're at um uh vision zero. You held the item down. So, do we have questions to staff? I had my questions answered. I have no questions for staff. Does anybody else have any questions to staff? No. Okay, then let's um get the speakers list and um I need to um councelor pastor, I need to speak on this item. I I'll pass. I'm not speaking. You're not speaking. Um Okay. Councelor Fletcher is not here and and the mayor's mayor is not here. I I have an amendment to make. Well, I don't know. Can Canel take the chair? Councelor Fletcher, are you around? So, we're dispensing with questions and we're moving to speakers. Uh, uh, Councelor Nietta Go ahead, Madam Speaker. Okay. Thank you. Um I I have an amendment to make and we'll put it on the screen and I won't speak long. Um that is it on the screen? Okay. City city council requests the general manager of transportation services to examine potential traffic safety enhancements on Humber Boulevard North between Western Road and Alliance Avenue considering implementation of speed management measures such as speed cushions, geometric safety improvements, and other improvements to the pedestrian crossover with a report back to Tobocco York Community Council. The reason I'm moving this, you heard on the news yesterday that a 15year-old was um hit by a car on Humber Boulevard and Humber Boulevard. If you know Humber Boulevard, we have Humber Boulevard South Humber Boulevard North and there's a pedestrian walkway from March Bishop Romero School where the students cross the walkway and there's a fence and they're crossing Humber Boulevard North. So this this youth, this individual was crossing the street and he was hit by a car yesterday and he's in serious condition. He's in the hospital. And so we want to look at that intersection. It's a very difficult walkway because you have a fence that goes over the um um the uh ravine because that's where we have all the flooding and and rock cliffs. So there's a a fence and it blocks for motorists. It blocks any pedestrians crossing the street and it's the only way they can cross the street to get to the bus. So, it's a real dangerous uh intersection. So, I'm asking staff to come forward and make some enhancements in that. And that's the reason for my amendment. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, councelor. Uh councelor Moyes, are you ready? Okay. Thank you, Madame Chair Speaker. Uh I have an amendment is to move some money uh from uh to the capital budget uh for transportation services and increase it to 200,000 gross from uh section 37 funds and it's to actually to install a missing sidewalk on the east side of Sumac Street in my ward between Winchester Street and Amelia Street. So just a slight amendment Okay. Do we have any questions on that? Okay. Thank you. So, we can vote on the uh So, there's no questions. You guys are fine. Oh, pardon. Nobody else wanted to speak, right? Councelor Malo, you have a motion? Yes. Yes, I do. I do have a motion. I have a motion that I'd like to move. Thank you, clerks, for having the motion ready. Okay, there it is on the screen. Yes, I'd like to move this motion. Did you want to say anything? No. Um, I very much would like to move this motion. Okay. Okay. We have the motion by councelor Matlo. Okay. So, let's put the motions on the screen. Okay. On Councelor Matlo's amendment on favor carried. Then my amendment on favor carried and then I think councelor Moyes right councelor Moyes amendment on favor carried item is amended on favor carried. Thank you. So we finish that up. Thank you uh the staff. Our next item is PH28.6. 6 North York at the center directions uh report. Councelor Perks, you held the item down. Do we have questions to staff? Any questions to staff? You don't need questions to staff. Who has questions? I have no questions and I'm just wanted to alert Chang. Can you put your name on the list, please? Councelor Chang, questions to staff. So in this uh secondary plan, the map now uh considers adding a 100,000 people in the next 25 years. Historically, my wart has been supported through section 37. We've been able to add community benefits that have supported our growth. And now I have three dayc carees and a community center that are on in purgatory because development is in purgatory in in the current market and even if uh the market changes developers are pushing back on once negot negotiated section 37. So my question is, you know, especially in our center where there's already quite a density, how are we going to support this growth? How are we going to make sure that adding a 100,000 people doesn't lead to a serious degradation of quality of life if they we don't have sufficient community services and infrastructure? Uh through you, Madam Speaker. Uh, one of the things this plan does, which is about projection of about 100,000 people gradually over the next 30 years, is that through the next phase of work, we're going to be developing an infrastructure implementation strategy. And that strategy will set out a 30-year horizon for capital planning. That capital planning then will be used to inform individuals 10-year capital planning exercises that are reviewed annually by council in the and then the two components of that is that we have a five-year window where every five years we'll do updated development projections and so that we have this real time to adjust to and take advantage of opportunities as they come along to make sure that infrastructure is delivered commensurate with growth that's expected to gradually happen over the next 30 years. So right now I already have a child care uh gap. There's already uh a gap of um I think that's a hundred or 400 spots. I I can't I have to find my notes here, but we're missing all of these childcare spots already. And so it's not even talking about adding more people. So we always talk about, you know, this the capital plan and how it's already allocated. What happens to wards like mine where, you know, I don't want to knock off other people's projects, but the pressure is already there and my developers are saying I I'm not going to build that child care because I can't the math doesn't work anymore. Section 37 is can't work in in this climate. So, how do we address present gaps and what will that be translated into a a more immediate implementation plan? Thanks for the question. So, one of the things that's before you today is a community facility strategy that was developed and it was actually accelerated for this geography in recognition of the fact that there are needs today to service existing populations today in the North York community and certainly working with children's services. were well aware of the need to and not only in your award but the other 24 wards across the city to make sure that daycare spaces are being delivered commensurate with the demand uh in your ward right now there are activities underway to make sure that facilities are being upgraded or provided for and so we will continue to provide children's services with the data with respect to development activities that they need to deliver on their service planning so something very unique happened because of the secondary plan it never has never happened since I became a counselor And that is I sat at a table with my MP and MPP. We sat across different levels of government and party lines and we are united in wanting to work together to make sure that funding gets allocated to my ward for to support the infrastructure needs. And I'm just wondering uh you know with so many development re dependent projects in the pipeline like the community center what can we do if if I have a higher levels of government representatives saying we want to work with you in in trying to allocate funding that we're going to bring to the table but I don't have any shovel ready projects right now or projects that the city is funding. So, how can my ward be up for, you know, receiving some funding from higher levels of government if they are committed to helping us? But all my projects are developer dependent. The uh I will say one of the things that the city certainly takes advantages of is opportunities when other levels of government provide funding to deliver much needed infrastructure in the city and certainly councelor pass and downu has had that with the recent works with parks and w around the recreation funding center funding for recreation centers. So certainly we want to be in a position where we're identifying that housing enabling infrastructure that's able to benefit from investment from other levels of government and we work quite closely with Stephen Confory and his office to make sure that from the planning side we're well positioned to provide the information the city needs when they're applying for those grants or funding opportunities. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any further questions? Okay to speak. Let's go to the speakers list. Councelor Perks last. Oh, you speak last. Anybody else that wants to speak? Councelor Cole. I would like to speak. Count who? Who's talking? Oh, so does anybody else want Okay, councelor Cole, you want to speak? Go ahead. Yes. I just want to follow up on councelor Chang's uh intervention. You know, basically we have an unworkable system where in the Marley area that's from Lawrence down to Egleon, I have uh 22 condo uh applications that uh the Ontario Land Tribunal is shoving down our throats. 60,000 people. And we had a one developer that was willing to contribute some. And we tried to get that developer to work with our city staff uh to in essence partner uh with the city in financing the uh uh erection of this committee space. Well, we couldn't do it. We had uh lawyers meeting, developers lawyers meeting, planners meeting. They basically said your system doesn't work. You can't do it under the present circumstances. So, and uh just for councelor Chang, we don't have section 37 anymore. It's dead. It was killed five years ago. So we have an unworkable system which basically rubber stamps development after development and we have no way of providing any kind of community infrastructure of any sort and just because there are subway stations the provincial rules say that you can build what you want and we essentially have to follow those provincial rules. So we get again 21 condos there on Marley. You can't even walk up the street. There's so much traffic and we don't have a place to even pee on Marley Avenue. That's we've got no community facilities at all. So we've got a dysfunctional, unworkable framework here at the city trying to provide community facilities. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Matlo. Thank you, Madam Speaker. I want to uh just add uh an acknowledgement and appreciation both of city staff who have worked incredibly hard with the local counselor on putting forward a plan to support the quality of life of residents in Willowdale. But I also want to acknowledge councelor Lily Chang. Uh, and if councelor Peruta could just quiet down just a little bit while I say this, I'd be very grateful. Uh, only because I want to speak to Lily Chang's council. I I really I just I just am having trouble. Sir Peruta, please allow Matt Lo councelor Matt Lo to speak. Thank you, Madam Speaker. I also want to recognize uh the leadership of councelor Lily Chang. Um it would have been easier for councelor Chang to just say well I don't want to deal with this. You know it's there's too much pressure because of the uh proposed population growth. Um but she pragmatically recognized that this is a reality coming and rather than just uh play a political game or decide to uh you know just say it's somebody else's problem, she put forward amendments and motions to focus squarely on the quality of life of her residents to invest in and commu and and and and resource and support community centers in helping revitalize Melasman Square to be an animated active community hub to ensure that the main streets, the neighborhoods, the parks have what they need to be able to be successful and support the quality of life of the residents who live in Willowdale today and those who will move there tomorrow. And I just think it's important to recognize that these are really tough conversations. A lot of what we're doing here is often subject to provincial legislation. We try to figure out how to have secondary plans that support an official plan that we believe is a good plan for our city. But while there is growth, and often there are these debates over should there be growth or should there be social services, infrastructure, and parks, the reality is you need both. If you're going to build a great city and a great community, you need both. And councelor Chang has been squarely focused on that. And I just want to recognize that this was an enormous amount of work. And um so as we continue debating and discussing the these things, I just I think it's just important to be cognizant that it doesn't just come to council like you know the day that it's written. There's a whole lot of work that staff have done. Councelor Chang and her team have consulted with, met with dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of individuals, organizations street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, and arrived at a place that we can say yes to something that we believe is good for the community rather than simply doing what might be politically easier, which is just to say no. Councelor Chang has done something that I think is very courageous because she knows she's putting her community before anything else, and I think that is commendable. Thank you, Council Chang. Thank you, Madam Speaker. And I want to thank city staff. It's been quite a journey for us to get to this point. And it's not done yet because now we start phase three together. Uh but I do want to acknowledge, you know, we had additional Yes, I have a motion that should start first. So, you can read the motion. We're just talking about having conversations with faith communities because as our city grows, population grows, we should definitely include them in the conversation. Uh parking, as you know, which is always an issue in the suburbs. Um as well as uh additional alternative approaches to how we might approach community recreation and uh wanting to identify Young and Shepherd as a node where a lot of people say there is a felt gap. So we had three additional community consultations, hundreds of people, and you know, when this came to planning on housing, we had several Wadellers come downtown to city hall to express their thoughts on the secondary plan. And I will say one of them came back to my office uh afterwards and and wept. And not weeping as in despair, but weeping because an acknowledgement that change is hard. And it's hard when you have invested in a community. This was someone who's been a a parent council chair, uh started a neighborhood watch, neighborhood community association, and to see such a significant change um happen and know that the way of life that they have known is not going to be it does. There is a grieving process but yet this person along with many others in acknowledging the change still put in so much time reading every report giving me feedback. So yes, we had extensive motions come to planning and housing and a few more here and it's simply me representing the people who are going to be impacted by this uh this report and you know adding a 100,000 people even if it is over 25 to 30 years is not a casual thing in the province of Ontario a big city is defined by a city over 100,000 people. This is really tripling the population of North York Center. Not my whole ward, just North York Center. So 170,000 people will one day call North York Center home. How are they going to be supported? And while we are going to work as a city over the next year or half a year to figure out that implementation plan, there's also the other pieces from the province, healthc care and education being two really key parts. And this plan actually requires eight new elementary schools. Well, you know how hard it is to even get one new elementary school. So, we have this plan, but we really have to continue to figure out how we support growth and how we can get that support from our higher levels of government. I am so grateful that my MP and MPP sat at a table together, swallowed their uh party politics, and they have committed to continuing that conversation. So, this has actually created a miracle in my ward. I don't maybe it's a miracle in Canada that that can happen that people who are of different political stripes can actually work together and I think that's what people want in our country. They want us to be practical to find solutions. They don't want us to fingerpoint and blame each other. Yes, there are provincial policies that are pressuring us to add this kind of significant amount of population, but we need the support. Uh, and that will start with the city with the city making some good plans that can be grant and funding ready so that I can go to my partners at the provincial and federal level and say, "Hey, we're ready now because we need this to support the growth that is in the pipeline." So, I look forward to phase three. there will be more consultations and I will definitely have, you know, more meetings with residents because it's so hard when decisions are made here at city hall from people who don't live in the neighborhood. And I'm not that's not a insult. It's just a fact that in a large city like this, the staff who are making the policies don't walk on the streets don't experience the challenges. And that's why our role as counselors to bring the two together to bring the community and our policy makers and just make sure that we're always listening. And I have really felt that has happened here. And I just want to thank city staff for participating in this dance together with me and my community. Thank you. Thank you. We Oh, I thought there was a question for you. I guess you took your name off. Councelor Moyes. All right, Councelor Carol to speak. I actually don't need to, Madam Speaker. In the end, Councelor Chain got there. I I just was on the list to thank staff because this is a long-term piece of work that they've been working on for a very very long time and uh a lot of engagement has has come before just what we're adding in this motion. So, Councelor Chen covered it. I'm fine. Thank you. Okay. So the last speaker would be councelor Perks. Please support councelor Changeng's motion and the item as amended. Oh okay. So on councelor Chang's motion on favor post if any carried item is amended on favor carried. All right. So our next item is the Tobocco York Community Council EY 29.1 250 Winalt Drive and 4620 Egllandon Avenue West. Do we have questions of staff? Stand this down because we are almost at a motion here that's fixed. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So then our next item is Toronto East York Community Council. It's the T29.3 which is a permanent closure of the public laneway at 1702 Queen Street and T2912 which is 168498700 and 1702 Queen Street. So I would recommend that we do those two items at the same time. They're the same address. So, do we have questions? Do we have questions? Any questions to staff? Councelor Bradford. Question. Go ahead, Councelor Bradford. Sorry, just one second, Madam Speaker. I thought I had another minute. Okay. Okay. Thanks. Uh, just a couple questions here for staff. We've had community consultations meeting on this site back in October. Over the past few months, how many meetings have you held with residents and how many pieces of correspondence with the residents have staff responded to? Speaker, council, you're correct. In October, we had a virtual community consultation meeting on this project following Toronto and East York Community Council. We also had two subsequent small groupoup meetings organized with members of the community. We have received a substantial number of emails and telephone calls on this matter. And I would note that in the applicant's correspondence submitted to this council, full volume into the microphone, please, and quiet in the chamber. And I would note that in the applicant's correspondence to this council date of March 23rd, they also note their own engagement. How many emails? Approximately 300. Okay. Thanks. Uh, so you'd say that the public and residents have been pretty active and engaged on this file. Yes. Okay. Can you walk us through the changes that the applicant made to the site since the community consultation meeting in October? Yes, speaker. The proposal has decreased in height from 11 to 10 stories. It has decreased in density from 5.4 to five times density. It has decreased in unit count from 216 to 168 units. That's about a 48 unit reduction. It has increased the number of large units proposed. It has not changed the amount of parking and loading proposed despite the reduction in units. Again, I would note the applicant's correspondence to this council dated March 23rd. The applicant has also offered an inind CBC affordable housing contribution and committed to look at parking. I was going to ask about that. Um, there was also concerns about overlook on the north side of the building. How did the applicant respond to that? Thank you, counselor. The applicant removed the balconies on the north side of the building in response to that concern. Okay, community council, I move this forward here without recommendations because I was not satisfied with the provisions of affordable housing uh and the parking. In your conversations with the applicant and feedback from the community, were you able to secure a commitment on that as it comes in front of us today? Again, I would refer to the applicant's correspondence dated March 23rd to this council where they note an offer to provide inind affordable housing on site as well as to explore additional parking. Okay. Um, was the city's housing now project at 630 1631 Queen um, considered a precedent when you were reviewing this application? No, we look at each application on its own merits. Okay. Council actually approved a different application on this site all the way back in 22. Uh, it was for a six-story building at the time. The applicant has approvals for that but never built it and came back for a 12story application. Um, is there anything the city of Toronto can do to prevent an application from coming forward and compel compel the developer to build what was already approved? We have no ability to compel a developer to build what was already approved and they do have the ability to make new applications. Are you seeing that happen on any other sites in the city of Toronto? Has anyone gotten approval and then come back for something more later? Yes. It's almost rhetorical. Uh, yeah, I I am familiar that that that happens. Um, now we had a pretty frustrating conversation at community council around the two sets of urban design guidelines that apply to this site simultaneously. One is from, you know, a decade and a half ago in 2012, the Queen Street East urban design guidelines, and one is the more um recent 24 mid-rise design guidelines. Can you try and clarify for everyone here in the chamber and for the residents in the ward how those guidelines were used in reviewing this application? Give me some specific examples because they are seemingly um conflicting in some respects. Noted. I will try. Citywide guidelines generally take precedence. They reflect the city's current direction and they are the primary basis on which the city reviews new mid-rise buildings. I'm speaking about the city's mid-rise guidelines in this regard, councelor, the 2024 version you spoke about. However, local guidelines continue to be relevant in supporting local special character that they were often specifically designed to consider. Specific examples of how the local Queen Street guidelines continue to be impactful in our review of this proposal with respect to the Queen Streetscape and setbacks and the street wall height along Queen Street. Those guidelines happen to be explicitly enabled by inforce site and area specific policies. So that site area specific policy is amended through this recommendation report should council choose to advance those recommendations. Okay. My my last piece of clarification there, the rear transition in the Queen Street East guidelines actually drew from the previous mid-rise design guidelines. So would it be your inference then that the new ones would be would take precedent over the previous ones? Correct. Okay, those are all my questions. Thanks uh thanks for your help with this card. Thank you. Councelor Mantis. Thank you, Madam Speaker. Just one question to staff. Listening to Councelor Bradford's questions and uh the answers that you have given. If we don't vote for staff recommendations, what's the likelihood that the applicant will go to the OOLT? uh the city solicitor believes that the applicant would take that route immediately if the uh approval is if the approval is not given. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any further questions? No. Okay. We'll go to speakers. Councelor Bradford to speak. Oh, thanks. Great. Uh thanks, Madam Speaker. I have two motions here if you want to put those up. Uh the first one is to refuse this application and direct staff to attend the OOLT if it is in fact appealed. Uh and if that motion does not have the support of the chamber, I have a motion here that would secure the aspects that have been negotiated, including on-site affordable housing, additional on-site parking to be secured through a site plan, uh an exclusion from permit parking, and a request to attend the design review panel. Those are the two motions for your consideration. Um, it's been a long and difficult journey on this one. Um, you know, it goes back to my first term when council actually approved what was a six-story by building on this site. We had had a women's shelter there for a period of time. It was an old days end. Um, and it's an important location because this really is at the corner of Kingston Road and Queen Street, the the gateway to the beaches. Um, you know, unfortunately after lots of work with both the applicant and the community, uh, I am personally not satisfied with the outcome here, which is why I will be voting to refuse this application. Um, on some of this stuff, our hands are tied. We all understand the world that we're living in now with respect to some of the the planning frameworks and the policies that we have to have regard to. Um, but you know, there there were opportunities to work together both responding to community feedback about on-site affordability versus off-site affordable housing. You know, originally we heard that on-site affordability was not going to be able to be achieved here. Um, you know, we worked with city staff and the applicant to to land it on site in the building. Um, there was lots of concerns about the the parking ratio. Parking ratio has actually improved here. um we were able to work through some of the setbacks um as it related to to some of the adjacent spaces and um you know I know that we've had a lot of frustration around the Queen Street East urban design guidelines from 2012 and what rightly is confusing for residents when you have um two seemingly conflicting documents that both apply to the same site and there's lots of development activity in the area that people understandably point to but this site is unique in its context text and the site and the the depth and the width. Uh and you know, staff were clear that they were very much reflecting on that when they were going through the application. So, um I'm not personally satisfied with where we landed on this site. Uh but I do appreciate that uh you know, the community and the applicant. Uh my office and city staff were able to uh to work together to to do everything we could on this site. And uh those are the two motions for council's consideration. Now, Councelor Bradford, you have a motion on the other one, too. So, can you move that at the same time because we're dealing with both items? Um, I guess so. Yeah. I like that would be to approve staff wrecks on on 293. Yeah. Okay. No, no, separate one. The laneway closure. The laneway closure. So, you're just moving the staff wreck. Do you have that motion? I'll move it. I'll move. Okay. Councelor Perks, you'll move it then. Okay. All right. Councelor Perks, you have a question to um Oh, the one that is staff rex, not deferring. Yes, but it's kind of contingent on this, but that's why we're doing it. Council Perks can move it if you want. All right. Um, councelor Perk, do you have questions to councelor Bradford? No. Okay. All right. So, Councelor Perks to speak, but on three. Councelor Perks to speak. Yes. Uh, speaker, I'd like to move the staff recommendations on both TE 29.3 and TE 29.12. Uh, three is the public laneway. That's councelor Bradford, I think, was already happy with the staff recommendations there. But on 12, what he's moving will send us to the Ontario Land Tribunal where we will lose. Uh we have a staff report that recommends accepting uh accepting this application. And you you all know what happens when we turn down staff recommendations. the uh applicant can actually call city staff as witnesses hostile to whatever position we take. It's a mug's game. It's not a winning game. So, you know, I understand that councelor Bradford is not satisfied, but our professional planning staff are satisfied. I'm satisfied and I encourage you all to vote for the staff recommendations. Okay. Councelor Bradford, you have questions to councelor Perks. Um, go ahead. So, the negotiations around affordable housing, the negotiations around parking to be secured through site plan and a number of other things, that's in the second option that I've put on the table here. It is, but not all of the original staff recommendations are in your motion. And your motion adds things that are not in what the applicant offer. Okay. So, it it creates exactly the risk I just described to council in my speech. No, that's incorrect. Is that a question? So, I what I would say is don't vote for that, colleagues. Uh, is this a question? It's a question of what you're doing because you're It's not helpful. Well, it would have been helpful if you had pre-irculated your motions and we could have If you had questions, you could Yeah, that's okay. Yeah. Thank you. You blew that. All right. Any further speakers? Okay. Councelor Perks, hold on. We're We're done here. Okay. Okay, we're on item 12 T2912 1 A by Councelor Bradford. Courted vote. Councelor Pull your vote please. Negative. Negative. Thank you. Motion 1A does not carry. The vote is 5 to 19. Okay. So motion 1B recorded vote. Councelor Moyes, Councelor Presanti, please Councelor Cole, your vote, please. Negative. Negative. Thank you. Motion 1B does not carry. The vote is 5 to 19. Motion T20 at 2912 by councelor Perks. All in favor recorded vote. Council Cresanti, please. Councelor Cole, your vote, please. Affirmative. Affirmative. Thank you. Motion two carries. The vote is 22 to three. To number three now. Motion by councelor Perks. All in favor carried. All right. I think we've completed that item. T29.5 Council Matlo 200468 Bath Street. Are you ready to deal with that? Uh this is the second related item and I can move the recommendations. The clerk has the clerk has your motion. Yeah. Okay. If we can put the motion on the screen. Okay. There it is. Because it's here without a recommendation and that so those are the staff Rex. Okay. Motion by councelor Matlo on favor carried. Now the next one is T29 and then we'll go to councelor Holiday's item T2911 Salter Street South. Councelor Fletcher held it. Do we know if councelor Fletcher is coming back? She's upstairs. Okay, let's go to um to councelor Holiday and then we'll have to go to councelor Fletcher because that's the EY 29.1 250 wind. Are you ready councelor Holiday? Pardon? Councelor Chis Lint MM3910. Uh the role of the trustees. Are you ready to release that? I'd just like to speak briefly on it. Okay. Speak briefly. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um so I would just uh like to speak on on this motion and I hope I will have my colleagues support. Um but you know our school trustees have a very long legacy of tremendous work uh particularly in areas of policy shaping our schools. things like eco schools, having child care embedded in schools so that you have a seamless day model, full day kindergarten, student census, documenting incidents of hate, having a parent and community engagement office, um, and and actually doing parent and community engagement, vertical schools, open data, code of conduct for students, uh, and for trustees. Those are those are things that trustees actually brought you. But for us as counselors, aside from all of that work that they do, school trustees are important municipal counselors, often working hand inand with us in respect to issues on school properties. Also, things like the student nutrition program, public health initiatives like youth vaccinations, and community use of schools for programming for residents. These are just some of the things that we deal with trustees on an on a regular basis. Currently, approximately one-third of the province's students are in boards that are under supervision. And in Toronto, there are about 4 thou 400,000 students without local representation. Let that sink in. 400,000 students. The province has been unclear about their plan for trustees. The Minister of Education regularly threatens to remove them or change their governance role. This motion doesn't get into whether you remove them, whether you don't. That's really not what this is about. This motion speaks to the importance of the role of school trustees as municipal partners as well as the importance of consultation and requests the provincial government should they consider any change in governance structure to initiate a robust provincewide consultation so that education experts and stakeholders are able to provide feedback in that process. When we consider that the government is potentially considering the removal of an entire level of local democracy, something that was not discussed during their election period nor a campaign promise, they should at the very least consult. In this chamber, we often speak about the importance of local representation and transparency in decisionmaking. The erosion of those crucial principles by this provincial government is really the driving force behind this motion and why council and why council should speak out on this issue and the process in case the province moves forward with the elimination of trustees or changes in government governance. Thank you. Thank you. Uh we have other speakers. Councelor Moley. Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will be brief. Um, but I do just want to rise in support of this motion and thank my colleague, Councelor Chernos Lynn, uh, who did come to us from the school board, as many of my colleagues I know, um, started their career in politics as elected officials at the school board. Uh, when we don't have trustees as part of the process, oftentimes that work's falling on our offices in the last number of months. I don't know if my colleagues around this table are having that similar experience of hearing from parents with concerns and others trying to navigate uh school related issues and they don't have somewhere to turn a local voice uh on their behalf. So this is really important in a moment where we are we have elections on the horizon. We want good candidates to step forward and be part of our civic life and our democratic processes. Um, and the school board is a really, really important level of work that supports the students in Toronto. Uh, and they deserve a voice there as well. So, I do just really again want to speak in support of this motion. I hope my council colleagues will support it as well. And I hope the province is paying close attention and going to do the right thing in this on this issue. Thanks, Madam Speaker. Councelor Carol, just briefly, Madam Speaker, you know, my colleagues think that there there wasn't a great hu and cry in in June, so I I don't think parents actually care about this. I often heard on the radio people say, "Oh, um there there isn't a hu cry because parents are actually unhappy with their trustees." Well, it it's a delayed reaction, but I I had the wakeup call um just in the new year. Had a community meeting in January and it was about something entirely unrelated entirely unrelated to anything do to do with schools. We were talking about vision zero speed limit changes in certain streets in a neighborhood. But there was a person in the in the meeting that that put up her hand. She said, "I apologize. This is kind of off topic, but counselor, you long time ago when you were a trustee and it she was wrong. It was before I was a trustee. They wanted to close our school and its numbers aren't really high right now. We don't have a trustee right now. What will we do if the the minister proposes the closing of this school again? And I can't I can't miss the opportunity to say this in a room full of planners and counselors. My only answer could be, I honestly don't know. It's not in my purview. It's not in my jurisdiction. You won't be able to do what I was able to do the last time the closure was proposed. I I have to correct you. I wasn't the trustee then. I was a mom, but I called the trustee who called the counselor. It was was Barb Paul Sutherland was the counselor. And they worked together with me, Mayor Lassman and the like. and we made sure that that school uh was rescued. And thank goodness because it just recently went through an overenrollment blitz such that we had to do grade redistribution. Thank goodness that counselor was there for me to call and we're about to have that again because populations rise and fall throughout the city and they become planning matters for us. a board, a minister might say, "I'm gonna parcel out half of this schoolyard." And now suddenly it's a development matter for us. And working with the community and working with the parents in the school means we need to be able to phone some public representative. And we will not be able to do that. And while it's been months since supervision started, the community is just now waking up to the fact, hey, wait a minute. If that happens, I have no one to call. And I think if you haven't heard from the school community yet or even the senior property owners in a subdivision that is built around a school, you're going to the day it's too darn late to do anything about it. That's why I'm supporting Councelor Chernosllin's motion. I just I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus of the vital role of the trustee. Um I think we tried to do a rough count a few minutes ago and we we think that almost half of council uh were trustees at at one time. I one of the the most important roles that we played was uh exceptionalities of students became more and more acute in the classroom. parents needed someone to advocate for them to make sure that they were in the appropriate program to make sure that there was a voice for the superintendent and the principal to make sure those sol problems was solved. I was uh chair of the special education advisory committee uh at uh at the school board at the Tdsb and the the increasing importance of making sure programming and and and interventions and support were crucial to make have kids succeed uh throughout the school years. Trustees also played a crucial role in saving the school pools. And of course, I don't mind saying that it was the the the the trustees that helped get some of the alternative schools going, including the Afroentric Alternative School. So, we did play we did play an crucial role, and yes, we've gotten calls from parents who are deeply frustrated because there's no elected official at the trustee level uh to advocate for them. Were there some mistakes around the Tdsb board um you know regarding getting into geopolitical issues and world conflict zones and getting off their main mandate of delivering the best education possible. Yes, there were mistakes there and but but they have to be corrected. At the same time the trustee is the voice of parents, the advocate of parents and that provides for better outcomes for all students. It is vital. It is vital that trustees be on the ballot for this election. I think it'll make for a better education, a better school board, and better students in the future. Thank you, Mr. Peruta. I I think we all support this motion. So, I don't know. Like, but you know what? I don't see any opposition to this. Uh, can I have my 14 seconds back? Okay, go ahead. Councelor Pro, please. 18 now. Okay, go ahead. Thank you. Another question. Uh, no, I don't call the question. I've never called a question. I've never I've never Exactly. So, why why would I start now? All right. Uh, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. You know that, right? You have 15 seconds. But I I did want to say this. I I I too I and I see the list here. Mo I I I recognize most of the names. I think most of the people on this list were trustees at one time or another. So I was a trustee along um a few days ago. And um and I was on I was a school trustee when school boards actually had taxing powers actually had powers and as school boards we actually undertook significant spending decisions, right? Because you know congruently we could go and then figure out how to deal with our budget. um as opposed to being given an amount uh by by the government and then being asked by everyone else. Now we want a better school, we want a better product, right? And being limited uh in being able to do that. But I I think what the government is doing and or has done I think it's very shortsighted. Um, in my view, school is very much part of the fabric of a community. It's the it's it's part of the life of a neighborhood. And parental involvement in schools, community involvement in schools gets you a better product. It's thorny. It's messy. It's not easy, but gets you to a better a better place. I had a situation recently happen in one of my high schools where uh they had some difficulties and I I believe a couple of teachers uh were dismissed uh from their roles and there is no uh trustee no trustee advocate who can now deal with those issues and some of those complaints and some of those issues are falling on our doorstep. Um, and I don't know what the government is thinking. I they're like, is it about drawing uh counselors and local MPPPS into, you know, the the life of the school and involving uh uh ourselves in in uh in representing folks there. U so I don't know what they're thinking. I don't know what they're doing, but I believe that that they're headed in a in a direction that's wrong, that's uh misguided and shortsighted and uh and really they should uh uh they should go back and and take a look at uh what it is that they're doing because uh I I don't believe that it's going to be good for them or good for the uh you know, the students and uh and the communities that schools uh currently serve. Council methol. Why? Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, I I just want to spend a moment um talking about my my school trustee uh Shelley Laskin as an example of why I believe uh trustees should have a voice on behalf of our kids and our communities. Uh, Trusty Laskin uh has not only advocated for some significant policy matters, when it comes to equity, when it comes to student nutrition, uh when it comes to advocating for school capacity in our community, uh she was behind the driving force behind the new uh North Toronto Collegiate Institute. Uh I worked with her to um ensure that we retained the skating rink at Hodgson Middle School where my daughter goes today. Um, she has been there for parents day in day out when they needed guidance. They were lost in this huge system and they just don't understand how they can advocate for their kids and she would hold their hand and work through problems with them. That's what a trustee does. Like municipal counselors, how we work in our communities and then we vote and advocate for policy here at council. That's what they do for local education. And what happened to Trusty Alaskan along with her colleagues? One day they were they found out the provincial government decided that they were going to be sidelined, that they were going to be put under supervision. And it wasn't done with them. It was done at them. In fact, they found out like that day that they couldn't log onto their own laptop, that they couldn't access their email, that they could not even respond to the emails that had been waiting for them on their computer while parents were waiting to get some acknowledgement or response, waiting, worrying about an issue, and they received no help because Trusty Alaskan and her colleagues were not allowed to. What has Trustee Laskin done since been she's been put under supervision? She continues to show up. She comes to events. She gets involved in the community not because she's being paid a single dime and she's been disrespected along with her colleagues by the provincial government, but she continues to care and love our care for and love our community. That's what a school trustee does. So yes, should there be reform? Of course. Should there be improvements? Sure. We could say the same thing about the city. Certainly the same thing about the dysfunctional provincial government that we have today. But I digress. But to simply just remove a level of local democracy away from parents and children and communities, that's not fixing the system. That's just breaking it. And that was wrong. So I want to thank Trusty Alaskan for her many decades of advocacy and service to our community. And we're going to continue celebrating and honoring the work that she's done that she continues to do. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Fletcher. There are 11 trustee among us, about 43%. So, we could all speak. Councelor Fletcher, uh, Mike, Mike, Mike. Okay. All right. Here you go. Everybody on the speakers list has cut their teeth at such an important level of representation and I just want to echo everything and I want to thank uh the former chair of the board and councelor Chernos Lynn for highlighting this at such an important time when the minister said, "Oh, I'm going to be bringing in some big news very shortly." The difference in going to somebody in the board for help and going trustee is you've already gone to the person in the board for help and they couldn't help you. So now you have to call your trustee because nothing's more important than your children. And that's really what trustees look after. They look after each and every child that's falling through the cracks. Parents don't know what to do next. It's having a hard time in school. So, every parent in this room, if you really needed help dealing with your child in some way in those critical education years, that's who that person would be to help you. Even though that position was denigrated, that it was $5,000 a year that we got taken over, many other things. That's still such an important role to know somebody's there to advocate for the most important person in your life, your child. And I won't speak for long. I'll simply say that to take over the Toronto Catholic District School Board because somebody bought a $15 milkshake. When we see the spending going on, whether it's the smart track spending, whether it's this under the 401 spending, whether it's the new convention center spending, whether it's the parking or the Ontario place, when you think about that, how many milkshakes go into $500 million, people? Not a lot. And so to have that as your excuse that somebody wasted money when that money is being wasted every day, let's not fool ourselves. Not just $15, but millions and sometimes billions of spending. That is the sharpest slap of all from the government and from the minister that has denigrated the role of somebody who will intervene to assist you when you're dealing with the most important people in your lives which are your children. There's 12 of us. Council Shan. Thank you through you, Madam Speaker. Um just wanted to echo the sentiments of my colleagues to support the motion. I think in addition to all the benefits we talked about of what a trustee brings, I also want to say that this is a moment for us to stand in solidarity with the trustees that have been impacted. These are uh great Torononians uh that have put so much time, you know, I don't know if many people know that they work for an honorarium. Most people assume they're full-time staff. In fact, I was there as a trustee and most most community members assume we are full-time uh paid employees where if you take the number of hours they're working for below minimum wage to stand up and protect public education, stand up and uh protect the the well-being of our students. And so I think it's important for us to stand in solidarity with these Torononians who have put so much into making Toronto District School Board and Toronto Catholic District School Board work. And in fact, these positions are are going to be critical for us because if you don't have strong leadership taking care of 400,000 people in our city, very important people, our children and their families, then a lot of the issues that we will be having to face as a city will be amplified. So, it's important for us to take this into consideration and support this motion. But I'll actually go beyond this motion because I know there's going to be a lot more conversation to happen in the coming months about why trustees role is important and why uh it's important for the for us to have them on the ballot. So I hope to have all the colleagues support. Thank you. Thank you councelor Moyes. Uh thank you madame mayor. I too want to thank my colleagues for bringing this motion forth this important motion. I want to thank all the trustees in all the school boards, not only in Toronto but across the entire province. They do amazing work. I too am a former trustee and I know how difficult the work is. And as my colleague uh mentioned already, you know, I think the honorary now is $20,000 a year. It's a part-time position, but but it's a full-time responsibility. I know when I was a trustee a trustee, I used to put as many hours into the job as I do here as a counselor. It's seven days a week. and those who are most marginalized under free and those that were in region park in St. Jamestown uh they came to me because they had no other options but to come to trustee and ask for that for for assistance in so many ways. So, and even though you know they have been shut out of the system right now, I know my current trustee is still helping people in her community. And uh so again, thank you to D. Williams, my my own trustee. Uh I think it's deplorable that the premier and the minister of education uh speak down against trustees. They should thank them for the work that they do. Very frankly, I know that the province themselves don't have access don't they don't allow the public to go into uh Queens Park and to talk to them about the issues that they have. So the only other option people have public has is to either come to speak to us as counselors or go to your schoolboard trustee because the province is not accessible. So, I do hope that the province is listening and I do hope that uh school trustees do get back into their roles and provide support to the communities that they they so proudly uh support day in and day out. Thank you, Council Malik. Thank you very much. Um and I appreciate uh everything that my colleagues have shared and thank you uh to my colleagues for bringing this motion forward as well. uh what the the role of a schoolboard trustee is so important and so connected to what is most important to us in our neighborhoods, our schools, our communities and our kids. But what is what I want to be able to share with you is yes about the incredible role sacrifices that trustees make. but most of all that they are democratically elected representatives who have been on the ballot alongside us being chosen by their communities to represent them at the school board level and that is one of the oldest and longest standing democratically elected positions in Canada and that is something pretty remarkable. This is also about our choices being respected as Torononians but also at the municipal level. This is a level of government that we care so deeply about because it is the one that is closest and most connected to our daily lives and has the most impact there. And schoolboard trustees are a part of that. I also know firsthand like so many of my colleagues, but any of you who are as a parent who knows kids in your community who has supported your neighborhoods, you also know that our schools and our education system has been starved. It has been underfunded for years through an absolutely uh inadequate funding formula that continues not to change. But we see the impacts of that every single day in our classrooms. And we see amazing teachers and education workers and parents and community advocates who even in those circumstances do incredible things. And what trustees are are of course the front line in supporting those parents, families, and communities in terms of what they need. But they are also the ones ringing the alarm bells loudly and clearly and with so much strength in our communities to be able to say that this has to change. This has to be fixed. I joined so many community advocacy organizations and parents groups to actually get action in our communities that were that on issues that were outcomes of that underfunded system. and the removal of trustees is the removal of a voice and a strong advocate in actually changing that formula and calling out the provincial level to do so much better. So absolutely so much respect for the trustees who have been in this role who have helped built our city and our community and for the ones who are still doing that even in these circumstances. And we have to continue to take up that fight for a strong and and and wellunded education system that we can sincerely be proud of. Councelor Bravo, I really appreciate the chance to add my voice as well uh around this question of democracy uh the voice that people have about the systems and the the services that they rely on. If we think about this level of government, yes, we are doing everything in public. uh the deliberations, the policy development and that is what school trustees have been doing for us on a policy level. We think about the board of health, we have citizen members and counselors, uh TTC citizen members and counselors. These are massive systems that have huge impact on our lives and it deserves to have the scrutiny of the public and accountability to people who fund that system. it. Also, think about the land use planning decisions that are being made right now completely behind closed doors and all of the innovations that have taken place at the tr at the school board level led by trustees. You know, I I had the privilege to spend 20 years as not as a trustee but as a parent activist uh all the way from funs into being the co-chair of the inner city advisory committee and the the things that we were thinking about intersected so much with this level of government about how to lift the floor for people who are vulnerable and young and don't have a voice and I think that's the scariest part of this to me is that a child a you a young person doesn't have voting rights and may not be able to speak for themselves and that is what trustees have done for us. Eyes and ears on the system to make sure that every child and every young person is fairly treated right now. Everything that we do that's really uh ensuring that we have a healthy and prosperous society. The really big drivers of vaccinations in school, the school meal program, the preventative care that happens. This is an absolutely crucial uh place to ensure that people have a voice and are protected. Even our local business areas are uh you know are available have available to them a form of local democracy. This is a a level of government worth fighting for and I want to just thank my own school trustee in the public system uh Alexis Dawson. Thank you councelor Carville. I was thinking of what I could say uh that would be a bit different from all the the great words being said and also given that tape of this will likely make it make its way to the premier's office and a couple of things come to mind from Premier Kathleen Wyn to Premier Mike Harris both came from the public school trustee system and that underscores the value of school trustees as neither left nor right-wing creatures. They're in fact good governance to a system that is considered that is the most valuable service government provides public education. In fact, both former premers or educators themselves and more importantly or simultaneously gutting the school trustee system is not a conservative thing to do. Good small C conservatism requires checks and balances. Good conservatism recognizes history. The fact this position has existed since 1816 before Confederation tells you the role the founders of this country had towards public education and good governance around it. Moreover, conservatism doesn't ask for centralized command in one person or one office. This goes anthetical to good governance. And lastly, I I' I'd imagine my 10 other colleagues who have served in this position can recall the emotion of a parent when their child is being underserved or not served at all. It is in my opinion far more than whatever emotion that we deal as city councilors. And is this government ready? Are there MPPPs ready to deal with parents that have seen the failings of this public education system? I think not. And with for that I appreciate this motion and our collective stand in support of a uh important part of our public governance and democracy. Thank you. Thank you. All right, that's it on the motion. On favor carried. Okay. Um, councelor Holiday are Oh, before we please before we go to the next item, we'll go through the members motions that were interview in introduced earlier. Councelor Mley MM3984. Do you just want to do you just want to release it? Just say yes or no. On favor carried. MM3985. Deputy Mayor Malik, you want to uh release it? On favor carried. MM3986. Councelor Matlo, you're going to release your motion members motion that you introduced. Yes. Okay. Thank you. The last one is MM3987. Councelor Chang, pardon. Lady 6, you want to you want to hold counselor Matlo's motion? Yes, because I might have a question of staff on it. Just give me Okay. So, it's not a This is one of the new ones. Yeah. Okay. Just one sec. I'm speaking. Okay. So, councelor Holiday, you want to hold down 3986, please? There. Okay. Thank you. 3987. Councilor Chang, just release it. Okay. All in favor? Carried. All right. Councelor Holiday, we can go back to yours now. Yes. Quick releases. Councelor Fletcher. Thank you. This will delete this with a few more items. Uh actually my apologies members. I forgot to send the motion for DM39.1. I tried to blame the computer but it was actually me. So I have to now introduce that properly and vote on that again speaker which is the public salary disclosure for city. Do do we have that motion by council Fletcher? Okay. on that motion on favor. There it is. Carried. Okay, that's properly done. And then I will just go to another. You got T2911. Yes. 115 115 psalter which I will release if I can say two things. No, I it's here without a recommendation. I'm going to move the recommendation. Okay. But I'm going to say that if you read that that the port authority had a letter and the applicant had to reduce the size of their crane because of the flight path of interfering with the flight path of planes going to the island. So this is as I mentioned the other day one of those things about being able to build new housing on the portland. So that's already happened there. We'll move that motion. Okay. All favor carried. And then your other item is CC 3912. And that is the Oqua admining all the zoning. And again, I'll say that we're doing that today, but we have no idea what this um grand expropriation looks like by the provincial government and the takeover and the succumbing to that perhaps by the federal government. And so we don't know if this has to be redone because of those heights and the massing and everything else. So I'll leave it at that and move that. Okay. on favor carried and then I will do my colleague Croanti a very very big favor even though he's never brought me the past that he has promised me for probably 10 years we're noting that but I will release MM39.81 81 accelerating the saw repairs. Thank you. Okay. Mm 3981 councelor Fletcher is releasing. On favor carried. All right. So, councelor Holiday will go to your item now. You ready? Councelor Moyes. Which one? Councelor Moyes. Mm 39.58. Um, okay. 49 Ontario Street. That's correct. Okay. Have a motion. Okay. We'll put the motion on the screen. We'll accept more. Okay. There's the motion by councelor Moyes. All in favor post if any carried. Item is amended. All favor carried. Okay. So I think we're ready to go to councelor Holiday. Yes we are. I can quick release. Well Oh councelor Holiday. I can quick release um um MM 3986 which I held a moment ago on a recorded vote. Which one? Um, I'm sorry. MM 3986, review of applicability of type G loading to address specialized housing types by councelor Josh Buffalo. Oh, that's the one you just held. Yes. I just All I ask is for a recorded vote. Okay. Recorded vote. The item carries. The vote is 24 to one. I am. No. Nope. Thank you. Uh thank you, speaker. Uh I'll move a motion. Do we have it? Version three. It's not ready. Okay. Right then. So if you don't have count, you have it. Council Holiday, you ready? Okay. Thank you, speaker. Uh my motion uh is presented and it is something that I have worked with councelor Perks to reach an accord on. Uh members, I would just like to let you know that uh this has been and probably will continue to be one of the most challenging development proposals I've ever seen uh in itico center and it has been very difficult for the community who have seen change after change after change and it started out on a process to have create TL cell lands to amalgamate into a larger site I I believe that my motion today uh works to try to protect the interests of the community, the viability of the development, and the viability of the shopping center that is there. I hope that uh you will support it, and I will take a moment to acknowledge all of the hard work of people on staff and in the community that have worked to get us to this point. Thank you. Thank you. That's it. Okay. Councelor Perks to speak. Yes. Uh members, um I'm going to encourage you to support this motion. There are a couple of things that I really wanted to say quickly. Uh one, there's been a concern all along that changes to the the application in front of us would affect the Sorry, Councelor Perks, do you have a motion? No. No. Okay. would affect uh the previously approved affordable housing project. Uh councelor Holiday and and and the director of development review and the lawyer on the file and I have been working all day to find a path where we protected the affordable housing and we have succeeded in doing that. At the same time, uh trying to respond to some issues that the community uh raised it. I I've got to say uh congratulations to the development of director the director of development review and the lawyer on this. Literally we were counting the number of angels that were dancing on the head of a particular pen to get here. So it's good work and I endorse it. Thank you. Okay. So on councelor Holidayiday's motion council holiday do you want a recorded vote? No. All in favor? Both if any carried. All right. Now, our next one is MM3927. Uh, councelor Prudza, you held it down. It's the grocery store pilot project. Councelor Pruda, do you have a question? Does anybody have a question? Uh, no. No questions, Madam Chair. Does anybody have any questions? No. Okay. Hey, did you want to speak? Councelor Pru, you held the item down. I did. Uh, I did, speaker. I just wanted to make a minor amendment u uh to the motion uh and the clerk has it and perhaps they can put it on the screen and it just really adds uh uh to to the motion uh after D and E and an F uh which is uh self-explanatory and it's not uh it's not at all a big deal. Uh so so so yeah speaker I ju I just simply wanted to say u it's it's a it's a very much a new uh and novel u uh new and novel idea. It's something that uh is being looked at in uh in other jurisdictions. And why is that um in other jurisdictions like New York uh in some other areas as well? Uh why speaker? Because uh speaker, people are having trouble making ends meet. Uh we all know that, we all hear that everything has been going up. It's been going up exponentially. uh you know housing and uh and uh energy costs and food costs and uh especially since co uh and it's h it's very very difficult for people and and and people are looking for some hope and some help and I believe that this is an area where we as a city uh could take some significant leadership uh in trying to provide uh some of that help and some of that relief in uh in uh in delivering u uh food uh at u at lower prices uh to people. Now, I've uh described an idea and I've described it in the way that I would like to see it uh roll out and the way I would like to see it uh set up and it's basically uh a retail type grocery store where uh you know where we forego profits uh basically it's a notfor-profit uh setup where we uh able we were able to add some modest uh help through things like uh property tax relief and and possibly rents where rents might be applicable. Uh and in doing so uh you know lowering the cost of food uh uh for people uh in this city. Um uh clearly it's uh you know this is a an enterprise and a business as we all know that is complicated uh has a lot of moving parts to it but I believe that we have the capacity and we have the expertise here at the city uh that can tap into the folks that know how to do this and uh and know how to set it up. Now, I was I was chiding our city manager earlier in suggesting that, you know, he's also going to be rolling out some 25,000, you know, Walmart type stores in China and we're going to be selling food there. I I kid. But uh but speaker, um what we really want to do here is uh be able to set something up that uh is able to to uh deliver food uh to people at u at better prices at lower rates at better cost than they're currently getting it. uh because uh people desperately need uh relief and this is an area where I believe uh that the city could provide uh some significant uh relief to them. Thank you, Councelor Sachs to speak. And I believe you have a motion. I have a motion. Okay. If we can put Council Sax's motion on the screen, please. Yes, it's been advanced circulated. My motion is asking that we support the nonprofit Toronto community food cooperatives such as Karma Co-op. They go a long way to maximize food affordability and you could trade your labor to reduce your food costs. You meet your neighbors and it's non-commercial. Sorry about the echo. and everybody who can sign up for karma co-op. It's great organization. Thank you. I I don't know. I think councelor Saxs moved a motion. Yeah. Okay. Um, councelor Holidayiday. Yeah, I Speaker, I I will not be supporting any of this. I think that this is a terrible idea and uh I think that this is a poor use of resources and we shouldn't even be talking about it. I want to but I I I want to give you something really serious to think about. A lot of people um have this notion that stores are, you know, winning getting one over on them and, you know, extracting lots of money from them and building a lot of wealth off of them. All true. And I think if you look really carefully about what we're talking about, we're talking about groceries, um, things that you need to sustain yourself every day, and I hope, you know, I'm I suspect this will pass even though I won't support it, but if you really zoom in on a basket of goods that you need for everyday life, if you look at things, milk, butter, uh, potatoes, a bag of carrots, you know, the stuff that we buy every day at a grocery store, I think if you start to look between the different grocery stores, the prices are not that far apart. Some variations agreed. If you start getting into premium goods, if you start getting into organics, if you start getting into prepared foods, junk foods, yes, they get very expensive and the variation changes from store to store. So, if there's a pitch here that governmentrun stores are suddenly going to be in the takeout food business where there's larger margins or they're going to get into the luxury goods business where there's larger margin margins, then yeah, perhaps there's a way to cut back on the profits and make them cheaper. But I don't think that's what we're talking about. I think we're talking about basic everyday staple foods. And I think if you look a little closer at those, you'll find out that the stores actually don't mark them up a lot. And that the over the overhead on these stores cost a certain amount of money. And that's going to be borne by the taxpayers. And um I think if you begin to compare apples to apples, literally uh from store to store, you're going to find out that I don't think that the government could possibly run this more efficiently than the private sector does because we're dealing with the everyday goods. And you know, it's a bit of an illusion to think that we're suddenly going to pull this off. So we have so many pressing priorities in this city. And I do know there are hungry people in the city and there are people that need help. But to suggest that a government-run store is suddenly going to be better is preposterous. And so I just cannot condone putting our resources towards this idea. Thank you. Um councelor. Uh thank you through you. Madam Chair, I do have a an amendment I'd like to move. Uh thank you. That city council direct the executive director of social development to request staff to look into alternative models for delivery of groceries locally which take advice consultation from industry expertise to lower food costs for the city of Toronto. Um before I got into politics, Madam Speaker, I worked in the food sector for close to 20 years, including uh a number of years in food distribution, snack food distribution. Um I I understand the intent of what councelor Puce is trying to do. Um I have some concerns around the model of of four locations. Um putting on my counselor hat. I have uh six neighborhood improvement areas in my ward. Uh, you know, many of my residents in those neighborhoods are single family parents that work one or two jobs. Um, going to one of four locations to buy food. I don't think it's practical for them. They would tell you it's not practical. They're going to go to one of the large chains. They're taking the bus. They don't have the time or wherewithal to go to multiple locations. Um there's a whole discussion we can have around food costs but I would like to hear from some industry experts on what the opportunities are for to deliver this because food security in this uh city is a huge issue that we need to deal with and we have a role to play in it. So I will be supporting this item overall but I think it needs some additional consultation. Thank you. Councelor, I'll get councelor Mley first. Mayor Chow, councelor Mley, did you want to speak on this briefly? One of the challenges that we're having with development and the growth pressures in our community is the ability to actually secure uh food and and grocery stores. For example, I have many examples in my ward of buildings that are being redeveloped, whether they're a Dollarama that local community depends on for small groceries, um, or other areas that don't have a walkable grocery store. One of the big things residents are constantly asking us to negotiate is food security in their neighborhoods. This is a critically important part of complete communities, having a walkable, affordable, and accessible place to get the nourishment that you need um, you know, to be happy and healthy in the world. And right now we don't have many tools in in fact we don't have any tools to secure the kinds of uses like a grocery store um or food security in our communities and this I think is great leadership on behalf of councelor Peruta and a model that we know does work well in other jurisdictions uh internationally colleagues and I had a great time we've all heard about it uh uh going down to Taiwan but one of the things that we saw be really successful in their affordable housing model is at the at grade and all of their government buildings were either coll-located grocery stores or daycarees and in some cases both and that factored into how they were able to keep their building their communities complete and healthy as well as affordable and so I do think that there's definitely something here for us to be continuing to pursue in my word I've got uh the Daily Bread Food Bank I've got Second Harvest um both organizations are committed to addressing food security and um making sure people don't go hungry I think the city of Toronto can continue to be a strong partner in this work. Uh, and I'll be supporting the motions. Thank you. Okay. Councelor Bravo. Councelor Bravo. I will be supporting this motion. I agree that there are many details to work out and I think that uh one um aspect of that is that community ownership of food uh distribution places is actually really important. So it doesn't just have to be the state, but I think as the state, this level of government can support that that those activities. This food is not just about the end user being able to buy food they can afford. It's an entire system right from production um local production in the green belt across Ontario. uh reaching our climate goals, ensuring that we have the security and sovereignty to be able to feed our own people and not having a single food desert in the city where people can't access nutritious food for their families. And I I don't um I I want to make sure that we don't also miss the workforce opportunities. And that's one of the things that I find most exciting about our school food program is that we have the opportunity to connect people to jobs uh delivering distributing food um that would otherwise be helped in other ways. Uh I to the question about prices. Yeah, prices aren't very different because the private market cannot guarantee that people uh can access fairly priced food. If you if you remember that the big chain stores fixed the price of bread and that meat was being sold at less than the advertised amount, that's that's really taking from people that uh that have the least. Um and it's something that we need to think about. Decommodifying aspects of the food system is a way to secure our future and the inverse is very expensive. Poverty is expensive for the people experiencing it. Poverty and hunger are very expensive for society as a whole. We want to make real interventions and make sure that people aren't suffering in our communities on our streets, children, adults, elderly people, then we have to do everything that we can with the tools that we have to help people live a better, safer, and more prosperous life. Thank you. Oh, okay. Uh, you want to speak before the mayor? Yeah, that will be the last Okay. So, Councelor Thompson, because the mayor Cha would be the last speaker. Okay. Um, thank you, speaker. I I just wanted to rise um to speak to this issue. Um, I I understand the objective and I understand the issues and many of us, we have residents who are having a hard time and so on. My preference would be not to be looking at opening grocery stores, but would be to create either incentives for um you know people who want to open grocery stores. Um I'm I'm a free enterpriser quite frankly. I'd rather like to see the market uh working in a way that provides um um you know groceries at certainly at a fair price. It's very expensive, especially this day and age when just for vehicles to travel and bring groceries to varying distribution centers with the cost of gasoline and everything else and so on. Um, you know, if we were to look at creating opportunities and incentives for businesses as um, Deputy Mayor Councelor Mley spoke about visit to Taiwan and how they do things and so on and creating opportunities in uh, development where you create small facilities or grocery stores where people would have access to uh, to items that they're needed and we create incentives. I'd prefer to see incentives. In fact, I would prefer to see us as a municipality if we identify individuals who are in need that we provide incentives to them. Madam Speaker, in my own ward, I carry around um you know, gift cards from a variety of places where I offer to my residents who are having um some challenges and so on. They can go to the grocery stores and uh and buy items that they desire and they need. Um, I'm really concerned about us uh being all things to all people, quite frankly, and not being successful at at at it. Um, it's a bit of a a thin edge. Uh I know that um there there's there's a huge risk with respect to going down this road and I realize the mayor's motion which is coming I think it's a real sensible and a constructive one looking at the opportunity one and while I'm interested in seeing and looking at the opportunities I don't really think that this is an area this is a a path that we should be going into. uh in in in my wards I have had discussions with some of the churches about collaborating and looking at creating a purchasing process where members can don you know contribute x amount of dollars let's say it's $100 uh per week or month and pooling those funds and buying uh supplies and then repackaging and redistributing them amongst the members who are participating and so on. So those are some of the incentive and opportunities and so on. And I understand the issues around food insecurity. I get that. But um government is just trying to be too many things to too many people. Uh we talked about potholes earlier. That's our objective and so on. Yeah, I know people have to eat obviously that sustains them and so on. I think that there are other ways that we really should be looking at incentives, creating opportunities, uh, you know, identifying those individuals who are in need and finding ways to help and and and subsidize them, helping them with their food costs. But this notion of going into the grocery business, it's it's a slippery sliding slope in my view. And in fact, having four locations, you have three million people in the city of Toronto. Are they all going to make their way to those specific gross four grocery stores in the ward? I don't actually see that. What will be the inventory that we will carry? We're competing against no frrills. We're competing against laws, metro, and all of these different stores. I don't believe that these stores are jacking prices up just because they can. I believe there's an operational cost. I believe it's, you know, expensive to run a bricks and mortar facility. It's expensive for products to come to those location and will we have unionized grocery stores? Will that be what we will do? Will that actually help with respect to reducing the costs? I would submit to you that will not be the case and so on. But I'm willing to take a look at it, but I'm very concerned about the direction in which we're going with respect with respect to this approach. It's an idea. Uh okay, let's test it. But I do think that there are other ways that we can actually help people that we've identified who are in need. Not everybody needs um obviously the the help from government, but those who do, we should try our best to help them because we want people to actually um be able to eat healthy and to be able to, you know, um to to to enjoy their their their communities that they live in and so on. But I'm very concerned about the direction in terms of where we're going. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, the last speaker, Mayor Cha. Thank you, Madame Speaker. I have two motions. I think I pre-irculated it for folks to look at, examine. First one, expand the scope of the report so they align the grocery store pilot of the city's boat purchasing of food for many programs. make sure we are learning from other cities and that have already have public grocery stores and look at what the city can do to promote real competition at grocery stores. Okay. The second motion directs social development to create a program advisory body to inform this work as well as other food policy work already underway. I my kids are much older now. I have grandkids, but I seldom take them to go shopping. But recently, I joined um a family that uh has trouble making ends meet in some ways. And because of our food program in school, they are they're saving 900 bucks. So, they're happy. So, I want to see what kind of food their kids eat. They have two kids and uh close to the end of the shopping that she had a definite budget and trying to tear kids away from food they want to buy and in this case it was the goofish. It it was some crackers and there was a yogurt top uh that they really wanted and there was so then one of the kid the younger kid had a hissy fit. It was just really hard on the mom because the price of grocery is so high and that she thought that she can do 60 bucks for two kids for a week for just snacks and there was no way she could have kept it under $60. And it it the food price is going up. We can tell it's going to go up because the price of gasoline is going up, which means the the shipping cost of food is going to be up. So it is really difficult uh with rent going up. So, we are looking at ways, we should be looking at ways to help. And I really thank councelor Peruta and councelor Cohen putting this in front of us and because Toronto Torononians want the city to play a role to help them with the cost of living and we've been trying to do that whether we're uh building affordable housing, feeding kids, keeping the price of TDC low, all of those things helps somewhat. Um but we can do a lot more. So that's why I'm supporting this motion. It's an exciting option because I think residents are hungry for innovative thinking and but this is just one piece of a bigger puzzle to reduce cost to make sure that residents in every corner of the city have access to affordable groceries. and other pieces to make sure grocery stores and retailers can't use AI, our personal data, restrictive zoning to drive up the cost of food for ordinary Torononians. So, I'm proposing some amendments today so that the city staff can explore a range of models and initiative to bring affordability, create local jobs, support local farms, and use the levers that the city has. what we have now to buy how and how it buy food. So my amendment asks staff to develop a strategy that does the following three things. One, leverage how the city buys food or seniors homes, libraries, camps, shelters, schools. I just added it up. Seniors, 2,600 long-term care homes. 9,000 people live in our shelters. 115,000 of them go to our summer camp. 330,000 kids we are feeding and there's 2,000 in child care centers directly operated by the city. That's half a million of people, kids, seniors, ordinary folks. And if we do bulk purchasing, we can bring down the cost of food and help drive local job creation. The the second one is using city power to protect consumers, increase competitions and uh crack down on price gouching gouching. Number three is explore models of municipal grocery stores that draw from the best examples around the world and the kind of assets we have right here in Toronto. A public market, the farmers market are so popular. the public food terminal that we have worldclass community partners like the karma co-op that uh councelor uh Sax was talking about the carrots they are cooperatives and they are local food stores that focus on really good food uh so that we can collectively bring food security to our residents. So, let's uh support all these motions and we'll work together and support the staff in this initiative. I think we can make a big difference. Thank you. Okay, we'll put the motions on the screen. All I know is whenever I buy bananas, they're all rotten. They're you buy them and tomorrow they're rotten. Uh, okay. Let's put the motions on the screen. Okay. Motion by councelor Peruta. Councelor Holidayiday. You've asked for a recorded vote on all of them. Motion one carries. The vote is 21 to3. Okay. Next motion. Mayor's motion a on favor or okay come on council holiday it's 20 to9 Councelor Chang, please. Councelor Fletcher. Motion 4 A carries. The vote is 20 to four. Okay. What's next? Motion two by Council Saxs. Come on, Stephen. Please. Do you know it costs a lot of money to to have a recorded vote? It does cost money. Councelor Myers, please. Motion two carries. The vote is 23 to one. Motion three by councelory. Oh, recorded vote. Why is it that when it came to your item, you didn't ask for a recorded vote? Huh? I asked you, you said, "No, we don't need one." Motion three carries. The vote is 21 to3. Okay. Mayor's motion 4B recorded vote. Council Croanti, please. Motion 4B carries. The vote is 22 to two. Item is amended. Yeah, I know. I heard you. Councelor Croanti and councelor Fletcher, please. The item as amended carries. The vote is 21 to3. I understand that Mayor Chow has a motion to uh open an item T 20 2912. Thank you. Um, madame speaker going to reopen uh TE29.12 and if you can put the motion on the right in front of you. This is really about uh three units of affordable housing and um okay reopen first and then on favor of reopening the item carried. Okay. Okay. Let's just stand it down for a minute. Okay. All right. So, our next item is MM 39.36. Councelor Perks, you held the item down. It's the urgent parking capacity gap. Councelor Perks, I have a motion. Okay, we'll put the motion on the screen. So members, uh my motion makes three small changes uh to councelor Changeng's motion. Uh she's asking a whole lot of different departments and agencies to develop a uh a traffic plan and report back uh by quarter two. It literally it's quarter two in a matter of weeks and that's just not possible. So, I've uh put in uh in the first quarter of 2027. Um I've amended uh her request for a comprehensive transportation plan so that it includes public transit options. And uh oh, it disappeared. Hang on. And the third small change is uh she had asked for a solution to be implemented uh in quarter 3 of 2026 uh which is simply not possible. Uh so I've taken those dates out. Uh happy to take any qu well maybe I should say a few words. Um, like councelor Chang, I have pockets in my neighborhood where there are public agencies and real problems with access to parking. Like councelor Chang, I have people who want to visit their grandparents who really struggle to find a parking spot. And it's important that we ask city staff to go look at those things. But there are a couple of twists here. One is that uh at the same time that this uh is happening, this is literally the site of the modular housing program on comer that has been so controversial and which this council approved and approved the parking plan for. We've already done that. Second, I think it's important to note that there is a TTC parking lot at Finch Station, which is literally a 10-minute walk from this site where during the day there are frequently o all kinds of open parking spaces. Third, there is a TTC bus stop at the site. Fourth, the parking lot that is currently shared between TCHC uh Toronto Seniors Housing and uh a long-term care operation uh could be better managed. They could uh you know put a gate across it and require people show either proof of residency or be willing to pay in order to park there. And that's something I encourage councelor Chang and and we'll support her and help her with in going to those agencies to do it. As council, we cannot direct those agencies to do those things. So there are ways forward here. There are ways that work, but but asking staff to sort uh a transportation problem out that includes three public agencies plus the Toronto Parking Authority, three divisions, and get a report back on a new traffic plan uh essentially in the next two months and then implement it a couple months after that. Well, anyone who's been here knows that those are unreasonable timelines. So, I was hoping we could get the yes. Uh, we got very very close. 99% of of what's in front of you, Councelor Chang and I have agreed on. It's those timeline issues. And I wanted to include uh looking at public transit solutions as well. Thank you. On the amendment by councelor Perks. Oh, well, you didn't have your name up there. Sorry. Did you want to speak? Your name's not there. Okay. Councelor Chang. Thank you, Madam Speaker. This is a real challenge in my neighborhood. There are three buildings now that are going to be operating here. Let's call it a senior's campus because we have long-term care which has 600 staff, 300 that uh park daily and when they do a shift change. Currently, what they're doing is the evening shift has to park offsite. They were renting a church parking lot that uh cannot allow overnight parking. So, they have to move their cars to that church. They park at the church parking lot. They do the shift change and then after the changeover is done, staff have to then move their cars uh onto the parking on site once the dayshift people have left and doctors can't find spots when they want to treat patients. They are looking at gating a portion of the parking lot, but they can't gate all of it because it is a fire uh fire p fire route. Yes. And so staff have tried to get a solution, but they just haven't had any um they haven't found a way. And that's why we're asking the city, us as a city, to take that leadership and to work out this problem. The dates on this motion were provided by staff and I asked them, we actually proposed amendments to say we don't need to have this date. We could say make every best effort. it doesn't and they came back with this language. So I am a little surprised that um you know staff don't support this because we actually went back and forth and I try to lighten the language to give them less of a harsh timeline because I understand it is very short timeline here. But that being said, the problem already exists. And once this supportive housing takes occupancy in the summer, it's only going to get worse. It's already a mess. And because there's no system, there could be no enforcement. And the operator of supportive housing, even though they signed on to say, "Yes, we will only have two parking spots." But in reality, because it's a copy of what's happening at Cedar Veil, it's the same model of operations, they estimate they will need 10 to 12 additional parking spots for their staff. And the parking lot that councelor Perks referenced, it is a little more than 10 minutes away. It's also uphill from that parking lot to the site. And at minus 20° it would be quite a distance especially for a senior visiting a senior. So who needs to use parking at this site? Volunteers who are critical to serving our seniors. Visitors. We want our seniors to have visitors. We don't want them to. And we've had actually relatives of people at long-term care come to us in tears because they can't get parking to visit their parents. So this is an urgent problem. It's already creating stress and challenges. They have some, you know, workarounds like this church parking lot rental that they're doing, but it's not sustainable and there's even with their patches, it's not working. So, there is an urgency to this and I hope that uh members of council will support a motion that I did work with staff on. So, we worked on this. We went back and forth. We were flexible with the dates and this is the version that staff gave me. So I'm not understanding why uh I'm hearing differently now on council floor. So I hope that I'm the local counselor. I'm working with staff. I'm working with the divisions and this is a very herculean effort that we're trying to make to solve a complex problem. So I hope that my council friends and colleagues will support what I've put forth. Thank you. On councelor Perk's amendment. All in favor? Recorded vote. Councelor Peruta and councelor Cresanti, please. Councelor Saxs, if you're participating in the meeting, can you please Thank you. Motion one carries. The vote is 17 to 8. Okay. On item as amended. All in favor? Carried. Okay. Mayor Cha. Mayor Chow. So, we're ready to deal with your motion for T2912. Yeah, thank you. Uh I am uh can can that be put on? Yeah. So, it's deleting the option of motion two and instead we're doing uh all of that is that's in front of you. really at the end of the day is uh some three units of affordable housing that we're saying yes to. Okay. So, we have motion by councelor Chow. I mean, sorry, Mayor Chow. It's It's been a long day now. I I see there's names on the screen. Everybody's okay with it. Councilor Bradford, your name No, no, but your name's there. Was that from before? That was from before. Okay. Our mayor Charles motion on favor. Post if any carried. And I guess we have to do item as amended again. No. Okay. Thank you. Sorry, mayor. I've just been a long day for me. Long day for me. Our next our next motion, our next item is MM3950. Councelor Bradford, you held it down. Um, say for subways. Um, so are there any questions on this one? No. Okay. Any speakers? Pardon? Questions of staff, please. Oh, okay. Can you put your name on the Sure. Let me do that for you. Hey, go ahead. We have staff here. They're online. Okay, I guess staff are online. Um, according to our public dashboard, community safety and well-being on transit, what proportion of riders reported that they were satisfied with their personal safety on the TTC in February of 2026? Hi, it's Commissioner Bradford. Can you hold my time, Madam Speaker? But who's who's talking on the screen? It was Fort Monaco, but I'm not sure if that's Who is it? I think it was Fort Monaco, but TTC guy. Yes. What? Yeah. I I just don't understand. No, I mean, he's got a Michigan shirt on. Okay. So, who is answering this question? I'm just I'm asking for a repeat of the question so I can I can be clear that I can try to answer. I didn't hear the question. Okay. I just going to make a comment, Mr. City Manager, and like we're all working. We're all here and I just, you know, Okay. So for for our chair of the TTC, etc., we're all here. It's going to be very difficult to do this exchange remotely. Um we're going to work with what we got, but let's raise the bar. So my question was, and I'm going to repeat it again. Um community safety and well-being on transit. This is the public dashboard. What proportion of riders reported that they were satisfied with their personal safety on the TTC in February of 2026? Commissioner Brad for the latest agree that I have 51% of the customers that the DTC is I think you said 51% uh I believe okay I can't hear I'm sorry Madam Speaker okay there's something wrong with your audio I'll try speak yeah I 61% % there it is 61 I actually the number I have is 51% from February the number that you just reported was the January number of 61% so I'm just going to correct that uh February which I asked was 51%. It it doesn't really matter. It's it's a lot of people don't feel safe on the TTC right now. Would you agree with that? Well, 61% there's obviously work to do to improve the perception of safety. I'm sorry. This is a joke. I can't like we've waited 12 hours. Mr. Bradford, I don't know what to do. Okay. I mean, this is just it's it's not professional. I know, but what do you want me to do? I don't know what the All right. Okay. There was a I want to talk about assaults on the TTC. Can you ask answer some questions about assaults on the TTC? I'll do my best. Okay. How many assaults were reported on the TTC in 2015? I don't have the 2015 recommend for Bradford. I'll have to get back to you. In 2015, how many assaults were reported on the TTC in 2023? I have only the 2025 number. This is brutal. Okay. Well, let me let me read the numbers into the microphone and you can confirm. 263 incidents in 2015, 855 incidents in 2023, and 831 incidents in 2025. Does that sound like something numbers you might be familiar with? Yes. Okay. Some people point out that we've seen a decrease over the past two years, and I guess that's technically true, but with the numbers I just gave you, would you agree that we've seen a decrease of 2.8%? 98% there is a decrease in the numbers of assaults and again customers employees. Yes. But it's still an increase of 216% over the past decade. Is the math right on that? I can't comment on the math because I don't have the 2015 numbers in front of me, but the numbers have gone up since 2015. Of the 70 subway stations today, how many have a uniform police officer station in them? We got a neighborhood community officer program. What does it cover? So neighborhood community program isn't in full flight yet. We have community officers on our system right now, but it's going to grow. Okay. I didn't hear any of that, but Union to Welssley, that's six stations with four officers cover it. Blur to Egllington. Six stations with four officers. Total of eight officers. Correct. Across 12 stations. Correct. Okay. Let's talk about cleanliness. What data is currently collected at the station level about cleanliness and lighting and you report that on a regular basis to the public? Yes. The cleanliness is done quarterly as part of the CEO report and it's done by a third party office. Station level though. Station cleanliness. Yeah. individual stations. That's not it. We have the data on individual stations, but we report to the public on an aggregate bas. Right. So, we're not giving the public the data on a stationbystation basis. How many trespassers were reported on the TTC in 2024? Someone have the number for 2024. 711 in 2024. Over the past few years, how many suicide attempts did the TTC average on an annual basis? I don't have that number handed you. Okay. The number I have is 40. That sounds correct. Okay. Last spring's reports from staff and consultants supported moving forward with installing platform edge doors. Can staff speak to the safety and reliability benefits of platform edge doors particularly in reducing track level incidents and service disruptions? So platform manage doors would certainly go a long way to reducing the unauthorized people at track level and certainly would be very beneficial towards preventing us attempts. Okay, I'm going to leave it there, Madam Speaker. Okay. And then if I may step on a point of personal privilege, I suppose. Yeah. Just I I just want to say that whoever's on the screen there, it's very unprofessional for you to be attending a meeting like that and when we can't even hear you. This is a professional atmosphere and to it's unacceptable. Councelor Bradford. Yeah, I I would just echo that and it's a message to all the staff in the building here. We got to show up. Okay, we have to show up. We should be showing up in person. If if you are a seauite executive who is answering questions on a file that is you know been discussed a lot you got to have those numbers I have the numbers you have to have those numbers and you need to be here and that's my it's just a broad comment that was very frustrating. Thank you. It was frustrating. Councelor Meyers you're next to ask questions. Councelor Meyer point of order. I can't say anything about the dress but he did he is injured. That's why he's home. That's I that's not my job. Okay. Councelor Myers, please. It's Councelor Myers, not a point of order. Councilor Meyers, you're up to ask questions. Thank you. Go ahead. Uh I'm just wondering if uh through you, speaker, if you could just give an update as to where we are on the platform edge doors that we are currently studying. Yes. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you. Can you hear me? No. Can you repeat? Yes. Platform edge doors. Yes. Where are we on the study? We sent the study back for further study. So, where are we on that? So, we're Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Sorry. No. Go. So, we're in the midst of the final review, uh, Chair Myers, and we will be able to provide an update very, very shortly. Uh, do you have a timeline as to when that will be provided? I I will confirm, but I believe it's within the next couple of months. Okay. And then just looking at point four of councelor Bradford's motion regarding Laura Young capacity improvements. Those platform edge doors are not included in the original funding. Correct. That's correct. And is there a source of funding that could potentially be used to add platform edge doors into that renovation? Yes, I believe that there is. Pardon? I didn't get the answer. Yes, I believe that there is. Okay. What's that source? I'll have to go back and confirm um chair Myers and I will the exact source. That's a possibility. Okay. Uh so going to five looking at the updated cleanliness standards. We have started the station cleanliness pilot. There are six stations uh currently uh in the first phase of the pilot. Can you just give an update as to where we are on those six stations? So we had six stations last year Myers and we we're down to three stations this year and we commenced those on March the first. And where are we on the six stations that we've already announced? Like what how what's the progress like on those stations? So we finished off with an average score those six stations of 37% and they were up 4% when we commenced. Sorry, can you repeat that? I didn't hear that. you're finished off at 87% average score at the six station pilot up from 74% women for men. Yeah. Um okay. And then regarding the uh there's a there's an item here to have a police officer a plan to deploy uniformed officers across all subway stations. Can you just give an overview of the current use of police officers in TTC subway stations particularly in the downtown U and around Young and Eglinton? Right. We have we have a plan to introduce eight constables um between Union and Eg want to say by the end of April I believe. Sorry, can you repeat that? I didn't hear that. So, we currently have two community officers that are on our system between Union and Egen, and we're looking to move to eight by the end of the spring. Okay. Uh, thank you. And has the TTC ever looked into reviewing the implications of a one-year ban on riders that harass or assault TTC drivers and staff members? Our entire bylaw is currently under review. Um, and I believe all options are being considered by our department. So, a lot of things are under review, namely our pylon number one. Okay. Thank you. And can you just give a brief overview on the work that's been done between my office, the CEO's office, and ATU13 on improving uh protections for transit workers under bill C15. Chair Myers, I believe you're speaking about the the uh bus operator shield. Pardon? I didn't hear that. I believe you're talking about the bus operator uh protective shield. No, I'm talking about the uh increasing the penalties for people who assault frontline offic uh transit employees. That was your last question. I I know there's been a lot of work that's been done. Chair Myers, I I I don't have the defaults in front of me. I apologize. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Speakers, we can go to the speakers list. Okay. First speaker is councelor Bradford. Thanks, Madam Speaker. Through you, um, more than a million people from Atobbico to Scarboro, North York, downtown, the GTA get around the city of Toronto on transit every single day. But it doesn't feel like a day or a week goes by where we don't hear about another fight breaking out, another assault against a TTC staff worker, another stabbing on our public transit, the disorder and the drug use that has become routine on our street cars. It happens all the time. Not everybody here takes transit. I take transit every week. I see it with my own eyes. And so when the public hears from city officials, from elected officials telling them that the TTC is safe, telling them that everything is fine, it rings a little hollow. It comes across as we're not ve doing a very good job listening to our customers. In conversations with people across the city, safety is the number one issue. And safety is particularly compromised when you are on a subway platform, when you're a mom pushing a stroller, senior with a walker, when you're down there alone. Now, some of the numbers I was trying to get from staff there would show that the numbers keep getting worse on our own public dashboards. In January, only 61% of people said that they felt safe on the TTC. That's alarming. But last month that dropped by another 10% down to 51%. It's only half of our riders. And yet when we're asked about safety, the response has been to point at statistics in a spreadsheet, to point at broad trends, aggregates, and to effectively ignore people that are telling us they're not feeling safer. I think this council and this city and the TTC, our job is to respond to those concerns and that is what my motion here in front of us seeks to do. I recognize that there is no one single solution that's going to solve everything. That's why it's providing a comprehensive approach to the feedback that I've been hearing that complements the crisis service uh and other workers that we have in place on the subways today. I understand that councelor Matlo has a friendly amendment to add a reference to theou between the TTC police service uh and special con which I think is helpful and I support that. It's no surprise to me that some of my colleagues have been out there in the media telling us all why this can't be done, telling us why it's impossible, telling us why, you know, the timing doesn't work. And City Hall has been doing that for a long time. When we talk about platform edge doors, the first time that came across Toronto's agenda was in 1990, 36 years ago. We were supposed to be moving forward on a pilot and it was punted yet again. When we talk about policing in our stations, I appreciate that the most modest incremental steps have been taken. But whether it's a busy station like Blur Young or a less busy station like Biseria when there's no one in the station doesn't feel very comfortable. It doesn't feel very safe. I think we need to challenge the status quo. I think we have to acknowledge what we're doing is not working. I think we have to look at the feedback from our riders that would suggest as much and we have to stop being afraid to break the mold and try something different because our ridership numbers all the stats I need to see which are still only 80% of what they were in 2019. So before everybody starts planting the flag of victory and saying job well done and all the self- congratulatory patting on the back, let's listen to our TTC customers. Let's listen to the mothers. Let's listen to the seniors. Let's listen to the shift workers who are riding the system at night. Let's listen to those folks that feel vulnerable on the TTC and let's take real steps today to try and make that a little bit better for them. Thanks, Madam Speaker. Thank you, Councelor Matlo. Uh, Madam Speaker, I have a an amendment And the amendment is uh amending item one uh to have regard for the memorandum of understanding with the TTC including how responsibilities are shared with special constables in crisis services. Um the when I first heard about uh Councelor Bradford's uh motion uh I say with all due respect I thought it was just a political stunt. Um, I thought it was just part of the mayoral uh election and um I was worried that there was some commitment coming from councelor Bradford that we were going to be putting billions of dollars all in one fell swoop to put uh uh platform edge doors in every station without having any idea uh how we would pay for it. And then the more that I stepped back from the political issues around it, I I recognized, wait a sec, what we're debating here is actually fundamentally important and too serious to just look at it through a political machination type lens. Councelor Bradford is correct and I think he's raising really important points that um there are too many tragedies on our tracks that we need to do everything we can to prevent. One of the reasons for so many of the delays that frustrate people every single day who find the TDC and the subway in particular so unreliable is because there are so many delays due to trespassing onto our tracks that we need to address better. and that there is a feeling of insecurity by a lot of people when it comes to riding the TDC that if we are completely obtuse to we're not recognizing what people are feeling and saying and we do need to do more to let them know that we are doing everything possible and there is a lot of work being done to ensure that we provide safety on our transit system. We want people to ride it, but they're not going to ride it if they don't feel safe, if it's not reliable, if it's not affordable, and if it doesn't take people where they need to go. So, we always need to do better. So, when I step back and kind of again pause the politics, it doesn't matter about the names. It's about sort of look at the substance of the motion. Um, Councelor Bradford, I think, actually did a better job than I gave him. uh I think fair credit for the way that he phrased it. Um he's he's asking to develop a plan when it comes to the police. He's not saying that he knows that we can do it all today. and he recognized and I want to give him and his staff credit that when I approached him about the memorandum of understanding that does already address the agreement between the TTC and the Toronto Police Service uh how we how we deploy special constables uh how we use cameras, how do we how we do all that. They recognized that that was a valid valid point to bring into into this discussion. And well, you know, his conviction is to put police officers in every station. I don't I don't know if that's the answer. I'm not convinced. But this motion doesn't necessarily do everything because it's based on the 2027 budget process. And frankly, whoever is the mayor will ultimately make that decision. So, I don't, you know, if we just kind of step back, this isn't going to break anything. It's not going to hurt anything. And, you know, if it's the right thing to do, will happen. Even if it's the wrong thing to do, it won't. But safety has to be our focus. And I think all of us can agree on that. When it comes to the platform edge doors, Council Bradford's motion declares a commitment to beginning the construction of platform edge doors. It gives it supports a mandate to commence construction to go further. It doesn't actually say that we're going to do all of them tomorrow without knowing where the money is. And I recognize that and that's why I feel comfortable supporting this. I support moving forward the pilot because I believe in platform edge doors. I support that we should be rolling them out and we should be rolling them out as we understand how to fund them. And this motion doesn't actually fly in the face of that. So to sum it up, whether this came from Olivia Chow or Brad Bradford uh or anybody else who wants to run for mayor, I think we need to be together in focusing on our common priorities. We want confidence in our TTC. We want people to see it as reliable and safe and affordable and getting people to where they need to go. and there's a lot of work to do and we're making progress and there's a lot more work that needs to be done. We are absolutely correct saying that we can't spend money that we don't know where it comes from. But as I look in as I as I read this motion better, I recognize that that's not going to happen and therefore let's support it with the amendments and then continue working on making sure that the TTC is the better way again. Thank you. Councelor Chang, please. We It's hard to hear. Councelor Carol to speak. Thanks, Madam Speaker. I just wanted to speak briefly to the the the police request, the police board requests in the in the motion. Before I speak though, I want to just briefly point out we're we're we're living in a bit of a glass house in in freaking out a little bit about Mr. Monaco's sweatshirt. I have no issue with this sweatshirt except that it has the wrong team on it. In my particular bracket in March Madness, I have Yukon winning that game. If I had a Yukon sweatshirt, I'd be wearing it to show support in that match as people did in wearing Blue Jays jerseys in this room and we sometimes wear Maple Leafs jerseys. It's a thing flying a flag. The audio however is inexcusable this many years after we started to deal with virtual meetings due to the pandemic. I know that Mr. Lai will speak to all of his seuite about that in urgent uh times because I know the mayor's office is going to going to address that immediately to the police board issues. Um, I just want the council and the community to have a level of comfort with what will happen with those requests because I know they they go off to this place that is differently legislated. I think that what would be helpful in the community to we will look at all the requests that are there. But before you even begin that, at a minimum, what I'm going to be asking the board members to support is that we ask our senior command to first start with an operational briefing of what is the current state today? How do the police respond? Because I think there's a huge amount of misconception out there. What is the crosswalk between constables and police officers? How do they respond? Where do they respond? What's happening now? How do they interface with the social agencies that that we have in this council chamber moved into the transit system? I think we need a baseline current state and how the police interact with that and then we'll proceed to consider all of the things in the motion. They're all things that should be considered. But I think to the perception piece, if you ask AI right now about the global issue in transit systems since the pandemic began and all of us faced a you know a rocking impact on our ridership globally and particularly in North America, perception of safety on the transit system because transit systems carry people who aren't used to being around vulnerable communities. Perception is the biggest problem in North American transit systems right now. So we do have to deal with that and we have to deal with realities and we have to deal with real response. But what we will do is deliver to you a paperbased a document you can share with your your community that says what's happening now. And then as we begin to explore the creative solutions, I think you'll have a more informed debate with what which with whatever solutions are proposed to get to better stats. I just wanted to make sure that people knew what what the the next step would be once it it leaves council's purview. Thank you, Madam Speaker. Thank you, Councelor Meyers. Well, sorry. Uh, thank you, speaker. Uh, first I would just like to apologize for that, uh, what happened with TTC. I will be having a talk with the senior staff members about being more prepared for council meetings. Um, second, just to sort of say, I thank Councelor Bradford for his motion. There's a lot of good things in there, a lot of the things we are doing. And I just want to go through some some of that work that's already underway. So, first on safety, the motion says that four and 10 Torononians don't feel safe. Uh, however, I think it's important to say that safety factors are actually improving and quite significantly. Um, offenses are currently at a three-year low. Incidents involving customers are down 28% and those and those involving employees are down 38%. Customer satisfaction with safety has actually increased from 57% to 64% and complaints related to safety have dropped by more than half and the biggest increases in customer safety have actually come from women. Uh so while perception is of course important the data is showing uh progress. However, that doesn't take away the fact that a lot of people do feel unsafe because there is a sense of disorder in certain parts of the system at certain times of day, particularly with the closure of these safe uh consumption sites. Third, on the idea that there's no safety plan, uh I just want to be clear, there is a comprehensive multi-layered safety strategy in place. The city has added 80 police officers for 24-hour patrols along with community safety ambassadors and security guards across the system. The TTC is also a safe a community safety and well-being plan that includes everything from mental health supports and crisis responses to deescalation training and partnerships with social services. Uh we have a really good uh working relationship with the Young Street BIA where we do patrols along the Young Line. Uh we we currently have the MDOT plan, the multi-disiplinary officers uh patrolling the system. We're going to roll out the voice of God technology. So there is work that's being done. Uh we are and we are seeing real tangible measures. Over 32,000 cameras are across the system. Support for um monitor the system. We have Noxalone available at all stations and we are making improvements to protect transit operators and transit employees. Uh we've actually had a really good win uh last week where we were able to amend the criminal code so that all transit employees, frontline transit employees, not just transit drivers, are now considered um you if they are assaulted, uh you will be subject to a higher offense. Uh this is something that we've worked uh very closely with the CEO's office and the union and the Canadian Urban Transit uh association on getting these changes uh in place. Um, fourth on funding. So, the motion calls for new investments, but significant funding is already in place. Uh, the 2024 budget allocated $28 million for safety initiatives through the Ontario Toronto agreement. The TTC is receiving substantial additional funding to support safety and recovery. And finally, on staff presence and cleanliness, there is a pilot underway uh with six stations. Uh, three more stations are going to be added to the pilot. uh and the TTC has increased customer uh facing staff and we've worked to move agents out of their booths and special constables out of their vehicles so that we do have that increased uh staff presence. So overall there are concerns that are related to safety that need to be addressed but we are working hard on them. And with the platform edge doors the TTC actually we did we were part of that delegation to Taiwan. Uh we did see how Taiwan was able to or Taipei was able to install platform edge doors retroactively in their system. We came away quite impressed and I think we're all committed to installing them. It's just really how do we fund it uh and how do we and where do we start? So that work is underway as uh Fort said uh on the uh when he was answering questions and we will be coming to a report with the council this year. Thank you. Thank you. Oh. Oh, councelor Mantis. Yes, Madam Speaker. I'm calling the question. The questions been called. Okay. Recorded vote. Councelor Thompson and councelor Christanti please. The motion to end debate does not carry. The vote is 13 to9. The 2/3 threshold has not been met. You know, it was just councelor Holiday that had to speak. and he asked for all those recorded votes. So yeah, in uh speaker in light of the vote uh be very very brief, Madam Speaker. Okay. If if I am brief uh and things go well, I will be taking the subway in a few minutes. And uh no, seriously, and and I would say that, you know, this is important because on my journey for the next hour, an hour and a half, I'd feel better encountering a uniform police officer. Many people understand that the system changes at night and uh not everybody's comfortable taking it. And I remarked earlier in council that, you know, one of the most important issues we dealt with was an item on trees because there's 300,000 of them. But if you think about that there's a million people that take the subway every day and if there were some improvements like some officers or more officers on the system in uniform, the ratio of return is really really high. Uh thousands of people will encounter them and it will make their journey much better and they will remember that and it will be better. And the only other point I wanted to make was um I can't in good conscience support the section on uh platform edge doors. I understand why they're there. I understand the benefit that they have, but they're so exorbitantly expensive. It's a tradeoff on other really important things that need to be done at the TTC and we have to just think about the highest and best use of money and I don't agree that it is that. So I'll just ask for a recorded vote on those items with respect to the platform doors. Thank you, speaker. Okay. So, we have the amendment by councelor Matlo first. All in favor? Carried. Okay. Item is amended. Recorded vote. Recorded vote on what? on three and four. Okay, let's vote on three and four. Okay, recorded vote. Councelor Prudza and councelor Pastor Knack, please. Councelor Thompson, how do you vote? The negative. Thank you. Parts three and four of the item carry. The vote is 19 to 4. Okay. On the balance of the um on the balance of the motion, a recorded vote. The balance of the motion. Recorded vote. Sorry members, the voting panel is now open. Councelor Christanti, please. Councelor Thompson, how do you vote, please? The affirmative. Thank you. The balance of the item as amended carries unanimously. 23 in favor. Okay. Um, MM3983, uh, motion by councelor Moyes. Um, councelor Changen, you held the item down. It's the cultural districts program. Do we have questions to staff? Okay, because staff have been sitting here. You don't have any questions? Okay. Can you put your name? Councelor Holiday, did you have question on this one? That's from before. No, but hold on. Councelor Chang has questions. Can you please put your name on the screen, please? Okay. Can you put your name up then to speak? Okay, there you go. Go ahead. Yeah, just uh adding little Iran to the list of cultural districts in the list because this was also passed already uh at council and we already had an inauguration. We have signs up and uh little Iran very much needs the same kind of support that uh we're uh describing for the other cultural districts. So, I think uh we've worked we've had some meeting discussions and um I think coming out of the gate with the ones that have been already passed at council is together. I think it's a a good move for our city to acknowledge and recognize um little Iran along with the other cultural districts. That's that's all I have to say. Thank you. There any further speakers? Oh, councelor Bradford to speak. Thanks, Madam Speaker. I have a motion. I will move it. It is the addition of Banglatown. Um, this was uh and and before all the knee slapping and arrogance in the back, what I would just say is this is the result of a motion moved in 2022 that has not been advanced yet. And I would say a term is long enough. So here it is on the floor. And thank you, Madam Speaker. Okay, Gourd. You okay? Okay. Any other speakers? Okay. Sorry, buddy. Put your name on the screen. Councelor Carol. Thank you, Madam Speaker. I don't know if it's speaking to this item or it's a point of personal privilege, but it's not arrogance and knee slapping so much as we had a strategy that we how we were going to handle the cultural districts and we are now adding things a little without process. So if there was if there was heckling in the background, it's this is a little challenging for some of us who've been tracking this for a long time. There have been people said no to and then people said yes to at the last minute. It's not the fairest way to do things. And I appreciate that now we're we're moving one that was previously moved and said no to, but I really wish that this had been done at committee. That would have been the ideal place to thoughtfully do this so that we had a a fairness to the process. Um I I just just maybe to provide some assurance to to people who are who are concerned about about process. This both both both of the uh the districts that have come forward today have taken a lot of time and a lot of work and I'm really proud of the work that's been done and I'm glad that they're here. Uh that being said though uh equally there's been incredible amount of work done uh both for Little Ron and Ben Bengali town and uh and approved motions and work done in the past that just has not been reported back on and not moved forward. And so that's why we just we and and in fairness to the local counselors there's been a lot of discussion sorry 2022. So uh I just want you to know staff were engaged today. There were like genuine discussions about how to bring this together so that it could work. staff are supportive of moving forward. Uh, and I just, you know, I just want to give some assurance that, uh, it was done in in in a good way to to to bring peace in the valley and to be able to move forward with good projects and support our communities. Peace in the have councilors um, Chang I believe councelor Chang's motion first amendment. On favor carried. Councelor Bradford's motion. On favor carried. Item is amended. On favor carried. So, our last item of the day is 39 60. Councelor Perks, you held the item down. Council Perks. Uh given the lateness of the hour, I have no comments at this time. Oh, okay. So, we'll just vote on the item. Recorded vote. Councelor Moyes, may we have your vote verbally, please? We close the vote. Counselor, sorry. In the affirmative. Councelor Thompson in the affirmative. Okay, the item carries. The vote is 21 to one. Okay, members, before I ask for a motion to enact agend, please everybody sit down. We're not finished. Councelor Matlo, we're not done. We still have some votes. Members, before I ask for a motion to enact the general bills, may I have a motion regarding the consideration of submissions on zoning bylaw official plan amendments? I guess councelor Matlo, did you want to move that one? Guess not. Councelor Mantis. The committee and council considered submissions in making a decision on zoning bylaw and official plan amendments. Okay. All in favor? Those if any carried. May I have a motion to introduce the general bills? Uh moved by councelor Fletcher. Councilor Fletcher. Yes. Oh, I have to read it. Yeah. Well, I have to see it. I'm waiting. I'll do it. The Lee be granted to in introduce bills 193 to 215 and 217 to 275. Shall leave be granted to introduce these bills on favor post if any carried. Shall these bills be declared as bylaws and passed subject to section 226.9 of the city of Toronto act 2006? All in favor? Opposed, if any, carried. May I have a motion to introduce a confirmatory bill? Mayor Chow. Yes. May I just thank our speaker and the clerk. You went through tremendous amount of work. It's not even 10:00 yet. I just want to point that out. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Do you want to read the confirmatory bill? Oh yes. Okay. That lead be granted to introduce bills to confirm to the point of the introduction of this motion proceeding of city council meeting 39 on March 25th and 26, 2026. Shall leave be granted to introduce these bills on favor opposed if any carried. Shall these be shall these bills be declared as bylaws and be passed subject to section 226.9 of city of Toronto act 2006? All in favor? Oppose if any carried. Thank you members of council. Thank you the staff. Good evening.