Toronto Council meets today! In CYBERSPACE! You can stream the meeting live here starting at 10 a.m. I will tweet highlights and vote results. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpeP-Xi_0Sg
Place your bets: 1) Which councillor will have the most trouble with tech? 2) How many council pets will we get to see? 3) Who will make the first joke about not wearing pants?
We start with Speaker Nunziata, who is at City Hall! She says they’ll dispense with the typical O Canada. (Free idea: pay local musicians to record versions of O Canada to play before these meetings.)
At least he didn’t use a photo of Jarvis Street. https://x.com/RupasingheKevin/status/1255861518077493250
Recorded votes are gonna take a while in this format. Clerk will say name of each councillor, ask “how do you vote?”, then wait for a response.
Councillor Thompson wonders if it’ll be possible to hold these meetings at City Hall soon, given there’s a fair amount of space in the chamber now with just 25 councillors in a room that was built for many more. Staff say they’re following public health recs, and will wait to see
Now Nunziata wants to know why the provincial government is allowed to hold in-person meetings but Toronto’s government is not. Also Mike Colle asks why the fed government was allowed to meet, but not council. Some councillors here eager to ditch this virtual format already.
Dr De Villa says there is no definitive answer yet re: whether it could be safe to hold Council meetings in person. Priority is keeping everybody safe until there are treatments/vaccine. TBD, basically.
City Clerk Ulli Watkiss points out one of the challenges to returning to a more normal committee meeting process is that many of the staffers who normally write reports have been redeployed to essential service areas.
Council spending a lot of time during this first virtual meeting talking about when they can stop having virtual meetings.
Councillor Perruzza says he has sent a motion to staff. “Nobody here has your motion,” says Nunziata. Perruzza says he emailed it. Long pause as they try to find it. They do! Perruzza’s motion was to extend speaking time to ten minutes, up from 5. Nunziata rules it out of order.
“I am happy to accede to your joyful wisdom,” says Perruzza, ending the matter of the missing motion.
Councillor Paula Fletcher introduces the first legit motion of the virtual meeting, looking for a report on how meeting cancellations have held up Committee of Adjustment applications.
Councillor Mike Colle has a motion for a report on the possibility of holding future committee and council meetings in person.
Responding to concern that it’s hard for people to follow virtual meetings, Councillor Fletcher points out there are ~735 people watching this YouTube stream right now, which is way higher than normal. Councillor Colle says they need to reach an audience beyond YouTubers.
Councillor Jim Karygiannis has the first major tech issue of this meeting. His audio is clipping to the point it’s barely coherent. He’s also pretty low res right now.
Councillor John Filion’s bookshelf backdrop features a Rob Ford bobblehead and a copy of @robyndoolittle’s CRAZY TOWN (about Rob Ford).
In between audio issues, Councillor Jim Karygiannis moves to amend Colle’s motion so the report also considers with whether city can resume meetings virtually.
Tory says the goal is to return to a normal committee cycle by June, with deputations and reports and such.
Fletcher’s motion for a report on Committee of Adjustment impacts carries 25-0. (All members are here today except Councillor Robinson, who is off for cancer treatment.)
Councillor Karygiannis’ amendment to Colle’s motion so that the requested report will also look at expanding virtual meetings to committees carries 25-0. Colle’s motion will be voted on now.
Colle’s (amended) motion for a report on resuming in-person or virtual committee and council meetings CARRIES 25-0.
This voting system has GOTTA go. Looks like WebEx has some sort of polling functionality. They should try it. https://help.webex.com/en-us/n0pdj9x/Start-a-Poll-in-Cisco-Webex-Meetings
This staff-recommended technical motion from Nunziata re: Committee of Adjustment membership carries 24-1, with Filion opposed.
Item as amended carries 25-0. Eight items remain. Up next: a presentation from City Manager Chris Murray on the city’s pandemic response.
Council votes to take a one-hour lunch break immediately following the end of this pandemic presentation.
Council is now on lunch until 2 p.m.
Council is back from lunch. Still streaming live here. Mayor Tory starts by acknowledging those lost in the CAF helicopter crash yesterday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpeP-Xi_0Sg
Staff say just 150 City employees opted out of redeployment. 500 non-responses they’re tracking down. There are fewer redeployment opportunities than there are people willing to be redeployed, so possible some willing to be redeployed will instead be placed on emergency leave.
Mayor John Tory has moved an epic-length motion with 15 items related to the city’s COVID-19 response, including requests for emergency TTC funds, a commercial eviction ban, more space for pedestrian/cyclists, accelerating active transportation projects and more.
Councillor Jim Karygiannis has a motion asking the City Manager to report on lessons learned, six months after the end of the pandemic.
Seems to be widespread support among left-leaning and right-leaning councillors for Tory’s omnibus motion, which points to a good consultation process from the mayor’s office on this stuff.
After a lot of speeches, they’re about ready to vote. But wait, Councillor Perruzza wants to speak. Councillors have to text their last name to a number to get on the list, but Perruzza’s name isn’t on it. “I guess my phone is broken” he explains. They let him speak.
“I am NOT going to read the motion,” says City Clerk Ulli Watkiss before she starts the vote on John Tory’s very, very long motion.
It’s after 5. I am now wondering if they gave councillors any rules re: drinking a beer during virtual Council meetings
Tory’s pandemic response motion carries unanimously, 25-0.
Councillor Karygiannis’ motion calling for a report on lessons learned after this pandemic is gone also CARRIES 25-0.
Pandemic response item as amended carries 25-0. Five items remain. We’re on to John Tory’s report about his 30 days with emergency power.
Council votes unanimously to extend Mayor John Tory’s emergency powers until the end of the pandemic. Physical distancing rules are also approved to remain in place.
There are four items remaining: education property tax levy, modular housing, BIA operating budgets and the 2020 bike plan.
BIA operating budgets out of the way (25-0 vote). Now onto the EXCITING world of the education property tax levy.
The 2020 education property tax levy — set by the provincial government and used to pay for education — will raise $2.27 billion. Here’s who pays what.
Councillor Perruzza moves to essentially end the education property tax levy, requesting the provincial government to “allow the City of Toronto to keep 100 percent of the property taxes collected within the City of Toronto.” Seems unlikely Queen’s Park would go for this.
Tory recommends councillors vote against Perruzza’s motion. He says he supports the sentiment behind it, but it’s a political statement that almost certainly won’t work and could hurt Toronto’s credibility when negotiating with Queen’s Park.
Everyone votes against Perruzza’s motion except Colle and Perruzza. 2-22. (Layton was absent.)
Education property tax item carries 22-2, with Colle and Perruzza opposed. Two left: modular housing and bike lanes.
Councillor Stephen Holyday moves to delay the modular housing item (during a pandemic) to allow for more community consultation (during a pandemic).
Godzilla could be angrily walking toward Toronto and some councillors would still demand a robust community consultation process before executing an anti-Godzilla plan.
Whoa. Councillor Gary Crawford, Tory’s budget chief, speaks in favour of delaying this modular housing item.
Mayor John Tory speaks against deferral: “Look, there’s an emergency on here.” He notes the alternative to a plan like this is paying more money to put people in hotel rooms, or allowing conditions in crowded shelters to deteriorate further.
Here, as a public service, I will provide the city with all the feedback they would get from holding a consultation: “Not right for our unique neighbourhood. Too tall. Worried about traffic impacts.”
Voting to delay modular housing program: Holyday, Crawford. Everyone else opposed. Fails 2-22. The deferral motion defeated, councillors now return to debating whether to adopt the item.
Today’s most important thread. https://x.com/CouncilTo/status/1256003228413702146
Modular housing plan CARRIES 23-1, with just Holyday opposed.
Final item! A bike item! Council will decide whether to approve these lane installations for construction this spring.
Councillor Pasternak asks about the notion of heated pavement to help with winter cycling — potentially important in post-pandemic world. An interesting question. Staff say they’ve been instructed to look into it, and it’ll come up in a future report.
Deputy Mayor Minnan-Wong, lost in the woods somewhere, says he’ll vote against committee request for a report on heated pavement to encourage winter cycling. “Not a priority for me, shouldn’t be a priority for this council.”
Karygiannis also speaks against any notion of looking at heated bike lanes. The recommendation attached to this item is actually pretty broad, instructing staff to look at tech to enable year-round cycling. Here’s what it actually says.
Councillor Anthony Perruzza on Minnan-Wong, referring to his latest videochat backdrop: “Why would you put a picture of trees growing out of your head when you’re going to take a position that’s so reactionary and so closed-minded?”
Mayor John Tory says he’ll vote against the part of this item calling for a report on tech (like heated bike lanes) that could promote winter cycling. He says this is the kind of thing that could hurt the city’s position when negotiating with province and feds.
Pasternak’s amendment calling for a report on a Downsview Loop bike lane carries unanimously. 24-0. (Carroll is absent.)
Vote on request for a report on winter tech like heated pavement to promote year-round cycling FAILS 10-14.
Rest of the cycling plan carries unanimously, 24-0.
I’ve gone back twice and I get a 16-8 result for the winter cycling vote. @TorontoCouncil had it at 14-10. I’ll wait to see what the minutes say!
Either way, that concludes this very long very odd virtual Council meeting. The mayor says he’ll call everyone back for another one of these within 30 days. Hopefully they figure out a way to speed up votes before then!
As always, if you liked this thread and found it useful, you can show your support by subscribing to my apparently award-nominated newsletter @cityhallwatcher. https://graphicmatt.substack.com
Here’s the breakdown of the vote over whether to request a report on tech to encourage winter cycling, included heated bike lanes. Failed 8-16. Closest vote of the day.
