Toronto Council meets today! Sort of. In 2019, the province made changes to the Heritage Act, imposing stricter timelines Council needs to follow to pass heritage designation bylaws. As a result, council has to meet twice during the campaign period to approve some heritage items.
There’s also an item deferred from the last meeting, about establishing a refugee shelter in Willowdale. I can’t imagine this meeting will take long or be particularly interesting, but I am watching anyway. You can too! Stream is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6Evw3JTtrg
But wait, there’s more. There will be another special council meeting at 1:30 p.m. today to appoint someone to serve out the 70 days remaining in Michael Ford’s term. Presumably, councillors will be vetting the nominee’s social media a little more closely this time.
After the national anthem and land acknowledgement, Council immediately experiences technical difficulties, causing a five-minute recess. Going great.
Council votes 22-0 to adopt every item on the agenda except two: the refugee shelter in Willowdale and heritage designation for Postal Station C at 1117 Queen West. Pretty good turnout for a mid-August meeting.
But then there are more technical difficulties and Speaker Frances Nunziata decides to say to hell with all this and recesses the meeting until 1 p.m. All righty then.
Council’s back. In a debate about a refugee shelter in North York, there’s some controversy over a Thompson motion for a report on ways to mitigate the “financial impacts” shelters have on business. Perks argued motion wasn’t relevant. Nunziata disagreed. Chair was upheld 14-8.
Here’s the full text of Thompson’s motion. http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2022.GL32.19
The mayor rises to argue Thompson’s motion is a good one, saying a report on ways to mitigate any financial impacts shelters may have on businesses could be an important part of combating some of the local opposition to new shelters.
Perks urges council to reject the Thompson motion. “Suddenly, the priority is to provide compensation to businesses because a human being lives next to them? What kind of a city are we if we say you’re eligible for money because some stigmatized group lives next to you?”
Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong rises to oppose the idea of using the North York Novotel as a refugee shelter altogether. He says there wasn’t enough consultation. “We didn’t ask people. We didn’t listen to them.”
“I’m not against refugees. I am against illegal immigrants, and those are people who have lost their status and are hiding in this country illegally. I think most Torontonians are,” says Deputy Mayor Minnan-Wong in a debate about a refugee shelter.
Councillor Thompson’s motion calling for a report on ways to mitigate business impacts of refugee shelters CARRIES 14-9.
The remainder of the motions on the refugee shelter item carry via a show of hands. http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2022.GL32.19
Up now: Postal Station C at 1117 Queen West. Should it be designated a heritage property? Council says YES, voting via a show of hands. http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2022.CC48.2
And now, technically, a new Council meeting. But I’m not starting a new thread. Council needs to appoint someone to replace Michael Ford. They tried to do this before, and it didn’t go well. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-rosemarie-bryan-1.6501468
There are 21 people who have put their names up as potential appointees for Ward 1. Some familiar names here, including Rose Milczyn, the partner of former councillor and MPP Peter Milczyn. She worked on the city’s noise enforcement team until she retired from city hall in April.
After hearing from 17 candidates, Council elects to appoint Rose Milczyn as caretaker councillor in Ward 1 - Etobicoke North. She received 22 of 25 votes. (Everyone except Pasternak, Matlow and Filion voted for her.)
Rose Milczyn will serve for about 70 days between now and the next municipal election. There is one special council meeting during that time, to consider urgent heritage matters only. Does any of this matter? Hardly at all!