Good morning members. We'll start in a minute. Thank you. Good. >> You want to go? >> Yes, I think so. >> Uh, good morning everyone. How are you? There you are, councelor Sax. We'll let you sit. You got your water. Morning. Um, here we are. I'm city councelor Paula Fletcher chairing INE and we have quorum. So, we're calling meeting 29 to order. Today's meeting of course is being held by video conference and in person at city hall and committee room 1. You can also watch livereamed at youtube.com Toronto city council live. And although we're meeting in different places today, the infrastructure and environment committee would like to acknowledge that the land we're meeting on is the traditional territory of many nations, including the Missagas of the Credit, the Inishnab, the Chipoa, Hneson, and the Wendad peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations Inuit and Matei people. We also acknowledge that Toronto is our city is covered by Treaty 13 of the Missagas of the Credit. If you're registered to speak today, please listen for me to call your name. We have five speakers on three issues today. And you can look up who they are on the uh visit by visiting infrastructure and environment committee link at toronto.ca council and check the speakers box. Members, the city clerks provided all of you with the agenda materials on toronto.ca ca/counsel and on your CMP clerk's meeting portal. IT staff are available if you need help with your devices and also IT staff are available if any deputants need any help posting anything, showing any videos or uh having any powerpoints. I want to remind you to please submit and approve your motions by email and Matthew's right here. He will accept them at icronto.ca CA and be able to help you with them. Are there any declarations of interest here today under the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act? Nope. Don't hear any. Thank you very much. So, may I have a motion to confirm the minutes of our meeting on April 7th, 2026? And that's moved by Councelor Trino. All in favor? Opposed? Thank you. We have nine items on the agenda and one item of new business which will require a motion to introduce. Matthew, can we do that now and introduce that? Is that your motion, Councelor Sachs? >> Uh, sure. >> Sure. Okay. >> Would you like to move that back? >> Uh, so let's >> wait one second. Yes. I'm u requesting permission to add a new item to the list. Um, the provincial government has proposed regulations on ebikes. The comment period closes before our next meeting and so staff need direction uh for comments. Thank you. >> Thank you. All in favor of adding that to the agenda? Opposed. And that's carried. Thanks so much. Let's do our rundown here. Um we have item 29.1 which is the Oh, it's a long one, but I think I have to read it all. Do I? Yes. 2526 annual winter maintenance report and amendment to blanket contracts C78, C87, C88, and C89 with Rafat General Contractor, Inc. for the non-exclusive supply of all labor equipment and materials necessary to provide single, tandem, and triacle dump trucks with operators for trucking service. Um, so that is I think we'll hold that. >> There's a speaker, but also I would hold that one. Thank you. And then our second one is forensic audit of the 2021 winter maintenance procurement and that is being held for speakers. Our third IE29.3 transition of the blue box program to extended producer responsibility first quarter 2026 posttransition implementation update held for speakers and then IE 2024 annual strategic capital coordination report and progress update on enhancing capital construction delivery. Does anybody wish to hold that? Yeah. Yeah, we'll hold that. I also have something there. Okay. Thank you. Held in the name of council Lynn. Uh 29.5 2026 road classification amendments ws 371021. Councelor Pastor, I think that's your ward. Did you want to hold this or you okay want to move it? Pardon? >> Oh, sorry. You two you'd like to hold? >> No, Madam Chair. I'm sure it's okay with him. >> Yeah, we'll hold that down. Thank you. >> You want to hold that? >> Thank you, Madam Chair. >> I 26 uh 29.6 amending the foundation of drainage policy and storm sewer quality limit for manganesees. >> Like to hold that down for an amendment. >> Sure. >> Thank you. Do you know what ma manganese is on the periodic table? Councelor, >> I I flunked out in chemistry, but thank you. Thank you for bringing bringing up that dark moment in my education. >> Just checking our deputy city manager of course knows the entire entire periodic table. Um, IE29.7 feasibility of requiring side guards on contractor commercial vehicles operating in the city of Toronto. Does anybody wish to hold that? Pardon me. >> I'm happy to move the item. >> Would you like to move that? Moved by Deputy Mayor Morley. All in favor? Opposed? That's carried. Thank you. MM29.8 update on MM28.22 22 improving Toronto's public washrooms. Is there anyone like to hold that? The washrooms. Councelor Prussa, I see you're down there. Did you wish to hold that? You good with that? Great. >> Happy to move it. >> Thank you. Moved by councelor Pastronac. All in favor? Opposed? That's carried. IE 29.9 odor from the Ash Bridges Bay waste water treatment plant. I will hold that because I'd like a little more information before it goes to council. And 29.10 supporting the proposed modernization of Ontario's framework for power assisted ebikes. That's been on the agenda. Would you like to hold that councelor Saxs? >> We have a speaker. >> Oh, sorry. We have a speaker. So, yeah, we'll be holding that. Thank you, Matthew. Okay. Well, we did get it through done. Uh we don't have a lot of speakers, so we should have very interesting meeting today. So, let's start with item number one, which is Do I have to read it all? Right. >> Okay. Item number one, 20 2526 annual winter maintenance report and amendment to blanket contracts C78, C87, C88, and C89 with Rafat General Contractor, Inc. for the non-exclusive supply of all labor, equipment, and material necessary to provide single, tandem, and triacle dump trucks with operators for trucking service. So, it's a report plus that amendment for Rafat general contractors for snow removal. Great. Are there uh we're not having a presentation, are we? No. Are we having one? >> No, >> we do have speakers, >> but Oh, sorry. We do have speakers. We have one speaker is Mr. Kahoon and he's online, I would think. >> Great. Okay. Adam Roy Kahun, are you here for us today? >> Yes. >> We just give you a minute to get online. >> There you are. >> Can Can you hear me? Okay. >> I think we're good. We can. Thank you. >> I I do apologize. I might technically maybe should have went on the next item. I was battling a bit of um a bit of a virus when I had to do um >> Did you Sorry, Adam. I'll just ask you. Did you want to speak on the next item is or this one >> or >> what what is the the next item is more about the audit of snow clearing, isn't it? >> It's the forensic audit that was done. >> Okay. No, I'll just stay it's it's general enough. I'll just stick with this. What I what I want to what I want to say and of course as you know um we've punted this item I would have liked to have talked about it when it was still cold and there were some of the issues but again um it got punted here. Main thing I want to say is that I do give the city a passing grade for how they fixed at least some of the issues because I was able to get out of my neighborhood if needed within after about a week with some neighbors helping clear some some of the areas around me. And I was able to get across the street because I live kitty quarter to a grocery store after after um 3 days compared to last year when we had the storm. It took about um it took about about 10 to 10 days to two weeks. The the only concern I still have is there I believe for people that wanted more information there after then after the media sort of packs up and stopped carrying regular updates. Uh when the when the 72-hour news cycle moves on, there are still people that actually question how much is the city actually doing on on snow clearing and whatnot. And I believe like even if some of it is like already pre pre-written and I think there can be better engagement set set up for people to understand how yes a sidewalk plow can plow the snow and still still after a bit the way that sometimes snow collapses back in, it can look like within an hour that no um snow clearing was done on that sidewalk. And some of these issues really need to be worked out. And again, some of these um some of the issues I have are more are more 311 related. and I will work under different channels to get get those concerns met. But I still think I still the one example I think we can all look at was co how everybody was in it together. But there was multiple sources for information and good accurate information and the city did better portals and dashboards to let everybody know what was going on. And so I think the city can even figure out ways to let us know even when they're in the snow clearing out where the people are so that there isn't a question after the big snowstorm after the media sort of moved on that there's no questions or less questions that I do know that they are actually doing snow clearing and I'm not and I'm not just hoping on hope that we get a broad freezing weather where the sun is going to melt the stuff. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Adam. I'm wondering if there's any questions. Yes, councelor Chosen has a question for you. >> Hi, Adam. Thank you for your deputation, both oral and written. Um, in your written deputation, you talked a little bit about um the idea of people with disabilities being able to um kind of sign in with either 311 or with the city sort of as a like a way to sign up to let the city know that they need priority snow clearance. Can you expand on that a little bit? Right now, it's technically there, but you have to know how to check the right box and fill out a new blank form every time with a new incident. But for somebody like me that filling out these forms, sure, I'm a little bit captive the first few days, so I could go and fill out a long blank form with fresh information, but my disability hasn't changed. my address and other profile demographic things have not changed. I I just hope that some someday that with the app or with other features that we could actually set up a profile. And the other thing is if an issue is resolved, maybe maybe I can cancel my issue rather than leaving it in the queue. So there could be advantages on both sides. >> Okay. Thank you. That's helpful. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Adam. and we'll find out about a list of such nature when we're asking staff questions. Thank you for being with us today. >> All right. Thank you. >> Uh are there any further deputants that are here today that would like to make a deputation on this? Uh Michael Longfield, did you want to speak? >> Sorry, you have the same question about the signup list. >> Yeah. I you know I can't hear you so maybe you should just come. >> Yeah I I I thank you Diane. >> It was just a debut whether to depute on this item or the second one on snow clearing. It was the same question Adam did. >> So which one did you wish to dispute on? >> Uh whatever one will uh >> this is the one is about the actual snow clearing 2020 526. The other is the forensic audit on the um NRFP. So I think you might be in the wrong place. >> If I can be moved to this one, I would. >> Sure. Absolutely. And what about David? Is he here today or is he online? >> He's virtual. >> He's virtual. Do you want to send him a text and let him know? Uh, thanks for letting me move. >> No. Oh, no problem. Because I think unless you want to talk about RFPs, I think you're now in the right place, Michael. We'll let we'll let David know that you've moved and that he might want to be on this particular item. Yeah. I'll let you get settled because you weren't planning to be here on this one. What's that? Damn it. >> Are you all good and ready? Uh once this is up yet. >> Oh, you have a presentation. Perfect. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We'll just give the staff a second. There we go. Okay. Thank you. >> Uh great. Thanks. Uh so, like I said, thank you, chair, for letting me move to this. Uh my name is Michael Longfield. I'm the executive director of Cycle Toronto. And just here a little bit to talk about um city snow clearing this year. Um, you know, this is sort of a um, we can see is sort of a screenshot of a news article about a week after the major store incident that we had. And I think just what cycle Toronto was hearing in a lot of folks is that there was, you know, sort of a lot of understanding that this was a major snow event, but also uh, some frustration that there really wasn't a lot of clarity on what next steps were happening and when things were going to get cleared out. And so, you know, just to quantify things again, as we can see over the past 15 years, um uh so far this year, we have had a lot of snow. We did last year as well. And of course, um every counselor who was here, uh for last winter as well, I'm sure got lots of uh concerns about this as well. And we can see too if we look specifically at January uh this year, uh we had nearly 90 centimeters of snow. And that's more snow in January than we had in all of 2024, 2015, and 2022. So, it was a lot. And I think um you know do really want to start off by saying like really commending staff and for the work that they did and have a lot of empathy for every counselor and every staff member who had to answer phone calls, emails uh about this type of thing. And I'm sure you all had a lot of frustration about this too that you know you can just go out there yourselves and start clearing things out. Um, of course, you know, the city does have service standards and I think they are important to kind of set expectations for everybody about when things will get uh cleared out. Of course, when there are major uh events like we had this winter, we understand that things are going to be triaged differently and not everything's going to be updated in real time. But I think having this kind of baseline expectations about or understanding of how things are going to be uh prioritized at a general level does give people a lot of sense of um how things will move forward. And you know I'll say too uh I think this was a good uh fact-based response from the city. Um sorry you can see I was still adding notes. The the source of the tour is the Toronto Star. Um so anyways um you know this was from the Toronto Star back in mid uh January. Uh there's a note from city staff that in terms of you know do does the city clear bike lanes before streets and sidewalks and sort of acknowledges that it can sometimes appear that bike lanes are cleared before sidewalks and that's because there are far fewer kilometers of bike lanes and fewer obstacles for plows to navigate making them quicker for crews to service. And you know, as folks know, we've got nearly uh 5,600 km of roads, but only 104 km of protected bike lanes, 140 km uh uh painted bike lanes, and about 400 km of multi-use trails. And not all those are are cleared over the winter. And they're clearly some that were signed that they're not, but again, it's a lot fewer kilometers to do. And again certainly can understand that in the and I think what we saw in the first bit of the snowfall was especially if you lived near an arterial bike way like uh Danforth Blure University that some of those uh bike l bike lane plows did get out first and things were getting cleared on bike lanes before the sidewalks and the roads but in the aftermath of that we started seeing more of this where uh the bike lanes seem to become kind of de facto dumping grounds for snow. So this is about a week after um one of the major snow events that we have. This is uh bluring northwest facing westbound and you know you can see the road is clear, the sidewalk is mostly clear and the bike lane is completely um impassible. Um so you know this is an example. Um I filed a 311 request about this. Uh you know got a prompt uh response was told that it was going to be uh 3 days for it to be completed. It's like okay that's kind of understandable. Uh so u there we go. um next day it's being investigated like okay cool that's great like understand that's good uh and then I didn't hear anything back till February 25th um at which point it was concluded uh that the request has been concluded so it didn't even say that it had been cleared which it had been but just that the request had been concluded and again this isn't to dump on 311 I understand you know there were thousands if not tens of thousands of these requests but I think it sort of speaks to the communication challenge that was kind of here especially when we were often being told that bike lanes were clear and roads and sidewalks were not. And again, you know, you can see bike lanes impassible, sidewalks clear, uh road is clear, bike lane is impassible, bike lane is impassible, bike, these are photos that were sent to Cycle Toronto. There were photos that I took. Uh they're not just highlighting the ones uh to dunk on y'all. This was a pretty sample of what the situation was. And frankly, you know, this um these kind of social media um uh I don't even know how to say it, rage baiting posts about spotless bike lanes, I think one was doing disservice to the actual work that city was doing and taking this very seriously, but two, it felt from a cycling perspective, it felt like we were being gaslit because they were clearly not spotless. And you know, again, Toronto is a winter city. Over the past couple years, we maybe haven't had as much snow as we have had historically. But if we compare to Montreal, even when Toronto has major snow events, there's still much less than what Montreal experiences. And of course, Cycle Toronto, I love bringing up Montreal and not to say that it's perfect, but in terms of cycling, they definitely are setting the standard in North America. And they are a winter city with colder, more extreme climates than we are. And they're managing to do this as well. And even um this year in particular, yes, Toronto had more snow in January, but in the leadup to this, Montreal had more snow in December and more snow afterwards in February. And you know, part of this too does speak to the challenges that you all have with the current contracts. The challenge is too that especially with bike lanes that if they're not being cleared regularly, they start getting into a challenge where snow builds up and they can't be cleared by plows and you need to get into a removal scenario. And again, Montreal is just much better positioned for this. And I think that's something we saw in Toronto, too, that it definitely seemed like the bike lanes were being plowed early on, but that plowing seemed to have stopped and then snow accumulated and they became impassible for plows and folks had to wait weeks until uh snow removal um machines could be used to this too. So >> little video of what you know is kind of going on in Montreal just for everyone to sort of say but that's the end of my presentation. Uh thank you everyone. >> There may be questions for you. Thank you. >> Are there questions for our deputent? >> Good morning. >> No thank you. Yes deputy mayor. >> Thank you madam chair through you. Um thanks for joining us Michael. Thanks for the deputation. Um I will ask this as staff as well but I was very uh interested to see the tandemss clearing and removal happening at the same time. Uh as you mentioned I think you appreciate part of our challenge when we have that level of accumulation is not just getting it up but getting it out of the way um and finding alternative places for it. Have you ever seen this happening in the city of Toronto? It seemed like it was happening um um by midFebruary it seemed like um there had been more actual removal attempts and I think by then things got uh definitely a lot better from a cycling perspective. So, I can't speak to why that wasn't deployed earlier, whether the city was having a challenge sourcing that equipment or whether it had just recently be acquired, but um I think that was a big challenge early on that um again from our perspective because maintenance wasn't being maintained, removal wasn't being uh maintained or clearing wasn't being maintained rather, it then got into a removal situation and the city didn't seem to have the resources or capacity to deal with that on a timely basis. >> That's helpful. Thank you. And I'll put that to staff as well. Thank you. That's all for me, Madam Chair. >> Yes, councelor Saxs. >> Yes. Thank you, Michael. The other thing that I noticed, I just wondered if you found this more generally, is that even where there were places where the bike lane was cleared, it would eradically infrequently be impassible either because something was missed or some private operator um built up a big pile of snow and those interruptions took weeks and weeks to be cleared. Was that your experience as well? >> Yeah, definitely. And again, I'm I'm not suggesting there was any malicious intent on this. I think a lot of people were struggling with where to put the snow, but I think often it seemed like the bike lanes became kind of a convenient dumping ground to clear snow out of other spots. So whether it was um um you know, we saw this a lot at intersections, too, where the bikeway might be cleared between blocks and then at every intersection there'd be a big pileup of snow that it seemed like had been dumped there from other spots, >> right? So for the very large number of people in my ward who depend on cycling to get to work, to get to school, um would you agree with me that for most people it was impossible for more than a month? >> Oh, definitely. Yeah, it was definitely impossible, especially to use um uh the the cycle tracks themselves. You know, I don't think it was uh lost on us at Cycle Toronto that um we were in court um in January, late January um on the appeal to defend the bike lanes at a time when the bike lanes themselves were completely impassible. It was almost like a, you know, a sneak preview of what would happen if we lost the case and the bike lanes were removed. >> Thank you very much. >> Any other questions? I'll just ask Michael the um >> do you think I was getting letters about >> Oh, sure. >> cycling and looking at the Danforth and seeing one side had been cleared and the other hadn't and the other side. But do you think most cyclists know that's just a casual lane isn't going to be cleared? >> I think so. Yeah. And and I certainly from Cycle Toronto's perspective where we thought um uh where the work maybe needed to be more urgent was on those like 104 km of protected cycle tracks that tend to have the most volume of users. So like Danforth, Lake Blur, Lake University, we understand if you know neighborhood routes might not be cleared at the same rate. again, especially when we're dealing with a major uh snow event, but those arterial bikeways that as the city acknowledged in their own comms can be done uh quite simply with dedicated uh equipment. Um prioritizing prioritizing those I think um uh from our perspective should have been a prior a priority and definitely maintaining them. So just in the same as first of all the Dawn Valley gets plowed and then the larger larger roads get plowed and then neighborhood streets. Perhaps the communications aren't clear enough. It it's not clear enough that we're going to clear dedicated standalone protected bike lanes and then work our way down to that one that's running through the neighborhood. Do you think that could be much clearer? And you could you could also make that clear if that cascading level of of of maintenance was very clear to the public. >> Yes, very much so. Yeah. >> Great. I will ask that of staff as to how we think we're doing on >> let everybody know about that. Thank you very much for being here today. So, you're telling me you're not going to be speaking on the um forensics? Okay. All right. Thank you. And I wonder if we have uh Dave Shelnut here now if he in Did we ask him if he is speaking on this one or the other one? >> Were you able to get in touch with him, Michael? No. Okay. >> Said he was maybe anyways. >> Pardon me. >> He said he was maybe able to join. >> Was staff able to get in touch with him? No. >> So, okay. If he turns up on the other one, you can talk about that. Even if it's not about the forensics, we'll let that happen. No problem. Great. Uh, we'll take this into committee now for questions of staff. Did you want to start, Deputy Mayor? Thank you. >> Thanks, Madam Chair. Happy to start. And good morning to our colleagues. Um, I do have a couple of quick questions. Um the report indicates that transportation and TDC staff met in some instances multiple times a day during the major storm events um particularly to coordinate clearing efforts. Can you tell me how the coordination of bus stops and the surrounding sidewalks were coordinated to ensure that both sidewalks and bus stops remained clear >> through the chair counselor. Our our program is through our contracted services where our sidewalks are done by mechanical um clearing and our shoveling of transit stops where possible. We use mechanical but most of it is through our contractor uh using shoveling methods. Um we work through our primarily through our arterial roads first and our transit corridors. Um and the priority is basically set on transit corridors first and then other arterial roads that um don't have transit stops. We do have a list uh and we and throughout the the major event we met uh actually multiple times per day with the TTC to identify uh what I would call their priority stop locations where they were seeing escalations and we were as well. So we would um reroute staff to those locations to to dig them out again. There there was occasions where uh as the deput said the snow because of the heights were collapsing back into the transit stops and we needed to do multiple rounds of clearing. >> That's helpful. And I'm sure as you noted and as you received um we did get a good amount of concerns um shared with our office about exactly that sort of one getting cleared and then the other um getting dumped onto the cleared section. Um so I wonder if you were able to establish any particular best practices with the contractors to try to avoid that kind of a scenario. Uh yes, I mean through it is is a a timing of the sidewalk goes through first and you know that's ideally we would like to do uh with the you know 35 and 60 cm of snow. It was hard to uh coordinate that because they were going around multiple rounds of plowing just to uh stay on top of the snow during the event um because it lasted for quite a bit long time. Um but we are looking at this year with our contractor is uh because we don't track locations like we track sections of road. >> Um we are looking at uh applications where we will be getting uh information >> based on date and time when these locations are cleared. This is an enhancement we're looking at going forward where we'll have better tracking and we can actually ask for photos so that we can have confirmation. So that's something we're going to be developing for the upcoming season. We look forward to that. Um, just to pull that thread a little further, we saw a very cool example in the video from uh, Mr. Longfield at Cycle TTO about tandem clearing and removal happening at the same time uh, with the appropriate equipment traveling side by side is and obviously it sounds like when we're just pushing the snow around that's part of our challenge. Uh, are we employing or deploying that kind of um, approach uh, as part of this? Did we as part of this contract? And are we looking at that into the future? >> Uh through the chair arch snow removal approach. The video you saw is is very much exactly the same as what we do. We have a snowblower driving along the curb lane or potentially uh on the sidewalk and it blows it into dump trucks and then they haul that snow to uh the dump. We also in addition to have snowb blowers, we use frontend loaders or like buckets if you will depending on the infrastructure. it may be too tight for a blower. Um, one of the things that we did explore with at the near the end of our removal is a new piece of equipment called the Chameleon, which is more purpose-built for sidewalks and cycle facilities. Uh, we've secured five uh of those vehic pieces of equipment and we have five more on order, so we'll have 10. So, they're more purpose-built for cycle uh track um removal and plowing going forward. So, we're we're looking at our equipment being more purpose-built as opposed to generic, if you will. >> Great. I look forward to seeing the impacts of that in our future snow season, although I'm not looking forward to that. Um my last question here is just the report acknowledges that there were challenges with on street parking prohibitions during the major snow event. Um and that further review will be undertaken. Will that review be completed and any potential recommendations as to communication plan which we heard about the importance of today? Uh or bylaw amendments be made before the next winter season >> through the chair. Yeah. So two-prong approach. The communication piece. Yes. U we'll definitely be enhancing and looking on um building on our communication particularly around parking. This is more specific related to when we have our declaration and we have the no parking bylaw enacted. Um so we're definitely working on communication and modernizing the bylaw. We will be looking at the bylaw to to take into account where snow is removed um to facilitate b parking uh back. Um the bylaw as it is now is sort of blanket. So until we complete all our removal and we cancel the declaration, uh people are not allowed to park in areas that are already cleared and we realize that's problematic and we're currently reviewing a varied options on how to address that >> and coordinating with TPA I hope as well. Uh I'll leave that there. Thanks, Madam Chair. >> Thank you. There are some recommendations around that as you know councelor which are great. Uh next up councelor Pastronak is next. Go ahead. >> Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, before us is a is a request for an increase, correct me if I'm wrong, of 54 million plus uh in the in the current in in three contracts. And that will take us to 2029. >> Yeah. Through the chair, that's correct. >> And we're currently spending 140 to 160 million. So I don't know what is that a 30% about a 30% increase in our snow removal costs or snow clearing costs. Is this extra cost for removal or a blend of plow and removal? >> So through the chair this extra this this cost is the trucking cost to remove to take the snow from on the street where it's removed by the blower to our snow dump site. So removal uh increases our our snow operations budget by about 30%. >> So it's a blanket contract. So it doesn't translate necessarily through to a budget increase each year. It's a it's an amount of an allowance that's that's in the contract and then we then call on that contract as we need it throughout the contract period. So, we made some assumptions early on when we let the contract that our that our trucking costs would be around $6 million a year. What we actually found was that this year with our big event, our trucking costs were about $18.5 million. So, we've used up a lot of the contract value that we had to take us through to 2029. So, this is about adding value back into that contract so that we can still call on trucking services between now and 2029. So, am I correct to say that uh before this report and and our and our trucking uh initiative um our annual budget was in the $140 to $160 million range. >> So, our our budget for 2026 for snow is $161 million. >> $161. Okay. The top end of the range. So um so basically when we do our budget pressures for 2027 uh we'll be we'll be over 200 million for for snow operations. So through the chair so I'm not expecting us to probably be over 200 million unless we make some substantial changes to to our snow operations. um we make some assumptions around what trucking we may or may not need in the um in our budget request. And then also there is then the severe winter weather reserve fund which we can draw on um depending on how expenditures are going elsewhere in the city. If we need to, we can draw on that to cover um significant extra costs which incur which occur in one particular year. Um, so we would continue to budget for winter in the same way as we traditionally do, which is to look over a three to five year period, apply inflation, look at any changes that we've made to service delivery, and then arrive at a budget figure that way. So I would anticipate that yes, our 2027 budget ask for winter would probably be a bit more than than 26 based on the fact that for the last two years we've had significant snow events, but I wouldn't anticipate us to be up over 200 million. So the there are subcontractors mentioned in in the report. Um do we even know whether they're capable of snow removal? That's an entirely different operational piece than snow plowing operational. You need a fleet of dump trucks. You need to you need to know where you're going. Uh you have to have you know precision timing uh through our streets. Are these companies equipped for that? >> Sorry, through the chair. Can can you just clarify exactly what you mean by these contractors? Do you mean our current winter contractors? >> Well, you've you've referenced uh you've mentioned you've you've referenced three four blanket contracts here. I'm just wondering whether these companies are equipped for snow removal because it's it's operationally it's an entirely different application than snow plowing. Yeah, thank thank you councelor. I'm sorry I mis misinterpreted you to start with. So through the chair. So these contracts are solely for trucking. So this is the provision of trucks and the drivers for our winter services to move snow. But then we also use the same trucking contracts for the summer for things like um leaf removal for example. So this is solely around trucking. It's the provision of a truck and a driver as opposed to anything related specifically to snow removal. It's not a top up from plowing >> uh through the chair. That's correct. No, it's not. It's just the truck provision. >> Okay, I'll leave the rest of my questions for council. >> Thank you. Uh next. Go ahead. Who's got more questions? Councelor Saxs. >> It's okay. >> Go ahead, Councelor. >> Yes. Thank you. First, I want to follow up on the question from Deputy Mayor Mortally about the bylaw. Um, certainly the one-sizefits-all snow declaration causes enormous problems. And when I spoke with you about this months ago, you told me we needed to change the bylaw so that snow declarations can be sight uh area specific. But your recommendation seven doesn't ask for authority to do that. You just ask us to tell you to go away and think about it. Um given the the small number of council meetings between now and the next time we expect snow would wouldn't it be helpful to fix ask us to fix that now or at council rather than just tell you to go think about it. >> So through the chair um that that could have been one approach. Uh the reason we didn't decide to take that approach was because we didn't want to presume that we understood from all the different players and stakeholders out there what their issues were around parking. um and therefore enable us to craft a bylaw which better address those. So you'll see that what we've said in the report is that we want to engage with Tabia and and others so that we can really understand what their issues are and craft a bylaw which which better meets those needs and is more responsive. Uh we acknowledge the bylaw as it's currently drafted at the moment doesn't doesn't work for doesn't work for BAS. It doesn't work for lots of residents. it doesn't work particularly well for us as a blanket approach either. Um so we are committed to making the necessary amendments to that. My anticipation would be that it would come in either December when I when council will first meet again after the election. Um that would be my hope. >> Okay. So we're betting on when the snow comes. the the the Well, I'd ask you to think again between now and council because giving you authority to make a snow declaration in less than the whole city doesn't tell you what to do. It just gives you some flexibility. So I will you think about it >> through the chair we can think about it. I think it's less about the declaration itself because declarations have a couple of things that they do. It's more about this specific issue around parking. Anyway, think about more targeted and focused and give us some flexibility and and the city some flexibility as well. >> Uh my other question is about the recurring obstructions of street cars with parked cars which we all agree we have to stop. Um again when I asked about this during the winter I was told one of the problems is in areas like my ward there's nowhere to take to parked car uh there's nowhere to tow cars to. there's no towards left downtown and so I was told that one of the solutions was a technology where you would basically tow cars to the nearest green pea lot. Um but I don't see that in this report. So is there something we can do again before the snow comes so that you have a faster, cheaper way of responding to cars that are blocking street cars? Okay, I'm going to let my colleague in from TTC4 uh start that one and we'll jump in afterwards that question >> uh through the chair. Um, in terms of a technology that would allow us to um take a vehicle that's following a rail to a site, a green pee. Is that is that the question? Well, I w I was told that in this report we would have that that instead of having to tow a car to a towing yard, uh staff needed authority to take cars or blocking street cars to the nearest green pea lot because there aren't any towing yards downtown. And I'm asking why isn't this isn't a TDC question, this is a transportation question. Why isn't there something to deal with that in this report? >> Uh through the chair. So, so it is a TTC issue because it's a it's the TTC's towing contractor who deals with boxed street cars routes. >> Yeah. But they don't know where to take them. So, have you looked at would or what would you um again before council would you please consider an amendment to the bylaw so that you can tow cars that are blocking street cars to a green pe lot instead of a towyard because we don't have any towyards. uh through the chair. We can certainly um discuss that with with both TPA and the and the trucking companies. Yes. >> Super. Thank you. >> That was it. Thank you, Councelor Pastac. You are drafting a motion, correct? I'm going to give everybody >> Yes. Uh yeah, madam madam chair, I we were all a little surprised here that uh when we read more closely that this is not going to council and usually usually snow operations reports do. Um little surprised also this is coming here instead of government management which usually deals with these kinds of contracts. But I >> uh >> this is a snow contract based on the winter operations report. So, >> yeah. So, it's it's a little puzzling on why it's here and why it stays here, but I'll leave it at that and just >> Sorry. >> Yes, it's going back to staff. I understand where it's going now. Um, but I will have a quick motion when we're when we're at speakers. >> That's fine. And if you need a little more time, I'll hold this all down. Okay. You can do that. All right. >> Later. >> I don't know whether anyone else wants a second round because uh this this will go back to staff. >> Did you want a sec? Did you wish anything more? >> No, I'll I'll leave it at that. Anybody else on councelor Chernoslin with questions? Please go ahead. >> Thank you. Um to staff, I wonder if uh you could explain um very briefly how the how 311 um logs issues around um requests from individuals with disabilities. just with respect to uh what the deputent uh Adam Calhoun had to say in terms of could there be a way to have people um record their address? I I was under the impression we had something a little bit like that where certain addresses were flagged, but uh could you please expand? Thank you. through the chair. Starting last year in December, we have uh different options, priority one options that can be logged through 311, including a specialist appointment that it's in 24 hours, uh surgery appointments, uh any medical um pickups, and also um that you cannot use your mobility device. So, we do have priority ones that come through service requests and they will go straight as a priority to transportation services. And do they stay as a priority? Like do certain categories of that stay as a priority one so that the next snowfall it's logged automatically or no? >> Every service request is logged separately and if it was logged as a priority one it would be sent to transportation services and it will be uh closed as a priority one as well. >> Okay. It it's straight. Okay. I'll comment on that after. Uh my next question is with respect to permit parking and apologies if um if I missed if this was asked before, but has there been consideration given to um having uh residents be alerted to move their cars to another side of the street so that the area could be plowed where there's permit parking? >> Uh so through the chair. So that that is one of the intentions. um page 21 of the report, we we talk about uh future improvements in in that can be made for for resident permit parking. And that is certainly one of the one of the things we're looking at because obviously the permit parking streets offer a particular constraint um in terms of both snow removal but then also in terms of where the residents can actually move their cars to. Uh so moving vehicles to one side of the road may be a more practical solution uh which then enables us to clear that side and then they switch their cars to the other side to enable us to do that. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh and per perhaps this could be prioritized in areas with uh particularly narrow streets where there's uh permit parking. Um is that possible >> uh through through the chair? Um it's certainly something that we can include on the on the priority list or ranking in the priority. We do need to recognize that you know we have finite resources and we do have a prioritization list already of how we prioritize with um hospital emergency routes and street car routes and transit routes etc. first um when we then move on to those um more local streets then uh certainly we can uh look at prioritizing those permit parking constrained areas over um other areas which are less constrained. >> Okay, thank you. And um with respect to the bike lane snow removal, um can you just uh can you speak to the process of like I know um Michael Longfield uh gave some suggestions of actual snow removal from the bike lane. Uh we had some inquiries from our office around what the order was in terms of um how it was affecting sort of the snow removal from the bike lane might get dumped onto um commercial storefronts and whether that was causing part of the challenge with um commercial areas being being cleared. And so I wonder if you could just speak to the order in which things happen and how you're trying to avoid um sort of wanting to make sure the bike lanes are clear but also that the snow is as it's being moved isn't causing other problems. >> Yeah. Through through the chair. So, as Michael outlined, um, our service standards, um, have us starting to do, uh, uh, plowing on sidewalks and bike lanes at at 2 cm. So, that's generally, um, first. So, they generally come come first. The issue arises for us and for for cyclists more when we have significant snow events. So anything between sort of 2 and 10 cm we've we're generally okay in terms of the plowing and generally have storage capacity to enable that snow to be to be stored adjacent to those roots. It's when we start to get significant snowfall the 50s to 90 cm that that we saw this winter. The snow has to has to go somewhere unless you're immediately doing removal. And as Michael said, we we did still go out and we were plowing a lot of bike lanes, but then the snow plow would come around and do or the road plow would come around and do its second round and some of those some of that snow would then get pushed into the the bike lane. Um, as the sidewalk was being done again, that snow then got moved over to the bike lane. And then the other thing that we we found quite often in commercial properties is because they were trying to keep the sidewalk clear in front of their own property, they would then move the snow into the bike lanes or into the curb lane of the roadway which was a significant problem because we would have been along and cleared and then you know a few hours later it's blocked again because people have moved snow into into that route. As Miles said, we have um towards the end of end of this last snow event, we did um bring on board five additional pieces of equipment which are uh more suited to bike lane, both plowing and can do uh removal as well. And we've ordered five more of those ourselves as well. So going into next season, we would anticipate to have 10 of those. And then the report also sets out um a priority order of the different bike lanes that we will we will start with. I'm giving everybody a little more time if you need it today because we don't talking about snow. Uh, Deputy Mayor, did you have any questions? No, sorry, Councelor Sax, did you have another one? >> Sorry, I had a follow-up question since I forgot this isn't going to council. Um can uh uh when can you get back to us about the two bylaw uh amendments that we discussed for the for local towing and for making the snow declaration more focused >> through the chair. So I wouldn't anticipate that would be before council breaks in the summer because of the engagement that we want to do with the with the different organizations. As I said, I would anticipate that we could bring something forward for ideally for that December council, the first council back after the election. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Yes, councelor Pastron. >> Yeah, thank you. I can't resist. Um, one of the problems we we had up in the downs lands was Allen East where it was used as a lastm minute uh dump site for snow. So, uh, the community got quite upset because of the lack of notification and the lack of understanding of how the site would be used. I've got a motion ready to go here. Um, I is there is there any efforts underway to communicate better with local communities when when vacant lands in their area are being used as a dump site and what the cleanup plan is afterwards when the snow melts >> through the chair. Uh yeah, that was the site across from our existing site. We we had numerous meetings with uh residents. Um they did express their concern and we worked through uh creme to to facilitate that site. Um there were concerns about maintenance during our uh work. So we tried to uh do hauling and dumping there and suspend that so it didn't happen overnight because it could be noisy. And we did talk about maintaining the site um through our operation, but also the restoration of the site um as the snow melts throughout the next 3 or 4 months that we have staff regularly patrolling, picking litter, looking at the fence line um and then remediating the site going forward. In addition, um we are actively working with the creme to identify additional uh temporary sites, ideally in locations that aren't residential. Um we have limited uh opportunities and we unfortunately have to take the snow somewhere because our existing sites when we get 90 cmters aren't at the capacity we need. >> Yes, it was no snow in my backyard kind of problem we had up in uh York Center. So, at the end of the day, the site really wasn't needed uh all that much. There was some dumping, but I think um from from my perspective, some kind of notification that that is a plan site if needed and that there'd be a clear cleanup program afterwards because we all know when that snow melts, uh there's quite quite a pile of garbage left over. >> Yeah. Through the chair, I think, um you're certainly right. We we going into this last event because of the size of the event, we didn't necessarily anticipate that Transit Road, the the side opposite was going to fill up the way it did. We had snow melters going there, but it still filled up, so we needed some extra capacity. Um so that was a fairly last minute addition, finding that that site. Um what we're doing now is doing a bit more long-term planning to identify potential overflow sites that we can use and that's some of the work that we're doing with Creme at the moment. Okay, that's reassuring. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um I have a couple of questions here. I'm just going to go to um Missman about just what you're hearing and the kind of comm's confusion here and what in what way could these operations benefit more from a communication standpoint? starting at a communication standpoint rather than happening and then trying to explain afterwards. >> To the chair, I think there are definitely opportunities that we can assist and we will continue to assist uh both our colleagues in transportation as well as our colleagues in 311. We use the information in real time from 31 to see what's happening. Um this was uh overall I think a significant improvement in communications across the city. There are definitely areas still of improvement. I would say some of those um are around uh direct to the cycling community and to parking permit holders. Uh these would be two areas of opportunities where we could continue to focus. Uh that being said, it is important to note that um in the past year we were able to increase u positive or neutral sentiment um around snow operations in the city of Toronto to approximately 90% either either neutral or positive versus 9% negative. So 9% is still too high. Um I'm very happy with neutrality. 9% is too high, but I do believe that we could continue to make a difference. >> So, just when you're hearing about the I will just say confusion, the cascading. So, snow is plowed in a cascading manner starting with largest roads down to smallest, the bike lanes in a cascading manner, and that there seems to be some confusion about that. Is that something that would or should happen before winter rather than during the actual event to the chair? Um I actually believe that that is really critical information. And this is a public education um initiative. And you know, while we, you know, had 4.7 million people see our our our cascading information on social, while we had um you know, over 60 web updates. The reality is the most important piece I would argue is direct to consumers homes. We did have a mailing go out because of the where we were in the MSER uh piloting process that wasn't able to be produced until closer to the winter season and it went out uh I would argue too late. Uh and that is one of our opportunities for improvement next year. Um I actually have the messaging up in front of me chair and um and I wanted to specifically uh denote the the commentary about spotless and regarding um um uh bike lanes. That language was never used by the corporate communication city team. >> Sorry, which one? Spotless. >> It was part of the deputent's um communication to us today. >> Oh, I see. >> It was not. It was It was not. So, yes, absolutely. Uh a direct mail earlier in the season is part of the plan and and should be executed. >> Could there not be uh just more of an announcement style, a media conference? This is for councelor pastor knack with yes there may be a snow dump in your neighborhood so you're not surprised. I think being surprised is one of the hardest things when you're in crisis >> to the chair. Absolutely. Um it is difficult to I I completely agree that repetition of the message albeit very boring 2 centimeters for this four five centimeters for this eight. I mean that information is not terribly interesting and media may not always pick it up every day. That being said, that cascade, that threshold was communicated at least 213 times over different over different channels through through the two MSER times. >> I did notice that with removal because what you know that people don't listen to the whole sentence so they hear that snow's being removed and they think it's being removed on their street where it's not being removed on their street. It's being removed on the larger streets. So it uh and you've told them that 200 times, but they only heard the first five words. So this of course is just an ongoing problem. But I do think with removal that became an issue. Everybody thought we were removing all of the snow, which was an impossibility. >> It is a difficult message to give in 10 sentences or less. Uh chair, I completely agree. Uh we have a complex city with complex operations. the the snow experience in one ward can be incredibly different to the experience in another ward. Um, where possible, we tried to um direct media and consumers and and residents rather um to information specific to their ward, but it is very difficult when you're communicating for the whole city to say except in this ward where it the streets are narrower and it's harder for sidewalk plows to get around. So, it is it is a very complex message message and uh we're committed to continuing to improve. >> Right. One of the recommendations has to do with actually uh something that was identified by councelor Chernos Linn and a few others that there are sectors that we need to hear what works what they need because of the parking the BIA parking that was very difficult for businesses. Nobody could park there even though the road had been cleared. I say that when we're looking at some of the most frustrating parts that for business was a very big one, the street cars getting blocked and the length of time it took to get them out. Those types of protocols, the on street parking 72 hours and yet either didn't get cleared or your car sitting there. uh those are the frustrating points which I think at the time are very bad and then you remember that wasn't great. So I think the sector issues would be very helpful to make that a little clearer to people and to also help staff understand what it's like on the ground when these things start for businesses, for transit riders, for those who use permit parking. Um, so what's what percentage of the city has permit parking? Most of the city you can't park on the street. Correct. >> To the chair. That's correct. >> So you've got a driveway with windowross and I think there's something coming up about the windows so you can get in and out. But do you happen to know what percentage of the city is permit parking? Just the old city of Toronto, a little bit of Atobbico and some of Leside. Sorry. >> Oh, Davisville Village. The old city of the old city of Toronto has that parking. >> Correct. That's it. >> That's correct. >> Do you happen to know how much revenue comes in from permit parking? >> I don't know off the top of my head. Council, >> you don't know the revenue from permit parking. Somebody does. Oh, Mr. Confor is right there >> to the chair. I don't have that in front of me, but we can get that very quickly. >> And do you happen to know the revenues that came in from tickets from those areas that have permit parking or not plaza parking for business or could we? Do we know that yet? >> Uh to the chair. Uh ticketed revenue coming in. No, we'd have to pull that information as it relates to plazas. >> So why don't we uh Yes. So here, Mr. >> Uh, so through the through to you, chair, the uh 2025 revenue from permit parking was about $32 million. >> How much? >> $32 million >> plus the tickets. >> Uh I don't >> there's another revenue. Is it not $50 million from tickets? >> Uh I don't have the information. >> Okay. Well, let's look at that when we're looking at the sectors. Thank you. Thanks everybody. Yep. Please go ahead. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a quick followup since we're doing a second round. Um my question is with respect to mention in the report of the um motion I moved during budget for seniors uh clearing specific for seniors. Um the report confirms that we're not in a position to stand up such a program at this time. Is that correct? >> Through the chair. That's correct. We're still investigating um the different potential models. Given that it's tied to a declaration and we don't know when we're going to have a declaration, it's very difficult for us to plan that operation with with our existing contractor or in existing in-house. So, we're looking at other methodologies or or services that may be more flexible um because you may not need it for a couple years potentially. So, those are the the things that we're considering. We've looked uh at the Brmpton the model a little bit um and we're looking at a few others. Uh but it's still in process of the review. >> Great. Um thank you for that confirmation. I know council also directed uh staff to look at um snow clearing activating our citizens uh and our constituents in the city modeled after the program that seemed to be fairly successful in New York this past year. Um, is that works underway and ongoing? >> Yeah, >> through the chair. Yes, we're we're I mean the look at the seniors and the shoveling programs in general are being reviewed. Yes. >> Sorry, I I didn't catch that. >> Yes, it in addition to the seniors, the general shoveling like the New York model that was uh presented earlier in the season. We're we're looking at that in addition to that. >> Great. And I would um is there a possibility that those two pieces uh are tied together >> uh through the chair? Yes. I mean I think that's given the unpredictability of the weather, it's hard to plan staffing around that. So it would be uh a model that we would look at um you know similar to like you know what Bmpton has or or some other jurisdiction. >> Great. That's helpful. Thank you so much. We'll continue to track. Madam Chair, that's all for me. Thank you. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Now, we'll move to speakers. Who wants to start? Deputy Mayor Mley. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. through you. I just want to acknowledge the really really hard work uh that took place this past winter season by all involved uh not only our senior staff here um managing this important program but also all of the contractors and frontline staff who really really um I think made best efforts to make sure Torononians could get around the city uh in really extreme circumstances. We know that major weather continues to be our reality as our planet warms and extreme events uh continue to be not just every hundred years um but much more frequent than that. Uh and I'm really heartened and and encouraged to hear about some of the um improvements uh additional opportunities um purpose-built equipment um and further exploration of how we can continue to uh address these really really um challenging situations uh when we're faced with them as a city. I want to acknowledge and thank the deputants as well for sharing their perspectives with us and just note you know Adam's passing grade uh that was provided to the city which we we appreciate but also noting that during that time neighbors pitched in you know it similar to how we stood up our response to CO it really is a team Toronto approach and I understand and know that when we want to go far we got to go together um and in these circumstances it's going to be important that we as a committee and council uh continue to support our staff to have the appropriate resources and tools including communication um support uh to make sure that residents have clear expectations of us uh know what how best to navigate in extreme circumstances connect in with 311 when they have you know um timely appointments and all of that good stuff. Um so really glad uh to see this work coming through here. Uh we always have room for improvement and we look forward to staying committed to that. Thanks Madam Chair. Thank you. Uh next up, uh councelor Chernos Lin. >> Thank you. I also uh want to thank staff for uh really an tremendous effort this year. my office and I suspect many other counselor offices had uh while we the the 311 requests may have gone up because there was an a much easier portal to use and we were encouraging people to use it and we lifted that um that hold time. We also got uh really effective response from staff when there were issues. And I know my office got a ton of like really a significant number of emails from people and comments from people at town halls about the improved service they saw. Uh so I think um while we may not have everything perfect yet, we are on our way um and definitely marking um improve improvements and I think that's really heartening. Uh with that I do have um I do have a couple hopes for you know next year and the years to come. one, I'm hoping that uh 311 uh will find a way to take some of Adam Calhoun's feedback about how how we can and I I'm I may um think about that more in the coming uh weeks and months, but how we can do a better job of serving our citizens with um and residents with disabilities, understanding that people move and all of those things, but making sure that um we're not making it harder for people to get that service by having to repeatedly phone in. Uh and and I think also um that affects more staff time too. So it seems like there might be a better way to do that and so perhaps uh some thought on that. Uh second, I would just say that I have two motions. Uh one from councelor Kandl uh that I'm moving on his behalf um around Windro clearing. And I know this is something my office heard from a lot too. There was there there was information out there about um when windows can be cleaned and when they can't when they aren't, like when driveways would be done and when they wouldn't. but it wasn't necessarily easily understood by constituents and uh sometimes there was disappointment by people. So I think the more communication we can do on this the better. So that's what that first motion is about. And then I have a second motion uh that speaks um to making sure we do a public education campaign about the snow clearance responsibilities uh particularly with respect to commercial properties beyond the sidewalk snow clearing service that we already offer as a city of Toronto. And I'm thinking about um some of the discussions we had in this chamber, but also at town halls and other places and certainly with constituents around challenges they were finding um in, you know, walking some of our main streets uh where the city may have plowed a a sidewalk um but the sidewalk is or the property is actually quite wide and so it may not be cleared. um really effect like effectively uh enough and when things start to melt that there is a responsibility on commercial businesses uh to make sure that their areas stay clear and so that we're not send you know we're not having accidents that don't need to happen uh and it really is a joint responsibility of everybody pitching in together so uh that really speaks to this um and working with BAS on It looks like I may have a question from councelor Saxs. >> Yes. >> My question is, would you consider a friendly amendment to say snow and ice because when it melts and turns to ice, it's worse. >> I absolutely would. Uh if we could put that in, that would be great. Um and and you know this this conversation came to me as recently as yesterday when I was speaking with somebody who sits on the board of uh Michael Garin Hospital and he was talking about the fact that there they had um higher numbers of um broken bones and things like that last year and not that it was the city um not doing their responsibility. we just had so much more snow and so much more snow um you know freeze thaw freeze thaw freeze thaw. So I think everybody working together on this is part of the way to um to deal with it and so we want to make sure that we're working with BAS and um doing really strong education to ensure everybody is doing their part. Thank you. >> I have a question for you on that one. >> Sure. um that BIA seem to think that now that the city is clearing the sidewalks or doing sidewalk clearing that there's no more role for their own businesses. Is the intention of your motion to >> It certainly is. It certainly is. >> Clear that up. >> Yes. >> Okay. Great. I think it's great. Thank you. >> Uh next up, Councelor Pastak. >> Yeah. Thank you, Madam Chair. I do have a motion. >> Yes. And it's connected to the questions I had asked of staff for us to put together a more formal approach uh to uh neighborhood snow dump sites uh where we're giving advanced communication that it might be needed uh during um I guess extreme weather events or major major snowfalls and that there uh should be a cleanup plan um afterwards because we all know when that's that big mountain melts uh there's quite a lot of garbage. I think we would have avoided uh some of the problems uh in York Center with a simple uh notification the way we would a construction notice uh that the site may be used uh during the winter and I realize uh things things aren't always planned. We don't we don't know what's coming but we do know uh winter is coming. So so that's my that's my piece there. I would also mention and and it's just an undertaking uh the biggest complaints we had this past winter is how you remove how you plow snow in culde-sacs and dead ends. Making sure that it's not uh left in such a way that it blocks people uh from getting out of their driveways or getting out of the culde-sac or the dead end. and driveways that are are are together um join driveways and the window clearing policy gets all confused when two driveways are sitting right beside each other. Uh the plow is going and he'll only do 3 mters where in fact it's two driveways, not not one. So these are these are teaching moments. These are policies. Uh if we're going to pour over $200 million into snow removal and snow snow clearing, uh we we need we need these um companies to train their staff to handle handle these uh uh handle these situations. Um I it was mentioned in uh in councelor Canderville's motion uh we don't feel that uh other other property owners in the city are doing their fair share with uh with snow removal. Uh we've seen it uh in commercial areas. We've seen it uh in institutional areas uh apartment buildings, condo buildings where the the bylaw responsibility rests with the property owner. Uh, one of the biggest complaints I got recently um was was snow clearing at the uh Art Gallery of Ontario, which which I full disclosure I I am a member um where where an elderly resident of mine tried to visit and they tried to navigate from the parking lot to the front entrance and it was just uh they might as well been hiking up K2. Um and we and and the local counselor got got the heated heated message uh on that even though it was the responsibility of the AGO to really clear their parking lot and clear the walkway. So and the same with schools. These schools are responsible under bylaw to clear uh in front and the pathways leading but it's the local city council that uh that gets the complaints. So communication and policy enforcement are key going forward. And I'll leave it at that. >> Thank you. Councelor Saxs, did you did you speak already? Did you wish to? >> No. Okay, >> I will. Thank you to staff. It it it was better. Needs to be better still, but it was better. Thank you. >> Okay, that was great. Thanks, Deputy Mayor. Yeah, one of the things I keep getting asked, one thing I keep getting asked said, um, you know, we all believe in climate change and a climate disaster, etc. But when is this global warming coming? He said the winter's getting colder and colder, more snow. Look at this winter. It's gone on for still going on. So I we've got to better explain that to people that basically uh the old adage that it's getting warmer doesn't answer the question about what's happening to our climate. So we people don't understand it. They don't understand it especially given the last couple of winters we're we're having. Um the other thing is uh you know I think you know not all snow falls in equal amounts throughout the city and we've seen that in recent events where uh some parts of Scar Bro didn't get the snow we got in the middle of the city. There's very isolated extreme snowfalls. So one size does not fit all and it's a huge city with different microclimates. And so that's something that's very difficult for staff to deal with. And I say overall um uh I think there were we got fewer complaints this year even though it was a you know it was the winter from hell. We haven't had this much snow since 1936 I think when they started recording it. But the public doesn't accept that. They still want everything shoveled, cleaned, and so forth, but generally I think had fewer complaints, but there's always going to be complaints when we have the snowfalls we have. And just a warning to council, we've got to stop micromanaging staff on this. We micromanage them, then we throw everything at them. We've thrown at, oh yeah, now we've got to clear all the sidewalks in the city. and do it automatically overnight for so this was something that we ordered staff to do not looking at the equipment that was needed and we saw the equipment they had last time was awful they've got better equipment this year so you know and what this has done too is it's taken away like u that chair Fletcher said small business now don't clear in front of their business anymore on major streets because they say the city's coming to do it. At one time you had, you know, good participation by people on main streets. Plus, God forbid someone living on a residential street might shovel in front of their house. They're saying, "No, I'm not going to do it because the city's coming to do it." So just when you put in these blanket uh directions of staff to clear all the sidewalks across the city, it's a huge new undertaking and we expect it to be done magically overnight with no problems. There's going to be problems when you get staff to do new things especially of that scale. uh you know then uh we have this other huge uh undertaking by staff to clear all the bike lanes and another oh just clear the bike lanes no problem that'll be done uh just go and then the complaints come in the bike lanes aren't done and then you know the biggest complaint I got was why are they clearing the bike lanes and not the roads that's what they were all saying look at the bike lanes they're all cleared and the roads are not why is the city concentrating on bike lanes so we had all the uh bike lane uh uh people that hate bike lanes uh uh you know they they were going ballistic by the bike lanes are being cleared so staff can't win u and uh also now you know we're embarking uh on another adventure uh council voted to have volunteer ad hoc snow shovelers take to our sidewalks and streets across the city Wow. And I said, "That's such a crackpot idea." But council voted it to have people now with no experience, no track record. Uh, do they bring their own shovels to whatever the heck they do? I don't know. So now the council again has told staff, "You've got to supervise this army of snow shovelers that go to our sidewalks across the city." So council, just be very careful. give chance to staff to do their job and don't ask them to do a better job when you know you're asking them to do something extra now. Let them catch up. Let them do their work professionally. Yes, scrutinize them, bring in the complaints, but don't keep adding more responsibilities to them when you want to watch your budget, when you want to make sure things that you have are done properly. So, you can't suck and blow at the same time. Thank you. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor. I uh will have a few things to say. I have one two motions. One is to request the deputy city manager, sorry, it's the other one first, Matthew. Thank you. to give consideration to the development of a permanent list of those who needs critical care in an emergency situation such as snowtorm, major snowstorm, ice storm, electricity blackout. Uh I think there should be one after the 2013 ice storm which took power out throughout the city. There was to be such a list and it's uh inspired by Mr. kahoon today. That that's something that probably would be good and is different than a P1. I need my meds. You might not you need your meds the next time, but these are people that can't get out that uh in the ice storm it were it was people that were on dialysis at home and needed electricity. So there's very particular group and our acting DCM interim DCM is happy to do that. And then another one uh to recommend and amend recommendation five just say the chair and vice chair. This just has to do with TTC comm's coordinated view of winter operations just to have that um second site I'll call it and the same with six which is I think a great idea which is to meet with the sectors and that particularly feeds into what you've put forward councelor Trinos if you'd like to join on that the business improvement areas other interest groups schools institutions Um the TTC and parking authority uh sorry TTC and parking enforcement would be one to make sure I believe that there's a great plan in place not writing the plan but ensuring that I want to speak for a minute about that and the experience there of the intention was great but the execution was probably not as sharp as it needed to be and It's only in those areas where we have street cars where there's buses they can pull around. Once you have a street car that's blocked, that's the end of that. Not just for the people on that street car, but every street car that's following it and anybody who's driving because there's only one lane, the lane the street car is in. So, the number of tickets apparently was quite small, but the number of incidents that I witnessed personally with the Gerard car was quite large. and I understand that most people were getting off without a ticket. So, uh, or a number of them. So, this was one of the things we said, you're going to get a very big ticket if you do that. But that is critical for transit infrastructure that it's moving all the time. I do want to thank everybody. I want to thank our staff for an incredible work and for Mr. Curry stepping in and carrying on and remembering that the contract wasn't quite as good as we thought it should be. That's why we have a forensic investigation. So, working with tools that uh may have been not up to the standard that we'd hoped, but working well with them and also to every Torononian because we did hear from pe heard from a lot of people. But who we didn't hear from was the folks that you went to someone's house or your family went and cleaned somebody's uh windows. They cleaned their sidewalks. They cleaned the little old lady beside them in one street in my ward. They just all of them went out. They had a crew of teenagers and they just made sure that street was great. So there's a lot of heroes out there and we didn't give them a cape. So I want to give them a cape today. They did a great job and I think the points that we've made that the expectation being totally on the city that in a snowstorm of that event it really does become a partnership that yes we're doing what we're doing but there are things that it's great if residents are doing and Torononians are doing and thanking them and encouraging that is great. the issue with the cascading information. I'm not sure even though it was said I don't know how many times 831 times you only heard you only heard the part you wanted to hear not the fact that it was going to cascade or that you're not having the snow removed and I think that starting something earlier in comm's direction kind of like was uh communications did during the transition of the blue box where people weren't really surprised at that point I have watched the council meetings in Peele or the Peele Regional Council where people were shocked. They had no idea what was coming, but everybody in Toronto knew something was coming and something was changing. So those highlevel messages I think are are pretty good. I would just also um like to put a word in for businesses because once you have the street cleared but the green pee isn't working now you're getting tickets or people think they can't park and it again is another big hit for a five or six days. This one lasted for quite a long time to small business that don't aren't in a plaza and have that cleared. So I think there's some great followup but in general this was um an improvement on the previous year and I think it's continuous improvement and I really appreciate the approach and the attitude of staff that you want to continually improve. You want this to be the best and you want us to give you whatever tools you need in order to do a great job in a major snowstorm. So thank you very much. >> Yes. Question. Yeah. >> Um, thanks, Madam Chair. Just on the first um motion related to uh a list of of people that may be vulnerable, um, do you envision there be a potential connection with the vulnerable person's registry uh, as part of that work or I'm just wondering, I know there's been some conversations at other tables around the importance of that. I don't know, maybe the DCM can speak to. >> I think that that's something that the deputy city manager can look at. Does that exist? Because there was to be one from 2013 and that was that's 13 years ago since that storm. And what does exist? How is it does the province have what's out there and how do you get on that and how would we know proactively where people are that depending on the kind of storm that what they're going to need to get around because I do want to thank Mr. Cahoun. He's always reminding us it's not question and answer. Sorry. >> Yeah. Sorry. I knew you were going to jump in. Um because he keeps us he keeps us right on target with all of that. He lets us know >> and the day I think he'd be happy that we're making that motion today. It's for him today. >> For sure. I think that's great. And I just want to make sure that um uh we connect in with some other pieces of conversation around that because I think it's important as well. So I'm sure the deputy heard that and knows how to do that. I will ask you. Thank you. Thanks very much everybody. take this into committee. >> Motion to amend first. Okay, we have the two motions to amend that I moved. Moving those. Motion to amend five. All in favor? Opposed? That's carried. Amend six. Mot all in favor. Pardon me. >> That was all. >> Oh, that was the five and six are together. Motion to amend five and six. Uh approved against carried. The next one is Are you putting them up, Matthew? Yes. Thank you. >> Um this is for the uh window clearing on this on behalf of councelor Cander. Right. This is your one. Okay. All in favor? Opposed? That's carried. Next one. This is the amended by councelor Saxs with the BIA's clarifying clear your snow and ice as well as whatever the city's doing on the street. All in favor? Opposed? That's carried. And then this one looking for the better manage the dump sites if they're in neighborhoods. Councelor Pastor. Yes. Communications. All in favor? Opposed? That's carried. I think the >> last one is the registry taking count deputy mayor's comments into account. Affirmant list. All in favor? Opposed? That's carried. >> And then the item is amended. All in favor? Opposed? And that's carried. Thank you very much. We're sending all the snow back to you now. I can I can um Madam Chair, I can release uh number six unless someone else wants to hold it. >> Just grab where that is. Happy to do that. >> Sorry. Oh, is this your streets? Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. So, I I do have a motion uh which uh staff have vetted and it provides a little bit of leniency um for those applications that are currently ready to pull their above grade permits and ready to build um under an October >> sorry councelor Passax releasing the manganesees. >> Oh, did you? Okay, we'll continue to hold it. >> How about the road classifications that you're holding? Did you want to let that go? Pardon me? >> Continue to hold. Okay. Many holds. All right. Um, so our next item is the forensic audit. I'm do need to go in camera for that. So I don't know if we want to just continue on and then come back. Maybe when we come back from lunch just go directly in camera so everybody knows might be you'd support that. All right. Do I need to move to alter the agenda then or can just do that? Okay. I'll just continue to hold it and we'll go to number three. The blue box >> and there are speakers there. Yes, Sheila White is speaking on transition of the blue box program to extend to producer responsibility first quarter 2026 post transition implementation update and Sheila White is online. Thank you. >> Good morning, Madam Chair and members. >> Morning. We can hear you very well. >> Good. Then I'll begin. I believe in recycling rules, packing the blue bin exactly right to avoid spillage, litter, and load contamination, but I see breaches everywhere. People need education. A little over a year ago, I attended this committee and learned that circular materials in May 2025 was about to develop the communications it would be sending to residents. I took the opportunity as a resident litter prevention activist and researcher to contact CM and try to involve the private producers in helping to solve what I view as a littering crisis. You will see our email exchange in my submission. CM's interest in litter is thin. how easy it would have been for this corporation to include a do not litter reminder on a blue bin leaflet and to participate more meaningfully meaningfully in an effort to get more of their products into the recycling bin and off the street. I suggested to both the environment ministry and CM that CM's promotion include mention of the annual Ontario Day of Action on Litter, the proincially legislated day now in its sixth year. Ontario's bestkept secret. Zero advertising, limited promotion. How many Torononians know it's next Tuesday? The focus is on cleaning up, reuse, repair, and using less packaging. CM staff wrote me that there's no resident facing arm of this corporation. That does not bode well for people like me who want CM to be accountable and do more to encourage bin use and less littering. When it's in a bin, the corporations pay. When it's on the ground, as you know, the public pays a lot. Perhaps the city could have influence in its discussions with CM about corporate responsibility for anti-littering education. More broadly, could there not be an industry-funded think tank convened to harvest ideas for dealing with the epidemic of littering and try to reduce the rate of littering? to make littering as socially unacceptable as drinking and driving. To make not littering as ingrained and natural as seat belt use is today. I saw news coverage of Clean Toronto together on the weekend. The mayor was encouraging people to quote unquote pick up garbage. I had hoped part of the mayor's message would be to remind people not to litter, to state that littering is wrong and against the law. But the word litter never came up and I notice it rarely does. Although it should be standard messaging for any civic representative interviewed about waste management. It's assumed people know littering is wrong. But if we don't talk about it, who's going to take it seriously? We have to name it. 30 in 100 people will litter. 65 in 100 cigarette smokers will litter. If these were stats for a disease that infected 30% of the population, you can bet governments at all levels would act decisively to educate and inform, place ads, and ramp up communications. There would be measures invented to control the spread. But for litter, an annual cleanup, a reliance on volunteers to pick up after the people causing the litter problem, it's an endless cycle. We need the producers, the province, and the city to address the people who litter. There's research that says you might get through to 88% of them, the percentage of them that will pick up their litter if called on it. People who pick up litter are heroes. As the chair said, it's an activity that brings together a special community of individuals. In litter prevention, volunteer litter picking is the preferred strategy because it's cheap. Behavior change is expensive, which is why we need generous support from the province and producers as part of their extended producer responsibility obligations. In Ireland, they have a group, Irish Business Against Litter, that is deeply involved in reducing litter through a nationwide contest that ranks towns for their tidiness. Now, in my written submission, I also sent a photo of an example in my neighborhood of recycling materials improperly placed uncontained at the curb, not in the blue bin. I phoned 311 to find out whose job it is now to enforce blue box regulations. The city has done a great job of telling residents not to phone 311 about recycling matters due to the provincial policy change that put the job in the hands of circular materials. I know the responsibility for collection was taken out of municipal hands, but I'm here to find out if 311 is correct in saying the enforcement of recycling regulations has also been transferred to the private sector producers or would this be a litter complaint on a local street. Ultimately, I'm here to urge a greater focus on a goal of curtailing litter and littering. >> Please wrap up, please, Sheila. >> Especially in discussions with circular materials and the province and here in Toronto, whatever it takes. Thank you. >> Thank you. We'll ask some of those questions. Thank you for being with us. Are there some questions now uh for staff on this deputy mayor? >> Thank you, uh, Madame Chair. And I'll start with just advancing the question from the deputent around the enforcement question uh where um where we're seeing that bins are contaminated or otherwise um can staff confirm what the current processes post transition for enforcement related to litter and litter contamination. So through the excuse me through the chair to committee um enforcement of litter and uh illegal dumping is done through our partners in MLS and when and if and when we get information on that. Um we again want to work very closely with circular materials on their responsibility on ensuring that the materials are are collected but at the end of the day we have um the bylaws in place right now to enforce uh litter. >> Thank you. That's very helpful and I'm sure we'll be assuring to the residents. Um my next question is related to 311. Uh residential recycling calls have been decreasing month over month since the spike since the spike when circular materials first took over. But how do the current call volumes compare to the volumes when the city was still responsible for recycling collection? >> So through the committee or through the chair to committee um when the transition happened we had uh as as you know a lot of complaints still coming in uh for recycling. those numbers have dropped uh between 70 and and 80% depending on uh what uh method whether it was the direct transfer from 311 where you press four and you move over those numbers are down I believe around 66 uh to 70% and then the other complaints on miss collection that we received uh through the call agents are down around uh 80% um and I can get you offline the year-over-year comparison I don't have them right on my finger That's okay. That's helpful. I'll I'll look forward to that follow-up. Thank you. U my last quick question is just with respect to um future state, if future waste audits discover an increase in the contamination rate of recyclables in the waist stream since the transition to extended producer responsibility, what actions can the city take? >> Thank you, counselor, for the the question. So, we're doing uh quite a number of of waste audits uh this year and over the next few years on on single family home uh parks, litter bins and commercial. And we do have baseline uh data from the past number of of waste audits on the percentage of recycling in the garbage a couple of years ago. So we have that data and if we see that there's a noticeable trend in in recycling still being in the garbage or increasing u we will engage with circular materials uh to see if there's any mechanisms there to start to recover some of the costs of managing their recycling as waste uh through our system. >> That's helpful and we'll we'll keep an eye on it. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. That's all for me. >> Thank you. Any other questions? Uh I do have a couple. Um just want to confirm because I as I mentioned earlier I watched uh Peele and how surprised they were with the new system. There is nothing yet from Circular Materials that we would not be able to use our bags to put out extra recycling. Have they approached you with any changes of that nature? >> No, counselor. They have committed to continue to take our overflow recycling in in bags for the city of Toronto and it does there are some changes with other municipalities but they've confirmed nothing for us. >> Well, they started off with without having that. So that was obviously in the contract for our city, the extra bag. And in the change over of the bin, if your bin breaks, uh, is the requirement still that you're going to get the same bin or are they insisting that you get that large bin? >> Um, I believe that they're they're going to replace it with the bin that you have, but I can double check on that. And if if they do lean towards the uh giving residents a different bin, then we'll make sure to advocate that the residents should be given the same type of bin that they had before or the bin that they want. >> So, is there a um anything in the contract that would give them the right to simply change the bin or is there anything in the contract that would require them to replace the bin with the one you have? So councelor, we haven't been provided any details on the contract. That's a >> secret. I'm sorry. >> We don't have that. But again, we will work with circular materials and and their contractor to make sure that the resident experience stays the same. >> So will you communicate that back to I forget that nice man's name. What's his name? Alan. >> Alan Langden. Yeah. Communicate with him often. >> Appreciate the continuity and service because there doesn't that doesn't exist in some of the other areas. And then I note in your report you're talking about the uh contamination again in street bins. Um could you just tell us a little bit more about how you plan to deal with that? It the contamination rates well over 40% is it not? >> Yes, council. So the the contamination rates on or in public litter bins is is quite high and what we're doing >> the number >> uh it it's higher than 50% and it's just it's not recyclable. >> Uh but what we're doing over the next um year or two is is doing very comprehensive audits again to better understand what types of materials are in those bins. But one of the changing pieces with extended producer responsibility is that more items are now recyclable. So a couple years ago um like black plastic or other items that weren't recyclable counted as contamination. Now that those materials are recyclable, they will no longer be considered contamination. So our contamination rate might drop even though it has the exact same materials in that recycling bin. And now those uh that those bins may be able to be recycled because more items are being processed. So before we remove the recycling component across our public infrastructure, whether it's parks or our litter bins, we really need to understand that data first and then come back to council with seeking direction on the next steps. >> Thank you very much. >> Uh speakers, thank you. Um, yes. >> Oh, I was going to say if there are no speakers, I'm happy to move this, but if >> Oh, no. I just going to say thank you for making sure that we have the continuity of service because I have been listening and watching other areas in the province that are quite surprised that they don't have a continuity of service and they had a small bin and now they've got the massive bin, nowhere to put it. I have no idea what the outcome is, but we don't have that problem. And I very much appreciate you doing your your audit because as we found out it's high contamination on the street bins, but you're going to know if it's um if we can get rid of some of those things into recycling so it may come down. So, thank you very much for all of your work on this really big change in how we're dealing with recycling in the city. With that, take it in. All in favor? post. Next item is our annual capital coordination report. I uh don't know if there's questions on that. Yes. >> Oh yeah. Okay. Let's take well we are missing councelor sack you do have questions so let's move to okay you take two minutes bio break thank you >> it's a bio break a recess bio break >> I can I can release number five item five >> can't now because the bio break's on but you can in a minute we're having a bio break for five minutes recess I'm afraid to ask for snacks. It'll be snack gate all over again. Please report to your chair. Not this chair, your chair. Uh, councelor Pastor Knack, would you like to come back and release your MN motion, please? >> Uh, yes, Madam Chair. have a motion that you're going to >> I do not have a motion, but I believe um item five is held in my name. It is not my ward, but I would release it. It's councelor Peruse's word. >> Sorry. I'm just going to Thank you. Uh Deputy Mayor Marley, Councelor Pastnac would like to release the road classifications. >> Yep, I'm happy with that. All good on my end. Thanks, Madam Chair. >> Well, it is in your ward. W Are you W 10? >> No, I used to be. >> I'm sorry. You know that was back in the olden days. >> Sorry about that. In the olden days, >> but life was simple. >> Three. Uh you know who. Um so you're releasing that. All in favor? Opposed? That's carried. Thank you. And now we're moving on to your manganese motion. >> Right. So um I do have a motion that's gone through a few iterations. Uh staff have vetted it. Um all this does is uh create a a a short retroactive retroactivity. >> I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. My apologies. >> Councelor Chernos Lynn has questions of staff which I forgot. >> Oh yeah. >> In my excitement to hear your manganese motion. No. >> So why don't we just go to those? >> We will continue to work on it. >> Fine. No. Well, no, no. We'll just go right straight to the item right away because we're kind of >> Thank you. I just uh I wanted I will just preface this with this is um a very niche report. >> Yes. and I spent a lot of time reading it and reading up on this so I could learn about it. But I still just have some questions that I want clarification on just to ensure that there's sort of um a little bit more public awareness maybe about this because the recommendation is to have um a change in the level of manganesees that we allow. Um and granted there is no um provincial prohibition or anything like that. Uh there are federal prohibitions around manganesees in drinking water and I understand this isn't in drinking water immediately but we're allowing for a change in terms of the runoff that goes into Lake Ontario which eventually finds its way into our water. Uh and so my question is um could you explain why this is why you see this as a negligible difference um and how we're ensuring that our water remains safe say for example for um formulafed babies uh which is sort of one of the well-known hazards of um higher concentrations >> you madam chair why we're comfortable recommending it quite simply because we do extensive of testing on the raw water quality going into our drinking water plants. Um, and in particular, we we test for a lot of metals, manganesees being one of them. And so we have a lot of data of what's coming into our treatment plants and it is at such a low level that it's essentially non-detectable by some of our lab results. We we get zeros or extremely low levels. So that's what's naturally occurring. And why are we also not concerned? Because when we com compare the um the amount of water um that that will be discharged with this and this is naturally occurring manganesees by the way. It's it's in the groundwater except for brownfield sites which we will capture with this policy and deal with industrial sites separately. But on naturally occurring manganesees it works its way into the environment anyhow. And it's such at at small quantities that once it meets the much larger volume of water we have in our rivers and Lake Ontario, the concentration amount drops significantly. So that's the reason why we're comfortable with it is it it's well below the aesthetic limit that the federal government has. Uh I sent you some of our uh our data so to give you the comfort and that data is available to the public. It's on our website so they could see it as well. We test all the time. Um, and we're comfortable that this will have minimal, if not negligible impact to what we're seeing in our raw water quality. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Is that you're good? All right then. Good question though. Thank you. Uh, now you're going to be up councelor >> just for speakers. Yeah. Unless there's any other questions, I I would >> I think there was only held >> just Okay. answer's question. >> Um, so this does not uh change uh the the kind of core objective of the of the report. All this does is uh create a short retroactivity period because it's our understanding that uh should we stick with the October 1st date um then we're going to be holding up hundreds of of units many of them affordable. Uh many companies are now ready to pull their bubgrade permits. Uh this allows them to do so uh under the current regime. Uh once again, this was uh extensively vetted uh by by staff. Uh so this was brought to my attention by uh by an organization that was ready to uh start building hundreds of affordable units and they would be held up for another year because October 1st you really can't start uh a lot of the building your season is very short. So that's this creates a wider window uh for this policy. >> Thank you. Uh, any questions? Councelor Chernos, >> I do have a question because maybe I misread the report. I I was under the impression that um or maybe it was in the letter that came in in the communications. So this is to ens just so that I understand it. This is to ensure that those who have already applied for permits um are not subject to the new rules. They're subject to the old rules or the other way around. >> Yeah. So they don't have to wait. >> The new rules apply to the old applications. >> Yeah. So this this allows them to proceed as is under the new policy. >> Okay. >> That staff are recommending today. Okay. >> So they don't have to wait >> because they will wait uh because it takes off a regulatory pressure. So they will wait or they have to wait till October which will mean they'll build lose a whole building season which could amount to a year. >> Okay. because the policy as because the changes that are being implemented uh that are not being implemented till October 1st in this report allowed people who had already done plans under the old ones to proceed under the old rules. So this is allowing the opposite essentially. Is that am I understanding this correctly? >> Yeah. The retroactivity period is is really just to January the 1st. Uh so this policy actually backdates slightly uh to allow those those projects that are ready to roll above grade pulling above grade permits to work under the revised regime. >> Okay. Would they have to re they don't have to resubmit because wouldn't they have wouldn't they have already submitted plans under the old rules? Well, they they would have um done their underground shoring and and received re received approval for their application and zoning bylaw amendment. Uh but this this piece um if they are bound by the rules up to October 2026, uh their projects will be delayed as they wait for the new rules to kick in because it it is a a regulatory change. Do you want to vary the procedures and go back to staff? I I I don't know how many different ways I can say it. Um, >> am I hearing that the new rules would allow them to build what they have now? >> I guess I I I have a question for staff on this. Yeah, I do have a question for staff for >> You know what? I'm going to let you do that because >> I'll let you go back to that because it's highly scientific technical. How I guess my question would be how do we ensure like because this has gone through like is this would these applicants still be going through the permitting process where it would be they'd look at the new configuration of the sewer plan for say this proposal because presumably they've submitted under the old proposal. So they would have had a different plan in place and now they're changing their plans so that they're under these new rules because it's perhaps cheaper for them to build or less things that they have I you know I have to so is there a way that we're keeping we're ensuring that they're in line like how are we measuring that they're >> still a couple things yeah it's it's it's dealing with the in-flight applications right now and quite a number of developers um have asked about exemptions because our existing policy does allow for exemptions >> and um we would only consider exemptions if it they had no other technical reason they couldn't meet our our policy. >> This opens up an avenue that they're interested in and because we've been doing consultation for many months, many of them know that we were going to be coming forward. So, we do know that there's some applicants um that are perhaps waiting for it. It'll be entirely up to them to decide um how where they are at in their stage of development. If if they're already constructing something, maybe it might not make sense to take advantage of of this retroactivity. If they're still on paper um and and and and now they want to change, they may have to do some design changes and then come back to us to say we would like to take advantage of that. It just gives them additional flexibility. >> Okay. So, it would still be circulated to >> Absolutely. we have to sign off on it and in most cases there will be an agreement signed with Toronto Water that we use for monitoring in future to make sure that discharge is documented and and there's an annual uh there's an annual program that we have through our our environmental monitoring protection team. >> Okay, thank you. I appreciate uh the variance from traditional procedure. So I could ask that. >> Are you good? Okay, great. Back to your motion. Well, I think the the the motion's been covered. I'd be happy to uh just put it on the floor. >> Okay. I hear the clerk is sitting beside you. So, >> very dramatic manganese conversation today. >> Are you Did you get some more good advice? >> Yeah. So the amend the amended motion has been amended again. The word updated is now inserted in what we're voting on. >> Oh, great. So I think that's better. So yes, the updated one that will be applied to the current. Okay, great. Thank you. All those in favor? Opposed? That's carried. Thank you. That was a good change. All right. Back we go. Sorry. Uh item as amended. All in favor? Opposed? That's carried. Thank you everybody. Um now we'll go back to item four and that is uh strategic capital coordination correct and that I believe you are holding 2026 annual strategic capital coordination report and progress update on enhancing capital construction delivery. It's for every board and it's held by you, councelor Chernos. >> Thank you. I I just had a question for staff. Um, in the report, uh, there was a mention, um, going back to a motion that I had done, uh, last year around a request for signage on, uh, areas where we were doing infrastructure work, uh, road repairs, different things, showing showing all the improvements we were making so that um, Torononians understood that when they saw um, their property taxes going up that that was being used wisely to improve the infrastructure in our city which we often hear uh is in a state of disrepair and so I know staff are really actively working on that and um this report mentions that this is being considered and and uh you're working on that but I wondered if you have a timeline on when we're actually going to see that starting like those with those signs because I see them everywhere on every school. I see the provincial government has signs showing your tax dollars at work and school improvements. And I feel like we should be touting our horn about all the work that we're doing with um the money that we're we're that we get so little of each dollar, but we're using it to make improvements in our city. And I want people to recognize that. And instead of simply seeing a lane restriction, they're seeing the positive of this is an improvement that's coming. We're working on your roads. We're repaving them. We're uh building rebuilding our bridges, etc., etc., etc. Thank you. >> Are you making a motion? I have a motion. >> No, it was really it was a question for staff about when we're actually going to see that because >> um the report just mentions it's something that they're working on. I'd like to know uh when we're actually going to see that >> coordination. So, to the chair, I can take that question. And so, there are a number of things that are happening related to signage. So what we did first was we worked on um creating a guide in terms of how we are going to be better communicating overall. Uh and that means signage to provide um travelers information ahead of the work starting and then the important signage about what the work is all about and to your point about you know all the good work and the money that's being spent related to the projects. So the what we did um in the recently was we've done a number of things related to signage on the gardener expressway in particular and we've uh piloted some other uh actions in terms of providing additional information about the benefits of the projects uh on a number of projects. So now we got to bring that all together and I think very quickly probably um we didn't specify a specific date but we really want to get out there and provide the information with the signage with upcoming projects. So I would say probably within this construction season we will have um projects out there that are providing the good news information that needs to be said about the work that we're doing. >> Amazing. I I really want to see that up there. >> Um I want to make sure that they are um I don't want no one I want to make sure that communications is helped on that. I want to make sure that they're not no offense engineers in the room but uh if you know what I mean dry unattractive uh that they're they're more marketing type approach on that. So I am asking Miss Fer >> to the chair. I appreciate that I am not this our work is not dry and unattractive. >> Pardon me. >> I appreciate the sentiment that our work is not dry and unattractive. So thank you. >> So I'm not sure if that they are working with you to find >> we will be we will be making sure that we are aligned and that they are attractive and representative of the good work that's happening at the city. >> Sure. and to the chair. Absolutely. We've been working with Julia's team already in terms of th those messages that we're including and we will absolutely continue to do that. >> I love engineers. >> Don't worry, we're not >> Thank you. Okay. Okay. Speakers. Oh, sorry, Deputy Mayor. Yeah. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Three. Just a few quick ones for staff. Um what are some of the changes implemented by the strategic capital coordination um since the last report to IEC that you believe have had the most that have been the most impactful >> to the chair? I think most of the the changes that have been implemented since that last report are really uh focused on the what you're seeing on the ground in some of the projects being delivered by engineering construction services. So while there are some some coordination and process improvements, it's best for Jen to speak to what you're seeing in projects that impact people's lives. Great. >> So to the chair, we've done a number of things. So when we were standing up the enhancing capital construction delivery group, we knew we needed to get out and act quickly and do a number of things. So our first key uh items were around more reliable construction and being more focused on the individuals who are impacted by the work. So we took a hard look at the construction schedules for uh a number of projects in particular our basement flooding projects and tried to sequence them so that they were tighter. Um, so less construction, less disruption for people as well as making sure that we do work on arterial roads quickly and we're more mindful of people in the neighborhoods when we're impacting them. So those uh those activities have happened and we're seeing some really good results in terms of community responsiveness. >> We also looked at how we're communicating in terms of the impacts of the project and have a greater touch. I would touch is in the word but really connecting with people as the work is happening. We're doing it with more contracts. Uh prior to ECCD we were looking at um you know really just our really high impact work having a lot of community engagement. Now we're doing it more regularly with all of our projects. >> Wonderful. That's great. I just want to pull that a little bit further. Are there areas that remain with most what are the areas sorry that remain with the most potential for additional improvement and how are those being addressed? >> So the areas of most potential improvement were really around um again designing our projects with the with the individuals that we're impacting in mind. So it's about having better project management practices in order to accomplish that. saying when we're going to get work done and then being out there and doing it. Being more responsive in the field when a problem occurs. So there will be problems. We having people on site problem solving immediately and trying to rectify the situation as opposed to taking time to uh travel through processes that just disrupt things further. >> That's very welcome and uh we've started to feel some of that impact of that approach. So thank you for that. Um, does the uh SECCO coordinate with both TTC and Metroinks for construction and maintenance projects? >> Thanks for the question. Yes, absolutely. Coordination with both internal and external partners including TTC and Metroinks is a key part of of what's uh what we do and what's necessary to make sure that we minimize the impact on the right of way in terms of the traveling public and to make sure that those projects are sequenced and delivered in a way that makes sense and has the least disruption. To that end, one of the strategies for mitigating construction impacts is avoiding simultaneous construction on key parallel routes. Is that correct? That's correct. And on occasion, both Metroink's uh Lakeshore West line and the western portion of TTC's line too have been simultaneously shut down for weekend work, leaving W3 residents with no good options for using transit to get downtown. And so, of course, more people are on the roads driving. Does this qualify as simultaneous construction on key parallel routes? >> It it does. And while our focus has generally been on the the road right ofway itself, we recognize exactly what you're referring to is that disruptions to transit service in parallel with each other um does impact people overall and that it's something that we are bringing to the tables of discussion of coordination with the other parties. Mind you, we don't have a great deal of control over Metro links, but we are sharing information in enhancing that communication process so decisions can be made and accountabilities can be clear. That's helpful. And that's really that leads me to my last question is whose role is it to identify these potential um conflicts and uh how do we avoid the scenario in the future? >> Our approach is multipronged. We aim to avoid these conflicts at the early stage, multiple years before delivery. But we're increasingly finding that some of the closures of some of the projects that you've mentioned of transit lines um or of some major maintenance closures, they do need that um in-ear coordination. That's a partnership between transportation services and the work zone coordination activities and all of the multi-partner relationships that the strategic capital coordination office under our chief congestion officer is responsible for overseeing. Okay, sounds like still quite a web of individuals. It's always helpful to have one u point of accountability. Um but I appreciate that answer and all the good work that's gone into this uh report. I will leave it there for my questions. Thanks, Madam Chair. Thank you. Any other questions? Um I do have a question. Uh, no. I will just speak because I have a uh motion. Okay. Off we go. Speakers. Sorry. Question. Did you have a question? >> I did. >> I'm sorry I missed that. >> Um, >> go ahead. >> Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. So at at one point um we had a working group of all the main divisions that that were involved in any kind of road closure or or or transportation and they would overlay uh different calendars to make sure that uh the TTC track work didn't uh take place at the same time as Dawn Valley Parkway closures and this kind of thing. Does that working group still exist? I remember sitting in on it when I was chair of this illustrious committee. >> Yes, it does. We we had our monthly meeting yesterday with the mayor's office and the chair's office. >> Right. And at one point it didn't look at festivals and other street closures north of Bler. Is that is that still Bless you. Is that still the case? >> No, it doesn't. We we do look at festivals um citywide. >> Okay. Um are we do we have a flexible enough um sort of noise exemption permit policy for overnight work to get things done faster or is there an added cost to to our subcontractors for that? >> So through the chair the the construction that's done by the city is exempt from the noise exemption bylaw specifically. However, we um we make every effort to understand what the noise impacts will be with the community around us. So, um where possible, when we know that the the noise is not it's not going to be noisy work or there aren't um residents nearby, we'll work through the the through the night 247. Um but if there is noise issues, then we'll we'll pause that noisy work until daytime hours when it's less disruptive. So is there a gap period between construction on a road and any kind of other uh utility or infrastructure work that goes in norm I I hear 5 years um we have a situation that's coming this summer where there'll be work Toronto water will work on chestwood uh 3 years after the road was reconstructed and the sidewalk's done and cycle lanes are going in now it's not a full reconstruct they won't be digging up the whole thing, but I'm just waiting for the calls uh on why on why we're tearing it up, parts of it up again um when it was just completed three years ago. >> Council, I'd be happy to look into that particular situation. We do have Oh, and actually Lou is able to respond. We do have a 5-year moratorum um on um full road reconstruction and road resurfacing, but Lou can speak to that situation. >> Yeah, that specific one. M madam chair um was unexpected um the uh the issue that we had is once we had changed the pressure zone in order to facil facilitate the redevelopment of Downsy Park um we changed our pumping um and water man structure which raised the pressure in that area and that's to accommodate the future growth when we did that we started to see a large number of water manes break uh along St. Regious um in that industrial area in Cheswood and we um came to council and actually did emergency uh relining contract um where we did a bunch of work on St. Regis and now we're finishing up on Cheswood. So it it was unexpected and and not planned in this nature but necessary in order us for us to meet our down objectives. >> Right. No, the project's a vital project. There's there's no doubt about that. But I am bracing myself for the calls on why why we're tearing up recently completed work. But now I have better context. Thank you. >> Okay. Anybody else speakers? Deputy Mayor. >> Thanks, Madam Chair. Just a quick um note of thanks again to staff for this really important work. Uh I remember uh four years ago being out in community knocking on doors with folks and as always our summers are very busy, very eventful, lots going on. Um and one of the things that consistently came forward and we continue to hear about in the last four years is just this coordination question. um residents. You know, we know we've recently uh welcomed a new traffic zar um or congestion zar rather to help us in our sort of efforts to ensure people are moving through the city in a good way. We're investing in transit. We're building out safe cycling infrastructure. Uh, and all of these pieces are really important citybuilding projects, but coordinating them in a good way and being mindful and considerate of the impact to those most immediately impacted uh, which we heard um, is a priority and is certainly part of the approach and improvements that staff are undertaking um, to this work is very welcome. Uh, we know we've already seen um, good good numbers around um, mitigating our congestion challenges. Um, we can look forward to continuing that. Uh, but this, I think, approach, this, uh, report is is welcome, uh, and appreciated and part of what we need to continue to do more of. So, I'll leave it there. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else? No. Yes, councelor S. >> Yeah. Just also wanted to say we really need this. We really need this to work better and to think we talked about compassionate construction. Um, I'm about to send you a letter from a uh a constituent who wrote me to say that she just received the third construction notice for the third consecutive summer on her little street and that she broke down and cried that destroying three consecutive summers. Uh, the tiny residential street seems like a real lack of consideration for the people affected. So I I I know you've been doing your pilot projects and the progress is great, but we also need to bring it to the just everyday business of the city where the burden is being people need infrastructure upgraded for sure, but the cumulative impact isn't being considered enough. Thank you. >> Thank you others. No, thank you. Then I am I do have a motion but it may be covered already but I am going to move it anyway. Um high quality adaptive signage for all construction work on city streets and report back with the plan the first quarter of 2027. So I I um may be redundant but I'm I'll tell you why I'm moving it. Years ago I moved a motion about Toronto Water and Mr. Geronimo was there that there be signage for the water for the water projects and I think that it's exemplary signage. It tells you we're building this we're spending this billion dollars. We're building these large tunnels. We're doing all these different things. It's is big signage very much of the type you're speaking about counselor that's on the schools that we're doing this and that. So that is one example that isn't under the um it's capital coordination but for the big things that Toronto Water undertakes they have a big message and I think it's really important. They also have it on the outside of the sewage treatment plant. I think there's different types of signage when I'm saying adaptive for things that are an emergency. Sometimes there's just a little orange sign that says emergency. Nothing bothers people more than not knowing what's going on. Just as you said, counselor, in your neighborhood, this is the third sign. People don't know what's going on. You get the snow. They want to know what's happening. The easiest, simplest way is to have signage for bell that they have to put out. Utility work finished x day. You know, it's easy to have something you slide in and out. Two day work, one day work, three month work, whatever it is. And I think that Mr. Pins knows that this is my pet peeve is that you don't know what's happening. You don't know what's coming in a large construction site on Queen Street with digging up the sewer, digging up the tracks. You need to know long before that you're going to come to that and you might not want to go that way. The TTC is pretty good at that. Not stopping here now. It's just thinking not as the people doing the work but as the people receiving the work. That is something that because we are such an operational level of government, which is why I think one of the reasons why we don't have the big signs and everything else that the province does, they're not as operational. So, it's a big deal. Everything we do is operational. Explaining to people what the operations are in an attractive, adaptive, professional way is very important because that's what this is about. We're in a world of advertising every second. I've just got my up here. I've got my Toronto to open thousands of washrooms, water fountains, and on the top is a golf ad. So, there's people that think about communications all the time to the public. For some reason, we've it it's because we're focused on delivering the work. And I would not want anybody to stop focusing on delivering the work in favor of saying that we're going to do the work. Maybe like the Ontario line that's now doubled the budget and perhaps not going as fast as it's supposed to be going, but we all see the big signs. This is the future home of this, the future home of that. Um, so to me, this is a really important thing. And I think everyone hears that. There's no one here that doesn't believe that's a critical part of all of our projects. And I would hope that there's a budget attached to that. I didn't ask that during the question period, but that there would be a budget for external um marketing, PR that would help us get to something that would for a big job it's this. For a medium job, it's this. For a small job, it's this. So you're never wondering what's happening. And just as we have the rodars and we've had this conversation over and over again about whose job is it to take the orange and black cones away when the job is over. It's their job because they put them there. And if you don't take them away, you're going to be fine. For every day you leave a messy job site, you're pay you're going to pay for a messy job site. the same. You're going to put up the sign perhaps pay for that sign. It's covered in your permit fee and then you're going to take it away at the same time. So, the onus is on us to get the give the rules, make the signs and those who are doing the work to clean up the job site and let everybody know what's going on. So, I'm very happy that we're at this level and that we're moved along in that way. But I think that both councelor Chernos Lin and myself have put a finer point on what we're what we want to expect. And I'd urge all of you that have large Toronto water projects to look and see. Just that is those are the brag ones. We're spending a lot of money making sure water is clean, making sure that our sewers are are not combined, making sure that our lake is is pristine. So that is my motion and no other motions. We could vote on that and say pardon me. >> Yeah, it was. Yes, it's right there. It's just about signage, but it's kind of all construction, not just big big ones. Oh, look at that. Jazz hands for that. Good. All in favor. That's carried. Thank you very much. Um, we have that's done. We have I don't know if we can start anything and have it done before um we could do the Ash Bridges Bay one if that's okay to release that with another motion. Okay. Clerk is suggesting we do item nine before we break unless we just want to hear from we do item nine do item 10 um and then come back for forensic that work for everybody all right item nine that is Ash Bridges Bay I happen to host 75 acres of sewage treatment plant on behalf of most of you here and um when something goes wrong uh it goes very wrong and something went very very wrong. So I do have a motion that I've put to the committee and then I have a second one. Um, I'd like to make sure the certificate of approval is there when this comes to city council and I would like to um be really clear on the improved communication protocol for these issues. That would be internally for Toronto Water and externally because even putting this in, I was never advised ever that this had happened. I had to ask. I think I want to make that clear again. I never was proactively advised that this had happened in the 75 acre sewage treatment plant. A dreadful mechanical problem that created a paw over the neighborhood. I had to go in and ask that. So there's just certain protocols that should be very strict with strategic infrastructure of this kind and I know that there was a breakdown in communication somewhere along the line but once that was recognized all prongs didn't start. It's still sitting here. So that is um I've spoken to Mr. Drono about this. He's told me what happened. It's of serious nature internally, but externally I would expect that call. So as the local counselor, not because it's me, but because I happen to host your sewage treatment plant, my fellow colleagues. Okay. So with that motion, I'll just like to move that and then this will come back. This will go direct to council 26th unless there's any questions. No question. Okay. All right. Great. Thank you. Can I get all in favor of the motion? Opposed. Thank you. And motion as amended. >> All in favor? Opposed? That's carried. I think we have enough time for you to give your deputation, Mr. Longfield, and hopefully we can clear that one up. Can we just extend to hear item number 10 and then come back? You'll move to extend if need be. Yeah, we might not have to, but that's great. Thank you very much. Welcome. You can start. >> Uh, great. Just waiting for my wonderful slideshow. I love these. I will say I, uh, I love the opportunity to create these PowerPoints. I hope everyone enjoys them, too. Um, just waiting for it to come up. Oh, there we go. Thanks. This is just vamping. Um, thanks. Um, so, uh, thank you everyone. Uh, thank you, Councelor Saxs, for bringing this forward. Um, want to just sort of recap from the last time we were, uh, we were here talking about micromobility vehicles. Uh, we played this little game uh, legal legal Toronto bike lanes. And one of the things that we found out was that these were all ebikes per uh, MTO definition. So, we have what's called a class one ebike. We've got an e- moped. We've got a low-speed motorcycle. We've got a class 3 ebike. And currently in Toronto, there is a and again this is a very well-intended but it's ultimately extremely confusing uh state right now where we're trying to define where these various things can go. There many of them are legal to buy. They're not legal to use on public roads. They're able to be used on some types of cycling infrastructure, not all. It's not often very clear to look at them what kind they are or aren't. Um you know, it's possible they can be modified, they can go faster. um some of them be be quite heavy. Anyways, I think we all agree this this isn't working and um you know, one of the things that Cyclron had asked at the time, we had this sort of long list of things uh that we sort of asked uh council to kind of uh look at and we sort of have some progress um uh that the provincial government is actually looking at changing its uh definitions around uh ebikes. And I'm quite shocked uh to say uh you know given maybe some of the skepticism we've had from MTO recently from Cycle Toronto that this is actually a good proposal. Um sort of high level they're proposing two classes of what they're calling uh power assisted bicycles that um you know both would be speed limited to 32 km/h. Both would have a max uh continuous power uh 500 watts. And again 750 watts is one horsepower. So you kind of get a sense of what that is. It's it's a lot, but not necessarily um that much. Um that they would require adjustable seats. Uh that they couldn't have any body panels. That they require uh pedals that are able to use at all time. Although depending on the bike, you wouldn't necessarily need to be pedaling um all the time. Um but this is actually uh uh very good and of course requiring helmets and being 16 plus. A lot of these are the sorts of things that I think um you know cycle Toronto's heard from counselors and in terms of the types of things that um we've kind of all wanted to see. And then also as part of this I think just a lot clearer definition around what they're calling motor assisted and and limited speed vehicles and essentially that you know most of these vehicles uh would require would uh require to meet existing motor vehicle class standards. And I think, you know, a lot of this is kind of acknowledging the reality that, you know, um, e- powered vehicles aren't a novelty anymore. They're kind of here to stay. And, you know, regardless of whether something is powered by internal combustion or electrical, we should probably be aligning our rules more. You know, we don't say that, you know, hey, you have a driver's license for an internal combustion car, but, you know, go drive a Tesla, no driver's license, no problem. I mean, they're ultimately still vehicles. And I think this is working towards aligning that. And I think also what they've put in here too, which I also think is very good to sort of have this 12-month education and awareness period. Um so, you know, it wouldn't be day one, you know, uh you would have police out um arresting and confiscating that it would be part of a big um education period where um presumably, you know, municipalities, province be working with retailers, uh with individuals, with uh companies like Uber and Door Dash, etc. And um one of the good things about this too is these um this two class model aligns very closely what's used in a lot of the US um um uh so in terms of class one and class 2 they're putting it in miles per hour but 20 m per hour is 32 km/h and essentially Ontario just wouldn't be having this class 3 which is still a bicycle based vehicle but is um um allows higher speeds and um this is normally used for recreation. there is a use case for it. But again, um I think it makes sense with the way Ontario's currently progressing. And again, you know, as we kind of highlighted, a lot of this is very good in terms of the details that's been here. Um I think uh NPO's done a really good uh job uh with this. There are sort of two things that we want to highlight and I think this is reflected in councelor Sax's motion. Um we have some concerns around the 120 kg weight limit around class 2 uh vehicles. The 120 kg is currently the weight limit for ebikes in Ontario, but um Ontario also has an e- cargo bike pilot that Toronto has already opted into um for those bikes over 55 km. So from Cycle Toronto's perspective, most of the use cases for to have an ebike over 55 uh kilograms would be captured within the cargo bike pilot. And so um that would kind of be our preference in terms of moving forward with this and also that uh MTO currently isn't defining any battery safety standards um on this and you know that is something that Metroinks does as part of what is or isn't allowed on GO trains. So um having more of that here I think would ultimately be good. Um but yeah, I think this is a really great uh proposal and I think one of the advantages of it coming towards all of you now is it's able to kind of sign a signal to um you know uh residents um and folks that the city is taking this seriously but ultimately that we're working on evidence-based solutions and working with our partners at MTO to really come up with long-term solutions that'll make sense for everyone. So thank you. Other questions for uh >> Yeah. Um so Michael, you asked me to bring this motion. Um the 55k limit that you've asked me to propose for the class 2 vehicles. Does that interfere with um parents like my kids taking their kids to school? >> Uh not not under the current e- cargo bike pilot where um um where they would still be allowed as part of that. One of the things that's really good about the pilot is municipalities opt into it and then you get uh those municipalities that have a lot of powers to then define it. So most cargo bikes uh that people use to move their kids around unlated are still under 55 kg. But if you had even a bigger bike would still be allowed um in Toronto per the e- cargo bike rules. >> Okay. And do you have uh so we're not going to interfere with anybody taking their kids? Um okay. And briefly the rationale for reducing the weight limit from 100 for a bike for 120 kilos to 55 is >> um just uh I I think you know sort of everyone knows who rides a bike that you know the physics of riding a bike is quite different than you know being on a motorcycle or being in a car. Um and I think you know if we want to uh simplify our rules around bikeways, cycle tracks um and uh trails that sort of agreeing to something that's around 55 uh kg starts creating more expectations of the physics of how everything is kind of moving and I think just creates uh more harmony across our cycling infrastructure. Again, if MTO ends up going forward with 120 kilogram weight limit, it's still 20 billion times better than what's currently proposed. But I think if there are opportunities to improve it, I think trying to get those details down, especially since there already is an e- cargo bike pilot that's open till goodness, I think it's 2031 um for cities like Toronto to sort of explore where there might be um cases where you might want heavier vehicles to fit into it, but Toronto's already part of the the pilot and the current pilot already applies to vehicles over 55 kg. So it wouldn't be a change to how the pilot's defined. >> And is there a significant number of those in Toronto? um sort of off the top of our head um the um the Purilator trikes that folks might see where the um the um the cargo's carried at the back, that's probably a vehicle that's over 55 kg. Um the uh FedEx cargo bikes uh with the bass uh the bucket on the front, those are under 55 kg unweightened, so they wouldn't be um necessarily impacted by this. some of the uh trikes that are used for like cycling number question. Is there a number between 120 and 55 that would improve safety but wouldn't exclude any of the current bikes? I I mean start getting closer to 100 possibly. But I think this is where um you know uh um I think this is why the the cargo bike pilot exists because this is a rapidly changing market and so the pilot is meant to capture and give municipalities power to be able to control this and it the pilot already kicks in for vehicles over 55 kg. So this would from our perspective if it if class 2 were lowered to 55 it would fit in with existing uh regulations that already allows these vehicles on our road. >> Okay, two more questions. Um the the little motorcycles that we see all over the city now, do you agree that that they create a a real danger in bike lanes for other users? >> I think I think often um I think that they're not ideal in cycling infrastructure for sure. There's definitely a use case for them. you know, everyone who's on one of those is one less person that's in a car. But I think creating this fake binary between it's an internal combustion motor versus electrical motor, I I don't think is very realistic of where we are right now. And I think because the province is also proposing this 12 month um education period, it allows people that might be using those vehicles now to either, you know, go through the process of getting a license or move to a different type of vehicle. >> Right. And three years ago, most of the gig workers were riding e assist bikes. And those would uh those would under this proposal be still legal in the bike lanes, right? >> Yep. They fit under class 2 um a power assisted bicycle. Yeah. >> But the little motorcycles would which would be now licensed and insured would have to be in the traffic lanes. >> Correct. Yeah. Per this. Yeah. Same thing with an internal combustion uh moped or um a motorcycle. >> And you approve and you support that and you're right. I think I think that's a great uh a good way to move forward with this. Yeah. >> Okay. Uh thank you. >> Assuming it again I would say assuming it lines up with how the province is also defining these things too. So there's clarity between municipalities, the province, retailers and everywhere else. I think Toronto just trying to do this on their own I think is what created a lot of confusion that's out there right now as well intended as as it is. >> Right. But my motion would line up with the provincial requirements. >> Yep. >> And that's why you support it. >> Yep. >> Okay. Thank you. let you have quite a few extra minutes. But anybody else with questions of Mr. Longfield? No. Thank you very much for coming here with that. It was great. Any speakers? Councelor, anybody else besides Deputy Mayor? Go ahead. I'll let councelor Sax go last. >> Um yeah, I just wanted to thank councelor Saxs uh for taking this forward and for the advocacy from the community. Uh, one of the most frustrating things when we were working through our microobility strategy last year was the reality that so many of these vehicles are currently on our streets. They're creating conflict. There's a lot of open questions about them. Um, and there really wasn't an opportunity for the city to provide any more clarity than we had at that moment because of other orders of government and our need for them to provide some leadership on this. So um not only is it uh really um exciting to hear that that work has been taken up um but that it has produced some good results uh that we can get behind and continue to build out our own city specific microobility strategy um as we look to stand up uh all kinds of alternatives to driving uh to move through our wonderful city. Uh and again this is great work from the province which I don't know if I've said that sentence too often but we'll take it and we appreciate it. Thanks, Madam Chair. >> I don't think anybody said that too often. Councelor Sucks, with great thanks for your motion. Would you like to wrap? >> I'd like to move my motion. Deputy Mayor Moy, you said everything I wanted to say. >> Okay. Thank you. All in favor? Opposed? And that's carried. Thank you very much. We'll be back here at 1:30 and but we'll be in camera at 1:30. I don't think we have anything else. Do we start? >> Sorry. I I know. But for people that don't need to come back, if you're coming back, we're going to start in public session. Then everyone is going to leave. That's not in the in camera session. So you don't really need to be here. You don't need to. >> Yes. >> Thanks everybody. Are we just waiting for the motion now, Matthew? >> Yeah, just waiting. >> Pardon me. >> Just waiting to finalize the motion. >> Okay. >> You can visit for another two minutes. >> Not me them. >> We need the motion. Mhm. >> Just give me a few. >> Not quite. There should have been a confidential attachment. Let me put it like that. And that's why we're here asking what should have been. >> No, you did. You missed what should have been. Thank you. There is a motion in front of us that the infrastructure and environment committee recess recess its public session to meet in close session. We consider the following forensic audit of the 2001 winter maintenance procurement. The reason for confidentiality as it pertains to the receiving of advice that is subject subject to solicitor client privilege, personal matters and about an identifiable individual including municipal or local board employees in labor relations or employee negotiations. Somebody need to move that. Do we need to vote? >> All in favor? Thank you. And now, >> and so we're recess. >> The clerk has now recessed that while he makes sure that nobody is inappropriately in the meeting. We'll give him a minute on that. James, you can go back to talking to Mr. Matso now while we're clearing the room. I've been fixed. >> I hate to break it up because I know you're doing North York business here. Important North York business that >> you could You're chairing that meeting. What's that? >> Okay, here we go. >> Okay, the doors are now open. >> Are the doors open? We're open for business. Open for business. Away we go. All right, then. We're back on item IE29.2, forensic audit of the 2021 winter maintenance procurement and uh open for any questions of staff in public. Deputy mayor. >> Thanks, Madame Chair. through you to staff. Um I just had a few quick questions on this item in public. The first one is how will the findings of this audit help inform the next winter maintenance procurement process? >> So I'll take that question um through you madam chair. So um the staff report detailed I think five key areas uh where recommendations are going to be implemented. I'd say the the key one is establishing appropriate governance for something as large um with this dollar amount with this complexity. And I think committee members referenced the fact that it's it's not a one-sizefits-all around the city. So recognizing all the complexities associated with a contract or a set of contracts like this, we need to put governance in place to properly manage it and oversee it. So I'll be chairing a committee which is comprised of myself, the CFO, the city solicitor and s senior city staff from transportation services, fleet services and other supporting divisions to ensure that we do an adequate job of preparing for the procurement going to market. I think the second important point is time. Um, and I think it's fair to say that the the previous procurement, the team was really pressed for time. The the team was really pressed for time. And this isn't something you can rush. When you look at the equipment requirements for a contract like this, we have lead times 18 plus months. So, we have to account for that time um when preparing to go um go to market for a procurement such as this. we've already started the work knowing that these new contracts need to be in place for the 2029 season. >> Great. That's really helpful and I really appreciate that robust answer. Um, in addition to the new committee that's being stood up with appropriate senior leaders, what other kinds of checks and balances are in place citywide to help vet each stage of the process once procurement is initiated? >> Well, certainly we are going to be supported by uh by the chief procurement officer in this case. Um, in addition to that, we are going to be including a fairness monitor to work with us to ensure um that we're following the process and the and the process is open, transparent, and fair to all proponents. >> Great. Thank you. Those are my questions, Madam Chair. >> Thank you very much. Are there other questions? No. No questions. No questions. Uh, then we'll just move directly to speakers. Who would like to speak? Councelor Saxs, are you going to be speaking on this at any point? No. No, you don't have to. I'm just making sure you knew we're into speakers. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh deputy. Uh thanks, Madam Chair. Uh this um particular audit and uh situation happened just before my time here in uh in city council. But I do appreciate the opportunity as a member of this committee today to dig into the findings of this particular audit and to discuss with staff directly about lessons learned and improvements um being implemented. Torononians have a very um reasonable expectation of good governance from us and I know that's something that we are deeply committed to. Uh and again taking holding the space to really review uh if and as things may have not gone according to our typical process or procedures is critically important so we can ensure the correct checks and balances are in place uh and the individuals responsible um are clear about what we need as council to make these kinds of really big and important decisions that have significant financial impacts and certainly impacts on Torononians and their quality of life and their experiences here in the city. So, uh, really glad to hear directly from our our deputy city manager about some of those, um, pieces that are being further enhanced, particularly around bids, uh, at this scale and scope. Uh, and look forward to continuing good work together, um, to make sure we're serving Torononians well. Thanks, Madam Chair. Thank you. Anybody else? Friends, got it. I will just speak quickly. Uh, now reset. I have a motion that I'd like to send this to the city manager with a request to report back to committee and answer the following questions. Was there a failure to outline expectations of individual responsibility and accountability? Were all important stakeholders consulted? Uh opportunities to investigate further the following matters. Variation in cost estimates and bid results. Conflicts of interest changes postawward equipment substitutions. any other matters of interest that were raised today in our in camera session. I don't have a lot to say. This is our third report public report on a procurement from 2021 again under COVID which was a difficult time for everybody and a structure that didn't lend itself to great oversight by this level, the counselor level, which usually is very helpful in making sure there's not mistakes. So whatever went wrong seemed to have gone wrong in a number of areas. But I do understand everybody was online and uh we were out of the picture. So we this is a second one for procurement where we're having to dig in much deeper. The other one was pay it and that changed as well. I'm very happy with your remarks deputy about the committee that will be chaired by Mr. Jolly Moore to make sure that we're bringing all the pieces together and moving forward for any next procurements that all the pieces are in place and we won't have three different investigations about what what happened and what may have gone wrong in that area. So, I'll just move that and any questions. Uh if not, I'm happy to have a vote. All in favor? Opposed? That's carried. And now we will adjourn the meeting. Thank you very much everybody. 3:30.