Transcript: Approves LED Upgrade, FIFA Fees - Executive Committee - April 15, 2026 | Summary 491

Folks, if you are in your office, executive committee member, please come to uh the committee room one. Oh, you Thank you for turning on your camera. Do we have We now have quorum. Thank you so much. I'm calling to order the uh executive committee uh number meeting number 30. We're calling it to order. Welcome to everyone. I think people are having a good time. I'm calling the meeting to order, folks. Today's meeting is being held by video conference and in person at city hall in committee room number one. And this meeting is also being livereamed online at youtube.com toron/torontoondo city council life. Although we may be uh meeting in different locations today, the committee would like to acknowledge that the land we are meeting on is the traditional territory of many nations including the Missaga of the Credit, the Anesnab, the Chipawa, and the Honos and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse first nations, Inuit and Mate people. We also acknowledge that Toronto is covered by treaty 13 with the missagers of the credit. If you are registered to speak today, please listen for me to call your name. Uh I will call speakers in the order. They appear on the list. We don't have We don't have quum. I thought we You just told me you did. Someone disappeared on you. It's right there. Two three Four on your side. Yes. There there are two of those. No, we did not count it properly. Okay. Um, counselor. Okay. Deputy Mayor is I thought I saw counselor Bravo earlier. No, maybe not. She's online. Okay. Um, we need councelor Shen, Deputy Mayor Malik, Angley, uh, Cole, if you're in your office, please come over. Okay, can someone go and give them a call? or text them or wandered over to their office. Ring their lines. Did anyone call in to say that they are not available? Nope. Okay. Ah, yay. Council. Yeah, councelor Melo. That is number six. Yes. Okay. I am calling the meeting to order again. And yes, we are on the land um a traditional territory of many nations. Mrs. Saga of the credit and ship and the wet people and acknowledge that uh Toronto is covered by treaty 13 of the missaga of the credit. If you register to speak I will call you or you can turn on your camera if you are online. And um committee members know what needs to be done. Any declaration of interest? Seeing none, councelor Fletcher moved the motion to confirm the minutes of the last meeting on March 10th. All those in favor post, carry. Wonderful. Um I have two additional new items uh to add. One is protecting migratory birds at Metroorn and all city owned building. Uh I'll just introduce it and then you can take a look and we do with it later. All those in favor of introduction opposed. Carrie, thank you. And um councelor Bravo, you're online. Oh, uh fighting for Scarbo East rapid transit. I think that was circulated a while ago. Nope, it hasn't been circulated. Uh may I introduce this and uh you can take a look at it is because it's fairly lengthy. All those in favor of introduction uh oppose Carrie. Thank you. Uh, councelor Bravo, you have a new business item to introduce. Something to do with the license. Councelor Bravo, could you want to turn on your mic? I am on I am unmuted. Okay. Uh, all those in favor of an introduction of this item, opposed. Carrie. Thank you. So, we'll take these through. Uh, we'll hold on to these three. Um, birds, transit, and liquor. All right, we're going to go through the item. Uh, item one, critical investment. There's speaker. Item two, personal water craft safety plan. There's speaker three, beautiful city. There's a speak. There's speakers. Item four is property tax crawlback rate report. Anyone want to hold it? No. Uh I don't see any speaker on that one. Uh yep. Fine. Councelor Perks, may I trouble you to move that motion? All those in favor? Oppose? Carry. Item five is the uh doing a non-competitive procurement agreement um authority to uh go into this agreement. Anyone want to hold on to it or you you want to move adoption of it? All those in favor? Carry. Item six, there's speaker. Item seven, mobility plan. Anyone want to hold that? No. Um, councelor Fletcher, mobility plan. May I get a motion from you to This is FIFA World Cup, Toronto Mobility Plan, item seven. Would you like to move it? Yes. All those in favor of adoption of the recommendations? Post. Carrie. Thank you. Item eight. There is uh this is to deal with the service excellence in parks and recreation transportation leveraging data. Anyone want to hold this item? Yeah. Okay. Councelor Fletcher on eight service standard dashboard item nine. There's a speaker and the rest protecting migratory bird. we just introduced. The other three we just introduced. Okay, we're good. Item one, street lights infrastructure. I see there's a speaker, Daniel. Um, Kar Shenoski, are you here? Online. Online. May I trouble you? Hi. Yep. Go ahead. You have five minutes. Okay. Thank you very much. Um, I appreciate the opportunity to speak in front of the executive committee. Um, I'm not exactly an expert or anything like that. I'm just an urban planning student. Um, although I have been following uh what city council does from time to time. Um, and yeah, so I heard that you're considering uh converting all of the street lights in Toronto to LED lights. Um, and I feel like that might be a very good opportunity to review the way that uh the public realm is designed in our city. Um, in Toronto, we have quite a few uh different kinds of lighting fixtures, including in downtown uh we have the Acorn lights, which are they have like these uh curved brackets. Um, and what I'm worried about is, uh, if things continue the way they're going right now, they're going to be replaced with just standard, uh, LED lights, the kinds you can see pretty much everywhere in North America. Um, and at the same time, you guys are spending $500 million on this. Um, so maybe that would be an an opportunity for you to review the kinds of luminires that you install on like around the city. This decision um that you're going to be making right now this whole project will determine the way that every single street in Toronto is going to look. So, so first of all, Toronto has very outdated public realm standards, including uh the streetscaping guide. Uh secondly, Toronto Hydro doesn't really it doesn't exactly follow even the standards that do exist and they tend to focus more on um finances uh on the amount that things cost uh rather than how things look or the role it plays in uh city building. So instead of approving this project without really thinking about anything except for engineering and finances and and all that stuff. Uh I would encourage you to remember that every single street is going to look different because of this and this could be an opportunity. You're already spending that much money. Um, I would really, one of the things that kind of pains me is that Toronto is a city with so much potential, but most of the stuff that we build here isn't very beautiful. Very often, it's quite ugly. Um, both private development and also what the government does. And I think I think that should change. I mean, we have so many amazing people here, s such a diverse city, so many identities, and yet it doesn't really reflect any of that. It just looks like any other North American city. So aside from street lights, you could also think of how do we design our sidewalks? How do we design our parks? What kind of development policies that are there? What kind of architecture do developers have to build? All of this stuff is really important. And I just I feel like you guys have not really been dealing with that stuff. And the reason why I decided to speak today is because I was worried that the exact same thing would happen with street lighting as it does with most city infrastructure. Um, so in conclusion, I think you should review the standards that our city has for the public realm. I think you should think outside of the box and think about making our city more beautiful so that it's a worth it's a place worth living in a a place worth identifying with a place worth loving. Okay, so that's all. Thank you very much for letting me speak today. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um Council Matlo is going to talk to you about towards a beautiful city. Uh well, I I won't take time talking about it, but I just I really appreciate uh the spirit of what you were just saying. And in fact, when you're asking council uh to consider how to uh make our city more beautiful, um please I I I ask you to take a look at an upcoming item ex 30.3 called towards a beautiful city that I do believe might reflect the very spirit in which you were speaking and I really appreciate your comments. Thank you. All right. Um, any other uh comment on the Toronto hydro deal? It we're going to get LED lights. It's going to be brighter. We're going to save uh energy. Uh we're fixing the lights. Oh, question to the staff. Sorry. Pardon me. Council Holiday. Question to the staff first. Yes, thank you. Good morning to you. Um to the staff, I understand that from time to time LED light fixtures fail. In fact, the report talks about it about some problems in other cities. could um could if Toronto Hydro's available or staff are available, if you could tell me what warranty coverage we have because the business case is predicated on a longer lifespan for these elements, but if they fail early, uh they need to be replaced and they need to be replaced uh including labor and could you tell me a little bit about that? Good morning everyone. Uh Dan Smart, interimm chief operating officer at Toronto Hydro and I'd be happy to take that question. Uh so the fixtures that we'll be procuring as part of the LED conversion have a a 10-year warranty and it's uh equipment that we purchased for five or 6 years now. And our experience with about 15,000 of these lights already out in the city is that we've only experienced 60 failures or approximately 60 failures so far. So we do have um uh a warranty option in the procurement and we've also seen really strong reliability uh so far with our experience. Where do the replacement labor costs sit with respect to those uh those 60 units that you changed? Is that something that's being absorbed by hydro? Is that something that's being charged back to the city? Um because one thing is the part, the other part of it is the work done that involves going to replace a defective unit. Yeah. So within the within the funding model, we have allocated costs for um reactive repairs. So that would be or that is included in the $577 million that was put forward as part of the plan. Do we as a city have any protections built into this? Because this is a relationship between the city and a corporation which is hydro. Um maybe you could tell me are we buying the lights as a city and you're maintaining them or are you buying the lights and the onus is on you at hydro to pick the best equipment with the best reliability and lifespan uh through the speaker. Thank you councelor. the um the arrangement. Uh as you're aware from your time on our board, uh Toronto Hydro owns the street lighting infrastructure and uh under contract with the city, we maintain uh the performance standard that that is set uh by the city and in accordance with provincial uh regulations that that set lighting requirements. In terms of the the costs that's all been worked through, the big benefit of these street lights is they're going to require a lot less maintenance expenditure. So, everybody will save. Uh the city will save, Toronto Hydro will save, rateayers, taxpayers, everybody saves from this. So, we have an example uh with Toronto Water where we purchase technology and the technology seems to be ending early. Do we have protections built into the agreement between the city and Toronto Hydro if something were to happen of that nature? Let's say later on in the 10ear span or beyond the 10ear span because I think the mathematics include some assumptions about lifespan beyond 10 years. Do we have some protection or could or should we be planning uh for contingencies just in case something happens? uh to the maker uh to the mayor. Um so the agreement in place uh in front of us today is the agreement between the city and Toronto Hydro itself. Within that agreement, it does speak to the funding that is being provided, the objectives that are going to be achieved as they relate to acceleration of the LED replacement. Uh a large aspect is actually related to the state of good repair associated with the poles and the infrastructure itself. Uh there are clauses in the agreement that enable the city to be able to review the work that is done, the outcomes that is done. So that is that is standard wording that we will continue to have. Uh I I will turn it over to Toronto Hydro as it relates to the actual agreement itself with the purchase of the LEDs and the protections that is in that agreement which we were speaking to in terms of the warranty. It's okay if we can leave that. I got one more question and it's important. Um, sometimes when LEDs fail, they flicker. They strobe uh at a really high rate and that's extremely annoying. And if that happens in front of your house, you know, it can be devastating, right? You've got this flickering light right into your window. Uh it's not like a street light burnt out. If uh those type of failures occur, is there a higher service level that ensures that those lights are changed faster than a situation where a bulb simply burns out? Just given how terrible that situation is, you know, can we offer assurance to the public that we've got a plan if something like that happens? Um, so one thing I would offer is that with the LED lights, we have controls that would proactively or or automatically inform us that there has been a failure. So rather than waiting for someone to call in and say that, hey, there's an issue with light outside my house, we would recognize that or see that right away and be able to dispatch a crew to resolve the issue. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Any other questions to the staff? Council Fletcher, I just uh wondered how many knits are these new lights and how does the brightness compared to what are I think we've all noticed the new headlights that are being produced in vehicles that are extremely bright and actually blinding. Sorry, folks. Sorry. So, the lights are actually um with the adaptive controls, they're dimmable. So, we have the ability to go in and adjust the light level to um something that um is uh comfortable for the residents and consistent with with the rest of the city. So, what are the knits then? Uh I'd have to take that. or whatever whatever they're called, lumens, knits, the brightness factor that you have. So on arterial roads, we would be um our goal would be to achieve the um the standard of RP8, which is an engineering standard for street lighting. um in um local and collector roads or smaller roads, we would be looking to um basically maintain something close to the current level of lighting, notwithstanding any feedback that we need to make adjustments up or down. So, is it warm LED or white LED? the um uh councelor, the early street lights that were put out by other municipalities were of of that really bright 4,000 5,000 Kelvin uh harsh lighting. Uh the lighting that we are looking at is in the 3,000 Kelvin range, which people will be familiar that's much more similar to what one would use in a in a household or in a building. So the extremely bright lights that we're seeing now in production many places that would not be reflected in the lighting that you're talking about here. Uh many of those municipalities implemented street lighting 101 15 years ago. It's now moving on to a new generation. So we will have the benefit of this second generation of lighting that as Mr. smart noted has uh different controls, different intensity. It's also better aimed at the streets, the uh cycling lanes and the uh sidewalks. So, it keeps that light uh also out of household. So, in in every way, the color, the intensity, the directionality, those are all improved in the current generation of street lighting that we'll be deploying. And do you have any samples of what those look like that we can see between now and uh I guess council this is going to go there. Can you speaking through the mic? I'm very difficult to hear you. I'm sorry about that. I'm moving it closer. I just wonder if you have any examples of that that you could show me or show counselors to make sure that it's not lights that you would be using to that would be very disturbing because light pollution is a real factor here. in the city neighborhoods and LED is an important solution to uh to dark sky and that's one of the big benefits of it. Um we we do have pictures. We're very happy to uh to meet with you counselor and uh give you a a display of that. Perhaps you could just send them out to everybody so we could see what you're planning to install between now and city council. Yes, we're we're happy to do that. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. That's it. Deputy Mayor Carol. Well, thanks for the promotion, but Oh, I'm sorry. I was looking at someone else. Pardon me. I was looking at my co beside you. Does it come with any compensation? Oh, darn it. You shouldn't have drawn attention. Couno, uh, just a quick question. This is not new and emerging technology. Uh, dating back years. This this has all been piloted. There are places where this exists already. Am I am I right? That's correct. There's uh over 25 cities in North America, Canada, across the world that are already fully converted to LEDs, including Missaga, and some of the other municipalities around us. And um in Toronto as well, we've been installing LED lights on a replacement basis for five or six years now. And we have about 15,000 already installed in the city. Right. So, um, you know, it's not complicated to sample this. You can just give us addresses. We can go stand there between now and council. Am I right? That's correct. Yeah. Thank you. Those are Okay. Seeing no other questions who speak on this item. Councelor Fletcher. Yes. I'd really Oh, sorry. Pardon me. Council Holiday first. Uh, thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, I appreciate the opportunity to speak. I think that this is a really important point in time for the city because uh changing a large amount of changing of lights uh has a tremendous qualitative effect on our environment um and the way that we experience as human beings. Um and also the the financial commitment of the city is large as is an investment in technology which is still relatively new. Uh I will be looking for asurances that the risks are well managed through all of this because there are some uh and um I'll continue to have an opportunity to talk to staff about it. But there is one thing that I wanted to highlight to the committee and maybe we'll talk about it some more at council and it is what I brought up in the questions is that you know the oldfashioned bulbs just burn out and the light burns out and in fact I know that's happened on my street and I've used my phone and I've logged a ticket with hydro and amazing you know you log it in and a truck comes the next day or within a couple of days and they fix it and it works really great and so I really commend Hydro for that but in the cir circumstance where an LED bulb fails and it flickers and that's because of the electronics that are contained inside of it and we've all seen those. Those are extremely aggravating. Um, and that's a qualitative thing that we experience as human beings, right? One thing a light bulb goes out, it's another thing to have it strobing in a very annoying way. And I would urge um the people that manage this program to think about those circumstances and whether or not they receive an elevated priority. So if someone calls in and says a lights's out, if they specify that it's flickering, I think my expectation is that's dealt with right away, you know, as quick as possible and it doesn't get moved down the list as a regular old bulb out. And I think residents would really appreciate that. I realize the circumstances and the the frequency is probably low, but when it does happen, the impact is very high. Uh so this is something to watch carefully because of its qualitative effects to our city and and the people that live here and of course all of the money and the risk that's involved. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Thank you, um Councelor Fletcher. Thank you, uh Mayor, and thank you to staff. I really want to make sure that these are lights that aren't going to I'm not going to get any phone calls about because I get a lot of phone calls about lights, parking lots, uh big MLS's, somebody in court for the last two years because of the brightness of the lights shining into one building from another. And um there is a whole spate now of new lighting that I think we've all seen on automobiles that is almost blinding. So uh I'm sure that that's not the case, but I'm going to appreciate seeing exactly the nature of the lights for local roads, residential streets, arterial, and of course different lighting when you're on major arterials or highways. So that's my only concern is that everybody's happy with the light adjustment. I know there are people that spend a lot of time thinking about lights and the intrusiveness of them, including from building to building, but we certainly need to make sure, and I'm sure Toronto Hydro has, that this is not a condition on our streets because originally when the street lights were changed over, they were warm lights. Then they got changed to very, very bright lights in the city of Toronto. I can't speak about the other bur of the other cities. And now we're looking at another change. I'm not sure if demmoable means every single light. That would be quite spectacular. So we'll hear a little more about that. I don't want to spend too much time on it today, mayor, but I do want these answers. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Any other speaker? Deputy Mayor Moley. Thanks, Madame Mayor. Uh I just wanted to make a couple of quick comments um to follow on with my colleagues. Um we always appreciate an investment in our infrastructure and this is certainly one of those. Uh one of the things that my community has also expressed concerns about is exactly the um point councelor Fletcher made around the brightness levels uh and their ability to impact that what that is going to mean for them and their experiences in our local communities. The other thing that's coming up for me is just the roll out of this and how we ensure that we are um making sure as we're making investments and improvements, old infrastructure is also coming out and being addressed. Um we've had a history in Atobbico when we've seen upgrades, old polls stay there and there's a lot of work to chase and follow up and say, "Okay, great. We've got the new ones, but why are the old ones still in place for years and years and years next door to each other?" Um, so these are the kinds of things that we really hope staff will be paying close attention to as part of the roll out um to make sure that um and to the speaker on this uh the impact that residents are feeling is a net benefit to them and and a clean um final outcome. I'll leave it there. Thank you so much. Thank you. Any other Oh, Carol. Uh just quickly, I I can't tell you how much I I welcome this so that we can get on with it. Um uh you know as budget chief when the transaction to to uh uh make the sale back uh way back when uh was actually first discussed and and then council perks and I were were very much a part of sitting in the office figuring that out. Um, and while it it helped us out of a very big jam at the time, a couple of years later, um, in my role on the Toronto Atmospheric Fund, we began to look at how are we going to do light largecale pilots of LED street lighting and really have an ability to show it, not just one light standard at a time, but let's redo a neighborhood so that a a whole large neighborhood people can see the difference in in the way it casts light and that while it feels softer, less light polluting, it actually is casting light in a way that actually brings more more night safety. Um, and and what stood in the way of doing it was the agreement we had made with the purchase a couple of years uh earlier. And so to do this now uh well, yes, it takes a while um uh to to get to this point. Here we are and this has been very carefully negotiated. Uh when staff does a piece of work of this level of detail um uh leaving no stone unturned in terms of making sure that we have the exchange between the two authorities in the right place and it takes months to do it then we really have to support it and get on board because it really is going to lead to the benefits we need. And I hope I hope that we will get a list of addresses. We can go stand under an LED light between now and council because then we should have a unanimous vote there. Yes, it does make a difference. I I want to point out um that there's a statistics you want to look at the underground um wiring 86% of them are at a very critical stage i.e. if we don't fix it the system won't work. Uh you can't quite see it but it it is failing. So um 25 year old agreement we finally changing renewing it and replacing it rather than patchwork fixing one here and one there as they break just we just need to replace them. So this is uh a good investment and eventually it will once it's up it it save us uh operating dollars also. Councelor Perks. Yep. Go ahead. Thank you. Um, councelor Carol told part of the story about the long long journey, the long and winding road it's taken us to to get here. And I I have to confess for part of that journey, I was deeply frustrated. Uh, in the years 2006 to 2010, uh, we were going ambitiously at this. Uh, we had neighborhood pilots, uh, my ward and several other wards. We tested out different technologies. We looked at the kinds of issues with failure rates and um all of that. And then for 13 years, we had administrations in this city that didn't want to spend any money. It's as simple as that. This is work we've been ready to do for over a decade. And uh you know in an era where the most important thing was to drive taxes but it's not natural. It's not your go uh and and you know freeze taxes and cut spending and find so-called efficiencies. Uh we just didn't do the work. And that's why the underground infrastructure that supports our high our our street lighting system is in a terrible state. A terrible state. And it's also why the city of Toronto, which usually and in almost every other domain as a leader on energy efficiency and green technology, is actually behind almost every other city in North America. This is you know I'm while I appreciate the technical questions that members have asked and it's important that they you know understand what we're doing. I think it's re the the the crucial lesson here is this is work we were ready to do a decade ago and then we had administrations who were just unwilling and you know I want to acknowledge you mayor and also all of council and and the Toronto public service for saying Toronto will not fall behind. We will make the investments to be a modern, efficient city where our infrastructure works and where we are reducing our greenhouse gas emissions in all the systems we run. And as councelor Carol said, you know, I've watched sometimes closely when I was on the board of hydro or on the budget committee and sometimes from a little further back. City staff have really given us an excellent piece of work here and as councelor Carol said when this gets to council it should be unanimous. Thank you for giving us a historical perspective. It's it's here. It's we finally doing it about time. Um seeing no other speaker all those in favor of this motion all the motions in front of you. Yay. New street lights opposed carry. Thank you. Um the next item is the Toronto personal watercraft safety plan. We have quite a few speaker. We also have the marine units uh here the officers the uh the team here to answer questions because the law is as good as uh the enforcement of it. I unfortunately has to go to um congratulate the Walk of Fame in Scaros. It It's on the same day. I can't. Yeah. So, I'll be back. Um and I just want to designate the Scarbo East LRT item at 1:30 when we come back for lunch. That would be the first item to deal with that one. Um, but at the meantime, we will get things started. And Deputy Mayor Malik will chair. Uh, and I do have a few motions. And, uh, Deputy Mayor Molly, if you could, um, move those when the time comes, right, on on this item. Um, because it matters. I see jet ski when I'm out in the water a lot and I have a lot to say but I have to go and do some formal official duties. Um first speaker via conference request Jerry Berman. Are you there? Jerry Berman. Yes I am. Can you hear me? Okay. And then after is Rash and then Jane Anderson. Richard, etc. Um, go ahead Jerry, you have five minutes. Good morning. My name is Jerry Burman. Thanks for the opportunity to speak. I'm a longtime resident of Atobocco Lakeshore in the community of Humber Bay Shores. I have an extensive background in natural resource management, sustainability, and policy development and implementation in government, in the private sector, and in academia. I am the initiator of a petition seeking to restrict all motorized watercraft in Humber Bay Shores and I am representing each and every one of the 1,000 plus residents that took the time out of their busy lives to sign it. The petition is a formal request to designate the bay between Marine Prey Drive and Humber Bay Park East as a motorized watercraft exclusion zone. The case for action. The small bay nestled between Marine Parade Drive and the northern shore of Humber Bay Park East is not a contested waterway. It is a sanctuary. Wildlife depend on it. Families gather at it. 20,000 Torononians live beside it. Yet, it remains unprotected from the noise, wake, and hazard of motorized watercraft. This is not a fringe concern. Over 1,000 residents have signed their name to this petition. A rare and powerful act of civic engagement. The committee is being asked to listen to a community that has spoken clearly and to act decisively on four wellestablished grounds. One, ecological preservation. This bay harbors sensitive flora and fauna that have established themselves precisely because of the area's relative calm. Motorized watercraft introduce wake erosion, fuel contamination, and acoustic disruption that directly degrade habitat. Toronto has made public commitments to biodiversity and green space stewardship. Protecting this bay is a concrete lowcost way to honor those commitments. Today, two, public safety. The bay is actively used by kayakers, canoisters, paddle boarders, and swimmers. These users have no meaningful protection from motorized vessels operating in a small enclosed waterway. Conflicts between motorized and non-motorized users in confined spaces are a well doumented cause of serious accidents. A restriction zone eliminates this risk entirely before an incident forces the city's hands. Three, quality of life and noise. Motor noise in an enclosed bay amplifies against the water and carries directly into a dense residential community of over 20,000 people. Green and blue spaces exist to provide relief from urban noise, not to amplify it. This designation restores the bay to what it was always meant to be, a place of peace for family uh people and wildlife alike. Now, this is an important point. fairness and balance across the waterfront. This designation does not disadvantage motorized watercraft users. It simply recognizes that the Humber Bay waterfront already provides for them generously. Humber Bay Park West is home to not one but two established marinas offering ample capacity and dedicated infrastructure for motorized voting activity. two parks, two bays, two marinas, and yet not a single formally protected space for quiet non-motorized use. This designation corrects that imbalance. This is not a restriction. It is an it is rational, equitable planning. So, what we are asking the committee to do is recommend to full city council that the bay between Marine Parade Drive and Humber Bay Park East be formally designated as a restricted zone for motorized watercraft and that city staff be directed to assess and implement that designation. And two, engage with all relevant authorities to implement appropriate signage and enforcement measures. And three, establish a clear timeline for designation. This is not a contain this is a contained achievable action with broad community support already in place. This request is proportionate, precedented and popular. Other Toronto waterways carry similar restrictions where ecological or safety grounds exist. The Bay at Humber Bay meets every one of those grounds and goes further, offering not one but two ready alternatives for motorized users at the marinas in Humber Bay Park West. The cost of inaction is measured in degraded habitat, preventable accidents, and a community that feels unheard. The cost of action for the city is minimal with two marinas next door absorbing all motorized demand. There is no credible objection to this designation. only reasons to proceed to Toronto protects what it values. This community is asking the city to value Humber Bay before the window to do so closes. Thank you. Thank you, Jerry. Any questions for the speaker? Uh, Deputy Mayor Moley. Uh, I just wanted to say thank you so much for your submission. I do have a motion on this item that reflects uh your sentiments and concerns as I am aligned on those. Um, so I just wanted to again thank you for being with us and for taking the initiative to get the petition together. Uh, hopefully you'll be satisfied with those amendments. Thanks so much. Okay, thank you. Any other questions uh for the speaker? Okay, seeing none, uh, thank you for um, joining us today. And our next speaker is uh, Raj Ma. Thank you. Um, you have five minutes, Raj. and uh please begin when you're ready and I'll let you know when you're getting to time. Vice chair and members of executive committee, thank you for your time today. My name is Raj Mtha. I'm the CEO of Jetty. We're a Toronto-based personal watercraft rental company. I'm here because the city's personal watercraft safety plan represents a genuine step forward and I want to express our full support for its direction. This report reflects something that has been needed for some time. A safety focused approach to personal watercraft activity along Toronto's waterfront. Stronger public education, improved enforcement, and better coordination between the city, Toronto Police Services, Marine Unit, Port Authority, and Transport Canada. Jetty shares the report's core goals, protecting swimmers, paddlers, shoreline users, and the environment while also supporting safe and equitable access to the waterfront. We also agree that unpermitted operations from parks and beaches is not a sustainable path forward. Importantly, the report recognizes that personal watercraft rental activity can operate safely when it's appropriately cited when safety and navigational requirements are met and operators are held to a high standard. It also acknowledges demonstrated demand for this activity and how compliant operators can support local economic activity. That recognition matters because Toronto does not need to choose between disorder and prohibition. There's a practical middle path. A lawful, tightly controlled, safety first operating model delivered by responsible operators prepared to meet safety operating sorry prepared to meet and exceed compliance requirements. Jetty is prepared to be that kind of partner. Let me tell you what this looks like in practice. Our fleet today already uses realtime GPS monitoring and geo fencing technology that supports rule-based operation on the water. These systems enforce speed limits, no-go zones, and shoreline separation consistently and measurably. This is not theoretical, it's already how we run our operations. Beyond the technology, we have built our operations around structured training, documented customer procedures, strict screening, and active oversight. We've invested in onwater rescue capability so that safety is not a disclaimer or a paper exercise but rather a genuine operational responsibility. The result zero safety incidents in the last four years of her operation. The standard for this industry should not be who can put a machine in the water. It should be who can demonstrate the systems, the personnel and the discipline to operate safely and accountably. For that reason, we support the report's direction for staff to explore potential sites for compliant operators. We respectfully ask that as this work moves forward, city staff engage operators with demonstrated safety systems and compliance infrastructure as part of that evaluation. Operators with real experience can provide useful input on site suited suit suitability, safety controls, launch logistics, traffic separation, and practical risk mitigation. Responsible operators should be part of the solution. Jetty would welcome the opportunity to participate constructively in that process. We're prepared to share insight on training standards, customer screening, monitoring technology, operate operating rules, rescue readiness, and incident reduction measures that this that support the city's safety goals. Thank you for your attention and for the work that has gone into this report. We support its direction and would welcome the chance to work with city staff and public agency partners to advance a safe, lawful, and well- reggulated framework for personal watercraft rentals on in the Toronto waterfront. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are there any questions for the speaker? All right, seeing none. Oh, Deputy Mayor Morley, go ahead. Thank you so much, uh, Deputy Mayor, and welcome. Thank you for your submission today. Um, I have Humber Bay Park in my ward. is a very busy um area for the kind of use that your company does and not knowing specifically if you guys operate there, but I just wondered if there are as we move through this process and we appreciate your endorsement in support of it. Um what are some of the tools and resources that will be helpful to businesses like yours that are operating responsibly and safely to continue to do that as we establish these new rules? Yeah, definitely. I think the u most important part is having a proper designated location where operators can operate. Um, as you guys recently know, um, the leases for marinas that basically use city owned land with long-term operating leases, they were just renewed. They do have a stipulation where they're not allowed to basically rent or lease space to operators like us, which basically um leaves leaves operators like us with not a lot of options. And I think that's why in the past um you know like these rental companies have operated from boat ramps and beaches but like I said it's not a sustainable path forward as it does create conflicts with sort of other users right so well thanks again for sharing your perspective I think it's an important one that's all for me thanks thank you very much our next speaker is Jane Anderson Toronto beach's open water swimmers thank you Jane uh please begin when you're ready you five minutes and I'll let you know when you're getting to time. Okay. Uh good morning. Um thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm here on behalf of Toronto's largest open water swimming uh group. We were actively engaged throughout the entire project. Um we thank city staff for including the public. Uh we also applaud staff for reaching this milestone. We urge the committee to adopt all five of the recommendations. Uh but we do have some additional uh suggestions for your consideration. We sent a letter which is included in your agenda materials and there's quite a bit more detail in there. So I just want to hit the highlights for you. Um first on the geographic scope both the recommendation number two and also the letter that was attached from the port authority um they re they pardon me um refer to woodbine beach but we recommend changing the wording to woodbind to RC Harris because um that aligns with originals council's original intent and that would just avoid confusion going forward and also we recommend through the design of the exclusions zone Woodbine to RC Harris that um you remove the motorized watercraft landing area at the western edge of Woodbine and that would improve safety for everyone including the lifeguards and that recommendation also um supports more effective enforcement of illegal um PWC rentals. Um the removal of that uh landing area is supported through the thought exchange results. And we also recommend going forward that um no motorized watercraft should be allowed to come ashore at or adjacent to any blue flag beach in the city. On the minimum 150 meter from shore criteria for Woodbine to RC Harris zone boundaries should be measured from the outer edge of the shoreline protection groins not from the sandy nearshore. Groins are considered part of the shoreline and swimmers and paddlers uh regularly swim in the waters beyond the groins. So measuring from the outer edge of the groins ensures a meaningful buffer between swimmers and the motorized traffic. Regarding the the uh marker boys, we strongly recommend marker boys for all exclusion zones. Physical markers are essential to ensure compliance and enforcement. And for the Woodbine to RC Harris stretch, uh two boys to de demarcate that zone, which is about 2 and a half kilometers long, would simply not be efficient. That's only one boy per about every kilometer. So it's it's not it's not sufficient and it will most um certainly lead to non-compliance for motorized traffic. So the number of boys per zone I think requires further discussion with uh local stakeholder groups who are familiar with the specifics of each zone. Uh finally we support the inclusion of a Cherry Beach exclusion zone uh for the reasons that were mentioned by others in their letters. And in closing, we hope you'll consider the refinements in our letter. Toronto Beach's Open Water Swimmers welcomes the opportunity to be involved in the design and implementation of this important initiative through the entire um stakeholder engagement. So, thank you for your time and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much. Are there any questions for the speaker? One. Um, Fletcher, when you said support Cherry Beach, which I support, uh, the Outer Harbor Federation has also said that they all have non-motorized sailboats, etc. So, you'd be supporting that zone as well. Yes, that's correct. Beach proper, right? Okay. Yeah. And open swimming is you have open swimming at Woodbine, open swimming at Cherry. Where else is there open swimming across the waterfront that you know about? Um well, Councelor Fletcher, there's open water swimming almost everywhere at certainly at every Blue Flag Beach. Um we have swimmers at Humber Bay. We have swimmers, a lot of swimmers swim at Cherry Beach, including um clubs, triathletes. Um people swim at the island. We're very active as well at Woodbine, Cubami, all the way even along the southwest shore, which I know is outside the Port Authority, but we do swim there as well. So, we're we're pretty much everywhere. It would just be really helpful to know all the zones where there were um where they're swimming cuz you've got your little boy you're swimming open water so everybody can see where you are but jet skis often are sitting quite high in the water and can't see very well. So, correct. Yes. Um that would just be helpful if you don't mind I think generally to understand where open water swimming happens because I know it does happen but not everybody's familiar with it. Now the mayor isn't here but I think she's quite familiar with it cuz right I would just say we're we're almost everywhere along the shoreline. Um you know we have some of the cleanest fresh fresh water in the world and we enjoy open water swimming. It is a sport um on its own marathon swimming. So, it's it's unique. Thank you. Thank you very much. And our next speaker is Richard Burkowski uh from the Toronto Wind Surerfing Club online. There we go. Thanks for joining us, Richard. Uh you have five minutes. Please begin when you're ready, and we'll let you know when you're getting to time. Uh thank you Deputy Mayor Malik and all the counselors for um giving me the opportunity to speak today about the proposed item. And maybe I'd like to thank not only uh counselors but also staff and all the work and all the time and attention that's gone into uh trying to create a vibrant waterfront across uh the front of Toronto. Um I'm appearing today on behalf of the Toronto Wind Surfing Club which is located at Cherry Beach. Um the Toronto Wind Surfing Club has approximately 600 members. Additionally uh in a season we host about 500 adult 500 uh adult lessons. Okay. And we're also serving about a thousand uh Toronto youth lessons which may be as young as 6 years old. The um the Toronto Wind Surfing Club is uh engaging and welcoming and that's part of how we bring uh people into the sport onto the water in Toronto. I bring up these statistics because as you can see the members are about 25% of that number. They may be in the know as to what's going on with uh watercraft uh in the outer harbor area whereas the uh youth and the students they might um be susceptible to injury and and to getting hit out there. I've brought two photos which um I've submitted to the uh I guess it's the clerk. Uh this is one photo here of an experience and you'll see in here there's a destroyed sail, a destroyed mass and put it on the uh Oh, I see right here. Okay. And on Okay. Right. Okay. So, here you can see the destroyed sail, the destroyed uh mast. Uh we don't have a picture of the destroyed u surfboard. Okay. And in this case, one of our uh most experienced sailors was run over by a jet ski. And I should correct that he wasn't actually run over. He's okay. Because of his experience, he jumped out of the way. Um that will not necessarily be the experience that young students will uh um will be able to uh talk about um if it happens to them. I have a second photo here. You can see in there there are uh six jet skis. Five of them uh with occupants on them and one jet ski with the nose up. This was uh a jet ski that overturned in the outer harbor. And our coaching crew, our instructors and coaching crew uh went out to save the person and the jet ski and bring them to safety. Establishing um the motorized watercraft exclusion zone is a practical evidence-based step that will improve the safety for thousands of non-motorized users, protect youth programming and access to water sports, support environmental stewardship near sensitive habitats, and provide clarity and structure for all users. ers. We've had some initial conversations with the Toronto Port Authority and also with the Toronto Metro Police uh Marine Unit on how this could become a uh uh motorized watercraft exclusion zone. I'd like to thank both those units for all the attention they've given and the big job that they've undertaken to do in protecting our uh waterfront. I know council from previous reports and action items notably in 2017 and 2021 there was a lot of discussion about the outer harbor and Cherry Beach being considered in a u non-motorized uh craft zone. Uh the term used back then was paddle friendly city um as one of the objectives and this gives people an opportunity to do so. So, we support uh the recommendations of staff except uh in uh item two where they list out um the areas there's Hanland's Point Beach, Humber Bay Shores, Woodbine Beach, and we'd last would like to ask that the Outer Harbor/Cherry Beach be included in that list. Now, uh, just as a little bit of back final point, Richard, your final point, you're just over time. Yes, I'm just concluding. Um, I've been seal sailing at Cherry Beach since the 80s. I used to be part of the Toronto catamaran club. There was next to no boats in the Outer Harbor at that time. If there was a boat, it was a working boat, and they knew what to do, and they knew rightways and how to avoid uh sailors at that time. Um we are now sort of at a middle point in my opinion with all the development of menacing island east harbor developments etc. We expect to be uh assisting more and more people out onto the water through our programs and uh we ask that uh this be recognized as a uh water exclusion zone and we realize there's a cost to that. But in comparison to the dangers out there to uh especially to young students out there then um uh we think it's well spent. Thank you. Any questions for the speaker? Yep. Uh Richard, the uh wind surfing club and all of the sailing clubs are all nonprofit clubs and they're part of your tenants of the city of Toronto on correct beach. Correct. So you all have leases, you have liaison with the city and um that's an important thing to understand. I I have read some of the correspondence and realized that at the consultation that was held by the city, there was a request to have Outer Harbor and Cherry Beach included in the exclusion zone. Do you have any other reason do you know why that didn't happen? No, I don't. You don't. And then one of the things just to be clear about and I will ask staff that because the Outer Harbor Marina has large sailing craft and they do have a motorized um channel basically to get out into the lake. How would you describe that? They are motorized in order to get there but it's not the same as uh motorboat or jet ski. Are we agreeing on that? I I agree and and I would try to define that channel uh perhaps more boys out there or whatever's required to uh they do have it quite well defined with markers red green markers it's very clear what the voting channel is which is different than the open lake which is where all the sailing clubs and the swimmers use right correct okay great thank you very much for coming today thank you our next speaker is Ed from waterfront Thanks for joining us, Ed. You have five minutes and please begin when you're ready. I'll let you know when you're getting to time. Thanks very much. Um, everybody, uh, my name is Ed I am a lawyer. I'm also head chair of uh, Waterfront for All, which is a kind of a an umbrella group of residents associations and other groups involved with the waterfront. And we hear a lot about problems with with watercraft. Um, I'm out in a kayak. I go out around the island almost every day. I've been doing that for maybe about 20 years. I teach kayakers. I know a lot of people around the harbor. And I would analogize the harbor and the surrounding areas being a little bit like a road. Uh, kayakers are sort of analogist to cyclists. Uh, there are motorboats which are like cars. There's swimmers who are kind of like pedestrians and so on. And all of it involves governance basically. Uh, you're going to hear people say this, there should be this exclusion zone, there should be a stop sign here, a traffic light here. Of course, not those things, but something has to be done. I have a pet peeve about speed limits. I think they're very important. Now, here's the thing. They're set by the Toronto Port Authority under the practices and procedures. Oh, I'm sorry. The practices and procedures are um on the website. the Toronto Port Authority. Port Authority says, "We're responsible for the safe operation of navigation on the harbor." But they also say they want you to pay for the boys, which is odd, right? Because they uh their revenue is about 81 million a year. Their net income is about 17 million a year. They charge a fee for people to operate a motor vehicle. They seem to take, but they don't give. Uh so it seems to me that there has to be a change in governance. These concerns will continue to happen there. It's it's simply unsafe to have people going too fast. That to me is the biggest problem. And there should be a place I think it's I applaud the city getting involved in this. I think that's very important. But I think that probably somebody should talk to the federal government and say maybe the governance needs to change. Maybe there should be a kind of a delegation to the city because these are concerns that are sort of municipal in nature. They have to do with the safety of people on the harbor. Uh how do we integrate, you know, dog owners and other people in parks? They're analogist to those kinds of issues. And if I may say so, the Toronto Port Authority has not been good at addressing those things. I can't come to a committee at the Toronto Port Authority and say, "Hey, there should be this exclusion zone here. There should be a safety, you know, the the speed limit should be this or that there or something or there should be boys here." If they want you to pay for the boys despite their resources, then why don't they just let you have responsibility? Surely that's the way it should work because you are the experts on that. And this is a basic governance issue. What are Toronto Port Authority really doing in this area at all? I think that is the important discussion. Thank you. Any questions? Are there any questions for the speaker? All right, seeing none. Thank you. And our final speaker, um, Nicole Curado. Nicole online. Okay. Uh, Nicole, uh, you have five minutes. Uh, please begin when you're ready and I'll let you know when you're getting. Okay. Hello. Hello. Uh, my my feedback is I believe that that um there my concern is the noise that there's and the pollution that you know gas powered like boats will will produce a lot of oil on the water. hard the animals, but also a lot of the noise would would really bother me and also bother really the two-stroke engines really really obnoxious noise. So, I think that any motorized boats ex except for emergency vehicles should not be permitted. I think there's plenty of quieter ways to to allow vehicles that don't bother people that that's by concern. I I am very concerned about the wildlife and about the nature in the area. Okay. Thank you, Nicole. Are there any uh questions for the speaker? All right. Um now we'll move to questions to staff. Um, are there questions to staff? Uh, Deputy Mayor Mley. Okay. Sorry. Uh, thanks, uh, Madame Deputy Mayor. Uh, I do I did want to ask questions of colleagues in the marine unit. Um, with thanks to the deputants who joined us today to share their experiences about how conflict has been um, trending or rising and experienced on the water. Uh I wondered if um Marine unit can speak a little bit from your perspective in enforcement about some of the um most um pertinent trends around conflicts and and how uh you're navigating that at this time on the water. Morning. I'm uh Al Love, the staff sergeant Toronto Police Marine. Um, in relation to your question about enforcement, enforcement is obviously one of the u details of our service while we're on the water. We are the only law enforcement entity on the water from uh Missaga to to Pickering. So, enforcement is one of the key functions that my folks uh go in through day in day out. It's a course of their duties on the water. Um we issued just over 3,000 tickets and warnings as a unit last year both on the water and on the roadways. Just over probably a thousand tickets and warnings altogether on the water itself. Uh and that is mo majority of that is what we consider the boating season obviously. So let's say May to end of September would be the boating season proper for us. That's when we see the most vessel traffic. Uh we did have an increase in all of our calls for service last year, specifically in relation to our rescues. Our rescues were up about 46% last year. Uh we had a lot of dealings with the seed issue um and the personal watercraft issue in relation more so to rentals. So we do do conduct enforcement on a daily basis um day in day out while we're out on the water. Education is one of the main important parts of what we do out there. Enforcement is also important, but we have to handle all of the calls for service as well that are generated on or in relation to the water. So, we do conduct enforcement every day. We take enforcement seriously. Uh, but education for us, for everybody on the water, whether it's a boater, a swimmer, a kayaker, whatever the case may be. The safety portion for the waterways is is key. What's key for us and what's key for our our friends at the city and our friends with the Toronto Port Authority as well. That's very helpful. Thank you for that and for the work that you do and service to our our folks and keeping everyone safe on the water. Um do want to really call out that increase in call for service up 46% and that's I think really reflective of what we hear in our in my office certainly in Atobico Lake Shore as a waterfront community and with some destination parks there as well. I want to just pivot to park staff. Um I will be putting forward a motion um with thanks to you all for the support uh with the wording. Um, we heard a little bit about Humber River, sorry, Humber Bay Park. Um, and in the motion, we're looking to um include Humber River. But with respect to Humber Bay Park, there's a difference of course between east and west, and we know we've got um some uh active, responsible, wonderful stewards in the West uh park at Humber Bay. Is it necessary or helpful to specify in the direction or recommendations here which side of the park we're looking at to proceed um with exclusion zone or is Humber Bay Park satisfactory and you all can undertake the work uh through the chair. It would the two parks are named differently. So Humber Bay Park West and Humber Park East are considered two different properties. So it be helpful for the purpose of purposes of this exercise to specify within the recommendations Humber Bay Park East. Is that a helpful amendment? Uh it would. Okay. I will make that change. Um I will look to the clerks to to make an amendment on that. Um those are my questions. I'll speak to the item. Thank you so much. Uh other speakers. Uh councelor uh Carol, go ahead. Yeah, I I I think I know the answer to this question, but it just to highlight it because it has been a question out of the community. In terms of all motorized vehicles, there are already exclusion zones already designated by the port authority. Is there anything in the bylaw that that we would be recommending today that changes usage for uh regular motorized vehicles, not personal watercraft? uh through the speaker. Uh so what's before you today is an implementation of the motorized vehicle zones which include all motorized vehicles. Um so that would include any any motorized vehicle with a an engine on it essentially, right? But they um they have they have access to marinas. they were already uh they were already by and large uh uh aware of their exclusion zones. So, um there's not a big change for them because they have been adhering to the to the bylaws thus far. We're simply extending zones a little bit. Is that is that a fair characterization for regular pleasure craft? Correct. Yes, there's additional um beaches that have been included as part of the report uh in front of committee today and so that would cover those additional uh beaches and waterfront areas that we've outlined in the report. Okay. And and with respect to you know personal yacht club memberships or marina memberships and and places where charters are already licensed and functioning properly. We're not we're not making changes to those or we are not not not included as part of this report today. No, thank you. Okay. Just wanted to clarify that. Thank you. Those are my questions. Thank you. Um, councelor Fletcher, just a follow up on the charters. I believe that all of the charters in from the inner harbor anyway, they all have required routes that they have to follow. They're not just sailing around wherever they want. Am I right? Sorry. Can anybody answer that? Sorry. in relation to us for Toronto Police Marine. Um, we I just meant generally because talking about they don't have specific routes that they have to to uh sail on. I I'm not understanding. They have areas they're not allowed to go in. There is areas that we're not supposed to have um those charter vessels. Correct. Yes. So they know where they are permitted and where they're not permitted. Correct. They should definitely know. Well, that's a signed through the Port Authority. They all know. Yeah. Thank you. I just Thank you. Um, just to be clear, all of the Outer Harbor clubs are all tenants of the city of Toronto. I don't know who's here from parks. To answer that, there are 24 boat clubs. Yeah. That are 24 boat clubs. And there are probably about 8,000 altogether people that are in and out of the water. some time or another that have their boats there or that use the boats from those and they're all nonprofit clubs. Correct. Uh to the speaker correct they are all nonprofit clubs. I don't have the precise number but they are in the thousands of members. Yes. So 24 nonprofit clubs tenants of the city at Cherry Beach in the Outer Harbor. I guess I just have to uh I've seen the correspondence from the friends of Cherry Beach and the Outer Harbor and there was a consultation about exclusion zones and they attended and asked that Cherry Beach in the Outer Harbor be part of that and yet they weren't put forward in the report and I'm wondering why. So, as part of the report um in front of you today uh that was responding to council's direction from uh last year uh that covered um Hanland's Point uh Humber Bay Park uh Woodbine uh and Bluffers Park. Uh Cherry Beach was not included. However, as part of the consultation, uh we did consult with a variety of stakeholders across the waterfront, including uh stakeholders in the Cherry Beach area. uh their input was provided to the TPA. Uh and uh as part of the pilot project should council approve it uh with the um various ex exclusion zones uh included in the report today. Uh we would evaluate those results and then determine future um exclusion zones uh at a later date based on sort of the uh results uh from the uh uh project uh being proposed uh in the report. So, um, because it wasn't in the original motion, it wasn't included or the TPA didn't agree. Which one? Correct. So, the the locations were uh only what council directed us. The ones council directed. You didn't feel that you could add anything in. Am I right? Based on the consultation, we we uh established this these pilot projects that are before committee today to evaluate. Should once these um once these pilots have been evaluated uh at the end of the summer season, we would then look to expand uh and bring back any recommendations based on that data. Uh should committee and council uh uh direct us to look at additional beaches as part of that direction this summer. Uh we'd be happy to take that back. uh councelor I'm moving them in as of today but I'd like to know who else was at that consultation that has uh kind of the large number of non-motorized crafts as we've heard 24 clubs uh who else attended that so over the consultation period we consulted with over 1200 individuals and that included a variety of different stakeholders including boat clubs community groups residents associations watercraft uh operators personal watercraft operators as well as rental companies as well. So, it was a a crossf functional group that we consulted with uh between the months of uh January. Sorry to interrupt. I only have a certain amount of time. Did you not have a consultation with the uh name the Woodbine Beach crowd the uh Humber Bay shores as far or a separate one in that way or was there just a general one? Do you have a dedicated through the chair? The approach taken was um an online survey followed up by an in-person forum for stakeholders from across the waterfront. And so who attended that online meeting? The online the online meeting sorry the personal one the one you just talked about there was a online survey and then you had a specific meeting. The invitations went out to stakeholders provided by all the waterfront counselors and we had 23 representatives at that online forum um which included the waterfront organizations, marine operators and recreational user groups. So you could have that list for council. Absolutely. We have that list and those who were invited and declined to and you're aware that the city actually is the tenant and has an obligation I would say for water safety when I mean the city is the the owner and the tenants are outer beach any outer harbor. Okay, I'll speak. Thank you very much. Are there any other questions for staff? Um I have a question and then we can do we have questions and we can do a second round. So my first question um is uh following up on the um on the survey uh in 2025 a motorized watercraft exclusion zone was implemented at Hanland's Point Beach. Um and can you outline a little bit more uh about the response to the survey that the city conducted and uh the degree of support for the continuation through the chair? Yes, I can. Over 1,800 responses were received over the course of the summer season in 2025 with a resounding support for the motorized watercraft exclusion zone at Hanlands. Sir, thank you very much. Um, a submission by Hanland's MWEZ community watch to committee outlines issues with enforcement in the 2025 season. Uh can you share to what degree a public education enforcement protocol uh might help address these issues for the implementation in this year through the chair? Um there's two distinct areas obviously safety on land and safety on water. Um I would defer to the Toronto Police Service for comments on safety on water to the chair. For safety uh uh for in regards to the public education uh plan, there is quite a comprehensive um um plan uh in place or prepared for the 2026 voting season. It's really targeted public education and a communications campaign to really both improve awareness and incur and and encourage and encourage compliance. This would begin um as early as late May and continue right through until the Labor Day long weekend. And as my colleague had noted uh chair, this would align with um both the Toronto Police Marine Unit and also additionally the Toronto Port Port Authority. Okay. Thank you very much. Um there we've also gotten some communication about the size of the the boys um on the water. Can you confirm the size that is being proposed to be installed by the Toronto Port Authority uh for the implementation uh through you chair? Uh we have our colleagues at Toronto Port Authority uh online virtually to respond to that question. Good morning. uh the the size of the boys in particular are the the larger markers that are available uh compared to the ones that we saw at Hland's last year. So they would be in larger size and one of the reasons that uh we had worked with the marine unit to to look at those size markers is that it would allow to put a sign on it as well. So would clearly indicate sort of where the demarcation line was and provide better uh enforcement ability for the marine unit as well. Sir, can you be a little bit more specific about the size? Um do you have the dimensions or is there a classification or can you share just a bit more detail? uh I don't I don't have dimensions uh with me but I can certainly provide that to the uh to to executive council. It would be similar in size to the what you see for the marine exclusion zone for the around the airport at this time. Okay. So we'll follow up on that. Do you we'll just leave it at that. That's fine. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Um I just have two more quick questions. Um uh the Hanland's um uh motorcraft motorized watercraft exclusion zone extent was 200 meters from the shore uh last year and was agreed to by Toronto Police Services, Toronto Port Authority and in consultation with city staff. I just want to check with city staff that that's that's correct. Those those were the agreed upon parameters. That is correct and um and that is what is intended to be moving forward uh for this year as well through the chair. My understanding is that zone will remain the same. It's the markers that may change. Um can you uh confirm that the MWZs implemented by the Toronto Port Authority prohibit all forms of motorized watercraft and that includes boats, not just personal watercrafts like jet skis? That is correct. And I also say nodding from the Port Authority uh representative as well. Um so that's appreciated and those are my questions. Now we'll go to a second round. Uh Deputy Mayor Morley. Uh thank you. Oh sorry madam chair. Sorry. Um councelor K. I wasn't sure if you already went a first round or if you're up for a second round as well. I did not go through the first round. I I I rushed back and and you were still in questions. No worries. You first. Go for it. I didn't get a first round. No, sorry. I had to had to step out for a second. I just wanted to ask and it's following on on uh uh your questions, Deputy Mayor uh Malik. Um we've heard from deputants that you know, can we have additional buoys? Can we extend uh I I like the Woodbine being clear that we mean all the way to RC Harris thing things like that. There is a cost though and that's very much outlined in the report uh uh for buoys. Why are they so expensive? How many people does it take to put them in and pull them out for the winter through the chair? I'll defer to our colleagues at TPA to respond to that. Um sure there uh happy to happy to answer that question. So the cost that that we had shared is not only inclusive of the actual cost of the procurement of the markers itself. It also includes barging those out and getting them installed uh ensuring maintenance of the of the boys as well as well as uh winter storage. So there are a number of different components that make up the cost and and that is the the reason for that. So the the boys are also anchored by like several tongue stones and so that has to be that's part of the the marker as well. So you need you need a special craft to get them out there and bring them back in. Correct. Okay. So it's it's uh uh special heavy duty watercraft, human resources, etc. So we can have as many markers as we want. We just have to be prepared to budget for them. Is that a fair assessment? Uh we we would certainly consider any requests from city council with regards to the number of markers. Okay. Thank you. Um Madam Speaker, if can I uh uh bring uh Toronto Police back to the floor? Yeah. So from the marine unit's perspective, you've also heard about some of the the extensions of boundaries and and I know from from my uh my um info tour. Uh part of the challenge for marine unit is the vast expanse that we have to police. So so getting all the way out to RC Harris, are you going there anyway? Um are you already patrolling that area and to to to enforce this initially? while we're having to educate slash enforce. Is this going to require added resources and do we have them? We do patrol all of those areas anyway. So we do go out to Woodbine Park. We do go to Hanlands, Humber Bay, Bluffers. Uh it's dependent, of course, on the calls for service and where we have to be. So if we get the majority of our calls for service are within the inner harbor, I would say um that's safe to say. So getting out to Bluffers is is not as frequent as we may like it to be, right? Uh Woodbine Park, we're there constantly. We were there a lot last season in relation to a lot of the issues we were having specifically with the rental PWC market and all the issues that came with that. So we did spend a lot of time there. Uh as far as additional resources, I don't believe our unit will be expanding any larger at any point than it already is. So, um, we'll we will have to make sure that we do what we have to do and and enforce all the exclusion zones that are coming into play now, but again, it's going to be a matter of fact of whatever else we have going out on the water and then our ability to get to all those locations, right? And so, when we say enforcement, we're still talking about doing so on a basis of calls for service. You're not going to be able to proactively be everywhere at once with our current uh human resources and with the current number of vehicles. You just physically wouldn't be able to be proactive. You're still on a call for service basis. Yeah, correct. We are still on a call for service basis with again enforcement being a portion of what we do day in day out. But I would not have the ability to dedicate a vessel to be at each exclusion zone right each day. I would never have the ability to do that, but we will be at all the exclusion zones and doing the enforcement and education piece. I can guarantee you that we just have to do it with the constraints that we have currently with staffing and vessels and all of the stuff that we have to deal with in relation to that. And then, not to bring up this point, but we do have a a major sporting event this year, FIFA, and that's going to increase water traffic for us greatly. uh there is plans to have things out on the water in relation to that. So this year especially um we are going to be extremely busy on the water. Right. There's there's a FIFA strategy even for the marine unit is is basically what we're talking about. Yes. Final question. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Deputy Mayor Mley. Uh thanks Madame uh Deputy Mayor. I just wanted to pull a thread. um uh my colleague in the East End waterfront mentioned about the charter boats and it raised another conflict that we're experiencing specifically in the Humber Bay Shores community and I just want to inquire about it since I have the opportunity. Um party boats uh and charter boats uh in terms of their pickup drop off areas, do we currently have any designation or rules around how that is managed along the waterfront? Judging by the crickets, I imagine no. And understanding the experiences I'm hearing from people um sharing concerns, doesn't seem like there is one. Can anybody speak to that from parks or otherwise? I I'll just perhaps briefly make a a comment about enforcement uh of that activity. uh MLS uh enforces the parks bylaw which does have some restrictions around mooring um on parks property and on occasions when those types of activities have resulted in longer mooring times uh we have laid charges on that. Okay. Um I don't know if anybody from Creme here is here to speak to it but in our community we understand the inappropriate access to existing tenants. um boat clubs that are leasing our land are having challenges and conflicts with this. Is this something that's been raised um to the city through those leases at all through the chair? I'm I don't think we have been aware of tenants raising um comments around access onto lease lands, but it is definitely something we would work with them. uh once we do enter into a lease, they're responsible for managing and care and control over those properties. Uh but we're happy to work with them to make sure that they understand applicable policies and laws that are in place. Great. Um I will speak to this uh as part of my comments. Thanks, Madame Chair. Thanks. Um any other questions to staff? Councelor Fletcher. Yes. Uh just as far as the kind calls to service that our marine unit has described, we do have waterfront park supervisors and people there every day. I'm just asking parks if that's something that they're asked to look at um for the beaches. So, I just know for Woodbine Beach, for Cherry Beach, when you go, there are water boats there, there are jet skis there, and sometimes dangerous conditions. What What are your instructions to park supervisors on site to now get in touch with the marine unit when they're hot spots of large numbers of motorized craft, I'll say in the swim zone or the recreational boating zones? Uh through the chair, our role would be to report that directly to Toronto Police Marine Unit. Sorry, can't hear you. Can't hear you, Donna. Apologies. Uh through the chair, our role would be but if staff see any infractions or see any type this type of activity, we report it directly to Toronto Police Marine Unit. So, how uh just wondering if that's a priority call for the Marine Unit when you get something from Toronto Parks. Yeah, we receive numerous calls from the uh park supervisors as well as the lifeguards that are at all the supervised beaches. So, they can call us directly either at the station or over our radios uh specifically for the lifeguards. So, we will respond when we get calls from them because obviously those calls are normally 100% a safety concern or a safety issue. So, we make it a priority to attend there as promptly as we can. So that's the system that we actually have in place right now with parks and Toronto police, which is Would you say you're finding that to be effective when you get those calls and you can find five or six of these jet skis on land or zooming around in swimming areas? It's definitely effective for us because we obviously can't be at all those beaches at all the time. So we rely heavily specifically on the lifeguards and we have a fantastic working relationship with all the lifeguards in relation to all the beaches. So it definitely works positively for us and we can attend there and a lot of the times it's better for them to get us directly through our direct call line or over the radio because yes as you know if it goes through the regular channels it can take some time for the call to get to us. So that that plan works better for us and we actually instruct all the lifeguards to get us over the radio and to call us directly even if it's a different call for an emergency on the beach. It's faster for them to do that to us and then they can go through the the normal 911 or regular call process. So for us it's a huge positive. That's fantastic. And just remind me I think lifeguards they were with Toronto police and then they were transferred over to parks. Right. That is correct. a number of years ago. So, but there's still that very close relationship around safety 100%. That's great news. Thank you. And then for the port authority, I was just asking um wind surfing representative about the channel that leads from your outer harbor marina out into the open lake because uh there's a number of crafts that you can't sail out from outer harbor marine. You have to get out to the lake. How are you describing those kinds of motors? Uh do you have I don't think you have big motor motorboats there but there's requirements of go slow areas there's very strict requirements for any any craft any watercraft to leave your outer harbor marina to get to the open lake. Am I right about that? That's correct. Yeah, there are certainly speed limits that they have to adhere to and uh other requirements. Uh, so anything that has a motor on it is considered a motorized watercraft. And they've had to take extensive training. I forget what the name of it is, but in order to get a birth and run a boat from there, you have to have fairly high level of marine training to operate that. There is training that is provided to them as well. I think it's called power something or other. They all have to take that course, right? Yes. know where the boys are, how to get around them. Yeah. The power vessel operations course. Yes. So that's standard and none of these other folks have to take that. So they're kind of ad hoc driving around wherever they want and that becomes one of the problems. Would you be open to figuring out how to protect swimmers in in the open swimming area, Cherry Beach, and some of the non-motorized or the wind surfers and others that are at the outer harbor? And I think you probably were watching and saw that the the wind board, the sailboard was completely destroyed by a jet ski. And that should be concerning for all of us. Yeah, of course. If there was a request from from council in that regard, we would certainly uh review it and and take a look at uh how we could assist in that. I I mean I will say that the over the past year or so, we have worked very closely with city officials with Toronto Police Marine Unit and others to come up with this comprehensive plan which is before you today which I think is should address a lot of those u issues that are there. I think it's great just to add some other hot spots on there without uh harming without causing you any issues of for your Outer Harbor marina clients. I think that's what we're trying to make sure happens here. Thank you very much for being here today. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions to staff? All right, seeing none, uh we'll go to speakers. Uh speakers on this item. Councelor Fletcher. Uh, Council Deputy Mayor Moley. Um, anyone online? Okay, go ahead. Council, great. Thank you very much. I do have a motion that and I really appreciate the port authority being here. Uh, don't know if it's going to get displayed, but it is actually adding the zones of the um, Outer Harbor, Cherry Beach, and the Outer Harbor to the list. and then please report to May 6th where we're at with that. I think having a stakeholder committee that is not just the general public but in particular the all of those water users, recreational water users that need a safe passage would be very important. I'm very uh taken by our open swimming across the waterfront. I don't know if anybody's seen that, but I see it all the time at Cherry Beach. And it it you do take your life in your hands when you're there because you've got your little inflatable that supposedly tells everybody that you're in the water. But it is uh a worry with the number of motorboats and particularly jet skis that are zooming around towards the beach and up to um up to the beach. So, I would like to make sure that that's protected. I know we have I know we have swimming pools, but in the summer, I think it's great that we're on a great lake. We have blue flag beaches, and we should be encouraging swimming, and that also includes open swimming, which I think is an exciting thing. Not going from one wall to the other wall of a pool. You're just going out in the lake. I also was very taken by the picture of the wind surfing board that was smashed up by the jet ski. I'm very grateful that the operator was not harmed. If they had not been a really skilled operator or a learner, that could have been a very different situation. So there is a requirement to um protect from simply wild boating. I have been at East End. I do go to the beach pretty regularly. I am an open swimmer. I am a paddle boarder. I um love the water and I notice that it's heavily frequented at times with jet skis zooming into the beach or at woodbine large large motorboats uh stationed at the beach. I'm heartened to hear of that very close relationship between the Marine unit and our lifeguards to say there is u there's an issue here because they're hotspots for various times. I guess just like a rave you get a message we're going to meet at such and such a place and everybody goes there. I'd be very interested to know and we'll probably want to know that for May 6th or for council where that 311 call goes. Are there is there a 311 call that the public are making about this issue? Do we have a category for that? An SR for basically motorized craft in areas where it should be simply pleasure craft and non-motorized. So I out of questions, but I think that's one I'd like to have. And then looking to see who is at the at these meetings at the meeting online. I don't need to see the survey, but I really do need to see who is online from which clubs across the city because we are a strong city and there's a relationship to our fantastic lake. People are very organized across the lakefront. Parks is organized across the lakefront. Our blue flag beaches are organized. Our city staff are organized across the lakefront. and the clubs and users are organized across the lakefront. It's not that and it's not that you're in one place. It's a string all across Toronto's water. So having that perspective as an advisory group to maintain first and foremost safety would be great. I see the mayor has a motion including about the eastern gap and I know that marine services Toronto Marine Service Police Marine Service is going to really understand that eastern gap that there's a lot going on there. There's sugar boats, there's party boats, there's paddle boat, there's everything going on there and to really look at how to manage that kind of traffic that that is there. So, thank you very much to staff for bringing this forward and getting ahead of this before the summer so all of those who came to see us today and who responded online and sent letters can have a fantastic summer and safe summer on the water. Thank you, Councelor Fletcher. Um, Deputy Mayor Marley. Uh, thanks, Madam Chair. I do have a couple of motions. I'll move my motion first. It's just uh an amendment to recommendation three to include the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority amongst the stakeholder groups um that we are requesting um to take this request forward to uh Transport Canada um to establish a vehicle operation restriction regulations um in also an amendment to specify Humber Bay Park East um within that as well as the inclusion of Humber River. Um, folks will note there's been a lot of to-do about motorized use within the Humber River and the important need for the city to uh take an opportunity to reset uh and move forward in that area in a good way and we're excited about uh including that in this request. The second motion that I'm happy to move is on behalf of Mayor Chow. Um she alluded to it before she stepped away from committee but um it essentially has a four parts. um to enact uh request federal minister of transportation to enact an interim order for this upcoming season for the parks that we have mentioned. Um councelor Fletcher, you may want to make a friendly to that to include the beaches you've just moved as well or clerks can confirm if that would be included um with that recommendation number one as it only specifies some of those parks. Um secondly that city council requests the Toronto port authority to provide additional protections for non-motorized watercraft in the eastern gap and ensure safe crossings between Cherry Beach Toronto Islands and Bedasig Park. Um a city council thirdly would request the Toronto Port Authority to absorb the costs associated with the 2026 removal with thanks to the deputent for that recommendation. um and uh maintenance and storage of the large boys used to mark the motorized watercraft exclusion zones at Woodbine Beachlands and the other parks named uh lastly that city council requests the city manager in consultation with Toronto port authority general manager parks and wreck and the Toronto police marine unit to install signage on each side of the eastern gap to indicate the permitted speed allowed in that area. Um so I just wanted to make a few quick comments and thank staff um and all involved all the various stakeholders um city manager's office and staff team for their leadership on this. Uh since I got to council this has been a really important point of discussion and certainly uh a challenging experience in my waterfront community. As our city grows, as our communities grow, the conflict and pressures on our waterfront continue to grow as well. Uh we heard from the uh marine unit about the increase to calls for service 46% um re in the last season and again we expect those um calls to continue to rise and as long as folks are navigating and engaging with our waterways and I love the analogy of thinking about it like a road. Um it's going to continue to be incumbent on us to create clear rules and expectations on how we want people navigating um and engaging with the waterfront in a good and safe way. Um and so I'm really um again grateful for this work. I think that having some things in place for this upcoming season and continuing the good work of collaboration and coordination amongst various divisions and stakeholders is going to be helpful uh to ensure a vibrant, safe um uh and very inclusive uh use of our waterfront. I also mentioned in questions to staff about um this um a sort of trending issue that we've heard about in our community about charter boats, party boats, and other um uses of that nature and not having clear designated areas for pickup and drop off. That is in in itself also creating conflict along the waterfront. And similar to what we heard from the jet ski operator today, the value and importance for them to have um clear designated areas to operate within and to communicate out to their um their patrons and users. I feel very similarly, this is going to be a very hot summer in the city of Toronto. We've got an incredible amount going on. I know there's already um yacht parties and boat parties being planned and promoted on on online and in social media. And so we want to make sure that Torononians can engage in those things in a good and safe way. Uh and we need to make sure that there's clarity around that. So I don't have a motion on that at this time. I will take it back and potentially do some work in advance of council just to ensure that um staff are seized with this as well and we can include that in our work going forward. Those are my comments. Thanks, Madame uh Chair. Thank you very much. Are there any other speakers on this item? Councelor Carol. Uh thanks. Yeah, I I I'd be remiss if I didn't say a little uh uh something on behalf of the the service and and I'm so I'm glad uh that the sergeant mentioned uh uh arranging for FIFA uh because it is very much it's a part of the the the Toronto Police's FIFA plan to be ready for what happens on the water. But I do want to speak to the overall plan. And I asked about service standards and how this was going to work because I I think it's important that we remember when we're doing these things that it it's great to have the police here to answer and and they're going to respond to the changes we make, but it it kind of there there doesn't seem to be a uh a connect the dots going on. Uh, you know, we get to budget time and people are shocked and dismayed that the the police budget is going up at the hiring plan and the hiring plan has to will have to impact the marine unit, but it can't do it overnight. This is this is going to uh uh take a while to do this. Um, you can't uh step out of college and into a boat and be in the marine unit. you you need excellent officers. Uh preferably 10 years of service so they're they're already good police officers when they learn to become good marine united officers. Uh so that they only have that massive amount of training, the waterfront training. But there are additional costs beyond this. Uh the majority of the fleet in Marine Unit right now is an aged fleet that needs to be replaced. Uh the building itself needs work. the equipment that they wear and that they carry on to their craft are uh uh unique and and costly. It's part of the reason why we regularly advocate to other orders of government that we remain unique in in cities in Canada with this much waterfront that we're left on our own to police it. The position of the service is that they are the best at policing it. But what we would like is a funding arrangement where to be more equitable with other major cities with this much waterfront, other orders of government should be chipping in. And I think um showing what we've had to do today to deal with the advent of of new types of watercraft, personal watercraft showing up uh and becoming such a part of the equation uh means that the needs are in are increasing there ever increasing and probably will continue with both the density of our population and the innovations in the area of watercraft. And so uh uh we need to continue to advocate to other orders of government and we'll do that in in police motions and and by authorizing the chief to advocate for it. But in the meantime, um there will be some some budgetary needs here that will need to be absorbed and it's it's why you see the increases you see. Uh thank you. Those are my comments. Deputy Mayor, thank you very much. Any other speakers? Okay. I um I will be speaking to this item and I do have uh a motion as well. Um the motion on the screen um requests that the Toronto Port Authority and the Toronto Police Service develop publicize an education enforcement protocol um for the exclusion zones for this season. um that uh that there is an uh affirming that the exclusion zone um prohibits all motorized watercraft um and that uh there is a confirmation uh that the motorized watercraft exclusion zone is 200 meters from the shoreline of Halens Point Beach um as was implemented in the previous season and uh that from what we heard today uh that the that there are large uh navigation boys and that there is um an appropriate uh number of them in the water to uh enforce the exclusion zone. I want to first of all thank city staff for this report. Um we know that Toronto's harbor is one of the most uh enjoyed destinations in our entire city. Millions of visitors to our waterfront every year and tens of thousands of people enjoying the water. It's a place, as we heard, for swimmers, uh for folks who love to kayak, canoe, uh boers of all kinds, and it's that shared experience of the water that is so important to so many of us, especially as we uh anticipate the summer season. And making this the harbor safe uh and having a real enforcable strategy focused on speed and appropriate use by motorized watercraft is so critical. And that definitely includes personalized watercraft like ski like jet skis. And we know that that is needed more than ever. We just heard right now um our marine unit reinforcing the amount of activity that is happening on our waterfront that requires uh that attention and as was also mentioned good governance. One of the tools that has been able to best manage these uses is our motorized watercraft exclusion zone. And in 2025, through collaboration between city staff and the Toronto Port Authority and Toronto Police Services, we successfully piloted this zone at Hanland's Point Beach. And as shown from the incredible and overwhelming feedback from the city's survey, it successfully controlled motorized watercraft activity and improved safety for users on the water and also along the beach. And I want to thank city staff and the Toronto Port Authority and Toronto Police Services for supporting the continuation of these important safety measures and that that is continuing based on the identified zoned area last year and with improved infrastructure on the water. And I support the motion uh by Mayor Chow that uh Deputy Mayor Mley uh put forward that the navigational infrastructure for the motorized watercraft exclusion zones should be covered by the Toronto Port Authority. They are the organization responsible for navigation on the water and that is so critical and I really appreciate the echoing of that in terms of where that very important responsibility should be held uh when it comes to the resources needed to make it successful year-over-year. And in the leadup to the 2026 season, a public and clear communications and education and enforcement protocol should come forward and to make sure that again everyone can enjoy our water in the best way possible with as much information and clarity um as there can be. I want to just end by thanking all of the users and uh stakeholders who have reached out to us. I know many of our offices have heard from you uh during the kind of development of this report and um as we knew this item was coming forward at executive today. And I particularly want to thank friends of henlands and waterfront for all who have provided input into this process um who have demonstrated alongside so many of you uh the incredible care for our h harbor and how it can be enjoyed by all of us. And thank you again to city staff and partners who have collaborated on this work and for the work that we have in moving forward as well. Thank you. Let's call for speakers. Seeing none, uh we will uh vote on the motions. Okay, we'll begin with the motion by Deputy Mayor um uh so by um Councelor Fletcher. All those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries. Uh the motion by Deputy Mayor Mley displayed on the screen. All those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries. Um uh from de uh from the mayor um for by Deputy Mayor Mley. All those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries. Finally, um my motion. All those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries. Do we have to And the item is amended. All those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries. Thank you very much, Deputy Mayor. May I just a point of order. I um things went very quickly at the beginning of the agenda and I didn't get a chance to hold uh EX 30.5 FIFA non-competitive procurement for FAM festival. Um may I ask to reopen that just because I do have some questions for staff. Uh 30 30.5 FIFA non-competitive procurement for FanFest. Okay. All right. Uh so uh we have a motion to reconsider the item. All those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries. Thank you. Sorry. We're on to our uh next item. Uh EX30.3 towards a beautiful city. Um update on priority items. And we do have speakers on this item. Um, our first speaker is uh Joel Leon Denise uh from the Toronto Society of Architects. Thank you very much. You have uh five minutes and please begin when you're ready and we'll let you know when you're getting to time. There we go. Uh thank you. Um, so my name is Jo Leon Beni. I am an architect here in Toronto, an owner of a small practice that has been unable uh to participate in our uh creation of our public realm and the executive director of the Toronto side of architects. Um, I'm here to express our support for the work that is being undertaken uh with towards a beautiful city initiative. Um, this is a long overdue review of many of the processes that allow us to make a beautiful city, not just for us, but for for many generations of Torononians to come. And as an organization that advocates for design in our city and design excellence, uh we were particularly encouraged that the report recognizes that best value in our built environment is not about lowest cost but about highest quality and what will last the longest and uh really uh identify Toronto as the great metropolis that it is. Uh many of the recommendations that are there on procurement are things that are being implemented in other cities like Montreal and Edmonton. So if they can do if they can do it, why can't we? So we really want to um kind of encourage city council to continue the work of moving this forward uh and making sure that this doesn't stall. Um we went back through our records and 20 years ago um our past chair Joe Lopkco came to the city and put a letter that was titled very similarly uh towards a beautiful city um with 10 recommendations. One of them was procurement reform. It is now 24 years since that letter. Um, and I'm glad we're finally getting to this essential item for our built environment. Um, now I think one of the key things will be how this is implemented and it has been the issue before where really good values and intentions do not make it into the fine print of exactly how things are implemented. And that is where we would like to offer our help and support to connect the city with the industry and design professionals to make sure that the new procurement processes and the new policies that are put in place can actually reach the goals that we would like to see. That we can see small local practices participate in this that we are achieving design excellence in our city and that our resources are going to designing really good things and building really good things rather than uh answering forms and uh filling out a lot of paperwork. So, um, thank you so much. Thank you very much. Are there any questions for our speaker? All right, seeing none, uh, thank you for joining us today. Our next speaker is Nicole Curado online. Uh, Nicole, you have five minutes. Please begin when you're ready and we'll let you know when you're getting to time. All right. Uh I guess we don't have the deputent. So we'll move on to the next uh speaker. Oh, sorry. So we're having some technical issues. Okay. All right. No problem. We will go to our next speaker. Uh Daniel Krisenovski. Uh Daniel, uh please begin when you're ready. Um you have five minutes and I'll let you know when you're getting to time. Thank you very much. I spoke um regarding the first item, uh the LED lighting. So um throughout the history of Amalgamated Toronto, there have been quite a lot of reports uh about improving aesthetics in Toronto. Um, and unfortunately, uh, the vast majority of them have really not caused a lot of change. You know, there's a lot of nice words, nice intentions, but at the end of the day, um, not a lot of that comes to fruition. Um, and this report really isn't that different. Of course, there are positive aspects like for example, changing the way that procurement is done. Uh, that is, uh, long overdue. Um but the report is littered with a lot of um with a lot of apologetics. For example, um literally one year ago, city council asked um city staff to review the garbage bins in parks. And uh if you are all aware, in city parks, uh the bins, they're made out of plastic. They're kind of like oversized versions of the bins that people carry to their curbs um before garbage collection. Um and uh city council wanted to review that. They wanted alternatives to that because you know it's not really normal for for municipalities to have that kind of stuff in their parks. um they wanted you guys want to have permanent bins, but uh city staff responded uh that it would be too difficult to do it um and too expensive to do it. So, it's kind of absurd that uh all of the municipalities uh in the region and just generally in the country, they use regular bins, sometimes even decorative bins in city parks. Whereas in Toronto, uh, city staff is arguing against doing that. They want industrial oversized plastic bins that have wheels, um, on them and that are chained, uh, with metallic chains. Um, another example, so, you know, everyone can do it, but Toronto can't for some reason. Another example is, uh, city council wanted to review public realm standards. Uh and the response of city staff was to say that we have exemplary state-of-the-art amazing uh uh public realm uh guidelines and standards and designs and that everything is amazing. Uh even though just a cursory look into say the streetscaping manual and the complete streets manual would you you would be able to see that they are very inconsistent. They contradict each other a lot. Um there are many many designs for example in the streetscapeping manual uh that have long long ago been discontinued and yet they're still there. Many streets that have already been rebuilt with new designs and yet if you look into the streetscaping manual the designs there are from 20 years ago. Um, so again, a lot of apologetics and these are just a few small issues, but this isn't even mentioning the big issues. Like for example, ignoring the elephant in the room that in order to make Toronto a more beautiful city, uh, city council would have to change planning statutes. you would have to change the official plan, the secondary plans, the policies, um, and actually mandate developers to build quality buildings and to actually direct them in this neighborhood, we want you to build like this. In this build neighborhood, we want you to build like that. Whereas uh whenever city planning uh Toronto city planning talks about design, it's usually in very neutral words like design excellence, highquality urban design instead of actually presenting some kind of a coherent vision for what we want our city to look like. Um, and of course the other elephants in the room is that even if you start trying more and you and you really look into this and start creating great policies that unfortunately you might be overruled by the Ontario Land Tribunal. Um, unless of course uh the mayor is able to make some kind of a come to some kind of a deal with the premier. Um and the last elephant in the room that is being ignored is that the vast majority of citizens of regular people have diverging views on what is considered beautiful, what is considered good when it comes to architecture uh compared to the views of uh the most influential architects, the architectural elite and the people who are in charge of city planning departments. So, if we are to actually make Toronto a beautiful city, we would have to tackle all of these questions instead of ignoring them and writing nice words about this topic without actually doing anything about it. Anyways, thank you. I appreciate you letting me speak once again uh in front of the executive committee. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Um, are there questions for staff? Uh, for sorry, is there questions for the speaker on this item? No. Uh, we'll move to questions to staff. Are there any questions to staff on the item? Uh, councelor Carol, go ahead. Yes. I wonder if we can just give staff a chance to to speak to uh the deputants uh criticism about how we put uh um you know, features like garbage cans and things like that into the public realm. We have a we have a goal of consistency. Uh but we often hear from from our residents exactly what this deput said is I've been to this city and they have special things in special parks or or special places in mobility corridors. Uh they they changed the fixtures. I wonder if uh staff can speak to that. Are we constrained by that or can we be visionary about that if we uh uh uh continue on the journey with towards a beautiful city? Uh so through the chair I'll take this one because it involves uh garbage bins. Um so within our parks we have well in our uh parks and public spaces we have generally the astral bins which are installed in streetscapes and then when we're in our parks we have our 95gallon uh towers. Um we have around 12,000 of those bins deployed across 1,200 parks. They are user friendly. They're very accessible for staff to be able to tip and move because they're on wheels. And they are low cost. So when we're looking at those bins to put um a recycling bin beside a garbage bin and install that, it's around $400. And when we look at a typical streetscape bin, uh they're in the realm of $4 to $5,000 per bin. So when we look at it from a service delivery standpoint, uh our staff have the the safety measures to be able to um safely move those bins and and tip those bins. Uh residents have the ability to um use those bins and for us to be able to deploy them much quicker uh because we have a lot of stock throughout the city into wherever we need to move those bins. And from a financial perspective, it's much more economical. Uh that being said, we can look at um you know different designs. Uh but one of the challenges for us right now is with extended producer responsibility and the ownership of the recycling moving forward. So we're still investigating how that's going to work in parks. We have some direction from council uh to look at that and we will come back with recommendations if um is suitable to to change those bin designs in the future. But I anticipate that based on uh the overall uh efficacy of the bins that we have now that the staff recommendation would be to stay at status quo. And just to kind of put some color on bins in other places, a lot of them use just the the steel drums across multiple municipalities that I've seen and and I would imagine that residents prefer a uh toer over those steel bins. I will ask one more question about them though because they are so you know high capacity and easy flip lid. Um and I asked because I've witnessed it. Uh are we are we evaluating them periodically uh to to understand illegal dumping? Because I you know I I do note it happening happened actually right in front of me while I was standing in a tent with the city logo on it and my name and and brazenly the resident just pulled up in her car and did some illegal dumping about 20 meters away from my tent. So I know we have it happening. Uh are we monitoring that trend? We we do monitor it uh counselor and and one of the challenges is that with the size of the bins and the number of bins out there u the resident may decide to uh empty out uh uh their their home or or or not just litter related items uh when they're walking through the park. So again, it's something that we look at from an operational basis and we do track that data and we can report back if if requested on a work plan uh on that. Okay. Thank you, Councelor Fletcher. Uh do you have the utilization rates for all of how many bins did you say in parks? 12,000. There's uh 12,000 bins in parks counselor and around 10,000 bins in uh on the public realm. So the astral bins. Yeah, the astral bins. I'm looking at the toters. So somewhere you would know these are really, you know, they're not really ever very full. We don't need to pick them up every week. Uh I'm interested if you have those rates. Do you track that? Oh, we we track it um on the collection side and and we use that data to manage our collection routting. Um I'd have to double check and see how often and frequent we we do track it if it's on an every tip basis or uh we do audits. You're going to know where they're not used, where they're highly used. And I think you could have that for us uh by park really, small park, big park, whatever. because this is now a parks matter, not just a solid waste matter. And of course, parks used to pick up their own solid waste and then it was turned over to solid waste at some point. So that interface between parks and solid waste. Do you have any idea what the contamination rate is in your risk of in your recycling bins? The the contamination rate in parks recycling bins exceeds 50%. And that material is is sent to landfill. So it's highly contaminated recycling bins and then beside it you have solid waste and it's totally contaminated. So that's another matter that needs discussion. And then I just want to know for the there's many types of parks. They have destination parks, neighborhood parks and many of them are highly designed expensive parks. I'd like to know from our parks people at what point you say um well this these number of parks are what we'll just call high-end design parks wherever they are and what the nature of the solid waste containers should be in those parks is that I don't think that discussion has ever taken place has it we spend millions of dollars designing all the elements and then drop the toers in am I Right. Through the chair, the design of the parks is uh considers location for those re receptacles and certainly designs for them to be screened appropriately. For example, the actual toers used in the parks are those that are agreed to with solid waste. As the counselor, you know, we are piloting what an approach a different approach at Bedoske Park right now. And yes, I know I've had to buy my own now in order not to have to in $25 million park. So, I'm actually asking parks how you look and determine for the nature of these, let's say, brand new parks where we've sent that out. It's let's say Queens Park North going to look at that. Uh assuming the standard of practice is just to put towers everywhere. Correct. Solid Waste says, "We're having to park says here's where your toers can go." No matter how expensive, how well designed, or how special that park is to the moment, right to today, that's how we're operating. Sorry, your mic is not working. Thank you, counselor. At the moment, the approach is to screen and locate the toers appropriately, and we are piloting the enclosures. We are open to alternative approaches and hoping to learn through the Bidasque experience acknowledging that there are health and safety considerations as well as operating budget considerations for a different approach. Sorry. Health and safety considerations are pulling the totter out of a closed area and tipping it. What are they? Matt, respond to that. Pardon? So, councelor, there are health and safety considerations with just the design of the bin. If you're using um like a garbage bag and you're pulling it out or um a liner inside those garbage bins, we have to take that under consideration for design. I think we're talking about toers inside uh a built something to hold the toters. That's what we have at BAS. Nobody's lifting anything which was one of the reasons why we went to to health and safety. But from a design standpoint, having to at Bedasigay, having to at H2O, having to in uh sitting everywhere in High Park, perhaps there's places where they could go, but from a design standpoint, I'm interested in how our park staff are now looking at that design element of solid waste and then how you're looking at the fact that 50% contamination is pretty high rate. Uh perhaps there shouldn't be two sets of toters. There's one set of toters which is just put it in. So how is that being handled from a design standpoint? I'm uh or I think I may have to move a few things at council because I'm not moving them here. I haven't quite heard that highle view of what's acceptable to a certain park or an area of a park or a type of park that you're going to be clear with solid waste that we need to have a different design for those areas through the chair. As acknowledged, we are working with the toers that are agreed to with solid waste. That said, in terms of the location, as it relates to adjacent amenities, whether it's a playground, views, that kind of thing, we do approach it very sensitively to locate, screen, and design the pads, the locations for the toers as best as possible to mitigate any negative impacts. Can you show us some screened areas outside of Vasque, please? Happy to follow up with you offline with a list or examples. Thank you. Sorry, last question. Thank you. Um any other any other uh questions on this item? No. All right. Speaking uh um Councelor Malow. Thank Thank you uh Deputy Mayor. Um so I want to begin by uh thanking um Jason Thorne and an interdivisional team of staff who have embraced this initiative. Um when I first brought it to council, uh it was inspired by really what I think all of us value together, which is that we are we are all affected by what we see around us. Uh it affects our well-being, our health, our happiness, our soul. When we go on trips around the world, we often deliberately will spend money to go somewhere that is beautiful because we want to experience great architecture, great public spaces. And why should we treat our own home, our own city any less? When any of us move into a home, no matter what kind of home you have, most of us, one of the first things we do is we design it. We think about where we put pictures, where we put plants. Um, what kind of environment do we want to wake up every morning in so that we're happy? Why should we treat our city, our common space, our common living room, our common front and backyards any differently? And we can make decisions about how we design our city. It's a decision on how we do procurement. It's a decision about how we govern and facilitate it. It's a decision about how we work cooperatively together within different silos and divisions with a clear vision. And while beauty, yes, it was said earlier, is subjective, higher standards of design, I think, are universal. Um, there are there's a difference between cheap and crappy things and a difference and and something that is wellmade and designed to last. And I've often experienced, and I think a lot of us have, um, Toronto reaching for the height of mediocrity when it comes to public spaces. Historically, uh we have an addiction to a lot of concrete, a lot of concrete, a lot of glass. We haven't historically uh focused on uh design as uh an objective, whether it be our public spaces or frankly our public buildings. And we can do better. So this is going to be um an initiative that does need to consider as has been said a lot of practical issues uh everything from convenience to durability to price and it has to be done well but it's worth doing because if we design our streets in a way and you know for example we recently together decided to finally scrap the Astromedia contract and bring that in house so we don't see these garbage bins that are broken all over the place bursting with garbage. That's an important thing to do. We've decided already that that's not good enough for Toronto. Um in our parks, we can be creative. We're talking about introducing more options for food vending and other creative ideas that cities around the world already do. There are things that we're already doing such as, you know, movie nights and fun things that animate our spaces as well. In other words, there's no one thing we're going to do. It's lots of different things, but it's a lot of fun and it's really creative and it's really enjoyable. I don't want to have to travel the world to find remarkable places to go. Well, I do that, too. We all those those who who are able to of course enjoy that, but I don't want to keep going to other places and being envious of what they have and wishing that we could do that here. There's no reason why we can't do that here. So, I really just want to again thank staff for embracing this so much. I really do believe though that as we move forward with governance, we're going to need a city architect or some clear position, whatever we call it, uh because we do have a lot of silos and we don't always organically work together on the same page. And I think it's really important that as we work on procurement uh higher standards uh objectives that we're going to share that there is a clear uh quarterback who can bring everyone together and get to the the finish line. Um but I believe that we're going to do that. We need to continue working together. And again, I want to thank my colleagues. You know, Councelor Fletcher brought up uh the the the garbage bins um that we have in our parks. I know some other members have said, "Well, you know, they're utilitarian. they're helpful. This is the way we've always done it. I just I respectfully disagree that just because this is what we have today. We always have to have that. Uh if we want to be creative about it, we can do that. It may not be everywhere, maybe specific parks, but I just think we should open our minds and work together toward a beautiful city. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Matlo. Uh councelor Fletcher, thanks. I appreciate many of the things that my colleague councelor Matlo has said. I just want to correct one thing. We didn't scrap the Astro contract. We did not renew it. We did not extend it. It ended its 20 years and we didn't get sued for breaking it. So that's what I meant. Did you mean that? So just being clear legally that's where we're at. Number one. Number two, um I'm very interested in obviously I have because thank you very much colleagues for supporting my last motion at council to release some section 42 money to add uh very I don't know at least 10 or 12 or maybe more 20 uh of the new style containers or uh recycling or solid waste bins. They're not bins. beautiful um in Badas Park new phase one and then to come into Badas Park phase two and they were very much inspired by the fact that these are very brand new waterfront parks and there have been millions and millions and millions of dollars spent on design and construction and then we put in the toters and you're out there in this beautiful area and there you have to so finding that design and And I really want to thank Parks and Solid Waste for coming up with a design that's very functional because I remember when they used to have to grab the black garbage bag out of the circular bins in the parks and yes, solid waste or sorry, there were health and safety matters with that. They may have looked good, but there were issues. The new designed ones, and I encourage all of you counselors, I'm happy to send you the pictures. They take the toers. the totters fit in there. It's easy to get them out and then tip them and put them back. So, I would just encourage us to move a little faster on adding these beautiful elements into spaces that we've designed to be beautiful and they have to function. They have to function for solid waste and they have to function for beauty and parks. So really it's a matter for parks, for solid waste and for public realm to be looking at what works best, what should be there, what will be distinctly Toronto because I would happen to agree with my colleague that when I'm looking in other places and I think that looks great and then I'm looking at the toers down on the Dawn Greenway and I'm thinking I need to get a few more of those special bins uh in order to hide these here. their uh street furniture I think will take care of itself within the next while because we're not renewing that contract. We're going to be putting in the bins that everybody has agreed look great on the street. But my real thing is in the parks. I'm concerned to hear that 50% of the recycling is not recycling. That people are just opening those and putting in whatever they want. Now that we have what's the name? Circular materials and Premier Ford's taken over all of the recycling. I think we need to have a different approach for the parks because people we like we've had in the past before we said we're going to have the recycling because they're not recycling. They're putting whatever in there whenever they want. So, let's stop pretending that 50% is a recycling number because unless you're Mr. Mr. Keller, unless you're going and you're splitting that all out, I'm going to guess that that's going into the solid waist stream, not that it he's nodding. It's going in the solid waist stream. So, there's one factor. So, I'm not going to move anything today, but I think at council I'm going to put something together to come back to our committee, which would be public realm, Mr. Thorne, Jason Thorne's group, um Paul Ferish's group, and Solid Waste to really look at park designations where some of these new ones should go and what that design should be based on the fact that we're not recycling in the parks and I hearing that is quite concerning. The other one is just the utilization rates. I'd very interested to look and see in some parks that people aren't in very much there's probably toers there that are rarely need to be picked up. Let's understand where the busy places are for recycling or attempted recycling solid waist stream and where the places are where we need to showcase our city as understanding that we're creating beautiful spaces and I think we can take solid waste functions and make them beautiful because we've shown that in Badasque. Thank you. Thank you council councelor Fletcher. Uh are there any other speakers? Uh Deputy Mayor Mley and then Deputy Mayor Cole. Thank you. Uh thanks um Madame Chair and through you. I do just want to thank staff for this work and for colleagues who've been stewarding it for quite some time as well. Um I think about my community in Tobacco Lakeshore and the amount of growth and density that we're in the midst of absorbing and expected to absorb uh under our current um sort of planning legislative environment and directives from the provincial government. A conversation we're constantly se seized with is how do we ensure that there is a net benefit to existing residents within our established communities as areas that have historically been big box stores and you know not representative of high density developments continue to come um sort of online and and into the pipeline for our community. And when we think about the opportunities we have as a city to ensure high quality of life for all people in our neighborhoods, the public realm is such an important space. Um we think about the opportunity for placemaking and placekeeping which I know is highlighted in this report. um the importance of the green spaces and a mix of accessible public realm space um and really paying close attention to this and making um these investments and improvements I think are critically important and very welcome uh in communities like mine of Atobbico where folks live there. We love our tree canopy. We love seeing the sky. We love the blue skies, you know, proximity to water and rivers. And so how we build and grow and absorb our fair share of growth while also really prioritizing um the existing characteristics of these neighborhoods and a good high quality of life for all folks uh who call it home, new and old. uh continues to be something my office and I are very seized with and uh pieces of work like this really help us to um bring community along that journey and do what we can within our purview to secure um good high quality and complete communities down the road. So, I just want to recognize that u more green roofs, more beautiful buildings, six points in my ward is a great example of urban design principles um at the city of Toronto, the new civic center, you know, thermally heated and energy and all of the things, you know, highest quality buildings city built um and beautiful public realm that we're looking forward to uh welcoming a whole new community there in the next few years and also getting to business for community council at the civic center next year. So, um, lots of exciting things on the go. I think that will be a great example, um, to atobbico lakes and atobbico residents generally about the future the city's looking to build. Um, but wanting to really make sure that these principles of highquality experiences for all Torononians continue to guide our work. Thanks, Madam Chair. Thank you um, very much, Deputy Mayor Cole. Yes. Uh, thank you. want to thank councelor Josh for uh championing this uh beautiful city initiative. It's uh certainly something that everyday people care about and talk about all the time. Um uh the the one thing that u uh I think is forgotten in all this uh is that as we go forward we need to do certain things uh much better. Uh but um uh it's also the broken window theory. You know, we just can't continue to walk by piles of garbage. We can't continue to walk by abandoned cars. We can't continue to walk by graffiti smeared walls all over the city. Uh and uh that's why in 2024 I moved a motion asking for a robust graffiti removal replacement program and a an idea of uh having a thousand murals uh erected across the city. That hasn't been done. Okay, that was uh two years ago. Zero. Uh, and if you if you talk to a homeowner, a business owner, and you say, "Listen, uh, replace, please remove the graffiti, the bylaw will come, and eventually after a couple of months, uh, they'll clean it up or charge the homeowner." And then I try to tell them, I said, "Well, listen, if you can get a mural there, uh, it will prevent because they usually don't tag murals. Uh, that's usually the case. Uh but in some cases they may but generally speaking they don't. And so what I've seen is a non-stop proliferation of graffiti. They don't discriminate in terms of the existing buildings. They don't discriminate the neighborhoods. And then the um abandoned uh development sites across the city. As you know, the condo market has collapsed and you've got all these hoarded up uh uh holes in the ground and abandoned fields of yesterday's condo dreams. Uh and there's graffiti all over what is supposed to be called hoarding. They're just graffiti uh placemats. So, and it's impossible to deal with this as a local counselor. I mean I report these weekly uh and they keep continuing because graffiti basically what happens it's it's contagious. So one building is uh done the next one the next one the next one and it's just it gets continuing to spread. So I know we tell people please don't walk by report it to my office call 311 etc. it's not working. So, we can have these beautiful city dreams, but unless we clean up our act in terms of dealing with uh this out of control graffiti that exists in all neighborhoods in Toronto, uh especially in the downtown core, you know, south of uh the downtown core is now south of the 401 basically. But anyways, uh it is not being done. And I'll see if I can move another motion at council when it comes to council uh next week. Uh but u there's too many citizens walking by and not concerned about the the counterproductive impact of graffiti. Uh it is really uh creates a um very negative attitude about our neighborhoods, our streets. Uh it just so no matter how much we beautify our parks and deal with the um recycling uh bins on the streets, if we don't take graffiti seriously, we're really going to really impinge upon our dreams of a beautiful city going forward and all the other uh initiatives we're taking uh in terms of uh making our city beautiful and sustainable. So, I just want to again remind people, please don't walk by and ignore the graffiti, uh, you know, and encourage the painting of murals. We've got thousands of incredible artists in Toronto that are desperate for work and they're inexpensive. They will do the graffiti and beautify neighborhoods and walls and uh, but nobody's employing them. they're ready to do the work and be our partners. So, just wanted to remind people of that issue. Thank you. Thank you. Point of privilege. Councelor Cole, could you please make a note of writing down a line that you said a couple minutes ago? Uh, we can have beautiful city dreams, but unless we clean up our act. I love that. Anyway, that my my sole point of privilege. Just write that down and don't forget it. It's really good. Thank you for inviting me. All right. Thank you. Um any other speakers on this item? Okay. Seeing none, uh we'll go to the vote. Um all those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries. Um on the next uh two FIFA items, uh we're going to move those to after lunch because there are members of the of the committee who wanted to be able to speak to those. Um so we'll go to um 30 uh ex 30.8 uh leveraging data to drive service excellence in parks, recreation and transportation uh services and um are there seeing no uh no speakers? Um are there any questions for staff on this item? Yes, councelor Fletcher. Uh just because there's new categories now for 311. This is this came from the service excellence committee, correct? Who's going to I just Let's just wait for staff to get settled. Who's going to be answering these, please? Chair to the chair. Um counselor, do you mean this report? No, the new categories that parks was not in there and now we now have an ability to look and see what the main issues are for the public since we integrated parks back uh last September. We're now able to report on parks. We're able to part on report on parks but not recreation. That's correct. Recreation is coming in June this year. So, I'm just concerned because um the category there is a category for outdoor rinks because those are looked after by parks. Who wants who's here from parks? Thank you. The outdoor rinks are under parks and so the quality of the ice, anything to do with the ice is going to be a 311 parks call and get captured under parks. Correct. That's correct, counselor. So, but in our arenas it I need to understand who does the ice quality in our arenas is not it's 416 is it 79 is it recreation that looks after ice quality in Zambonies or is it parks that looks after the rinks through the chair it's recreation recreation ation. So all those jobs are all internal recreation jobs at each uh rink or arena. There's no no differentiation as there is with outdoor. So making the ice, keeping the ice, all of that I think might not be a recreation position. I think it might be a parks position. uh through the chair. So ice uh maintenance, ice quality, scraping, flooding the rink, etc. that is done at outdoor rinks through local 416 staff that report to parks operations. Any of the ice activities, programming, guarding, etc. are done by recreation part-time staff. In the indoor arenas, the 416 Zamboni operators report through recreation and do the ice maintenance specifically um at those locations. Okay. So, that's that's cleared up. Thank you. And so that all of the we won't get to know anything except until we get recreation online, but we do have information now about rinks through 311, which we didn't have before, quality, maintenance, and all those kinds of things. This is separate from issues with I'll call it rink management there. That'll come later when recreation goes online. Correct. Hooliganism complaints about the whatever through the chair. That is correct. So we just have right now only one set of data that we can access. Okay, that's it. through the chair. That is correct with the integration. Just outdoor rinks are included. Pardon me. Outdoor rinks are included in the integration because they're managed through um parks through the chair. That is correct. And the indoor rinks are managed through wreck. That is correct. And the Zamboni operators are managed through w staff or arena staff who are overseeing that. and outdoor is a different situation. That is correct. Great. Thank you so much for that. Appreciate it. That's all my all my questions. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions for staff? All right. Seeing none, any speakers on this item? I'm just going to say that the uh uh this came from service excellence which is chaired by councelor Holiday. I think I'm the vice chair in looking at what's now coming online that we're una we were now able to look and see what those trends are, what the issues are in parks because people now can phone 311. If you remember, you'd phone 311 and then you get transferred to the staff and there was no no record of any of the kinds of calls or any of the trends. And now we are able to look at those types of trends which is I think very good for counselors and for the public and of course for staff to see where where the issues are and um but drilling down on them a little bit. might want to do that a bit more just to see the nature of the call because we're only getting a broader kind of category rather than maintenance of X specially or is it a longtime garbage issue? Is it is it is it just something that's happening all the time? Uh how does how do the park staff look at that? How what's how does that all happen? Because now we've captured the data. How is that data being used to improve things, look at trends, look at hotspots, and manage some of the issues that are emerging with capturing this data in parks. So, that's I'm very happy it's happening and there's continually more to do. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, seeing no other speakers, we'll go to a vote. Um, all those in favor, any opposed? And that carries. Um, thank you very much. Um, we'll onto our next item. EX30.9 service standard dashboard an update on static and interactive reporting tools are and there is a a speaker on this item. Uh Nicole Curado, please make sure the deputent addresses the issue. Thank you. Yep. Yes, I was going to address the issue. Um, I was gonna say, yes, I'm right here. Um, so what I was going to say is that, you know, 311 is an excellent service, but it certainly could be better. For one, one of the problems is when you call 311, you you go through a whole bunch of prompts. You don't get a person right away. And the So, that's something that needs to change. And it's also not that easy to fill out the forms online. it's not that accessible for a person who say has a learning difference or English is not their first language. The other thing I was going to say is that the dashboard while it's very good the dashboard only refers to uh services for dead animals. doesn't talk about services for living animals and it it you know I know that those those um or or outcomes for for calls for animals who are injured or sick or or lost and found animals but staying on the item as uh as was mentioned at the start this isn't about animal services um this is about our service standards dashboard and an update on our reporting tools with the standards dashboard Um, it does talk about animal services. So, this is on topic. What I'm pointing out is the services standards dashboard only lists calls for animal for dead animal pickup. It doesn't list out it calls and outcomes for live animal pickup or any calls regarding live animals, lost and found animals, injured animals, etc. It doesn't have any any uh out any any information on there that I could find about live animals and it doesn't give um breakdowns. I know it does at the the Toronto Animal Services page, but it would be nice if we're all on the same dashboard. Okay, thank you very much. Um are there any questions for the speaker? All right, any questions for staff? Right. Seeing none, any speakers on this item? Right. Uh we'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries. Um next we have EX30.10 protecting migratory birds at Metro Hall and city- owned buildings. Um we do have a speaker on this item. Uh Nicole Curado. Yes. Uh, this item should not have been last minute because it would have been nice if you could have gotten more speakers, but I want to thank you for so much for bringing up this item. It's absolutely essential that every building be made bird safe. Uh, Toronto, you know, already is uh, you know, striving to become a humane city. It's absolutely essential that if Toronto wants to maintain that that Toronto protect the birds and other wildlife from window strikes because it is a huge animal rights problem in in the city of Toronto. So I thank you very much for making the window safer and I think that it actually needs to be made a a a law in the building code buildings be made bird safe. Thank you very much. Any questions for the speaker? Right, seeing none, are there any questions for staff on this item? Any speakers on this item? Uh, Deputy Mayor Morley, go ahead. Uh, thanks, Madam Chair. Through you to staff, just insisted to come up fairly last minute. Um, I was wondering if staff could give us a highle overview of what uh we're we're we're voting on today. to Madam Speaker, if you could repeat the question. Deputy mayor. Sorry. Thank you. Sorry, Pat. No worries. Uh, just because this was a last minute item and not everyone paying attention may have had an opportunity to understand what's before us, what are we voting on today with respect to the migratory birds. Thank you. So, councelor, um, u bird migrations, uh, throughout North America are very important. So, there's been a high level of of death with birds running into buildings. In 2010, uh, the city of Toronto, um, adopted the TGS, sorry, Toronto green standards for, uh, bird fritz, which are are decals that go on buildings that help birds, um, not run into buildings. So, what what's before you is just expanding on that program. So, we have city hall has has bird fritz on the majority of Bridland. We've got a little bit to do on the podium. um North York Civic Center when we replaced the buildings in two sorry the windows in 2008 on all vertical um uh glass we put bird fritz uh most recently on on a new building Toronto uh sorry uh uh St. Lawrence Market North on the glass facade has bird fritz. So, we're just expanding on a program that's already in place. Great. And would this extend to uh city-led um buildings um res like residential um housing, sorry, is the word I was looking for. City-led housing projects. Uh would this extend to to those new opportunities as well? So, um yes. So any so I I have to have planning speak to the Toronto green standards but with respect to commercial buildings um and any building over a certain height with large glass facades are required in the design to put in bird fritz. Great. Thank you. That's Thank you very much. Uh any other questions? Any speakers? All right. Seeing none, all those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries. Um and before we break for lunch, we're just going to do um one of our new items. Um EX30.12, implementation of Orag 126 under the Liquor License and Control Act 2019 in the city of Toronto. Um and uh are there any um questions for staff on the item? Uh any speakers? Uh Councelor Bravo, go ahead. Thank you, chair. This is just a response to changes made by the province of Ontario announcing um an expansion of liquid license permitting for bring your own uh uh booze to events and um it's uh establishing that we would like to have a process and uh some oversight to ensure uh that our um economic development goals etc are being met. Um, so there is an amendment that was made to the letter that I submitted and I'm happy to take any questions. I know that we're short on time today. Thank you. Any questions on the amendment? Uh, any questions? Uh, sorry, any additional speakers? Uh, councelor Councelor Perks. Good work, Councelor Bravo. Thank you. Any other speakers? All right. Uh, echoing the thanks. Uh, let's go to a vote. All those in favor? Uh, sorry. All We'll vote on the motion first. All those in favor? Any opposed? That carries and the item as amended. All those in favor? Any opposed? Um, and that carries. And I think that's it for us. And to you after lunch at 1:30. Thank you. back to order. Hope everybody had a nice lunch. I believe uh so one item was reopen. Was item councelor Matlo reopened which item? Item five. Item five. Uh I have an amendment on item five that has been is circulating. Uh it it is being circulated. It is for circulated. It available online. It's available online and uh we can make copies for you. Um people cannot find it on people. Okay. Why don't we print it? Whoa. Okay. Yes. The paper budget. Paper budget. Yes. Yes. Yes. It It's not a very long motion. I think we can afford to print it. Okay. Sorry. My my portal. Your portal did not work. Okay. It's being looked at. We are making Can you make six copies, seven copies for counselors that have trouble reaching their their internet? Okay, there's your motion. There is my motion. Um, counselor, can you take a look? And uh basically uh the motion in front of you, it's uh can I just deal with this item, I guess? Yeah. Sorry. Oh, councelor Madlo held it. Oh, okay. Reopened it. He's the one who reopened it. Okay. Sorry, I wasn't here. Okay, I will wait till councelor Matt come back in. Um All right. No, we can we can approve it and then reopen it again. We could do that. No, no, no, no, no. And that's that's courtesy. Courtesy, guys. Um it might change while he's uh talking right now but um allow me to say uh so we have done I believe one two let me just double check one two have we done item three yes yes okay four five six council Matlo I have a the motion you reopen I have A uh I have recommendations that is in front of you in the options. Um and that is item uh five that we've reopened. Yeah. Um so three. Yeah. Are you okay if I deal with it right now? I've got questions. You have questions to the staff? Yeah. Oh, okay. Um, are we okay to deal with it now? Yeah. Okay. All right. So, the motion I have is in front of you. Uh, and you have question to staff. Uh, councelor Matlo and, um, and Carol. Okay. Uh, thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. So, when FanFest was first announced, there was a there was a commitment to Toronto residents that it was going to be an inclusive and free event. And given the fact that Toronto residents are already on the hook for paying roughly $178 million to host the World Cup, uh we'll be putting up with more traffic congestion, parking restrictions, and so much more. Why would we consider you your question to the staff, right? That's what I'm doing. Why would we propose to charge fans for an event that was promised to them to be free when uh when when when uh when they're already paying so much for these games? Through the chair, I can answer that question and you are correct. We originally uh communicated that FanFest would be free and after um considerable uh discussions uh exploring other events uh talking to experts within the sector who offer big events like this, it was felt the most um I guess the most uh positive fan experience allowed for people to have a ticketed event where we could control uh lineups, we could control access, we control the number of folks that come into the site and that it would avoid people waiting in long, long lineups. It would avoid people making a trip to the city with their entire family only to get to FIFA FanFest to find out that they can't get in because it's full. May May I just respectfully that that doesn't that doesn't make sense to me. I don't understand the causal relationship between the fee and the management of the entrance given that you can still provide tickets debating and you can still provide tickets and there can still be a way to have windows of time to arrive without charging a fee. So I don't understand particularly I get why you might want a ticket in a way to manage the crowd but I don't understand sorry am I being interrupted? Sorry, I turn I accidentally turned my microphone on earlier. This last time was a sidebar with my microphone turned off. But I I will on a point of order ask are we debating and preaming or are we just getting the questions and answers on the table because it feels a lot like a debate and that's my point of order. Madame Mayor, sorry I also messed up. It's one and a half minute. I did a reset. I was trying to stop your phone that stop your time. I'm I'm but I'm exploring the answer like I really am because I don't I don't understand the causal relationship if you if pardon sorry I don't know what that was either okay so why don't we ask the answer okay I just want to understand the causal relationship between the actual I understand the ticket but I don't understand the fee associated as far as the management of the of the entrance and the crowds. Yep. Sure. Through the chair, I can say that we also consulted on this very point and a number of folks advised that or a number of of of experts and people who work on big events advised that as we look at ticketing, we looked at exploring registration but free. We looked at, you know, registration but a smaller dollar amount. And there seemed to be a price point where people then take the ticketing seriously. uh they show up, they uh take the event and the attendance at the event more seriously when they have made uh some contribution and have put out some money for a ticket. the principle of what I uh of what I said earlier, the fact that like Torononians are already paying so much for these games. Was there any consideration or discussion amongst staff about the of of the impact it would have on Torononians when they've been promised that there this would be one of the few free places they could come and congregate because they can't afford to go many most people can't afford to actually go to the stadium. it's going to be so expensive and then find out that they're going to be charged. Like was that ever is that something that you struggled over? Through the chair, I can say that we looked at all of those options and in fact um we're providing a number of different options for people to celebrate and be part of the World Cup experience. Obviously, we have the stadium. We're all well aware of the ticket pricing at the stadium. Yeah. We have FIFA FanFest where we created a uh minimal ticket amount for people to access FanFest. And we have a number of free events that will be happening across the city where people can participate. So there's no shortage of places and ways at varying price points that the community can engage in the World Cup and be part of the celebration. And by the way, if not not not I mean not that I agree not that I agree with with charging for this but why wouldn't the money then go toward if you are if you are going to be charging for different things why wouldn't it be going toward offsetting the enormous cost of the games rather than expanding the event. So, one of the reasons uh sorry through the chair um one of the reasons is that it's going back into FIFA FanFest because there are opportunities for us to provide a enhanced fan experience at FanFest and Toronto has been chosen by both FIFA as well as some of the global partners to be one of the key marquee fan festivals across the entire tournament across the 16 cities. So we want to make sure that as we have an opportunity to be showcased on this global stage that our FanFest is quite frankly second to none. Um and that we have an opportunity to uh make an investment in doing that and uh you know put Toronto forward in this market where both global partners FIFA global partners are interested uh in showcasing Toronto as is FIFA. councelor I because I mucked up the first time it times up but we can do the second round if you need to counsel Carol. Uh yes if I could just uh figure out what are those other free opportunities. Nathan Phillips Square itself right here is a major one that will be free. That is correct. Through the chair we will have opportunities for people to celebrate and and engage in activities on Nathan Phillips Square. Uh right. And and remind me of the boundaries. It Nathan Phillips Square is outside the last mile zone. It it it's a place that people can easily get to through that is correct. Kind of conventional means they're used to. Correct. Now that I understand we we talked a little offline before, Nathan Phillips Square, their big free events are going to be uh matches other than the ones happening in Toronto. Yeah. So, our our intention right now is to uh and it's in the other report that's being discussed today, but to have a uh mini pitch uh in the pool outside uh on Nathan Phillips Square, but also to show some of the matches when FanFest is not operating on the days that FanFest is not operating so that there's still a place for people to come and watch in a group setting uh with other soccer fans those particular matches. And and correct me if I'm wrong, we have FanFest and we are we are using an admission system to try and sort of control the experience there, but um for the Nathan Phillips Square event, is it not also true? Yeah, I guess you'd have to be a football fan to know this, but some of the biggest and most important matches in the whole World Cup are not the ones happening in Toronto. They will be ones people want to see and will maybe want to gather together to watch for free. And doing that in Nathan Phillips Square will be a very enhanced experience over what we do on a normal World Cup. We don't normally take those big important matches and and just offer up the city square. This is this is new and important, is it not? Yeah. through the chair. Actually, the matches that will be broadcast at FanFest will be matches that are outside of the ones in Toronto as well. So, we have um up to the championship. Correct. So, we have selected the dates that we will be operational at FanFest of the 22 days. We've based that on the tournament schedule um and the matches that are happening um as well as you know uh some of the days that we will not be operating and those matches will be uh showcased in other public viewing areas across the city. Okay. And so back to now to FanFest. Fanfest is inside the last mile zone. So we need some control over who's getting in there. So if we were if we were to make it free, you still need to have some form of admission system. So if we were to make it free, what we are doing then, we need to have an admission system. So at that point, we're adding to the cost. That is correct. We would have to run one anyway. Correct. Okay. Um uh how uh how how easily are we going to meet our budget target thus far? Is it going to be an easy peasy trip to 380 million or are we really tight to get there through the chair? I can I can confirm with you that we are tight. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Those are my question. Uh other questions? Um did you want one more round counselor or is anybody else you have have your question answered? You okay? Um Deputy Mayor Malik. Um thank you very much. Um my question is also about the the the ticketing uh event strategy. Uh building on the experience that I have in my award um with Jurassic Park and uh uh Maple Leaf Square um ticketing is a very important measure and tool uh to manage large crowds especially when it comes to sporting events. So can you share a little bit more about the event strategy that you mentioned for fan festival that included ticketing and contributing um factors to the safety event management crowd management in the area that is so important when we are hosting a the world's largest sporting event. Yes, through the chair. Um, as stated, we looked at a number of different options for how to operate FanFest and originally, as has been reported, we we looked at a free event. Um, and that was really um actually a requirement of FIFA, and that has since changed. There are a number of other host cities out of the 16 who are also having ticketed fan festivals. Most of them for the same reasons we have determined to have fan festival ticketed. And that is really the sole purpose is around crowd management uh and really being able to have real time event day data where we can manage the we can know the number of people coming uh we can assess the gates the ingress egress of the event our food vendors can plan our medical folks can plan uh I can tell you that safety and security team are very happy that we have decided to ticket FIFA fan festival. I think the other piece of it is the crowd experience that people know that they will be able to come to FanFest and they won't be standing in the heat of the summer sun for hours and hours waiting to get into Fan Festival. families can travel into Toronto, make a big day of coming to be in the big city, experience a World Cup, and know that they have a ticket to get in and that they're not coming to the gates and finding there's an hour and hour hours and hours of lineups that they have to wait to get in or that they may never get in on the day that they've made their their travel to Toronto to take part in World Cup activities. Um can you speak to um very briefly the events that are complimentary to FanFest that the city is supporting through our community celebration fund and um making those investments in order to ensure that there are a variety of ways to enjoy the excitement of the games in in community. Sure. Through the chair. Um, and this is one of the areas working with our colleagues in EDC that we've been really proud to have part of our Toronto experience and that is there were uh we've invested uh approximately $1.7 million to support community celebration events through the tournament. They will be in different wards across the city. Uh a number of different types of events, sizes of events. Uh many of them have applied as well through FIFA for um public viewing licenses. So they will have public viewing and and watching matches as part of the comm um as part of the experience. Uh we anticipate we know that Canada Soccer is hosting Canada House uh on the waterfront. Uh and so there are a number of BAS and other organizations with or without the grant that we provided who are hosting events uh that the community will have access to in in order again to be part of the celebration. Um any other question? Oh, okay. Uh councelor Matlo um just two two or three questions. Um uh one just you mentioned earlier that uh that things are tight in the budget. Um like are are you trying to sub subsidize an overage um with with the ticket sales? Is is that part of the the motive? No. through the chair. Um to be to be very clear, our primary purpose for ticketing FIFA FanFest is from a fan experience and a safety crowd management perspective. That is the number one reason for doing it. Um whether we have a ticketing system or not, there are costs associated with that. So should we choose not to have a ticket with a price, uh we still will have to bear costs in the budget for that. So let me separate the the categories. So, I understand that there's a VIP category. That is correct. And have you already been selling those tickets through the chair? Some of those tickets are um for lack of a better word, assigned because they are part of some of the corporate supporter agreements that we have signed. They're part of the benefits included in corporate partnerships. If this was announced as a free and inclusive event, why did staff go ahead and start selling VIP corporate tickets to the event? So, through the chair um that was part of our corporate sales package in order to entice and and uh promote our host city supporter packages and have actual benefits attached to them. FIFA FanFest was of a lot of interest to many of our host city supporters. They wanted the opportunity to be part of it, to activate uh to have uh to be part of FanFest and support their uh I guess to support the activation of their host city supporter package at the event. I get No, I get that. Like I I get I get the whole idea of corporate VIP packages. Um uh what I don't understand is if this if if if this was always publicly committed to and advertised as a freeinclusive event like I don't remember like was there was there uh an approval for the to do something different with the VIP packages? Oh, through the chair. This was always part of, as I mentioned, we we spent a lot of time working through a strategy for Fan Festival and the decision was made to have some corporate packages available at Fan Festival, include those to support our sales by staff. Correct. And uh what we're looking at now is that 80% above 80% of tickets into FanFest will be general admission and less than 20% has been set aside for uh premium ticket packages. So the the if I can ask the uh city manager um so the mayor the mayor uh intends to move a motion um that uh if I may uh mayor do you mind if I just read out the first um that city council direct the executive director FIFA World Cup 2026 Toronto secretary to create a general admission ticket category uh sorry a free general admin admission ticket category for FanFest. Would your interpretation of that motion be that it would be that there'd be VIP, then there'd be charging for $10, and then there'd be a free category, or would that be like VIP, they've already done that, and then everybody else would be free? Uh, so mayor, I take this as the goal is that those who would be selling that uh the staff recommendation was at $10 that we would look at how that can be changed to a general admission. There are a couple of categories that we need to think through to make sure we don't impact that. One of them is the VIP, which is a minority of the tickets. The second is I do want to reflect and look at our our other program, which is about 500 tickets a day, which are distributed through community organizations, which mean you don't even have to go online to try and get a ticket. And I wouldn't want that to be userded by this either. So, my understanding of this is the $10 fee would be for that large group of tickets that's left. we look at a general admission level that would be uh that would be at no cost. The other piece is we will have to adjust then the financial section of the report because this will not be net zero. Yeah. But we but we wouldn't be charging the $10 as proposed. That's clearly what the intent of this is. Yes. But not across the board, which is what we've just talked about, right? There are these categories, small categories. I I I want to ask one one more time though because I I just don't I honestly I just don't get I don't get this. I don't understand it. I don't understand the disparity between a city press release going out announcing this event as nothing but a free and inclusive event for the public. And meanwhile, and I I'm not begrudging staff, like I understand the concept of having these corporate VIP tickets. And listen, it's an expensive games and I get why we need to find ways to bring in revenue, but why did we communicate to the public that it was a completely free and inclusive event while we were also selling corporate tickets? So, mayor council was aware of the packages we were selling. We were not going to sell the the vast majority of the tickets. But why did we do that press release? So, we have added to it. We also didn't know where it was at that point. So we had no idea the location. We have no idea about how this works. So things have changed in terms of the event, its location, what we need to do from a logistics perspective, which we got feedback around. This is not an event venue that is generally there for 20,000 people to attend. So the short answer is we were always going to sell a small number of tickets from a uh for the stadium as well as for the FanFest from a corporate package perspective and then find a way that the vast majority of people would have very limited barriers to access to the program. Thank you. Um any other question to staff? If not, uh councelor Matlo or do you want me Why don't I just move my motion first? Okay. Um the motion is in front of you. Uh the the first one is a free general emission ticket category. The second one is uh uh really something that the deputy mayor Malik have worked hard on which is the free community access um that to to community groups. Uh some of them could be uh soccer leagues. If you talk to councelor Peruta for example, he spent the entire Saturday meeting up with uh very very excited um soccer leagues, people that just love soccer and they're out there practicing and they have leagues and you want to encourage these folks to be able to get to these games because they they are uh they spend most of their life in soccer pitches, right? or at least they take their kids there or the kids are doing it. So, so that's the second category that um I want to make sure that we protect that one. And the third piece is that if there is any financial impact, I think there will be uh let's look at some uh some private sponsorship to offset any possible cost incur in the free access. Um, and we'll u the entire budget is 380 million. I'm sure we'll be able to find some sponsor that might be able to support it. So, uh those are the three uh three motions in front of you. Now, um I don't know whether uh it's ready or not. There there fest area I've seen a drawing of it a rough drawing. is quite exciting and there are many places that of course there's a sitdown area with food and uh viewing. There are other areas for kids to play in. There other areas for viewing. There's a lot of different screens and um the construction of this whole fanfest area is also expensive. They they they want to have it. You don't want a tent that fall down, that kind of thing. So, uh, because it's a very big area. So, unlike Vancouver, Vancouver, I think it's a few thousand. Uh, we're at 20,000. So, that's it's uh probably four or five times bigger than than uh say Vancouver. So, Vancouver for example uh also have VIP tickets for reserve uh entry and uh where you can sit and etc. So they're doing exactly what we're doing and then there's another category that is free now for them to not have ticketed it because the area is smaller that's you know it's easier for them. The original intention I think was no tickets, free entry and then the the chief um all the all the security folks whether it's RCMP or chief of police uh lectured everyone and said thou shalt not do it that way because you're just asking for trouble. If you have 30,000 people showing and you run out of tickets, you have 10,000 very angry people in and around that area and because that area is not designed for ticketed like because of the entry, you're going to have a gigantic mess in your hand. So, um because of that reason, I think it it then just uh became a ticketing event. Okay. And because originally it wasn't sure where is this going to be and then they landed on Fort York. Uh so okay then once it becomes a ticket event the question is how much and how do you do that and that's where it landed here and I I hear a desire that it needs to be free which I totally get it because they through their property tax they're paying for it. They should be able to get in. uh but while we also protect the special community base or or soccer fans and stuff people so let's try to do all three the VIP tickets and then the community ones where you can reserve etc etc and then uh general category but the general category needs to be ticketed also uh the staff have gone and uh negotiate with ticket master because we're not doing And normally they charge what? 3%. Huh? Up to 30. Up to 30%. Oh my god. Yes. That's ticket master for you. Uh yeah, Taylor Swift. Okay. Um uh we negotiated that they wouldn't do that. Uh they will charge $1, uh so per ticket. So we'll have to figure out how we going to deal with that little shortfall. So, I want to explain those three motions in front of you. Okay. Uh, counselor Carol, you have some questions or or Yeah. Sorry. Did you Sorry. Is that a question over because I'm a little less clear now. Um, cuz I thought we were creating categories and there was still going to be one where you could where you could buy a ticket. Yes. Oh, okay. Cuz for a minute I thought the word all slipped back in there, so I was confused. No, no, no. the the VIP like the the contractual VIP package piece. We we have the community group piece and then there will be chargeable tickets and a perhaps a lottery or something like a food area or something of that nature or drinks. I I don't know. Yeah, I know there'll be activities and the majority like you want but there will be a category if I don't want to go stand in the hot sun. Uh, I actually, if I'm going to send my grandsons down there, I actually would prefer to buy them two $10 tickets and say, "On your way. I know you'll be safe. Bye-bye. Have a good time." So, is that category still in existence at the end of this? You can That's why this is a report back um to council. Okay. Right. So, I don't want to predetermine. I'm not the expert because there are different areas in the FanFest as to how and what and all but the the intention really is that this is a free event by and large you shouldn't have to pay and that because you're already paying for your property taxes and but if there's special category because you want to eat, drink and be whatever it might be. Um, so it can't so the intent of this motion is that it will no longer be an option to buy a ticket for $10 to go and stand in view and cheer and say hooray. The that person those will all be free. It well I do I prefer that we don't have to charge $10, but there might be areas where you need to do that. I I don't know. Which is why which is why I I'm not the expert. the report back will tell us that this comes to council. Okay. So, we're giving we're giving them a bit of time. I think the G the value let let us be very clear what we're doing. One, we want no barriers for people to participate to be able to come and celebrate soccer, football, whatever. Okay. We want to eliminate barriers. Number one, that is our criteria, right? I think everybody would agree on that. We want people if they can't afford it, they should still be able to come, right? So that's one. That's that's my principle. Principle one, uh access we that would be that you would be able to uh not be charged. Okay. Uh number two, principle number two, groups that are so excited, have done a lot of community work, they should be able to come also for free. but reserved. Okay, we want to preserve that. Number three, because they've already started selling it, if they want to fund raise, there's a small number of that that's that's done. As to because the FanFest is a very big area. Are there any special area that you can reserve? I don't know. So, let us see what they come back with. But but in my intention is that if if you don't have that $10 to be able to come in, let's say if you have two kids, family of four, that's 40 bucks. If you don't, 40 bucks is, you know, it's it adds up. Plus, if you have to park, uh so you should take public transit. Forget forget. Pardon me. If Yeah. Oh, the public transit. Yeah. Uh okay. So you should that $40 should not be the barrier where you can participate, right? That's what my my principle is. Okay. I Okay, I think I I think I have my answers. I I'll want to put me down to speak. Uh councelor um yeah, Matlo and Carol. I uh so I I appreciate uh uh the mayor's um your your agility on this and your uh your willingness to to figure out a a path uh given given what we've received uh because I I I I still don't like it's a principled issue. The city of Toronto announced Sorry, could you put me on pause? I'm just being interrupted again and I don't know why. Okay, thank you. The city of Toronto announced that FanFest was going to be, in the city's words, free and inclusive uh for all residents to enjoy uh sport. And um this is an event in the midst of a World Cup that is costing Toronto taxpayers $178 million at least now. Um we are going to be putting up with, you know, more congestion restrictions due to how many people we're going to be receiving. And it's going to be like it's going to be a lot of fun and there's going to be a lot of pride and we want it to be really successful. But Torononians were told that they were going to receive this at least this free place to come and congregate no matter your financial needs uh to celebrate our city and to celebrate sport. And I recognize that staff have really had to grapple with how to make all this financially viable because, you know, this deal should have never happened, frankly, before we knew what the feds and the provincial government were going to be putting on the table. And now we're like, we we are having to deal with that. And I understand there's a lot like and the federal and the provincial governments are going to be able to be made essentially whole because they've got the HST and we're not allowed to. So we're having to be creative and we've got to figure out how to deal with this. And I get it and I empathize with staff. I disagree with announcing that we're going to have a free inclusive event and then sort of not managing those expectations well given that the legacy of these games are absurdly low. compared to what many other events around the world have left cities. And at the very least, if people are offered an opportunity to congregate for free together, this is like a kind of one of the few things that are really bringing people together to then charge $10 feels feels really petty to a lot of people. And then ultimately I do not understand the causal relationship with the the crowd management and then the VIP thing like I don't I don't remember if this was announced as a free and inclusive event. I don't remember a permission to move forward with that and I think that there should have been I would have certainly liked to have more discussion about that. I don't mean to say that there shouldn't be more creative ideas to bring corporate sponsorship in. I support that idea, but for an event that was advertised and committed to publicly to be free and inclusive to then go and start selling VIP tickets to it, it doesn't jive to me. And um I don't like how this was managed. I just don't like how this was done. Um there are some, by the way, that are going to make this into a political thing, and I don't like that either. There are some who are going to make this into a political thing, and I don't like that either. Um, I I want to say very clearly, uh, the agreement was not done under your watch, and I think that you've done a a an incredibly attentive job at trying to provide more oversight, uh, since, uh, since the agreement was signed, and I appreciate that. Appreciate Signaki's contributions. I appreciate all that. But this in particular concerns me because it it ultimately is without really I mean you actually you actually explained even more about the RCMP and things that I don't think most people would understand or ever hear about. when we do things when when when we have to make different decisions I think we need to communicate the rationale a little better I think we need to consider the impacts on people uh a little more rather than sort of okay well it's functional or convenience or this is what we need to do to manage I think for a lot of people it feels like a slap in the face when they're already paying $178 million for these really expensive games being left with very little legacy having lots of restrictions on their own lives in the city and then they're told the one big thing that they're that they're given for free is now going to be a for a fee. I don't like how this was done and I think that we can do better. And I and I and I say this truly respectfully to staff that I understand what you had to manage and struggle with, but when I learned about this, um I think my my reaction was probably reflective of how a lot of people feel when they learn that they're being charged for something that they were told was going to be a free and inclusive event. Thank you, councelor Carol. You had Yes. Uh, heaven to heaven to Betsy. Uh, God forbid anyone should make this political. My goodness, wouldn't that be terrible? Um, yeah, people are having a knee-jerk reaction. Uh be that as it may, when there was talk of this being free, we barely knew the at that juncture, we barely knew the rule book that FIFA would hand us cuz they handed it to us in stages, meeting by meeting, book by book. We didn't have a location. We hadn't done an international risk assessment. Uh things evolve over time. Um, right now, right now, people are registering cuz you have to register to stand in Jurassic Park during playoffs. I Nobody noticed that. We're so obsessed with FIFA. No one has noticed that the Raptors are in the playoffs, people. It's going to be big. It's very exciting. Please, could we have a whoop for that? And they're going in at 5, not six. It's a big deal. And people are registering to just stand inside a cordoned off area, rain or shine, and and you my my idea is you should be young to do that. This FanFest is going to be decidedly different than that. This is being designed to be a much better experience um with FIFA's blessings in many cases because they have a brand to protect. uh there are contracts that are are uh already underway and that's that's why the VIP we have been transparent about that that this is evolving over time and part of the risk assessment is that we need people to be serious and intentional about stepping inside the zone of the last mile and then inside uh the fan zone. We have to manage the fact that there are people who live and work inside the last mile zone. These are big assignments. We've been through these before. This is going to be a challenge for councelor Malik and others who have constituencies inside that last mile zone. There's a lot to be considered, a lot to be addressed. All of it having costs associated with it. And like it or not, world events like this evolve even financially. So, we've got to be very, very careful about this. It's why I'm very nervous. And I'm sorry, uh, Madame Mayor, that I had to ask so many questions, but I actually would like to pay $10. I would like to to fork over $40 to my to my oldest grandson who's 21 and say, "Here, uh, buy four tickets if you can, and you guys go down. It's a young kids game. Enjoy. Go your best lick. Have a have a good time." And I will know that it's being properly managed. it's resourced enough to be properly managed and that my kids will be safe in that zone. My 2018 and 14year-old have a good time. Heaven knows that we're not going to come up with tickets for you to a game, but I know that that would be a memorable experience for them in the fan zone and and I would die happy knowing it cost me $40. There are people like that in Toronto. There are others who through community groups or or or through their circumstances would love to go but need it to be free. So for now, I'll support this motion and see what the report is going to look like. But here's what I also know. Some of the best games, some of the best matches in the World Cup. People are going to gather in Nathan Phillips Square, which actually is fundamentally this city's public plaza. This is our square. This is where people naturally gather and they will come here for free and some of the hottest matches in the World Cup will happen right here together. Where will the rest of them happen? Standing on the street in front of Cafe Diplomatico. That's where most people go and they won't give a damn about the fan zone because every four years they congregate in front of Cafe Diplomatico. They wouldn't dream of going anywhere else. In my neighborhood, I have a neighbor who puts an 85 inch uh screen in his garage pointed out at the driveway and everybody in a six block radius will congregate right across from my house as they do every four years and love each other as they do every four years. That will happen all over the city and it won't have anything to do with city council or the mayor or the FIFA secretariat. It happens organically every year. There's a bar in the northwest of the city where everyone who ever came from Ghana will gather for the Ghana game. They won't get tickets to that game, but a lot of them won't care because they wouldn't dream of watching the match anywhere else but that bar. And I'm not going to name it cuz the crowd is big enough every four years anyway. But that's where they'll be. That's what World Cup does. And we can ring our hands over whatever the secretariat is telling us is necessary now. But that joy that will happen in every square inch of the city is going to happen regardless. Those are my comments. Thank you, Madame Mayor. CO trying to persuade me. I'm now saying pay what you can. So, it's $50 per ticket for you and still a bargain. Still a bargain not to have to go with them. 200 bucks it is. I'm just kidding. Um Oh, you want to speak? Um, I just want to I'm very conflicted about about FIFA in general. Um, and I would say that in 1994, I watched every single game. When my son was going to be born in 2002, I timed the birth to uh for Korea um uh when I was in the in the first Korea Japan so that I could watch games at night with my babies, my newborn baby. Um on the other I was in 2014 I went to the FanFest in Rio but the difference with that World Cup is that it was in Brazil entirely and it was heavily heavily invested in by the national government and the regional government. It wasn't left to a municipality to show should shoulder the burden. Um so I think that we're in a very different situation here in terms of what was promised to the people of Toronto. I was listening to um councelor Matlo's uh uh concerns is that we were told it was going to be 30 to $45 million to host. Now we're into um 300 plus million and we don't have the same support from the regional and national government that we deserve for something that is um you know largely going to benefit them in terms of financial reasons. But I want to go back to this um question of what the culture part what I love about the World Cup. It's not, you know, they gave uh Donald Trump an award for peace. That's it's not FIFA. In fact, uh it's a beautiful game that belongs to everyone and um you know, Davenport is a place where people will be celebrating on Dundas on St. Clair. There are plans already. Um this is really about coming together with people to watch games that matter to you. And so I just I think the emphasis here on the on the events that aren't strictly FIFA branded are what's going to be the legacy because if you look at globally uh legacy um promises made by FIFA to communities including um in Brazil in Rio they just didn't plan out. Um so we're we have the games coming. I love them. I can't tell you how much I believe and how many how like much I I'm moved by this game. Um and how much I have followed it my whole life. Uh but I think the real engagement, the real opportunity, the real um excitement is going to be in community streets uh on community main streets, at local bars, and parks. And um so I I think that the delivering a safe um game according to a very difficult set of rules that are quite secretive and that are released over time as um councelor Carol was saying is something that we still have a responsibility to deliver on now. Uh so I will be supporting this item. Um like I said it's a conflict. Thanks. Thank you councelor Perks. Thank you. Um uh you know we were challenged not to talk about this politically but as an elected official I can't find any other way to do it. So let's talk a little bit about that. Uh as you know I never thought this was a good idea and I'm uh unique in having voted against it. Uh but I've been listening to the way that you know people deal with the problems that that come along with it. Mayor Chow has been in the unenviable position of uh being saddled with a council decision uh that was uninformed and uh inaccurate in terms of what it would cost. And we keep finding out there are more and more problems. And Mayor Chow, I congratulate you on rising to that challenge. That's a a good uh use of political office is to try to make something that was badly designed work. councelor uh Bravo. Um I have witnessed soccer bravo. She is an entirely different human being than the one you see here and and and she's been she's been open. She's she's been open and transparent about that from minute one and her position has been consistent of trying to get the best for her community uh while feeding the beast. Uh, councelor Carol, who's been advocating from this, has has been diligent in trying to find a path through and has been quite clear with members of council, this ain't going to be so easy as you thought it was and and has been brave to in coming to council and saying, "Well, guys, actually, it's going to cost a lot more and they're going to be more restrictions and once you make a deal with FIFA, like you don't get to pick the corporate brands. and and and and you know, while she and I came to different conclusions about whether we should do this, she has approached it with integrity. Some members of council, including one who's not here, though I don't think have met it with that level of integrity. to vote for something and talk about what a great thing it is and to cheerlead and talk about the the pride this will bring to Toronto and the joy it will bring to Toronto and then vote telling our staff to go deliver it and then to berate them when it turns out to be difficult. That's misuse of public office. That's misuse of public office. So, I'm going to be an optimist here. Me being an optimist during a FIFA debate is a rare thing. And hope that this is a teachable moment. And hope that this is a teachable moment. And that we learn the lesson that when the circus comes to town, they don't do it out of the goodness of their heart. They do it to extract as much money from the the town they're arriving in as they possibly can. Yep. That's what circuses do. So the next time you're asked to be a booster for the city of Toronto, put your hand on your wallet and start asking some tough questions. And before you tell everybody what a great celebration this is going to be, recognize that a lot of people are going to get left out. And before you start blaming city staff for not delivering it with candy floss and rainbows and dancing happy elves on every street corner, recognize you've given them an impossible task. And don't blame them if the circuit is circus is picking your pocket. Wow. Take that. Um, thank you. Uh, uh, Deputy Mayor Malik. Thank you very much. Um and um I appreciate the work that has gone into the planning and our preparations. And I will say that um I was not part of the decision uh to bring uh FIFA to Toronto. Um and um at the start of my term knowing that it was coming and that it would land with such significant um impact uh in my award and particularly in my local neighborhoods and in the downtown. My commitment was to ensure that we use every lever and every tool we have in the city uh to stay within budget and to make this a good experience for the people in Toronto and for everyone who will be uh visiting our city. And for me that focus has been on, you know, working with city staff in an interdivisional way uh to ensure that our neighborhood planning and our preparations are going well and that we can catch the excitement of the games while also, you know, navigating our neighborhoods in our city safely and reliably. That we are using every dollar and every opportunity we have to create more opportunities and a legacy. And that we have as many opportunities to access the celebration of the games. We know Toronto is the best place to experience the World Cup whether we're hosting it or not. And I do have to give an incredible amount of credit uh to Mayor Chow's leadership when it's come to how we are approaching the hosting of the games. uh we have seen that you know the cleaning up of how the governance of the planning and the hosting of the games has been done uh at the city of Toronto that has been validated by our auditor general saying that the the kind of structure and accountability um is is absolutely essential uh to us being able to host this in a way uh that is visible and transparent. And that commitment to access um and enjoyment for as many people as possible has been a principle of that really important approach. Again, not amongst the folks who who uh brought it here, but we'll work very hard to make it good for the people of Toronto um and for for all of us who enjoy this beautiful game. That is very important in every community uh in Toronto. And that does mean that we do have tough decisions to make on how we make it good given some of the commitments that were made prior to um this term of council having to take it on and to execute it and implement it. Thank you. Thank you. Um any other council co uh deputy mayor co I saw you at edge of your seat. You've been you spend a lot of money. I um there is a soccer counselor Cole. I you seen soccer bravo is you need to see soccer co because he's a very passionate soccer bravo and soccer co. Well I was a lot more passionate let's say a month ago but um oh oh no we've uh lost uh a lot of the uh luster of the game. Oh, Italy didn't get in. Oh, I He and I watched it together. It was hard. So sorry about Italy. Even tried praying. It didn't work. I I'm going to celebrate with my Bosnian friends. But uh listen, this is um this is normal I think debate at council and councelor Matt Lo's bringing it up. that's very I think expected given the cost of this and the machinations that go around these things. So it's a very legitimate issue to raise. Uh and I uh I just uh one of the things I'm concerned about is that it sort of uh takes away from what the plan was here. And the plan was as councelor Carol said we were going to celebrate this across the city. Okay. We didn't want everybody to go downtown. We didn't want people to go to the game. We didn't necessarily want everybody to try and squeeze into the the FanFest venues. But all of a sudden, now this FanFest place is becoming the epicenter of FIFA World Cup. It's not. It's not like happened in ' 82. It happened in uh 2006. The celebrations happened in communities throughout the city in little nooks and crannies and restaurants and churches and basement and backyards. That's where it happens. So, the world isn't going to, you know, basically uh end if people don't get into FanFest. Big I'm not going to FanFest. I'm gonna, like councelor Carol said, I'm gonna either go to Catali supermarket or I'm gonna go to uh, you know, the diplomatico uh, you know, or I'm going to go to Tari on St. Clair. That's where I'm going to be. I'm not going to go down with the suits downtown, you know, and that's what most people are going to do. So, Bri's giving all this attention to FanFest is really a disservice to what this game is meant to be. It's meant to incorporate and include all corners of the city. And we've got some 125 corners here of incredible communities. The Ganaian community, the Bosnian community, Croatians. I mean, the Latino community is just going over the moon now. They're all going to cheer for Panama, you know. So these are the things that are happening outside of city hall, outside of mainstream media because mainstream media never goes to these communities unless there's some kind of uh who knows what. Anyways, the and people forget that there are 50 local celebrations that have been funded. Each ward has two funded community celebrations. That's what we should be doing as counselors, celebrating that, promoting that. We've got a giant screen that's going to go up at the Columbus Center. Uh we're going to fill the whole place with the screen and uh you know, we're going to do one of the young uptown young BIA is going to do a marvelous job with Tasmine up there and up young and I'm sure in each one of your wards you have these celebration places. encourage people to go there and then when they go there they actually drink local beer and they don't have to go down to FanFest and drink Annheiser Bush which is mandated by FIFA beer well American beer is not beer it's just I don't want to use a derogatory word for it but anyways uh so that's what we should be encouraging is stay in your own local neighborhoods support the local restaurants bars community events are going to take place and you don't have to worry about uh the end of the world traffic that's going to congestion that everybody's fretting about and uh you know so stay in your community and celebrate. It's cheaper, less aggravation and you're probably going to have more fun uh than going downtown uh which I'm going to stay away from as much as possible. I'm going to stay as I said at St. Clair and College. That's above my limits. Uh so and staff staff has you know I don't know how many hours of meetings and things that they've done and they even got the stadium 15. Nobody's talking about that. We've got 10 community pitches built across the city. So soccer pitches. We're going to have a pitch here. They're playing soccer here in front of city hall. So let's uh calm down a bit. We'll work the uh this crisis at the FanFest somehow. We'll work it out. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Uh any other speaker? I see no other speaker. Uh the motions are in front of you. The council will we'll get a report and get iron out some details. Um all those in favor post. Carry. Thank you. item as amended. All those in favor post carry. Thank you. Um that dealt with five. Have we done nine? We need number six. You've done everything. Number six. Item six. Speaker. Okay. Thank you. Item six. We have a speaker. Uh where are we? Nicole Curado. Nicole, are you here? She's online. Online. Can you open up your mic? Turn on your mic. Press the button. Are you ready? Hello. Go for it. Hi. I I unmuted. And um well, I this is about the fireworks. Yeah. Item six called it's included bylaw exemptions to facilitate planning delivery of the FIFA World Cup events. I I think that I think that uh noise bylaws absolutely should be uh should be kept because fireworks are really terrifying to animals. They pollute the water. They pollute the air. They create a lot of noise. They disrupt birds that a lot of animals go missing or even die or become orphaned during fireworks events. People with PTSD and and people like myself who are neurode divergent and sound sensitive are are affected. So there there are plenty of of ways to celebrate an event without creating noise and and pollution. You know, there are a lot of alternatives to fireworks that that the city could look at instead. We need to keep this event fun and safe for everybody. Thank you. Thank you. We we heard you. Um item and no questions to the uh speaker. Item six and uh Deputy Mayor Malik, you have moved adoption of the recommendation in front of you. All those in favor? Opposed? Carrie. Thank you. Um, what else is left? 13. Item 13. 11. Sorry, 11. Sorry. Okay. I was just repeating what the clerk said to me. I She's usually right. Uh, Scarbo ERT. Okay. Uh, be it's a a long letter with some key recommendations. I don't need to repeat what is in the letter. Uh, we know that um we want more public transit. We want it in the waterfront. We want it up in Scar Bro. And we also wanted new subway cars. We were able to get new subway cars. We got um uh we got funding for waterfront R LR RT. Uh and uh our next priority that's this scar RT has always been the priority and we're going to be pushing for this one next. We have momentum. We can get it. Um, I just want to say that when the prime minister first got elected, uh, I sent a letter to say, hey, uh, this is what the city of Toronto are looking for in the area of public transit. I was very clear. We want two rapid transit project, Scar Bro Waterfront. Okay, it it's in the letter. It was very clear and uh as to which one they end up picking, that's really up to the provincial and the federal government. I just want you to know that so far the city of Toronto using our own dollars have spent $18 million designing this line and it's long overdue. So, let us now and by the way, and we're going to add another $10 million to continue to do even more design work so that when they say yes, it's not if, when they say yes, we are going to get shuffle in the ground and start building this long awaited uh rapid transit in Scarbo with many stops, 18 kilometers and connect Scarbo together. I think councelor Shan may want to speak on this. You have that look. Am I correct? No. No. Uh uh are we at are we at speakers now or there are uh deputy mayor Molly is uh lining up to speak but no and then that's it and then you're you're if you're interested. Okay. So Molly thank you. Uh, thanks, Madame Mayor. I just want to say thank you for this good work. We're excited to see um this request going forward and the good work of the city hopefully being honored with good continued partnership from the federal government. Uh, I'm sure many Canadians have been watching closely and want to congratulate the um prime minister on his new majority government. Uh we hope that that means more ongoing partnerships uh with the city of Toronto um on these kinds of um city building projects and nation building projects cuz we know I think we can all agree that investments in the great city of Toronto is an investment in Canada. Uh and we look forward to that ongoing partnership. We've got work down in the west end as well, but we'll start here. Thank you so much. Thank you. Um, councelor Shen, did you want to say a few words about why you want this? No. Goes all the way into your neighborhood. Definitely. I I do think uh, you know, it's it's been a long fight uh, for Scar Bro residents to get uh, meaningful rapid transit uh, to our our area. And I always keep reminding Scar Bro is uh, um, 25% of the population, onethird of city of Toronto's land mass. So uh if it's one/ird uh it deserves the necessary attention to get rapid transit and the population is growing and um you know University of Toronto Scar Bro campus is the only postsecondary institution with such such a large number of students within city of Toronto that doesn't have a rapid transit um option right now. So uh this is long overdue. I want to firstly say that the name change is is is is appreciated because uh it only goes on Ekkinton for a small part east doesn't make sense for it. it actually is mostly on the north south route uh which is uh which is why scar bro east uh makes total sense but more than that I I do I do worry that uh over time uh the prioritization uh of scar bro has has not been there and uh and we hope this uh particular motion makes it absolutely clear uh that it's not this or that or this and that it is this moving forward that that gets the priority because We've been waiting for uh quite a bit uh to get rapid transit options and this actually serves many neighborhoods that are underserviced. In fact, when I was councelor before, we did push to have it extended to Malwan. Initially, it was there with Malwan and then it was taken off and then Malwan uh we were able to convince uh the the the council to include uh the extension to Malwurn as well as as a neighborhood that definitely needs that connectivity. Um, so, uh, I I guess this is a is a great step to highlight and to put it on the table and to make it clear what our priority is, but I do think that we still need to continue to do work uh, particularly uh, as all three parties because I think the Scab residents uh, definitely want all of the all of the different levels of government to be on the same page and agree that this is the uh, utmost priority at this time for City of Toronto's uh, transit expansion moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh folks, are we good with that? The recommendation in front of you. All those in favor post. Carry. Thank you. Do I have any other Oh, councelor Bravo on item 12. It's been done. It's been done. Oh, wow. Okay. Thank you. And uh I think we are adjourned. Thank you so much. And it's not even 3:00 yet.

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